Over the next 30 years, the Poppers argue, the depressed areas
should become a huge reserve, more than 139,000 square miles of
open land and wildlife refuge. That zone, which the Poppers call
the Buffalo Commons, includes much of the western Dakotas,
western Nebraska and eastern Montana; portions of Kansas,
Oklahoma and Texas, and selected counties in Colorado, New
Mexico and Wyoming (map on page 26). Set in place, the Buffalo
Commons - most likely to be administered by a consortium of
government agencies and private groups - would be the world's
largest national park, an act of ecological restoration that
would, the Poppers contend, boldly reverse more than 100 years
of American history. Commons visitors would once again see the
heart of the continent as Lewis and Clark first knew it, a true
frontier of waving grass and migrant game. The Buffalo Commons
idea came to the Poppers late in the winter of 1987, while they
were stuck in six-lane traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike
heading into Manhattan. Their momen