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Colleen Foehrenbacher: Success in the elk mountains, more than a filled tag
By Marcus Chen
Minnesota DNR celebrates evolving bison conservation herd
Katherine Langford
Katherine Langford
Editor-in-Chief · Edina, MN
Katherine oversees editorial operations across all six brands. Before joining The Meridan Group, she spent 14 years at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where she led the metro desk through its digital transformation. She holds a Master's in Journalism from Northwestern's Medill School.
More from Katherine →Editor-in-Chief · Friday, November 13, 2026 at 3:05 PM · 1 min read
The Minnesota DNR recognized National Bison Day on Nov. 7 by celebrating the continued growth of the Minnesota Bison Conservation Herd and recent donations that are helping establish and expand other herds in Minnesota and beyond.
The Details
This fall, the DNR donated 23 yearling bison to three different outside organizations with conservation herds.
The DNR maintains a herd of 115-145 bison between two state parks: Minneopa in Blue Earth County and Blue Mounds in Rock County. The MBCH also currently includes bison at the Minnesota Zoological Garden and Dakota County’s Spring Lake Park Reserve Bison Prairie.
“Partners coordinate management of genetics and disease, and all bison among partner sites are managed as one genetic population,” said Molly Tranel Nelson, DNR resource manager. “After a decade of testing and carefully managing genetics, today we have a herd that has excellent genetic diversity similar to that found in federal conservation herds. It’s the strategy of not ‘putting all our egg
About This Story
Local news from Burnsville Current
Coverage Area
Burnsville, Minnesota
Section
Community
Published
Friday, November 13, 2026
Reading Time
1 min
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