My 2 daughters just got back from babysitting 58 buffalo.
They are being kept in 100 a acre pen. and sometime In May they will be released into the wild. The pen Is on the Tanana, and I think they are Is close to the Minto flats area.
I heard they are looking for volunteers to spend a week feeding and keeping an eye on the buffalo.

I see there are no buffalo sitters. LOL

The wolves will look after them.

I was buying fur in Grayling years ago where they released the first bunch. One kept coming into the village eating trash and fighting with dogs.FnG told them they could shoot it and eat it if they wanted. No one wanted to eat it after it was eating trash.
A friend of my in Holy Cross told me he saw a lot of muskrat houses this winter but then his snowmachien hit a frozen one unexpectedly. It turns out they were piles of Buffalo dung. He said watch out for those it was like hitting a stump.

So even on tree-less prairies there was enough Buffalo-chips to collect to smoke / make dried pemican after the hunt was over....much like you snowmachine frozen stumps yukonJ

Those buffalo came from Canada since that's the only place where you can find genetically pure wood land buffalo.

It is amazing how much money and time have been spent to bring woodland buffalo to Alaska. Just think what would happen to our salmon runs if that money and time was spent on them instead...

broncoformudy, Frist, it is not a choice by ADF&G where to spend money, or on what. It is two different pots of money. One for fish and one for game. Secondly, It does not take much money at all, if any. To have the department or the legislature reduce the number of hatchery fish into the ocean. Releasing 800 million pinks from the Valdez hatchery, can not be helping the salmon issue. (short version)

This would be a good Segway into a discussion, on a new thread, of the decline of native salmon stocks throughout.

Who wouldn't want an endangered species introduced to their State? I thought this boondoggle was over? As far as Salmon survival, I personally smoked 4 loads of the rainbow trout this summer. Hope to up my game next year. As our old biologist told us, "They are not bad!"

Probably more woodland buffalo in Alaska than King Salmon in the Karluk river these days. An escapement that use to be over 10,000, down to 76 fish.

Their relatives seem to all winter just east of me near the alaska hwy on the BC Yukon Border within sight of the pavement

Last I heard they were planning to put some woodland buffalo in the Yukon flats.

"2023 in context
This experimental population was placed in the lower Innoko-Yukon area in 2015 to begin restoration of a native species to Alaska in a part of their original range with vast grassland habitats and abundant support from local people. It was known from the start that occasional late winter deep snows and regional flooding could negatively impact the bison, but it was unknown to what degree. Two releases totaling 158 bison have occurred to establish this experimental herd, 130 in 2015 and 28 in 2022. The herd has persisted since release but has not shown the level of population growth that would be expected from a herd with a prosperous future. However, the future of this herd is still unknown and only time will tell if they will be able to survive in this part of Alaska."

Source: ADFG

October 2023.

"Alaska Department of Fish and Game wood bison biologist Tom Seaton says the latest population survey shows the herd dropped from about 150 to 72 animals over the last year. He attributes the decline to extreme winter weather, with heavy snow on the ground from last October through the end of this past May."

I serve on the ADFG Wood Bison Reintroduction Planning Team. As noted, there have been some ups and downs in terms of winter mortality lately, for the animals in the Innoko.

On the bright side, more wood bison were released this past summer, South of the Tanana, near the Kantishna, on the Minto Flats Refuge. With luck, they will have better survival. In fact, with some favorable winter weather, the Innoko herd will build back up.

Pete

If these were previously substantial herds of Buffalo, what happened to them that they now struggle?

Osky

That is precisely the question we are trying to answer!

Pete

Osky, if you go to the ADFG website it will give the theory of what happen to wood bison in Alaska.

Going by memory: The reintroduction effort ran into a snag when people feared the implications on future development of having an endangered species placed here. The wood bison from Canada got stuck in a temporary holding facility for years. I believe one of the original preferred locations for transplant was the new one they are trying. Since many people feared the implications of transplanting an endangered species, they ended up being transplanted in a lessor ideal spot. So far, it is not working out.

Pete can correct anything I have wrong.

Dirt has it accurately.

We are putting far more study into winter snow conditions now, than at the onset. Learning as we proceed.

You are correct Dirt. Doyon was opposed to having Wood Bison in the Minto flats area. They feared it would stop their aspirations of finding gas. The State was able to have a federal regulation enacted. It is the 10(j) rule. It allows the the state at anytime, to remove all the bison, if they become a hinderance such as gas development (short version). They should do real well in the minto area.