The American Prairie
The Great American Ecosystem Being Left For Dead
Grasslands
Grasslands are a biome that does not record enough rainfall to create conditions for the development of forrest, but has enough rainfall to not be considered a desert. The low rainfall results in a landscape that is ruled by a wide range of grasses and other grass-like flora. Grasslands go by many names, prairies, steppes, savannah, etc. They are also present on every continent except Antarctica.
In America, grasslands are commonly referred to as prairies or The Great Plains. These regions, mostly located in the central United States, are home to a variety of birds, pollinators, and small mammals. Historically these vast landscapes home to millions of grazing bison, and pronghorn antelope.
These grazers serve and important purpose in grasslands. Grazers, paired with periodic fires, help to keep grasslands nutrient rich, and healthy.
However, human development and intentional over-hunting in the late-19th and early 20th century drove the grazing animal population down dramatically. The bison population in the central U.S. are just now beginning to recover.
Aside from a vibrant ecosystem of diverse well-adapted fauna, grasslands serve another valuable purpose, carbon sequestration. Native grasses are often overlooked as a powerhouse for carbon sequestration. The large root systems make native grasslands capable of sequestering almost 60 tons of carbon per acre of land.
Unlike forests, grasses sequester carbon primarily below ground, keeping much it from escaping back into the atmosphere even in the event of a fire, or after dying off.
Despite these large scale benefits, human development, primarily agriculture and urbanization, continue to encroach upon this fragile ecosystem.
This map shows the land cover of grassland versus that of cropland (in pink) and urban areas (in red).
A 2021 WWF report found that "from 2018-2019 an estimated 2.6 million acres of grassland were plowed up, primarily to make way for row crop agriculture". The study points out that this is an area greater than Yellowstone National Park.
For additional comparison, during this same time period roughly 2.5 million acres of Brazilian rainforest were cut down.
Conservation
The United States does well in many aspects of land conservation. However, much of this conservation has been focused on preserving "natural beauties" and forests. Temperate grasslands represent 8% of global land cover, but only 4.5% of the 8% are protected. This level of conservation is not sufficient enough to support the ranges necessary to support large grazing populations.
Below shows the area of protected lands by the U.S. Forest Service, and on the right is the portion of these protections attributed to grasslands.
A Chance for better...
Grasslands are vitally important to the biodiversity of North America, and to the atmospheric health of the planet. These ecosystems have taken thousands of years to adapt and grow, and that can all be undone with a plow and fences. More must be done to protect these vibrant ecosystems before they become too small and separated to support the grazers and pollinators necessary to keep it going.
An organized effort to prioritize grassland conservation, in cooperation with a plan to reintroduce native plants and animals to reclaimed lands is a necessary step to revitalizing a too long overlooked part of the American landscape.
