'Living lightly on the land' urged

'Buffalo Commons' authors speak on sustainability

By Carol Cole-Frowe

Transcript Staff Writer

More than two decades ago, Frank and Deborah Popper coined the term "Buffalo Commons," a concept of returning large shortgrass prairie expanses in the Great Plains to their native states and reintroducing buffalo.

Their analysis by Deborah Popper, a geographer at City University of New York, and Frank Popper, a land-use planner at Rutgers University, detailed the decline of rural populations, the boom and bust cycles of the past 100 years in the Great Plains and the problems trying to sustain populations and agriculture in the area.

The "Buffalo Commons" concept was urged by the Poppers in an article "Great Plains: From Dust to Dust" published in 1987 in Planning magazine.

It was an idea that rocked the planning world that at that time consisted of mostly urban and suburban planners.

"We believe that over the next generation the Plains will, as a result of the largest, longest running agricultural and environmental miscalculation in American history, become almost totally depopulated," the Poppers wrote in 1987. "At that point, a new use for the region will emerge, one that is in fact so old that it predates the American presence. We are suggesting that the region be returned to its original pre-white state, that it be, in effect, deprivatized."

The Poppers spoke about "The Buffalo Commons in the 21st Century," exploring the current and future agricultural, energy and environmental conditions during a free lecture Wednesday in the David L. Boren Auditorium in the National Weather Center on the University of Oklahoma campus. The lecture was part of the Sustainability in the Southern Plains Dream Course.

Deborah Popper said they originally wrote the article figuring it would disappear into the academic void.

"One of the oddest things ... is that it continues to engage and enrage people," she said.

The couple received what they describe as a hostile reaction in 1990 when they visited the OU campus to talk about their ideas.

"We argued over 20 years ago that the Great Plains were headed for trouble," Frank said.

Sustainability is much more of a hot button now, and people listen and recognize the potential of the concept.

The Poppers said radical changes need to be made in land-use practices, "living lightly on the land," in the 10 Plains states, including Oklahoma.

They cite dropping aquifer levels from overpumping for agricultural use, particularly in the Ogallala aquifer under many of the Great Plains states.

"Does the diet for the 21st century require that we all get more acquainted with our food chain," she asked.

Rural populations have been dropping for the past 80 years in the Great Plains states, and moving to the urban areas.

She said Oklahoma has an abundance of wind and solar energy and "we need to use it."

Deborah said Oklahoma needs to work toward having walkable communities and conserve its energy.

Frank said the "Buffalo Commons" already are happening in several areas. He gave the example of media mogul Ted Turner purchasing about 20 ranches in Montana, about 2 million acres, and returning them to grassland conservation and reintroducing buffalo.

"It's clearly going to happen. It's clearly accelerating," Frank said of the basic concepts of the "Buffalo Commons." "These things are all happening. ... It's starting to have the feeling of a movement that is going to be accelerating into the future."

Some other groups encouraging naturalizing of land include the Nature Conservancy, the Native Prairies Association of Texas and the Great Plains Restoration Council in Fort Worth, Texas.

"The challenge for Oklahoma and other Great Plains states ... for the future is how to actively achieve the buffalo commons," he said.

Deborah said looking forrward she expects profound change and said the key elements are how the area organizes its settlements, food, transportation and energy use.

"How it reinvents itself matters everywhere. It has land and space in abundance but the quesiton of how to occupy it is the most important," she said.

The Poppers' original article "Great Plains: From Dust to Dust" is online at www.planning.org/25anniversary/planning/1987dec.htm.

Carol Cole-Frowe

366-3538

ccole@normantranscript.com