The plains glow emerald in this wet spring, rolling
toward distant hills. Near an oxbow in the creek
beneath us, a herd of buffalo graze. They are pri-
meval creatures, bearded and huge, their winter
fur peeling off in strips like old wallpaper.
In the days before horses and guns, Plains
Indians chased buffalo off this steep embank-
ment to their deaths. It’s late in May, late in the
afternoon, and the light has taken on a rich, nos-
talgic cast. Damien Austin, a former zookeeper
with rectangular glasses and a rectangular fringe
of hair, extends his hand across the humped
expanse of prairie. “Just imagine grizzly bears
running around out there,” he says.
Austin oversees the herd of buffalo that graze
below us, and the properties that contain them.
He works for the American Prairie Reserve, a
conservation organization seeking to create a
massive protected area in central Montana andYoung members of
their extended fam-
ily take a break at Liz
and Toby Werk’s Blue
Heaven Ranch. The
Werks, who belong to
the Aaniiih tribe, work
with APR, but also share
their neighbors’ con-
cerns about the reserve
buying up ranches.
Says Toby Werk: “We
know firsthand what it’s
like to be taken off the
land and destroyed.”We bounce in
the truck along
a furrowed road,
through a mud slick
and up to a bluff
that looks out
to the curve of
the Earth.
LAST WILD PLACES
American Prairie Reserve is a
conservation partner of the
National Geographic Society’s
Last Wild Places initiative.74 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC