2019 09 26 01 001 Museum1 BFC Mignon Geli photo

BFC’s beloved Buffaloon represents at the Museum of Boulder, Colorado. Photo by Mignon Geli, Buffalo Field Campaign.

Buffalo Field Campaign and Red Shoes Studio thanks Boulder for a Wildly Successful weekend of panel discussions, school field trips, and Grand Opening Celebration of Our National Mammal!

We began our five-day celebration with a visit to Professor Erin Espelie’s EcoCinema class at the University of Colorado, Boulder last Wednesday. That evening we travelled to 9,200 feet and the hamlet of Ward. Thank you Erin and Mike Parker, of Ward’s Public Library, for being such great hosts of Mike Mease & Mignon and the BFC Road Show 2019!

Thursday night we found ourselves at Patagonia Boulder for another Road Show stop over. Patagonia is a champion of Wild Buffalo and BFC’s field presence, educational & policy efforts. Golden Hoof Farm supplied us with Regenerative Agriculture & Humanely raised meats and cheeses~bridging that gap between local food production and wild free roaming bison…we can co-exist because Wild Buffalo are the ultimate Carbon Farmers…a keystone species that can counteract the Climate Catastrophe!

Friday morning found BFC Executive Director, James Holt, and Mike Mease at KGNU, a community & volunteer powered radio station serving Boulder, Denver and beyond! Thanks to news director, Maeve Conran, for always making time to Spread the Word to Save the Herds! Listen to the interview here.

2019 09 26 01 002 Museum2 BFC Mignon Geli photo

BFC’s co-founder Mike Mease, board president Justine Sanchez, and executive director James Holt talk about wild buffalo with one hundred third graders! Photo by Mignon Geli, Buffalo Field Campaign.

BFCers then found our way to Museum of Boulder (Muse) for 100 third graders from the Boulder Valley School district for a Buffalo Play and Pray with Mike and James. The school kids then went down to experience the Wild Buffalo in Boulder exhibit and dress up like a buffalo for the selfie station.

2019 09 26 01 003 Museum3 BFC Justine Sanchez photo

Panelists discuss how to protect wild buffalo. Left to right: Dr. Doreen Martinez, PhD, Native American Studies,CSU; Jonathan Proctor, Director, Defenders of Wildlife; Mike Mease, BFC co-founder; James Holt, BFC executive director and Nez Perce tribal member; Chief Elvin Kenridk, Southern Arapaho tribe. Photo by Justine Sanchez, Buffalo Field Campaign.

Friday night we had our first of two panel discussions, Buffalo Roundtable. Buffalove and thanks to our co-sponsors Right Relationship Boulder, Defenders of Wildlife, Tungsten Toffee, and Yerba Cha. This historic panel was one of the first times Native and Non-Native people have come together to share Solutions for the Buffalo. While sometimes disagreeing about how to protect and restore wild, migratory bison, all agreed that it must be done!

Saturday morning we continued the dialogue with Coffee & Conversations; additional sponsors, Ozo Coffee & Spruce Confections making sure we were well fed and caffeinated! That could be why the conversation became a little more heated with disagreements around quarantine and CSU’s contentious “breeding a better bison” program; where genetic material is taken from doomed Yellowstone Bison and used in a laboratory where it is washed of brucellosis and then touted as superior to wild, migratory bison at exorbitant costs. Mike and James did a good job of bringing it back to the Sacred Nature of these Survivors, the Yellowstone Buffalo…and the importance of letting Wild Buffalo Be Wild!

Finally it was the time we had all been waiting for: Jazz for the Buffalo on the Rooftop with Hazel Miller! Hazel and her band were amazing and so generous, a signature sponsor for the buffalo! Laudisio’s Restaurant made giant pans of paella and Avery & Dogfish Head Breweries donated all the beer And that’s not all, Chocolove and Tungsten Toffee supplied hand crafted desserts and good friend to the buffalo, D.C. Larabee, brought home brewed jun as our non-alcoholic beverage. During set break, BFC President Justine Sanchez and Advisory Board Member Thia Martin, presented the 13 minute documentary short, Our National Mammal, on the rooftop. Singer, song writer, and BFC volunteer, Ella Running~rabbit performed her Call to Action song, Buffalo Rights.

It was truly a Night to Remember…a Night for the Buffalo! For it is our Sacred Buffalo that brought all of us together, that inspired all of the sponsors, that compelled all of the panelists, guests, school kids, businesses, and community members to come out in support of Wild, Free Roaming Bison!

These are America’s Last Wild Bison~Let the Buffalo Roam!

Justine Sanchez
President, Buffalo Field Campaign Board of Directors