October 29, 2009, 3:44 pm
In this place where the prairie meets the Ponderosa Pine, the rainbows are brilliant.
For a brief hour, rays of sunshine win the battle with a cold South
Dakota mist, and the result is a full rainbow — its arc touching two
points on the rolling range.
Beneath it all is a parade for the senses: the sound of constant
clanking of steel gates; the smell of smoke from a hardwood fire in a
cabin stove; the taste of homemade chili and elk sausage from a potluck
lunch; and then, the sight of a helicopter rising above the horizon and
hovering less than a dozen feet from the ground.
And, of course, there are the bison. Some restful, some rank, but
all standing under this rainbow as if nature decided to put a picture
frame around their majesty.
A group of Kansans watch it all from atop a homemade crow’s nest
that towers above the scene. Yes, they manage to dodge the comments
about Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, but even some of them can’t help
but think of another rainbow reference:
Perhaps this really is a prairie pot of gold.
Leaders from the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve near Strong
City sure hope so. They are here to collect 20 of the bison — more
informally, buffalo — from this unique herd of about 500.
They hope the 20 will be the beginning of a herd of about 100 that
will roam the public parkland in the Flint Hills for all to see. They
hope it is the beginning of much — a new tourist attraction, a new
start for a species that once dominated the Flint Hills, and a new
window for people to see the unique beauty of one of the continent’s
rarer ecosystems.
“Some of the beauty of our grasslands is a little more subtle,” said
Kristen Hase, chief of natural resources for the Flint Hills preserve.
“This is going to be a big bang, basically.”
That’s for sure because as the group would find out, there’s nothing subtle about buffalo.
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