Photo by Stephany Seay, Buffalo Field Campaign.
Dear supporters of the Buffalo, lovers of all thing Wild, what might I say to you in these crazy times? Words of inspiration directly from the banks of the Madison River, this sanctuary of Wildness, this migratory path, this place of nurturing full of beauty and grace!
Yesterday, as I have for the past 18 years, my wife Justine and I, along with Stephany, walked the northwest bluffs of the Madison River following the "Buffalo Trace" created over centuries of Buffalo meandering to their ancestral birthing grounds on Horse Butte.
We marvel — so many memories both painful and blessed of following their tracks and scat! I'm reminded of old bumper stickers — "Bring back the Bison, Sing back the Swan" and "Buffalo poop, Buffalo poop all over this land!” I pluck clumps of Buffalo hair from tree sides and stuff it into a pocket — a habit started 18 years ago — sniff sage and marvel at the white pelicans sailing over the river. We hear a Sandhill crane off in the distance.
Photo by Stephany Seay, Buffalo Field Campaign.
When I first started coming here, there was barbed wire, cattle grates, and capture facilities — weeks on end throughout winter and spring where I have witnessed the continued brutality against this unique herd — all in the name of a Bison Management Plan. Today, on these very lands, there are no helicopters, no men on snowmobiles, horses, or ATV’s, no running of newborn calves for tens of miles. No! Today is birdsong and fairyslippers — an eagle perched in a standing dead tree, the river reflected in his eyes — he takes it all in, as do I.
Photo by Stephany Seay, Buffalo Field Campaign.
We continue to marvel — "Endless pressure, endlessly applied” — we feel the fruits of our labor — of your labor, your support over the last 2 decades. This is our third spring enjoying this wild place without the disruption of helicopters and livestock authority. We whisper, almost afraid to say it aloud. This quietness is still new to us — the wounds of the past still fresh, yet this landscape continues to heal!
We carry on
We walk
We follow
A Buffalo trace
in this place
of Wisdom
this face
of Wild
Where beauty abounds
and we are surrounded
by the knowledge
of this Last Wild Herd
Survivors
in the truest sense of the word
once 60 million strong!
This has been the "Real Work", the work that needs to be done, as so eloquently put by lover of Wildness, Author/Poet Gary Snyder.
This is the beauty of intimacy! We walk on — Hanta Yo!
Buffalo Trace
this Place
continues to stir
the landscape of our imagination
the true self
the genuine
the Wild!
Yes we continue to marvel at the blessing that is today, to be on these banks, to be walking this trace towards the peninsula, the knowing the Buffalo are free to just be —
That this Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is as close to what it used to be, a full complimentary of predator and prey of winged and four legged —
Wolf tracks in the dirt!
Buffalo have traced
this land
we do good to
follow their
tracks —
Kaleidoscope eyes
we got the smell of River
and flowers on us!
Photo by Stephany Seay, Buffalo Field Campaign.
We arrive to the place where the trap used to be; below on the edge of the lake lay 12 mamas, bellies swollen with new life to come; eagles dance over head, talons locking, the beauty of freedom.
This is our Dharma, this is our practice, to be on this land, to listen to her stories, in the bones of the living and the dead, to embrace the simplicity — each step a prayer!
With the Buffalo,
~ Roman Sanchez, BFC Board of Directors
