View the entire Conservation Assessment (11 MB) as a PDF document
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Photographers
Several excellent photographers have kindly allowed their work to be used in this web site. We encourage you to view more great grassland images at their web sites:
Kim Taylor donated the powerful images of ranchers in southern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan.
Dr. Branimir Gjetvaj is based in Saskatoon, but has worked across the grassland region.
Georg Joutras photographs the wildlife, landscape and people of the Nebraska grassland. Watch for his up-coming book on the National Grasslands.
Links to grassland web sites, and copies of articles
The April issue of National Geographic presents a 20-page article describing the Badlands area of South Dakota. The story features stunning photos of the region, and the map shows the area covered by the NPCN’s Badlands National Park focus area. The same issue includes some great Sandhill Crane photos by Michael Forsberg and Joel Sartore, both photographic artists of the great plains.
Conservation Reserve Program: Economic and Social Impacts on Rural Counties
This January 2004 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (file size = 2.1 MB) provides data and analysis for what has become a significant force in grassland conservation. The map shown below, taken from the report, indicates that the northern Great Plains ranks high both in terms of acreage enrolled and the resulting receipts as a proportion of the regional economic activity. (The NPCN boundary has been added, on this web site only, for discussion purposes.) The following statement from the 11-page Executive Summary describes both the strength and main challenge of the program:
- “Economic growth models typically focus on jobs and output as measures of “success”, but CRP aims to provide society with cleaner air and water, more abundant wildlife, and access to improved agricultural resources in the future. Its greatest successes may not involve the creation of new jobs or traditional goods and services as much as improving the quality of life for consumers and reducing pollution-related costs for businesses and governments.”
The report illustrates the in-depth analysis that is now possible, and provides an extensive list of references. Several papers listed here specifically deal with the impact of natural amenities on local economies.
The U.S. National Forest Service has gathered considerable information on threatened species of wildlife with respect to the national grasslands. A table indicates which of the species of concern can be found in each grassland.
Visit Thomas Henry’s web site for an enthusiastic account of his personal adventures across much of the Northern Great Plains. He provides one-stop shopping for grassland information!
Alberta’s Prairie Conservation Forum provides an excellent collection of resources and links to organizations in that province.
The Prairie Conservation Action Plan serves the same purpose in Saskatchewan. Check their site for a wide range of contacts.
Alberta’s Species at Risk are profiled here. About a dozen grassland species have fact sheets and small photos.
Several books about conservation on the northern Great Plains have been published recently:
- Daniel Licht (1997) Ecology and Economics of the Great Plains; University of Nebraska Press, 225 pp.,ISBN 0-8032-2922-4.
- Richard Manning (1996) Grassland: The History, Biology, Politics, and Promise of the American Prairie; Penguin.
- Ernest Callenbach (1996) Bring Back the Buffalo!: A sustainable future for America’s Great Plains; Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
- Dale Lott (2002) American Bison: a Natural History
New Predator Shapes Yellowstone This article from the Washington Post describes unanticipated benefits of wildlife management. The introduction of wolves has, after twenty years, reduced elk numbers and forced them away from the riverbank areas. The changed distribution has brought a renewal of the riparian forests, and has increased the populations of species such as mink, otters and ducks. The story demonstrates the importance of using ecological processes for large-scale habitat restoration.