Chihuahuan Frontier

The Northern Chihuahua prairies, ancestral home for the bison, were declared a federally protected biosphere this month in a move that fosters the region's growing value as a natural reserve for endangered species.

The desert grasslands, located at the municipality of Janos, recently received a herd of South Dakota bison that are expected to add up to about one hundred individuals in three years. The cattle gene-free animals are protected at a ranch managed by The Nature Conservancy.

Under the new federal decree, 526,482 hectares of prairies adjacent to the New Mexico border, including a forested area, will from now on be subjected to controlled ecosystem conservancy and preservation guidelines actively involving local ranchers and farmers.

The newly protected area is almost the size of the municipality of Janos.

The federal decree was made official upon publishing by the federal register (Diario Oficial de la Federación) on December 8, 2009.

The same week, Chihuahua City hosted a North American workshop where delegates from Canada, the United States and Mexico met to discuss the preservation of the Chihuahuan desert's prairies.

Representatives from The Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund, Pronatura and Profauna as well as from Chihuahua's regional cattlemen union, the Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Inifap and the Chihuahua State government were present at the meeting.

The delegates discussed establishing a regional alliance for the sustainable preservation of the North American grasslands, including Chihuahua's.

Photo by Raechel Running © RaechelRunning.com 2009