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On 03 Jan 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the bill creating
Wind Cave National Park. It was the seventh national park and the first
one created to protect a cave. The parklands at that time were small and
there were no bison, elk, or pronghorn. They came later as the park boundaries
expanded.
In 1912, the American Bison Society was looking for a place to reestablish
a bison herd. Because of the excellent prairie habitat around the park,
a national game preserve was established bordering Wind Cave. It was managed
by the U.S. Biological Survey. In 1913 and 1914, the animals began to
arrive. Fourteen bison came from the New York Zoological Society, twenty-one
elk arrived from Wyoming and thirteen pronghorn came from Alberta, Canada.
In July of 1935, the game preserve became part of Wind Cave National
Park. During the early years of the preserve, the animals were kept in
small enclosures. Eventually, it was realized that they needed more space.
The bison and elk needed additional forage and the pronghorn needed room
to escape from predators. With the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC), fences within the park were removed. And in 1946, 16,341 additional
acres were added, enlarging the park to 28,059 acres.
During the 1950's and 60's, park wildlife was the focus of much attention.
Because of the lack of large predators, like wolves and grizzly bears,
the bison and elk herds had grown to the point that they were literally
"eating themselves out of house and home." Park rangers began
to evaluate the carrying capacity of the park. Carrying capacity is the
number of animals that can exist in a habitat without damaging it. To
solve the problem of overgrazing, the bison and elk herd sizes were reduced.
Park rangers began an active program to manage the herd size. They began
rounding up the animals and shipping the excess live from the park to
other parks and reserves. Rangers also worked to improve the grassland
by reseeding overgrazed areas with native grasses and controlling exotic
plant species.
In the 1970's and 80's, managers continued to focus on caring for the
wildlife and rangeland by building an understanding of how the natural
systems should function. The reintroduction of fire as a natural means
to improve the range and to limit the expansion of the forest onto the
prairie was researched. An active fire program was started, with the first
prescribed fire occurring in 1972.
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