Montana Book Company on Last Chance Gulch is hosting a free author event Monday, May 11, featuring filmmaker and writer Leanne Allison in conversation with Corrie Williamson of American Prairie. The discussion centers on Allison's book "Buffalo Lessons: How Bison Returned to Banff National Park," which chronicles the return of wild bison to the Canadian national park.

Allison is the wife of the late author and conservationist Karsten Heuer, whose own work documenting bison and wildlife migration drew wide attention. The book tells the story of one of North America's most closely watched wildlife restoration efforts, and the conversation with Williamson — whose work with American Prairie connects directly to bison restoration on the Montana plains — promises to ground the subject in what's happening right here.

The event is free and open to the public. Montana Book Company has become a regular venue for conservation and nature writing conversations in Helena, and Monday's pairing of a Canadian bison story with an American Prairie voice reflects the cross-border scale of the species' comeback across the Northern Rockies.