FARGO -- A new partnership aims to meld traditional farming practices, including the raising of bison, with innovation and modern technology to help conserve and nurture North Dakota's land.
The North Dakota Advanced Agriculture Technology Engine (FARMS) and the Coalition of Large Tribes (COLT) collaboration aims to promote and integrate conservation and Indigenous land stewardship practices. That includes supporting tribal ranchers, nations and organizations in creating solutions for sustainable agriculture and rural economic development.
Part of those efforts also will be to support bison rematriation efforts, which is a return and addition of bison back to the grasslands around the state and on reservation lands.
"Rematriation is the systemic strategy to utilize Indigenous knowledge and technological innovation to rebuild agro-ecosystems that sustain secure, locally accessible, nutrient-dense, food sources," said Wanbli Williams, innovation manager for North Dakota Advanced Agriculture Technology Engine.
Williams called bison "America's original farmer."
"They are as natural, and critical to the prairie as the rain, the wind, the grass and the dirt," he said.
When bison roamed the prairies, their existence helped impact the soil, filling it with nutrients that would eventually help the Great Plains become America's breadbasket. As the millions of bison were eventually killed or forced out of their natural habitats, the benefits they gave to the land and farming also began to erode. Their grazing behavior and the effects they have on the prairie naturally promote biodiversity and help a wide range of wildflowers, plants, insects and amphibians flourish.
Trying to measure the impact of the bison on the land is "unfathomable," Williams said.
FARMS is an inaugural National Science Foundation "Engines" that uses AgTech innovation to address food security and foster rural economic resilience through cross-sector and cross-cultural collaboration. The North Dakota Tribal System, Grand Farm, FMWF Chamber of Commerce, Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corp., and North Dakota State University are involved with FARMS.
"This partnership highlights the importance of co-stewardship and community-driven solutions that foster resilience, economic opportunity, and environmental harmony for generations to come," FARMS CEO Hollie Mackey said in a statement.
COLT represents more than 50 large tribal nations across the United States that work to advance policies that support tribal sovereignty, conservation and rural economic development. Williams said each of the large tribes has a land base of more than 100,000 acres each. Bison are known to thrive on wide open land.
"This collaboration aligns resources and expertise to create lasting benefits for our people, land and future," said COLT Executive Director Oliver J. Semans in a release.
Williams said FARMS works to solve the broad problems of increasing economic development in rural communities by engaging them in solution-based approaches at the local level. The focus on the local level helps farmers on and off reservations seize opportunities that can help further that goal.
"We're trying to think outside the fence to bridge that gap between agriculture, innovation and traditional agricultural practices," he said. "We engage local producers to find local solutions for some of our global problems."
Williams said the partnership will work to not only recognize Indigenous farming practices and then match them with potential modern technological methods that could be used broadly, but the recognition and reintroduction of cultural farming practices will also help those traditions continue into future generations.
"It's reapplying those understandings in a modern context, meeting traditional practices with modern technology," Williams said. "We're trying to help navigate those traditions with the help of innovation and technological innovation without losing sight of our roots. The American culture was grown by our farmers. When we talk to fourth- and fifth-generation farmers, they're concerned about the regeneration of their knowledge."
If successful, the impacts of programs such as bison rematriation will not only help secure a healthy future for area generations, it will help combat food insecurity nationwide, Williams said.