Radio Curious

The buffalo that for most of the year inhabit Yellowstone National Park may be the only genetically pure buffalo population in North America.  They still follow their migratory instincts and are the only buffalo to have continuously lived on their historic habitat since prehistoric times.  Until the mass slaughter of buffalo that began in the mid-nineteenth century, tens of millions of these creatures roamed North America.  Today the fewer than 4,000 wild buffalo that exist are under constant attack by livestock interests.

In this edition of Radio Curious, we visit with Mike Mease, the coordinator of the Buffalo Field Campaign, based on West Yellowstone, Montana, at the front end of his journey to Oregon and California in the fall of 2012.  Mike Mease and others from the Buffalo Field Campaign are prepared with stories, video, music and activism inspired by the Yellowstone Bison in their efforts to protect America’s remaining buffalo.  Mike Mease and I spoke by phone during the campaign’s first stop in Newport, Oregon, on September 17, 2012, and began our visit when I asked him to describe the current circumstances of buffalo in Montana.

The Buffalo Field Campaign will visit the Mendocino Recreation Center, 998 School Street, in the Village of Mendocino beginning at 7 p.m. on September 27, 2012.  For more information call 707 937 4295.

The book Mike Mease recommends is “Confederacy of Dunces,” by John Kennedy Toole and Walter Percy.

You may contact the Buffalo Field Campaign at PO Box 957, West Yellowstone, MT 59758, telephone (406) 646-0070.

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