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June 1994

Prairie conservation in North America

Fred Sampson

Fritz Knopf

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Sampson, Fred and Knopf, Fritz, " conservation in North America" (1994). Other Publications in Wildlife Management. 41. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/icwdmother/41

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Prairie conservation in North America

The prairie appears almost mo- ponent of inhabit the conti- species, including the plains notonous in the general unifor- nent in greater abundance than any and plains , no longer mity of its plant cover. Its main comparable group of plants. Sur- exist. features are the absence of trees, veys suggest that since European The health of planet Earth, in the scarcity of shrubs, the domi- settlement declines in area of native nance of grasses, and a character- the face of global warming, may istic xeric flora. prairie range as high as 99.9%. More depend on prairie because -Weaver 1968, p. 48 subtle impacts in the loss of prairie, thev are su~eriorcarbon sinks in for example, loss of the highly de- com~arisonto forests with similar he health and future of the veloped ecotypic differentiation, environmental characteristics (Seas- earth's ecological systems often go undetected (Risser 1988). tedt and Knapp 1993). Large (Dailey and Ehrlich 1992), In addition to direct loss, exploita- amounts of stored carbon in grass- T tion by overgrazing and recreation their link to the well being of com- land reflect fundamental dif- munities and nations (Raven 19901, adds to the stress on remnant prairie ferences between grasses and trees. and the ever-increasing rate of loss (WWFC 1988).And, once the prairie of species, communities, and eco- is destroyed, restoration requires Where the buffalo roamed logical systems (Myers 1993) are several centuries (Schramm 1990). among issues drawing biological The area of native prairie that once Humanity's present position of extended from to the Mexi- diversity into the mainstream of domination and economic well be- conservation worldwide. Yet. in can border and from the foothills of ing are affected by grasses, because the to western North America, there is no single, they provide directly or indirectly established priority in the conserva- Indiana and Wisconsin is referred to the majority of human nourishment. as the . The main bodies tion of biological diversity. In re- Today agricultural erosion in North cent years, a great deal of attention of prairie within the Great Plains America exceeds the prairie 's are: the extending has been paid to the problem of capacity to tolerate loss, threaten- tropical and temperate deforesta- from Canada and Minnesota south ing an essential resource to sustain to , the tion in part because of profound future generations (Sampson 1981). consequences to the conservation of from Canada and eastern North The impounding and alteration of Dakota south to Texas, and the biological diversity (Harris 1984, running waters, the depletion of Whitmore and Saver 1992.). De- shortgrass plains reaching from aquifers, and the increase in western Texas and spite a broad consensus supporting waterborne chemical pollutants also the conservation of bioldgical di- north to eastern . threaten prairies and their soils (TCF Approximately 162 million ha of versity (CEQ 1991), native prairie is 1988). largely neglected in this effort. This prairie blanketed the Great Plains article suggests why native prairie The potential for species ex- before European . As in North America should be among tinction on is of serious early as 1830, homesteading in In- the priorities in conservation of bio- concern. Fifty-five grassland species diana and Illinois began to alter logical diversity. We further describe in the United States are threatened forever the extent of the grasslands the extent and cause of the decline or endangered, and 728 are candi- (Table 1).Since 1830, the declines of North American prairie and offer dates. One-third of species consid- (estimated to be 82-99%) in area of recommendations for prairie con- ered endangered by the Committee tallgrass prairie exceed those re- servation. on the Endangered Wildlife in ~ortedfor any other major ecosys- Why is prairie conservation im- Canada are found on grasslands tem in North America including rem- portant? Consider, for example: (WWFC 1988). Grassland bird spe- nant old-growth forest in the Pacific cies have shown more consistent and northwest, temperate rainforest in The largest vegetative province steeper, geographically widespread British Columbia and southeast in North America is the native prai- declines (25-65% declines from Alaska, and bottomland hardwoods rie, and grasses as an integral com- 1980 to 1989)than any other group- in the south-central United States. ing of North American species Estimated declines in native (Knopf 1992). Several species, in- mixed-grass prairie area, although by Fred Samson and cluding the Eskimo curlew and less than the tallgrass declines, range Fritz Knopf Audubon bighorn , and sub- from 30% in Texas to 99% in Man-

418 BioScience Vol. 44 No. 6 Table 1. Summary of the estimated current area, historic area, and percent decline Of the 435 bird species breeding of the tallgrass, mixed grass, and shortgrass prairies. The estimates of current and in the United States, 330 have been historic prairie area are based on information from The Nature Conservancy's documented to breed on the Great Heritage Program; USDI Fish and Wildlife Service; USDA Forest Service; Cana- Plains. Declines from 1969 to 1991 dian Wildlife Service; Provinces of , Manitoba, and ; and in grassland birds vary: 24-91 % in state conservation agencies. N/A indicates data not available. No area estimates of historic and current mixed-grass prairie are available for , , Illinois, Minnesota, , Ne- Montana, , Wyoming, and of shortgrass prairie for Colorado, Kansas, braska, and Missouri; and 17-48% Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. in Colorado, the Dakotas, Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas. The de- Historic Current Decline Current clines in grassland bird species are (ha) (ha) (%) protected (%) largely a problem in North America, Tallgrass more of these birds breed and over- Manitoba 600,000 300 99.9 N/A winter north of Central America Illinois 8,900,000 930 99.9 <.01 (Knopf 1994). Indiana 2,800,000 404 99.9 <.01 These declines reflect two condi- Iowa 12,500,000 12,140 99.9 <.01 tions. The first condition is loss of Kansas 6,900,000 1,200,000 82.6 N/A Minnesota 7,300,000 30,350 99.6 <1.0 grassland habitats for breeding and Missouri 5,700,000 30,350 99.5 <1.0 wintering-for example, the Nebraska 6,100,000 123,000 98.0 <1.0 Spragues pipit, declining in num- North Dakota 1,200,000 1200 99.9 N/A bers annually at a rate of 3.3%. Oklahoma 5,200,000 N/A N/A N/ A Second, fire control and woody 3,000,000 449,000 85.0 N/A Texas 7,200,000 720,000 90.0 N/A plantings on the Great Plains have Wisconsin 971,000 4000 99.9 N/A favored increases in numbers of for- est-edge birds historically only Mixed grass present in midwestern oak and east- Alberta Manitoba ern deciduous forests (Knopf 1986). Saskatchewan The loss of six subspecies due to Nebraska hybridization as a consequence of these forested stepping stones and Oklahoma artificial corridors rivals the loss of South Dakota Texas three species attributed to forest fragmentation in the eastern decidu- Shortgrass ous forest. These recent, non-his- Saskatchewan 5,900,000 840,000 85.8 N/A toric forest patches and woody cor- Oklahoma 1,300,000 N/A N/A NIA ridors bordering on the Great South Dakota 179,000 NI A N/ A N/ A Texas 7,800,000 1,600,000 80.0 N/A Plains favor movements of reptiles Wyoming 3,000,000 2,400,000 20.0 N/ A and mammals from east to west, thus adding to the degradation of the historic biological diversity of itoba. As evident in both the tallgrass The decline in vrairie-dog- num- the Great Plains (Knopf and Scott and mixed-grass prairie, the short- bers, the second most significant 1990). grass prairie has decreased in area herbivore on the Great Plains, is (ranging from an estimated 20% estimated to be 98% since European Economics over ecology decline in Wyoming to 85% in settlement (Marsh 1984). This de- Saskatchewan). Only the shortgrass cline has been attributed to poten- Environmental problems are often prairie, largely located on the Na- tial competition between prairie dogs evidence of how markets fail to tional Grasslands managed by the and for grass forage, a claim maximize the well being of a society USDA Forest Service, remains today neither supported by data (O'Meilia (Dailey and Ehrlich 1992).Since the in public ownership. et al. 1982) nor by the suggestion 1870s, economics and farm policy A striking feature of prairie is the that ungulates and prairie dogs are have led to the agricultural develop- array of native herbivores, part of a symbiotic foragers (Krueger 1986). ment of the Great Plains (Barnes large amount of native biological A variety of species, including the 1993). The result has been to in- diversity (Risser 1988). The historic black-footed ferret, , fer- crease the cultivation of marginal estimate of 60 million plains , ruginous hawk, and mountain plo- lands and chronic overproduction once the most significant herbivore, ver, that are closely associated with of foodstuffs. may have declined in the great the are endangered, listed A primary example in the United slaughters of 1870-1873 and as a candidate threatened or endan- States is the deep economic depres- 1880-1 883. An alternate explana- gered species, or experiencing sig- sion and ecological collapse of the tion for the bison decline is disease nificant declines. Less obvious are 1930s. During the 1920s, the gen- brought northward by domestic ecological changes that result from esis of a farm credit program, excess cattle as early as the 1860s (Koucky the prairie dog's decreased role in capability to produce and regular 1983). nutrient cycling and soil formation. agricultural surpluses, heightened

June 1994 foreign competition, and the prob- (Shannon 1945). Since the 1920s agricultural and natural ecosystems lem of what were considered to be and 1930s, the combination of a in North America, prairies are a low prices led to the depression system of farm support, a reliance priority, perhaps the highest prior- (Schultz 1945). The response by the of domestic and foreign markets, ity. It is time to bring a measure of Roosevelt administration was one abundant credit, and technology- prairie conservation to the forefront. of economics-to provide jobs and machinery to chemicals-has re- In the short term, we suggest the to educate farmers about practices sulted in a constantly declining farm following: that could reduce soil erosion population on the Great Plains. The (Cochrane and Ryan 1976). The Omnibus Farm Acts of 1985 and Recognize the biological and goal, to create new economic op- 1990 continue to encourage farmers ecological significance of prairie portunity even on marginal lands, to farm more intensively. Nearly ecosystems. A reorientation of envi- was based in part on the belief that 60% of the Great Plains area lost ronmental concern and policy-be- if new technology was adapted to rural, small-town populations in the yond the emphasis on forested eco- the Great Plains. the American dream last decade, and we expect the out- systems-is a first step to create a of a decent inco&e could be achieved. migration and economic decline to more rational approach to conser- In unrestricted markets, environ- continue. vation of biological diversity in mental and economic problems arise The long-term solution to prairie North America. when individuals and markets fail conservation may revolve around a Identify and inventory remain- to account fully for the consequences single emerging concept-sustain- ing native prairie, particularly in of their decisions (Costanza and Daly ability (IUCN 1980, IUCNIUNEPI but not limited to the western United 1992). Few in the 1930s recognized WWFN 1991).Implementing sustain- States, and determine the degree to the ecological sensitivity and nature ability (Dailey and Ehrlich 1992) which existing prairie is degraded. of the Great Plains ecosvstems and requires first a fundamental shift in Encourage protection of viable rep- realized that native grasses held the economic theory, application of less- resentatives of each native prairie prairie soils together (Weaver 1968). damaging technology in agriculture type in each ecoregion. Without native grasses, wind ero- to regulating international trade in sion evident in the and essential resources. Second, sustain- Identify, inventory, and con- black of the 1930s carried ability requires interaction among serve prairie endemics, particularly away topsoil, and farmers lost their social-political and economic envi- the unusually high number of plant farms. ronments, from individual life-styles and invertebrate species. Prairie From 1938 to 1941, the Civilian to incorporating costs that appear management should mimic the natu- Conservation Corps sought to con- distant (i.e., global warming and ral disturbance regime to take ad- trol wind erosion by planting trees, depletion of the ozone layer). Third, vantage of preselected adaptive traits which had not previously been sustainability requires the conser- of prairie endemics. present in historical times. The vation of diversity and recognition Evaluate the status of candi- USDA Soil Conservation Service. that local and regional habitat con- date threatened or endangered spe- given the responsibility to rehabili- versions affect global health. cies, and encourage conservation tate the , seeded with an measures to reverse downward exotic, crested grass imported On prairie conservation trends in population numbers of from Siberia. It is a serious environ- prairie species. mental threat today. Even the pur- Almost a half century has passed Discourage establishment of chase by the Soil Conservation Ser- since Weaver (1954) noted that the woody plants and woody corridors vice of approximately 11.3 million disappearance of a major unit of within prairie-dominated ecore- acres of marginal lands was not in- vegetation-the North American gions. Such forested stepping stones tended to create a vermanent natu- Prairie-is an event worthy of con- and corridors contribute to a sig- ral area of prairie, but rather to sideration. Recognition of the sig- nificant loss of genetic diversity in restore those lands for the remain- nificance of grasslands has been North America (Knopf 1986). ing human residents (West 1990). slow. Only recently do initiatives in The connection of over~roduc- Canada (WWFC 1988) and the Support public, private, and tion and economic dislocation was United States (Johnsonand Bouzaher governmental prairie conservation recognized by John Steinbeck when in press) recognize intrinsic values initiatives, the Prairie Conservation he wrote the "tractor does two of grasslands (specificallytheir rela- Action Plan (WWFC1988)and Great things-it turns the land and turns tionships to global issues), the di- Plains Initiative (Johnson and us off the land" (1917, p. 43). From versity on which agriculture de- Bouzaher in press) among others, as 1870 to 1910, free land was offered pends, and the need to protect steps toward the iong-term goal of to anyone interested in cultivating a biological diversity important to all sustainability. small parcel of native grassland. humankind. Realign administrative and However. the comvarison of num- The conservation of biological ecoregion borders, as proposed for ber of homesteads ;o the growth in diversity is a task bigger than any the US Department of Interior Na- number of farms from 1870 to 1910 national or agency jurisdiction tional Biological Survey, to achieve suggests that less than one-fifth of (Knopf 1992). In the larger context efficiency in inventory and planning, the new farms were homesteads of conserving biological diversity in and in the case of the prairie, to

420 BioScience Vol. 44 No. 6 achieve a common vision for its con- Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). son, ed. Biodiz~ersity.National Academy servation. 1980. World Conservation Strategy. Press, Washington, DC. Gland, Switzerland. Sampson, R. N. 1981. Farmland or Waste- International Union for Conservation of land: A Time to Choose: Overcoming the Nature and Natural Resources, United Threat to America's Farm and Food Fu- Acknowledgments Nations Environmental Program, and ture. Rodale Press, St. Emmous, PA. World Wide Fund for Nature (IUCNi Schramm, P. 1990. : a 25- We wish to thank Larry D. Harris UNEPIWWFN). 1991. Caring for the year perspective on establishment and (School of Forest Resources and Earth. A Strategy for Sustainable Living. management. Pages 169-177 in Proceed- Conservation, University of Florida, IUCN, UNEP, and WWF, Gland, Swit- ings of the Twelfth North American Prai- Gainesville), Paul G. Risser (Miami zerland. rie Conference. Cedar Falls, IA. Knopf, F. L. 1986. Changing landscapes and Schultz , T. W. 1945. Agriculture in an Un- University, Oxford, OH), Christo- the cosmopolitanism of eastern Colorado stable Economy. McCraw-Hill, New York. pher D. Risbrudt (USDA Forest Ser- avifauna. Wildl. Soc. Bull. 14: 132-142. Seastedt, T. R. and A. K. Knapp. 1993. vice, Missoula, MT), Stanley E. . 1992. Faunal mixing, faunal inte- Consequences of nonequilibrium resource Senner (National Audubon Society, grity, and the biopolitical template for availability across multiple time scales: Boulder, CO) and Terry L. West diversity conservation. Trans. N. Am. The transient maxima hypothesis. Am. Wildl. Nut. Resour. Conf. 57: 330-342. Nat. 141: 621-633. (USDA Forest Service, Washington, . 1994. Avian assemblages on al- Shannon, F. A. 1945. The Farmer's Last DC) for useful criticisms and help- tered grasslands. Studies in Avian Biol- Frontier: Agrictrlttrre 1860-1 897. Farrar ful comments on the manuscript. ogy. 15: 247-257. & Rinehart, New York. Knopf, F. L. and M. L. Scott. 1990. Altered Steinbeck, J. 1917. The Grapes of Wrath. flows and created landscapes in the Platte Viking (1972), New York. References cited headwaters, 1840-1990. Pages The Conservation Foundation (TCF). 1988. 47-70 in J. M. Sweeney, ed. Management Protecting America's Wetlands: An Ac- Barnes, R. L. 1993. The U. C. C.'s insidious of Dynamic Ecosystems. North Central tion Agenda. The Conservation Founda- preference for agronomy over ecology in Section of the Wildlife Society, West tion, Washington, DC. farm lending decisions. University of Lafayette, IN. Weaver, J. E. 1954. North American Prairie. Colorado Law Review 64: 457-512. Kouckv. R. W. 1983. The buffalo dlsaster of Johnsen Pub. Co., Lincoln, NB. Cochrane, W. W. and M. E. Ryan. 1976. 1882. North Dakota History 50: 23- 37. Weaver, J. E. 1968. Prairie Plants and their American Farm Policy, 1948-1 973. Uni- Krueger, K. 1986. Feeding relationships Environment. 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Knopf is a research scientist, USDI Academic Press, Dordrecht, Netherlands. Risser, P. G. 1988. Diversity in and among National Ecology Research Center, Fort International Union for Conservation of grasslands. Pages 176-180 in E. O. Wil- Collins, CO 80525.

June 1994