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The York History Club presents:

The Bison Project

Spread the Word! Help the Herd!

Welcome!

 

The York History Club is trying to help the herd at Caprock Canyons State Park.

 

    Our project with Caprock is to fund the purchase of a wildlife tracking collar specifically designed for Bison. The collar will be placed on one of the cows and will enable our students to track the herd movement in real time in the classroom. The park consists of over 14,000 acres of canyon and prairie land and currently the herd of approximately 100 is grazing on 750 acres, but will soon be released to roam on about 10,000 park acres. These iridium collars run around $3000. There is also the possibility of installing a game cam ($200) at one of the watering holes as well as a webcam to film the "round-up" in December as they work the bison before letting them out to the 10,000 acres.

 

 

      Our goal is not only to track our adopted bison, but to bring awareness to the community about the fact that we, as Texas citizens, are owners and custodians of this great herd.  We are hoping through the project our students will learn about the conservation, preservation, and restoration efforts, biomes, & human environment interaction all within the setting of Caprock Canyon.  Real world skills encompassing fund-raising components, research, use of technology, advertising, and presentation skills are the added bonus.  Already our students are preparing news articles for submission to The Texas Bison Association Journal, letters asking for support and endorsements from the Governor's office, Texas Parks and Wildlife executive director, and Laura Bush and her Taking Care of Texas organization.  In addition students are creating Public Service Announcements to be shown on our own York station and the January stockholders meeting at Caprock.

Caprock Canyons State Park:

Bryan Frazier, © Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Pictured here holding the STAR Day Service of Achievement Merit Award at the Texas State Capitol are Donald Beard, superintendent of Caprock Canyons State Park (center), Carter Smith, TPWD Executive Director (left) and Brent Leisure, Director of State Parks.

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