Ripped from the headlines...

Back when I wrote The Third Revolution, and later in Middle America, I postulated the existence of the American Serengeti Project - a business partnership of tribal, private ranching and corporate investors promoting the profitable, earth-friendly restoration of large, wild bison herds to the vast grasslands of the American West.

So here's today's headline out of Billings, MT:

Quarantined bison from Yellowstone attract interest.
By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press Writer BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) Wildlife officials say a Montana Indian tribe, an Illinois zoo and a North Dakota landowner are seeking to take a small herd of wild bison that have been held in quarantine outside Yellowstone National Park for the last several years.

The animals were spared from a government program to capture and slaughter most bison leaving the park, to prevent the spread of the animal disease brucellosis to cattle.

Wildlife officials want to use the quarantined animals as seed stock to form new bison herds in parts of the country where the animals once thrived.

An earlier plan to transfer the animals to the Northern Arapaho Tribe in central Wyoming collapsed this spring when tribal members voted to keep the animals out.

The approximately four dozen bison could be slaughtered if no home is found.

Not quite visionary, but close enough for an early Sunday morning...