Welcome to the Delta Junction Bison Range

Bison were released along the Delta River in 1928, and the herd grew from 28 animals to 400 by 1947. Hunting began in 1951. The 90,000 acre Delta Junction Bison Range was established in 1979, when about 3,000 acres of spruce forest were cleared and converted to open fields as part of a larger effort by the Alaska Legislature to reduce conflicts between bison and farms in an area where private farmlands had expanded partly because of the Delta Agricultural Project. The range's main purpose is to provide forage that attracts migrating bison and encourages the herd to remain south of the Alaska Highway for as much of the year as possible, helping limit damage to crops and private land. Biologists manage the range to maintain habitat and forage so bison return each year, generally arriving in summer. In the boreal forest, succession is the change in plant and animal communities over time after disturbance, beginning with herbaceous growth and ending in mature spruce, and fires commonly reset this process to create a mosaic of habitat patches of different ages, sizes, and species composition. This mosaic supports plant and animal diversity because different species use different successional stages for food, breeding, and protection. Managers further enhance bison habitat by maintaining fields and planting preferred foods, and techniques such as rollerchopping and prescribed fire mimic wildfire to create varied habitat across the range. These projects both draw bison away from private land and improve public hunting opportunities, while also benefiting species including moose, ruffed grouse, and sharp-tailed grouse.

Deltana, Alaska · United States