Nature Journal

Who knew that you could learn so much from clearing down bushes for the buffalo to graze!

I learned that Buffalo prefer to have open land in order for them to graze: grazer's prefer to chew on grass rather than woody plants. Unfortunately, over the years, large amounts of mesquite began to overgrow the land where the buffalo normally graze. These thorny plants are affecting the buffalo's ability to find and eat the grass.

While it may seem counterintuitive to take away pieces of nature, this overgrown weed will be more beneficial cut down than simply sitting taking up space. It was interesting, though, that how we stopped the bushes from growing back was the most unnatural thing of all. So, before we began, we were encouraged by our instructor to think about whether or not that this was something that we would want to take part into. She also shared with us that for awhile, she also had her reservations regarding using herbicide, but in this case, it was a necessity to benefit the Buffalo species here on the reserve.

I volunteered to use the herbicide. We were trained on what the herbicide was, what it does, and what is was made out of. I was informed that there are two different kinds of herbicide: one that is for woody plants and one that was for grassy plants. Further, I was told to be extra careful with the chemical because not only it is harmful for the plant, but also for you.

The plants were first cut down, and then I placed the herbicide onto the cut down stump. The process had to be very methodical because I did not want any of the herbicide to touch any other plants. It was amazing to be that a chemical could be so powerful that it could stop a plant from growing completely. This then led me to think more about whether or not I really support the use of herbicide all together.

Though it wasn't until later,

(These pictures were not taken by me)