THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Winter 2018-19 19 TheCoastalBend.com THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Winter 2018-19 19 TheCoastalBend.com Assumed Endless C onserving and preserving our natural environment and its occupants—why does it matter? It never mat- tered to us modern humans for hundreds of years. In fact, from the advent of the rifle for hunting wild game, especially the American bison (buffalo), Man set upon an all-out race to stalk, kill, skin and eat as many of them as possible, on every given day on the vast prairies of the future western United States. There was no thought whatsoever that buffalo came in limited supply and that it was possible to hunt and displace the species out of exis- tence. Before pioneers from the original American colonies headed west, the bison population of almost 30 million animals lived and migrated throughout the middle of the continent, from the Gulf of Mexico to the south all the way north to Alaska, and from the Appalachian Mountains in the east to the Rockies in the west. For hundreds of years, buffalo served as a primary source of food, clothing and shelter for native North American tribes, whose philoso- phy of respect for the land and its resources dictated that only what is needed to live should be harvested. The idea, which may have evolved over generations, was that the bison, along with all the earth provided, was essential for the survival of the tribe, and therefore must be con- served, nurtured and protected for the future. The economics were sim- ple—use only what you need today so that there will be what is needed tomorrow. Then the Europeans came.