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The Lost Mid-Continent: North America's Grand Prairies

© Danita LaSage

When we talk about habitat preservation and restoration we often linger lovingly on the old growth forests and salmon rivers of the Pacific Northwest, or the Arctic tundra, or our diminishing coastal wetlands. What we rarely, if ever, talk about, though, are the nearly-extinct prairie biomes of North America. Many of us tend to completely overlook the prairies, with their grasslands, wetlands, riparian areas, forests, savannahs, and riverine watersheds, underestimating both their importance and their safety.

More than 98% - 99% gone, the tall grass, mixed grass, and shortgrass prairies once stretched over millions of acres from Canada down through northern Mexico. In the US they included portions of 13 states, 60 tribal reservations and innumerable rural communities and urban centers. The highly productive soils resulted in the prairies, with their bison and deer herds, prairie dog towns, and wolves, being almost entirely replaced by agriculture. Iowa, for example, has been referred to as the “most altered state” in the Union even while it has grown as an important farming center.

Not everyone has ignored the richness of the prairie ecosystems – as far back as the 1930s efforts were initiated to document and protect the tallgrass prairie of the middle US (see Kenneth Robertson’s webpage "Tallgrass Prairie of Illinois" at http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~kenr/prairiere... And while protected lands are an incredibly small proportion of the North American Midwest, there is hope – for example, in 1996 then-President Clinton deeded 19000+ acres in Illinois from the US Army to the USDA Forest Service, creating the first federally-designated tallgrass prairie ecosystem.

Part of the difficulty is that the grasslands are an important part of the world’s bread basket, and their importance as a source of food cannot be overrated. Their importance as an ecosystem can be underrated, though – for example, they are still an important stopover habitat for migratory species moving between North and South America – which means they are not only open to being exploited, but could easily be lost in the hubbub over the temperate rainforest and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. As a result, 15 - 20% of Wisconsin's native prairie wildflowers, grasses, and other plant life are considered rare; and there is a drop of up to 90%(!) in the songbird population, including western meadowlarks, boblink, blue-winged teal and 18 other species (for more info go to http://www.prairie.pressenter.com/prairi... Fragmentation of the total ecosystem is an ever-present danger, as is invasion by exotic species, habitat destruction, and overall degradation.

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