Ruffel Project 1

By 1935, the oil fields in and around Seminole, Oklahoma, made the area the largest oil producer in the world. While economic prosperity flowed to some, the Native American tribes in the region did not receive equal benefits. And as oil & gas wells proliferated in the following decades, the environmental damage caused by thousands of wells came starkly into view. In contrast to the pastoral countryside, contaminated air, land, and water became the legacy of the oil boom. Because of the historic and symbolic importance of the region, Tallgrass Bison Restoration selected 6 wells in the Seminole area to serve as the organization's first environmental restoration project. The intent was clear: heal the harm. Tallgrass Bison Restoration would cap the wells and prevent tons of toxic fugitive methane from escaping into the atmosphere, rewild the former well sites to allow for agricultural use, and deliver a portion of the carbon credit sale proceeds to the InterTribal Buffalo Council so that Native American tribes in North America could once again have bison roaming on their land. The wells have now been successfully capped. The former well sites have been restored, in accordance with the wishes of the landowners. And once an environmentally conscious buyer purchases the resulting carbon credits, funds will be delivered to the InterTribal Buffalo Council so that bison can be purchased from preservation herds such as those at the CSKT Bison Range, and the American buffalo can be rematriated to tribal lands for the first time in 150 years.