Bison are a Keystone Species of the North American Landscape.

Bison graze the top third of prairie plants, causing their roots to grow deeper and new growth to generate. They rotate themselves across the prairie landscape, leaving rich waste in their wake to fertilize the soil. Their natural grazing process is the original carbon sequestration staregy. Lastly, bison selectively forage on grasses, leaving wildflowers to reach maturity and flower. This creates beneficial impacts for pollinator species.

Bison wallow in bare ground on the land. This can create shallow wetlands that provide habitat for birds, invertebrates, and amphibians. Bare spots also provide a gap for new plants to grow—particularly species that need sunny spots to establish seedlings, like oak trees.

Everything the bison does benefits other native species, which is why putting them back on the land is so powerful. They provide functional restoration to the land, enabling natural processes to reestablish and the land to revert to its natural systems. Both songbirds and grassland birds benefit from bison, too. Songbirds use bison fur to line their nests, resulting in higher fledgling rates. Grassland birds tke advantage of the variable plant height that ensues from bison grazing for nesting, mating, and hiding from predators.