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By Carrie McGourty
The American prairie, the temperate grasslands that span from Canada to Texas and an iconic part of America's landscape, has mostly been lost in the past couple centuries to development and agriculture. Home to the prairie dog and the bison, it is one of the most endangered ecosystems on Earth, according to the World Wildlife Fund. In fact, only 2 percent of prairie remains untouched. And with growing demand for biofuels, there's pressure to turn what land is left into crops. So there are efforts across the Northern Great Plains to conserve native prairie. Bob ventured to the Northeastern corner of Montana to take a look at the efforts of one group, the American Prairie Foundation. They're buying up land to create a 3-million - acre reserve, partnering with the WWF, to bring back the bison and create a home for other native wildlife.
In Montana, Bob met with WWF biologists on the reserve and heard about what was happening there, roamed with the bison (a.k.a. buffalo) reintroduced to the land, observed pronghorn and prairie dogs, caught fish with a hydrologist to observe the river's health and got eaten alive by mosquitoes (not joking). We ventured to a spot where Lewis and Clark once looked out and wrote of abundant wildlife and got a good sense of the APF's goal- to create a fully-functioning prairie ecosystem for future generations to enjoy. As Dick Dolan, managing director of the APF and a third-generation Montanan, said, "There are very few temperate grassland regions left in this world that can be restored in this way."
While we were there we also learned the delicate relationship between ranchers and the land. A good portion of the population in the Northern Great Plains is dwindling as farmers and ranchers age and the young move towards the city in search of better jobs. So APF is buying up some of this agricultural land in this particular part of Montana to give it back to nature, along with the hope that they can help the local economy. The ranchers there, who have put food on America's plate for generations, strive to be good stewards of the land too. In fact, they say what's good for wildlife - biodiversity- is good for them also. But not all are welcome to the idea of bringing the area back to the wild. They know that change is going to come, but they say they want to be part of that change. Can they craft a future that will sustain both people and wildlife? As we found, it's not simply a story about environmentalist versus farmer. As the prairie returns on the edge of America's ranches and farms, it underlines a national challenge to balance preserving the environment and making use of it in a responsible way - an issue the United States will be confronting increasingly in the future.
For more information:
World Wildlife Fund
American Prairie Foundation
Ranchers Stewardship Alliance
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