Many of you probably heard the news about the wildfires in the badlands earlier this spring. Areas around Medora, the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and some other areas have burned. In all, a few thousand acres of native prairie were blackened. We tend to think of fires, whether in a prairie or forest fire, as destructive. But we need to realize that fire was a natural factor in grassland formation and maintenance. And once a fire started to spread, in some cases it could have gone miles before stopping. Plus Native Americans burned prairie. A lot of prairie. They were conducted for a variety of reasons, one of which was to attract the bison. Native Americans learned early on that bison were attracted to the regrowth because it was more palatable, nutritious, and accessible.