An expert on the buffalo tells the history of this keystone species through extensive research and beautiful photographs. The mere mention of the buffalo instantly brings to mind the vast herds that once roamed the North American continent, and few wild animals captivate our imaginations as much as the buffalo do. Once numbering in the tens of millions, these magnificent creatures played a significant role in structuring the varied ecosystems they occupied. For at least 24,000 years, North American Indigenous Peoples depended upon them, and it was the abundance of buffalo that initially facilitated the dispersal of humankind across the continent. With the arrival of Europeans and their rapacious capacity for wildlife destruction, the buffalo was all but exterminated. In a span of just thirty years during the mid-1800s, buffalo populations plummeted from more than 30 million to just twenty-three. And with them went all of the intricate food webs, the trophic cascades, and the inter-species relationships that had evolved over thousands of years. Despite this brush with extinction, the buffalo survived, and isolated populations are slowly recovering. As this recovery proceeds, the relationships the animals once had with thousands of species are being re-established in a remarkable process of ecological healing. The intricacy of those restored relationships is the subject of this book. Based on author Wes Olson's thirty-five years of working intimately with bison-and featuring 180 stunning, full-colour photographs by Johane Janelle- The Ecological Buffalo is a story that takes the reader on a journey to understand the myriad connections this keystone species has with the Great Plains.

"Fascinating and impressive." Thomas Gunton, Director of Resource and Environmental Planning, Simon Fraser University and former Deputy Minister of Environment, Lands and Parks, Government of British Columbia. The Magnificent Nahanni extols the natural wonders of the South Nahanni Valley--its untamed waters, high, glaciated mountains, great falls, deep canyons, extensive forests, alpine tundra, and diverse wildlife, including caribou, wolf, Dall's sheep, and grizzly bear. It is also the story of cooperative efforts to conserve this area of the Northwest Territories as a National Park while enabling Indigenous people to continue to hunt and fish there. "Just as the Nahanni is an exceptional place, this is no ordinary book. It contains reflections on this remarkable national park landscape by one of the keenest students of parks and protected areas this country has ever produced." Harvey Locke, co-founder of Yellowstone-Yukon Conservation Initiative and past president of Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. "[A]n exemplary multi-discipline approach to land use studies and cooperative approaches to researach, planning and land management, especially involving Indigenous and non-governmental gorups--in short, this book makes a major contribution to research." John S. Marsh, co-editor, Changing Parks