So, back in 2010 South Dakota's last Democratic Senator, Tim Johnson tried to make a portion of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland adjacent to Badlands National Park part of the Tony Dean Wilderness Area. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) tried to revive it in 2011. Led by The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit that began buying land there in 2007, sold some land in 2012 to Badlands National Park. Conata Basin is on the top ten ecotourism sites chosen by the University of Nebraska's Great Plains Center.
The World Wildlife Fund, Defenders of Wildlife and The Nature Conservancy teamed up with the National Park Foundation, Badlands Natural History Association, Badlands National Park Conservancy and the National Park Service Centennial Challenge fund to expand the bison range at Badlands National Park by nearly 35 square miles. Just 3 percent of the Earth’s land surface remains untouched by human development and a sixth mass extinction is underway.
Habitat destruction, watershed ruination, native species extirpation, rampant ecocide, statewide corruption: this is today's South Dakota.
It’s still a crime to intentionally kill or harm individual black-footed ferrets or other creatures protected by the Endangered Species Act. Black-footed ferret recovery is hailed as one of the most spectacular success stories of the Endangered Species Act. But it may be for naught, even if the Trump rule is vacated by challenges in the courts. [Without prairie dogs, endangered black-footed ferrets disappear]Learn more at the Colorado Sun.
