Should Bison be restored to Eastern slope public Wildlands? with Mike Judd

For more than 130,000 years, bison roamed the ecosystems of western Canada and US and while doing so, influenced the lives of Indigenous Peoples and every other species they shared space and time with, before they were hunted to near extinction in the late 1800s. The speaker will talk about his journey to the Bob Creek Wildlands in Alberta’s foothills and finding evidence of past bison existence there, which led a group of hikers to start investigating the possibility of returning bison to this part of the Eastern slopes. Reintroducing bison populations to some areas of their former range can arguably help re-establish relationships to that land and other species while improving ecological diversity. Speaker: Mike Judd Mike was born and raised on the East slope of the Alberta Rockies in the Foothills west of Pincher Creek. His education includes book learning and accompanying old Mountain men on their travels. For much of his life, Mike has been a guide and outfitter involved in hunting, trail riding along the continental divide and dog sled tours in the winter. Mike’s reverence for nature has also led to many attempts to throw sprags in the wheels of progress and the relentless encroachment on our last remaining intact wilderness with occasional success! Currently he is one of the founding members of a new organization, the Foothills Bison Restoration Society. Mike is also a painter