The Wild Frontier: What Remains of the Great American Grasslands

In North America we have three great prairie ecosystems: the shortgrass, mid-grass, and tallgrass prairies. There are some differences between meadows and prairies according to some, but they are ecological kin

Most people would be surprised to know that there are even fewer native prairie ecosystems remaining than forest ecosystems. The vast grasslands of the plains and prairies once extended from the eastern slopes of the northern Rockies to east of the Mississippi and from southern Canada to Texas. Most of it has disappeared under the plow for agricultural crops.

The shortgrass prairie was replaced by the rangelands popularized in the scenery of our classic Western movies. It is found in the high plains from western Canada, east of the Rockies, and all the way down through Texas. We raise our cattle where the bison used to roam (but they actually ranged even more broadly on their migrations).

The mid-grass prairie formed a vast grassland between the short- and tallgrass prairie from central Canada all the way to central Texas. It was dominated by a diversity of medium-sized grass species like little bluestem. Now we grow other medium-sized grasses there. These are our agricultural grains: wheat, barley, oats and others.

The tallgrass prairie is the rarest of the remaining prairie ecosystems. There is less than 4% of its historic range remaining. It is the easternmost grassland and used to cover most of Iowa and Illinois and extended from southern Manitoba to Texas. We have replaced most of it with yet another tall grass: corn.

Because most of a prairie's biomass is below ground in the roots, once we rip it out, it is very difficult to replace it. Thankfully, meadows are easier to install, but they also have many of the same environmental benefits. They build deep roots, stabilizing and enriching the soil.