Arizona and federal officials have agreed to a plan that will establish an "ecologically and genetically restored" herd of bison in Northern Arizona.
The Arizona Game and Fish Department recently signed a memorandum of agreement with the U.S. Department of Interior and the National Park Service. Also participating was Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, which will provide the bison for the herd, Game and Fish announced.
The new herd, at Raymond Wildlife Area, will replace an existing bison herd by fall 2017, the department said. The existing herd is one of two managed by Game and Fish; the other is at House Rock, east of the Kaibab Plateau. But both of those herds descend from an unsuccessful cross-breeding effort with cattle more than a century ago, and the bison contain high levels of cattle DNA.
The Wind Cave bison are among those hoped to be conserved for their "high genetic purity, genetic diversity and rare bison genes," Game and Fish said. It's also hoped that establishing this new herd will contribute to the species' recovery after it was nearly wiped out.
Game and Fish will carefully manage the new herd to allow for viewing opportunities, habitat management and public hunts, the department said.
You can sometimes spot some of Arizona's existing bison along State Route 67, which leads to the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.