Central Ohio’s bison population will receive a boost in coming months thanks to efforts by the Metro Parks.

Leaders of the Franklin County Metro Parks will soon finalize details that will bring a herd to its Battelle-Darby Creek Metro Park. The herd will include six to 10 bison, said Peg Hanley, Metro Parks spokeswoman.

Construction of fencing and other facilities is scheduled to begin in August, though planning has been going on for several years, Hanley said. The bison project has been a dream of Metro Parks naturalists since the early 1990s, when native prairie land was being refurbished.

Why bison?

It has to do with the Metro Parks’ resource management, Hanley said. It’s the responsibility of the Metro Parks to restore what was once here. Because much of central Ohio was once prairie, 600 acres of parkland throughout the Metro Parks system have been re-established as prairie using native seeds, she said.

Bison were a part of that native prairie, too.

Wood bison was the North American bison subspecies once found in Ohio. It wasn’t as prevalent as its relative, the plains bison. Regardless, bison lived in Ohio until the early 1800s, when mass slaughters caused their extinction here, according to research done by Ohio State professor Joe Heimlich.

The resource management component behind the bison project is in line with the Metro Parks’ education mission, Hanley said.

“It’s hard to get a fourth grader to get excited about an ashy sunflower on a field trip,” she said. “But to get kids’ imaginations going when they see bison on a field trip lends itself to them talking about, ‘Gee, these areas now are habitat not just for the sunflower, but for the bison.'”

The experience can create educational dialogue about how human choices nearly wiped out North American bison, she said.

When it comes to what to call bison, though, some people just can’t get it right.

“Buffalo” has been so widely used when referring to bison that some people see the two terms as acceptable synonyms.

American bison might have been incorrectly labeled as buffalo by French traders who referred to them as “les boeufs,” or oxen, said Heimlich, professor in the College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Science, who works through the OSU Extension at COSI. He is on the board of trustees for the Stewards of Metro Parks, a nonprofit fundraising group behind the bison project.

The Asian water buffalo and the African buffalo are the only two examples of buffalo found today.

Though new to the Metro Parks, bison have been previously reintroduced to other central Ohio locations, including the Columbus Zoo, The Wilds, Darby Dan Farm and to a handful of independent bison farmers. However, Battelle-Darby will be the only place to see bison for free, 365 days a year.

The Stewards have worked to raise funds for the bison project, Hanley said. Though she wasn’t sure about final costs of the bison themselves, Hanley said that facilities being built might cost as much as $100,000.

The bison will be given 48 acres of prairie to graze, she said. As vegetarians, each bison requires between one and two acres of land.

By 2012, a nature center commanding a view of the bison will be built and an observation tower will provide visitors with an aerial glimpse of the herd. Some areas will allow people to get within a short distance of the bison, but those areas will feature a double fence for mutual safety.

Excitement isn’t the only thing the bison will create. Ecological benefits will result as well, Heimlich said.

As they interact with their ecosystem through eating and fertilizing, bison take on the role of pollinators, altering the re-established prairie in a more dynamic way. He said that bison will help create an interesting mix of flora and fauna throughout the park.

“I am very excited about having a place locally where we can get a sense of what the pristine, natural beauty of central Ohio was long before we altered the landscape with farms, homes and cities,” he said. “Re-inhabiting a prairie with the majestic, awe-inspiring bison will provide a wonderful opportunity for those of us who live in the Columbus area.”