From their cozy homes in suburban Burlington, children curiously watch their new neighbors through windows and brainstorm nicknames. Earlier this month, with their distinctive brown fur, big heads, short horns and back hump, a small herd of six American buffalo — the largest land mammals in the co untry — exited a trailer and took their first steps on 38 acres of prairie restored by the Kane County Forest Preserve District, 60 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. It’s the first time in over two centuries that bison have called the county home. Inches of snow had piled on the ground, and conservationists had waited for hours in the brutal cold for the animals to show up. The move was a rematriation, a return of missing relatives, according to Jay Young, co-executive director of the American Indian Center of Chicago, which owns the animals in the collaborative conservation effort. “I don’t like using the word ownership, because that’s not a Native or Indigenous worldview,” Young said. “We are the stewards of the bison, and so we’re looking after them, we’re taking care of them, we’re making sure they’re OK.” The Kane Forest Preserve began working toward bringing back bison three years ago, but the project “transcends generations” and has been “hundreds of years in the making,” according to the district’s executive director, Benjamin Haberthur. After an initial deal fell through, staff at the district felt discouraged about finding an Indigenous partner, until the American Indian Center stepped in. “Without the Native American education component, (it) would have been a huge loss, because the story of the bison is the story of Native Americans in the country,” he said. Haberthur saw Burlington Prairie Forest Preserve, formerly a soybean field, begin its journey to restoration in 2011, helping plant 114 species, including the ecosystem’s iconic, tall Indian grass and the rattlesnake master with its thistle-shaped flowerheads. The bison’s return marks yet another victory in efforts to restore the Prairie State to its former glory, to an ecosystem and a landscape that bison shaped for hundreds of years — before settlers plowed grasslands, brought cattle to graze in the vast pastures and hunted the animals, extirpating them. The last recorded sighting of a wild bison in Illinois happened in 1870. “We look at all of these things as relatives, whether it be the prairie grass or the bison,” Young said. “They evolved over thousands of years together, so a prairie without bison or bison without prairie is missing something.” Bison move across the Burlington Prairie Forest Preserve in Burlington Township on Dec. 22, 2025. Six American bison have been introduced into the preserve. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune) The 22 million acres of prairies that once spanned Illinois depended on the grazing patterns of bison, which diversified native vegetation, maintained habitats for birds and cleared out invasive species. Most of this ecosystem was gone by the beginning of the 20th century. By 1978, fewer than 2,300 acres of high-quality original prairie remained; nowadays, the acreage is less than one-tenth of 1% of the original. The razing of prairies and the erosion of soil from agriculture have led to the loss of plant and animal species, such as prairie chickens. The species, which Haberthur called “bold little territorial birds,” are critically endangered in the state, with 200 left in southeast central Illinois. Bringing bison back opens up the possibility for the return of similar ecological missing pieces. The brown-headed cowbird, which is common year-round in Illinois, used to be called the buffalo bird for its relationship with bison. “It’s just one of these little guys that, like, sits on the back of a cow or buffalo and eats the ticks and little bugs,” Haberthur said. “So it changed its behavior after the buffalo left, but at Nachusa, they’ve seen them start to reassociate and rebuild that.” The first herd of bison reintroduced east of the Mississippi River for conservation purposes was in 2014 at Nachusa Grasslands, some 50 miles west in Lee and Ogle counties, where the newcomers at Burlington Prairie hail from. In 2015, Nachusa welcomed the first baby bison born in Illinois in nearly two centuries. That same year, another restoration project brought bison to Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Will County, operated by the U.S. Forest Service. Other herds in Illinois that are not specifically part of conservation efforts include one outside Fermilab particle physics laboratory in Batavia since 1969, and an exhibit at Lords Park Zoo in Elgin since 2013. When the large animals wallow — or roll in the dirt for a “dust bath” to relieve skin irritations, prevent insect bites and shed their winter coats — they also create small depressions in the ground that fill with water and create microhabitats for other wildlife. “Different plants start coming back, that means different insects come back. Different insects come back, that means different birds come back,” Young said. “And so, being the keystone species, they create this whole ecosystem around the prairie, which is what it was supposed to be until bison were eliminated.” Other bird species conservationists hope to see return to Burlington Prairie include bobolinks and grasshopper sparrows, whose populations are steeply declining. American bison on Dec. 22, 2025, in the Burlington Prairie Forest Preserve in Burlington Township, where six of the bison have been introduced. The bison’s return marks yet another victory in efforts to restore the Prairie State to an ecosystem and a landscape that bison shaped for hundreds of years. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune) The prairie and its bison will not be open for public viewing over the winter in order to provide the animals with quiet and calm, so they can feel comfortable as they adjust to their new home. Burlington Prairie also closes seasonally due to blowing and drifting snow. Public events to welcome the herd will be planned for spring. The American Indian Center and Kane County will continue working together to develop educational opportunities, including a community science program for regular citizens to help monitor the health of the prairie and the bison. The program will be built on Indigenous wisdom and provide opportunities for local Native Americans to reconnect with their roots. “We’re talking about healing the landscape, right? We’re also healing our community,” Young said. He is Potawatomi, a tribe native to the Great Plains and Great Lakes regions, including the modern-day Chicago area. Today, almost 80% of Native Americans live off reservations, and mostly in urban areas. “How do you practice a land-based culture if you have no land base to practice it on?” Young said. An estimated 65,000 Native American people live in the Chicago area, making it the third-largest urban Indian population in the country. “There’s about 170, 180 tribes represented here. Some have very close ties with bison, and some don’t,” Young said. “Maybe you (are) a Buffalo Clan, or a Bison Clan, and you hear the stories and the songs, but you’ve never actually seen a bison. You’ve never been near a bison.” Ruhter Bison — a family-owned business and bison meat provider in Illinois that focuses on prairie and wildlife conservation — will manage the herd for at least the next three years, at the same time training the handful of staff at the American Indian Center for future management. Staff from Ruhter checks on the bison every day and gives them supplemental food like hay or grains if needed — especially during the colder months. The imposing animals are equipped to survive winter from fat reserves in their bodies, but they’ll still eat what they can. Haberthur said the three female and three male bison at Burlington Prairie will be a breeding herd. The forest preserve district hopes to expand its fenced acreage to continue expanding the herd in the coming years. “We don’t have it open like Yellowstone. I would love to own 3 million acres, but we don’t,” Haberthur said. “We can’t let them roam free, like on the Great Plains.” They still have more freedom than other herds close to Chicago, he said. In a suburban area, fencing ensures the safety of both the bison and the community. Despite looking harmless, the massive animals can charge humans when threatened or startled, and cause injury or death. Their presence near human development has become a crucial goal for many conservationists working to regenerate eroded agricultural land. It’s a dream not many organizations realize. “This is another big component of putting nature back together,” Haberthur said. “The bison are there to teach the prairie how to be a prairie, so the prairie remembers how to be a prairie,” Young said. “And the prairie is there so the bison can remember how to be bison.” [email protected] ...read more read less