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International Bison Convention Being Held This Week In Saskatoon
CJWW Radio / Neil Billinger

About 300 delegates are registered for the event that is held every five years and rotates between Canada and the United States.

The convention has attracted bison ranchers and producers, marketers, conservationists and researchers from North America and Europe.

It begins Tuesday evening with the Taste Saskatchewan Reception and includes a special chef’s panel.

Other highlights include a tour of Wanuskewin Heritage Park and its bison herd, a presentation from Dalhousie University professor Dr. Sylvain Charlebois on consumer markets for bison and various panels discussions on low stress bison handling and challenges in meat processing.

You can hear our interview with convention chair Les Kroeger, a bison producer from the Hanley area, about 80 kilometres south of Saskatoon. Listen to Interview HERE

Q+A: Conference Aims To Make Saskatoon 'World's Bison Capital'
The Starphoenix / Nick Pearce

After an absence of more than a century, plains bison are roaming the prairies around Saskatoon. Ernie Walker hopes the city becomes become synonymous with the animal.

It deserves to be the world capital of bison, he told dozens of ranchers, researchers and conservationists in a conference hall on Wednesday.

The International Bison Convention only occurs in Canada every 10 years and runs until Friday. Walker, the chief archaeologist at Wanuskewin Heritage Park, spoke to the StarPhoenix about placing Indigenous history at the centre of the story of the bison across borders.

Q: Why should Saskatoon be ‘the bison capital of the world’?

A: I’m not kidding. I’ve excavated in Riversdale, on City of Saskatoon land — famous sites — west and northwest of Saskatoon. At Wanuskewin, 95 to 96 per cent of the bones we’ve excavated have been bison. This place is about bison.

I was born here, so I get to say this: I wish Saskatoon celebrated its western history a bit more and celebrated the stories that we have. Wanuskewin is the centrepiece, but it’s not the only piece. Calgary can have its stampede and its cowboys; we’re doing something else. Read More HERE

Making Value Count
Noble Premium Bison

https://noblepremiumbison.com/meet-noble/
blog/know-your-supplier-make-value-count/

Government of Canada Invests In Increasing Bison Exports
Government of Canada / Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

News Release

July 13, 2022 – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan – Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Canada’s bison producers deliver healthy, naturally grown products that are in demand here and around the world. Today, to kick off the International Bison Convention 2022, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, announced an investment of up to $133,611 over two years to support economic growth for Canada’s bison industry.

Helping bison producers seize market opportunities for their high-quality products contributes to a healthy, sustainable economy. With funding under the AgriMarketing Program, the Canadian Bison Association will be provided with the necessary resources to increase its efforts to expand and grow market access in Europe and to increase exports of Canadian bison to the United States. This funding supports the delivery of the International Bison Convention 2022 as well as other engagement and advocacy activities.

The bison industry is an increasingly important contributor to the Canadian economy, with live bison and bison meat exports reaching nearly $90 million in 2021. Demand is growing as more consumers look to bison as a source of lean, nutrient-dense, naturally grown meat. Bison are also gaining favour among eco-conscious consumers as the livestock help balance and maintain a healthy ecosystem where they graze and interact. Read Full News Release HERE

Bison Herd In Romania's Făgăraș Mountains Has Three Calves
Romania-insider.com / Simona Fodor

Twenty-eight bison are currently roaming free in the Făgăraș Mountains, close to three years since the start of the bison reintroduction program in the area, Conservation Carpathia Foundation said.

The three calves that accompany the herd are proof of their adaption to the environmental conditions, the foundation explained.

“The mission to rebuild the bison population in the area of the Făgăraș Mountains started with the release of eight bison brought in from Germany and Poland. Later, we brought bison from Sweden, the UK, and from reserves in Vama Buzăului and Vânători Neamț,” biologist Adrian Aldea, wildlife manager with Conservation Carpathia Foundation, said. Read More HERE

'Teeming With Life': Bison Ranch Partners With Nonprofit And Local, Federal Programs To Conserve Land
Bozeman Daily Chronicle / Isabelle Hicks

“I’m a kid from suburban Chicago — how could I be a bison rancher?”

Matt Skoglund wondered that as he debated buying land to start a bison ranch in southwest Montana. In 2018, Skoglund and his wife, Sarah, found two parcels for sale in Sedan that were suitable for growing bison. They decided to buy 791 acres, which would soon become the North Bridger Bison ranch.

Four years later, the Skoglund ranch has 125 bison and a wealth of customers who have meat delivered locally or shipped straight from the ranch. The land is also now in a conservation easement with the Gallatin Valley Land Trust. Closing the deal was monumental for both the Skoglund family and GVLT.

Skoglund wanted to conserve the land ever since they bought it in 2018. The process from start to finish took about three-and-a-half years. Now, it’s special to look at the ranch and know the land will be protected forever, Skoglund said. Read More HERE

Cameras Could Offer Snapshot Of Bison Migration Into State
The Daily Sentinel / Dennis Webb

Several dozen times over the last decade, wild bison living in the Book Cliffs in Utah have crossed a demarcation known only to man and went from being a big game species huntable only with a license in the Beehive State to living, and dying, in Western Colorado.

Here, no regulations govern or limit bison hunting and people could, and did, kill those bison for free.

It’s thanks to what the nonprofit group Grasslands Unlimited says is a regulatory loophole in the state under which Colorado Parks and Wildlife classifies bison only as livestock, rather than both as livestock and a big game species, meaning it is not under the agency’s jurisdiction.
“They cross this invisible boundary and suddenly they go from wild animals to livestock without ever realizing it, and we’re at that point powerless to protect them,” said Trevor Pellerite, the group’s president. Read More HERE

Don’t Call It Meat If It’s Made With Plants, France Says
Manitoba Co-operator / Sybille De La Hamaide

Reuters – France will ban the use of meat names like “steak” and “sausage” on plant-based protein food, according to a decree published June 29, in a bid to avoid confusion over the trendy meat alternatives.

France is the first country in the European Union to impose such a restriction. In 2020, EU lawmakers rejected a similar proposal, backed by farmers.

The market for plant-based meat-like food has surged, attracting investment from global agri-food groups hoping to capitalize on a trend toward healthy eating, including less red meat.

“It will not be possible to use sector-specific terminology traditionally associated with meat and fish to designate products that do not belong to the animal world and which, in essence, are not comparable,” the official decree reads.

The regulation only applies to products made in France, and the country’s largest farm lobby FNSEA said it did not go far enough because it left the door open to imports. Read More HERE

American Bison Are Making A Major Comeback
Arizona Family / 

PHOENIX (Stacker) - The Fish and Wildlife Service in early June announced that several petitions to add Yellowstone bison to the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 presented “substantial” arguments that ESA protections “may be warranted.”

It wasn’t too long ago—roughly 150 years—that nearly 30 million American bison (Bison bison) lived throughout the Great Plains between the Rocky Mountains in the West and the Appalachian Mountains in the East. But with white settler populations exploding throughout the region in the late 19th century, hunters severely diminished the bison population by killing around 5,000 of the animals every day in 1871 and 1872.

At the same time, bison habitat rapidly eroded as farmland, cities, and fenced-off pasture for cattle were established in the shadows of bison territory. Novel diseases took care of the rest.Conservation efforts, responsible farming, and an ambitious relocation effort have afforded a bison population boom in recent years. While small and isolated, populations are ascending with roughly 350,000 Plains bison in production herds, 30,000 in public herds, and around 20,000 in tribal herds. To learn more about the ultimate American comeback story, Stacker explored the history of bison populations in the U.S. and repopulation efforts underway. Read More HERE

Did You Know

• The land of Wanuskewin Heritage Park keeps sharing its stories and wants protecting. More HERE
   
• Yellowstone bison goring incidents highlight America's decreasing awareness of nature. More HERE