The way I look at the grazing system in western Canada is that in 1800 we had a couple of million bovids, animals with big hooves and square mouths, grazing the landscape. We've replaced them with domestic cows. The timing is different, but cattle play a very similar role in the system that bison or buffalo played a long time ago.
It's a very complicated process of thinking through grass management, but in effect how that works ecologically on the east slope in the Cypress Hills and the sand hills has not changed a lot. It certainly hasn't changed to anywhere near the degree that it's changed on landscapes that we cultivate and where we turn over the soil over, etc.
Part of my view of the world here, as a systems ecologist, is that we now have a mix of natural and industrial systems that fit together. Cattle have replaced bison, logging has replaced fire; there's a whole bunch of ways in which....
The ecosystem restoration in our valley is entirely dependent on the presence of the pulp mill, for some very complicated reasons. We have to think about these things as systems rather than always focusing on the fate of ferrets or sage grouse or caribou. We have to think about things in a fundamentally different way, in my view.
I'd like to add one more comment, if I may, just in support of the zoo guys. I happened to work with these guys in Africa. In addition to the things they talked about in terms of educating people here, they are involved in something called the Wechiau hippo sanctuary in west Africa, near where I used to work over there. It is one of the best examples of community-driven conservation on the planet. That role played by zoos is one that they haven't mentioned here, and it's really important to understand.