The York History Club presents:
The Bison Project
Spread the Word! Help the Herd!
About us:
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This year our 7th grade Texas History classes are partnering with Caprock Canyon State Park and the State Bison Herd. This herd is the culmination of preservation efforts to protect a portion of the Great Southern herds that roamed all across Texas until virtual extermination. In the 1870's rancher Charles Goodnight saved a group of calves from being hunted down and the herd at Caprock is directly from this line, grazing on the original prairies of their ancestors. We follow the plight of these great animals throughout our Texas History curriculum as they are considered our "first residents" in many ways.
Our project with Caprock is to fund the purchase of a wildlife tracking collar specifically designed for Bison. The collar will be placed on one of the cows and will enable our students to track the herd movement in real time in the classroom. The park consists of over 14,000 acres of canyon and prairie land and currently the herd of approximately 100 is grazing on 750 acres, but will soon be released to roam on about 10,000 park acres. These iridium collars run around $3000. There is also the possibility of installing a game cam ($200) at one of the watering holes as well as a webcam to film the "round-up" in December as they work the bison before letting them out to the 10,000 acres.
Our goal is not only to track our adopted bison, but to bring awareness to the community about the fact that we, as Texas citizens, are owners and custodians of this great herd. We are hoping through the project our students will learn about the conservation, preservation, and restoration efforts, biomes, & human environment interaction all within the setting of Caprock Canyon. Real world skills encompassing fund-raising components, research, use of technology, advertising, and presentation skills are the added bonus. Already our students are preparing news articles for submission to The Texas Bison Association Journal, letters asking for support and endorsements from the Governor's office, Texas Parks and Wildlife executive director, and Laura Bush and her Taking Care of Texas organization. In addition students are creating Public Service Announcements to be shown on our own York station and the January stockholders meeting at Caprock.
We cannot thank York PTO, Caprock Canyon State Park, the Texas Bison Association, Calfee Specialties, Cecil Miskin from Buffalo Gold, and McDonalds for giving our students so much support for this one of a kind project. As of November 15th students have raised over $1250.00 toward our goal for purchasing the tracking collar and wildlife game cam!
Happy Trails!
Penny Adams, Angie Archie, Kate Halm, and Shawn Cephus