The Eastern Shoshone this month voted to classify buffalo as wildlife instead of livestock as a way to treat them more like elk or deer rather than like cattle. Because the two tribes share the same land base, the Northern Arapaho are expected to vote on the distinction as well. The vote indicates a growing interest to both restore buffalo on the landscape and challenge the relationship between animal and product. Tribes and locals tend to say buffalo while scientists use bison to describe the animal.

While climate change isn’t the main driver behind the push to restore buffalo’s wildlife status, the move could bring positive effects to the fight against global warming. Climate change is shrinking Wyoming’s glaciers, contributing to drought, and increasing wildfires. Like cows, buffalo emit methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, by belching, though it’s not clear if buffalo give off the same levels.

Those emissions contribute to climate change, but what buffalo bring in increased biodiversity can promote drought resilience and some buffalo herds have been shown to help store carbon.