Where the Buffalo Roam: Restoring America’s Great Plains

Pummeled by a century of drought, depopulation, and soil erosion, America’s Great Plains are in dire straits. With farms closing left and right, the region has a smaller population now than it did in frontier days. Frank and Deborah Popper have a solution: create a Buffalo Commons by returning 139,000 acres in ten states to prairie and reintroducing the buffalo that once roamed there. Where the Buffalo Roam follows the Poppers from Montana to Texas as they try to sell their idea in seminar rooms and small-town living rooms, cattle lots, and cornfields. In the process Anne Matthews introduces the colorful people who love these arid windswept lands, from the mild-mannered but persistent Poppers to suspicious ranchers and farmers with their backs to the wall. Donald Worster’s new foreword situates the Buffalo Commons in the context of environmental history and, in a substantial new afterword, Matthews brings us up to date on the latest Commons developments, including growing support from Native Americans and private groups like the Nature Conservancy.