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Grasslands: Conservation & Management
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1. Introduction to Grasslands
Most of central North America was covered in grasslands at one point, full of slow-
moving bison herds, and covered in a variety of grass species reaching a couple feet
high. As populations spread throughout the continent, grasslands were essential for
supporting agricultural processes to feed the nation. Grasslands cover between 20%
and 40% of the Earth's land surface and can be found on every continent, except for
Antarctica.
Grasslands, not surprisingly, are systems dominated by various species of grasses,
but also include several species of forbs-- forbs being, broadly, a general term for
some broadleaf lower shrub vegetation. Grasslands are defined by the amount of
precipitation or determined by the amount of precipitation. Areas that are semi-arid
that get less than about 35 inches of precipitation annually typically support
development of grasslands.
Grasslands are the habitats existing between deserts and forests. Deserts do not
receive enough rainfall to support the vegetation covering grasslands, while
grasslands do not receive the amounts of rainfall necessary to support this significant
tree coverage found in forests. Grasslands experience drought, fire, grazing, and
other disturbances preventing woody vegetation-- like shrubs and trees-- from
thriving.
Often, there are herds of grazing wildlife that influence and keep grasslands in a
grassland state. In North America-- historical herds of bison. Today, herds of cattle,
and also fire, become important drivers for keeping grasslands in a grassland state
and keeping woody vegetation, especially trees, out of grasslands.
Grasslands can occur in both temperate and tropical regions. Temperate grasslands
can be found north of the Tropic of Cancer and south of the Tropic of Capricorn.
Grasslands and temperate areas have extreme climates, where summers can reach
more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and winters can drop to as low as negative 40
degrees Fahrenheit. Grass roots decaying below the surface enriches the soil with
nutrients and make temperate grasslands some of the most fertile soils on earth. Only
about 50% of native temperate grasslands remain in North America, because many
grasslands have been converted to agricultural land.
And then there are savannas. Savannas are interesting because the understory is
dominated by grassland. But within that landscape, there are also trees. And the trees
are spaced to such a point, because of the semi-arid conditioned or the seasonal
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nature of the rainfall, where sunlight hits the ground and supports a pretty dominant
grassland situation with some savanna-type tree cover.
In tropical areas, most grasslands are savannas. Savannas have high temperatures
all year, rarely dropping below 65 degrees Fahrenheit. These areas are covered in tall
grasses that can reach up to 6 feet tall and may even have sporadic trees or shrub
varieties that are drought and fire resistant. While savannas may receive up to 50
inches of rain annually, which is more than typical grassland habitats, the rain is only
concentrated in wet seasons lasting between six to eight months, creating drought-
like conditions the remainder of the year.
Much of Africa, Australia, and South America are covered in savannas. Savannas are
not only the product of climate but may be the result of degraded habitats that are
classified as derived savannas. Forests cleared unsustainably from the result of
human development and agriculture can become savannas. Even elephant herds
have even been known to clear forests, creating savannas.
Another type of grassland, which can be found in a variety of latitudes, is called a
montane grassland. Montane grasslands occur in mountainous regions and high
altitudes where trees are unable to thrive. Grasslands are incredibly important to the
environment, and they provide priceless resources to sustain the global and local
environment.
We often don't think about landscapes like grasslands, or even forests, in the context
of, what do they do for humans? What sort of things do they provide for humans?
Grasslands in particular provide several things.
Grasslands build rich, deep soils that are really valuable for agricultural production--
produces food and fiber for people. They're valuable for grazing and produce cattle--
again, food for people. Grasslands secure carbon from the environment-- carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere, this time-- and that impacts security net carbon, placing
it underground in their root systems, takes it out of the atmosphere, and mitigates
impacts of climate change.
Grasslands filter runoff from precipitation. As the water enters the streams-- ultimately,
into the rivers-- it's filtered through grasslands. And its quality is greatly improved.
Sediments are removed from it. Agricultural fertilizers are removed from it and
captured by grasslands-- those kinds of things. And of course, they provide really,
really important wildlife habitat and, in particular, a really important waterfowl habitat
for North American waterfowl.
Grasslands provide habitats for a wide range of species. Pronghorn, deer, prairie
dogs, and coyotes all call grasslands their permanent home. Nearly all migratory birds
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use grasslands for food, water, and shelter during their migration. Bees and other
pollinators benefit from the wildflowers that thrive in grasslands. Grasslands also
provide livestock with inexpensive feed and, with management, can sustain large
populations of cattle and other grazers.
Some climate scientists even believe grasslands may be more efficient and reliable at
removing carbon from the atmosphere than forests, because grasslands are more
resilient after fires and drought. Additionally, most carbon is stored in trees in forest
ecosystems, which means when forests are disrupted and trees die, carbon is
released back into the atmosphere, whereas more carbon is stored in the soil in
grasslands and is not released into the atmosphere when the ecosystem experiences
disruption.
2. Threats to Grasslands
Though grasslands provide valuable resources, less than 8% of grasslands are
protected. Overall, fewer grasslands are protected than any other habitat. Though
natural grasslands are resilient after experiencing drought, the habitat is still delicate
to disruption from outside influence. The Dust Bowl is an example of the devastating
effects of damaging grassland biomes.
Several laws were enacted in the late 1800s and early 1900s which distributed public
land to settlers. These settlers cleared millions of acres of grassland for agriculture.
But these settlers were often inexperienced farmers and selected crops and methods
that were not the ideal for the climate.
The Dust Bowl was a really tragic time in the 1930s in North America. It was a period
of decadal drought-- a drought that lasted nearly 10 years. With that drought, it hit at a
time where agricultural practices in particular were not very well conceived, not very
well applied. And so what happens is when you get a drought like that, and then wind
erosion works on soils-- soils that can't be planted because they were too dry to
produce a crop. The soil begins to blow.
And so when you talk about a Dust Bowl, that's basically what happened. The soils
were picked up and wind-borne and sometimes carried hundreds and hundreds of
miles across North America. The implications to that, of course, are that we had really
needed to improve our agricultural practices.
Dust storms plagued the Midwest and the southern Great Plains, removing much of
the topsoil and even making their way as far as New York City. Some areas even now
still haven't fully recovered from the devastation caused by clearing these important
grasslands.
Grasslands today, like most landscapes in North America and elsewhere, are
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influenced predominantly and sometimes put at risk by human activities. Such
activities could include things like increased agricultural intensification, perhaps poorly
applied agricultural practices, overgrazing.
But it's not all about agriculture, either. Urbanization, an expanding human population,
puts pressure on land. Humans require more and more food, more and more water,
and that puts more and more pressure on land. And so grasslands, like many
systems, are subject to those pressures and lost as we seek to provide more and
more food and energy and things like that for a burgeoning human population.
Three main threats plague grasslands today-- unsustainable agriculture, urbanization,
and climate change. In the United States, much of the natural grasslands have been
altered due to the ease with which the land can be converted to farming. While there
are sustainable methods for protecting land, unsustainable farming methods disrupt
the natural vegetation found in grasslands. And in some cases, particularly when
farming a single crop, limits the biodiversity of the area.
Additionally, using pesticides and fertilizers can alter the nutrient balance in the soils.
In some cases, these products are used without efforts to also support natural soil
health. And as a result, the soil is drained of nutrients, even to the point of being
unable to sustain life.
Most farmers understand the importance of protecting the health of their land in order
to produce good crops and take care to utilize the right farming methods suitable for
their crop, climate, and soil. Although grasslands can support grazing species like
bison, pronghorn, and deer, cattle may decimate vegetation through overgrazing. And
their heavy hooves compact soil, leading to erosion and loss of sod. With proper
grazing methods, though, cattle are great management tools to keep grasslands
healthy and will support better growth of cattle for ranchers.
Urbanization, or the spread of human infrastructure, fragments grassland habitats.
Fragmentation prevents genetic material to be shared between plants, brings invasive
species, and limits the ability for grasslands to burn naturally. Grasslands are
vulnerable to even slight changes in rainfall. Changes in the global temperature will
alter weather patterns and water availability in an area and may cause desertification
of sensitive grassland areas.
Because most grasslands in the United States are privately owned and very few are
protected, grasslands are difficult to conserve. Grassland regions in the United States
continue to lose topsoil every year. Some regions have lost 1/2 to 3/4 of the topsoil.
Topsoil is essential for supporting vegetation, and losing it begins a process called
desertification, where fertile land becomes unsustainable for vegetation. When topsoil
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is lost, the loss is fairly permanent because the process to create even just three
centimeters of topsoil takes about 1,000 years. Great care needs to be taken to
preserve these habitats that are essential for growing crops and feeding livestock.
3. Conservation Efforts
Despite the devastation caused by the Dust Bowl, agricultural methods have
improved. And conservation methods have been established in order to maintain
usable and fertile lands.
Despite the tragic nature of the Dust Bowl and the terrible times that it caused during
the depression in the '30s, a few good things came out of it. Number one, the Natural
Resources Conservation Service, back then called the Soil Conservation Service, was
formed by the federal government.
That entity has a pretty specific mission to do just that-- to conserve soils for
agricultural production in particular. And to do that, they have scientists and extension
agents who work with producers to ensure that producers use sustainable land use
practices, sustainable agricultural practices, and ensure that in the future, if drought
hits, that we won't have a Dust Bowl kind of a situation.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service is an agency of the US Department of
Agriculture. The agency provides the landowners and farmers with resources to
improve and protect private land. Through the agency, several programs were created
to directly improve the quality of grasslands in the United States, including the Farm
Bill.
The Farm Bill provides incentives for landowners to conserve grassland habitats or, in
some cases, to restore them through a program called Agricultural Conservation
Easement Program, formerly known as the Conservation Reserve Program, where
lands are retired from crop production and put back into grasses. Those kinds of
legislation are really, really critical to sustainably using these systems and conserving
soil, conserving water, and conserving wildlife.
In addition to farming, legislation developed around grazing. The Granger-Thye Act
enabled the federal government to fund grazing programs to improve and manage
rangeland. It established grazing permits and formed advisory boards for grazing.
Legislation is one of the most important methods for conserving grasslands. Because
most grasslands are privately owned, the government can offer financial incentives for
landowners to take actions to conserve and manage grasslands sustainably.
So there are really a number of incentive-based programs to encourage producers
and landowners to conserve grassland. One of the more common ones is one that
many people may not realize-- but the Migratory Bird Habitat Conservation Act,
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passed in 1937, also known as the Duck Stamp. Proceeds from the Duck Stamp,
which then cost a dollar and today costs $25-- 98% of those proceeds go into wetland
and waterfowl habitat acquisition.
What that means for grasslands in the United States in particular is that the proceeds
from some of those stamp purchases are used to purchase easements from private
landowners who agree to maintain their land in a grassland state and carefully
manage it through grazing and proper haying. So it stays in grassland perpetually.
Natural grassland should be managed to ensure a healthy ecosystem. Because even
in protected areas, very few habitats can escape human influence. The effects of
pollution, habitat fragmentation, and destruction of plants and wildlife caused by
humans impact the natural conditions of habitats.
There are three management techniques commonly used for grasslands. These are
intentional disruption of the habitat, using chemical treatments to prevent invasive or
non-native species from overtaking an area, and protecting the habitat from
conversion.
There are a number of ways to approach managing that kind of a system. Remember
here that we're talking about an arid system dominated by grasses. And usually it was
influenced-- often, at least in North America, influenced by both grazing by large herds
of, in our case, bison historically and, in today's world, cattle. And it was influenced by
fire.
And so one of the common management practices is using fire to keep a grassland in
a grassland state. In absence of fire, it's not uncommon for woody vegetation, shrubs,
and trees to invade. Sometimes invasive species of trees and weeds invade. Fire can
help suppress those invasions and keep a grassland in a healthy state.
Grazing can do the same thing if it's carefully managed and proper rotational grazing
and proper stocking rates are applied. So those are two good management
techniques.
Grasslands require disruption to stay healthy. So prescribed burns and managed
grazing can be used with professional guidance. Many private landowners work with
extension agents or state agencies to determine how to best manage disruption on
their property. Invasive species can spread through an area and drastically reduce
biodiversity. In some cases, invasive species need to be treated with chemicals.
We do have a number of invasive species that are problematic in all of our systems,
but especially in grasslands-- some of the thistles, leafy spurge, plants like that.
Sometimes those require application of herbicide. And so chemical treatment to
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discourage the growth of those invasive, exotic plants and promote the growth of
desired vegetation is an important management technique.
Last but not least, acquisition and protection of grasslands-- that can be through fee
title acquisition by federal or state government, maybe for a wildlife refuge or state
wildlife management area. Outright purchase is one way to protect grasslands.
Another is to purchase from private landowners an easement. And what the easement
typically states is that they will continue to manage their land as a grassland in
exchange for payment from an entity like the federal government or Ducks Unlimited.
And so they get to use the land. They get to retain ownership. They can still graze it.
They can still hay it.
But the important part of it is it is managed sustainably by agreement. And wildlife
benefit and producers benefit through healthier cattle herds. And wildlife benefit, of
course, because the habitat stays in place.
While restoring and protecting natural grasslands is important, some grasslands are
required for farming. However, farmers can utilize sustainable methods to produce
crops and raise livestock. The goals of sustainable agriculture are to develop and
sustain healthy nutrient levels in soil, utilizing water appropriately, minimizing pollution
to the environment, and promoting both plant and animal biodiversity in a region.
When we talk about using any system to meet the requirements of people, whether
it's for production of food through agriculture or production of cattle, there is a term
that you often hear called "sustainable use" or "sustainable land use practices." For
agriculture, some of those include things like no till, where a crop is harvested. The
stubble is left. And then the next growing season, the next crop is drilled into that
stubble.
As a result, the soil isn't really ever disturbed. If we remember our lessons from things
like the Dust Bowl, when plowing was extensive, fields and soils were exposed-- say,
over winter, exposed to wind and water erosion. No till is a practice that precludes
much of that and is what I would call a really nice, sustainable agricultural practice.
Tillage is used primarily to control weeds and aerate the soil. However, it leaves the
loose soil exposed and more vulnerable to erosion. No-till practices allow crop residue
after harvest to cover the soil, protecting it from erosion. And when the next crop is
planted, the ground is just punctured enough to insert the seed.
When the soil is not constantly being overturned, microbial life can flourish. And the
soil retains more water to reduce freshwater usage. Additionally, water is retained
better in no-tilled soil and can reduce the amount of carbon emissions for mechanical
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equipment up to 80%.
Planting cover crops is a method farmers can use to protect soil. Cover crops are off-
season vegetation planted over fields and plowed to be allowed to decompose before
the main crop is planted.
The most limiting nutrient in soil is nitrogen. Legumes, such as soybeans, clover, or
peas, are rich in nitrogen. They are commonly used in cover crops to sustain nitrogen
levels in the soil and reduce dependence on fertilization. Cover crops prevent soil
erosion, increase water retention, and provide habitats for spiders and insects that will
feed on pests that might damage the main crop.
Using rotational crops as another method to maintain the soils in grasslands. Rather
than planting the same crop over and over, planting different crops in an area each
year helps maintain functional soil nutrients.
Rotational planting disturbs pests and disease, allowing farmers to utilize less
pesticides. And the variety of nutrients in plants and root structures of the various
crops replenish soil nutrients and prevent nutrients from being sucked from the soil. In
some cases, rotational crops may not be feasible. But farmers can plant varieties of
the same crop in order to have a similar effect.
Another important practice used by producers and range management in particular is
rotational grazing for cattle. When you're talking about native prairie or tame
grasslands, one of the things that's beneficial to both cattle, producers, and wildlife is
to carefully stock and manage the grazing of those systems so that they're not
overgrazed.
That benefits the cattle. The cattle put weight on better as they're rotated from pasture
to pasture to pasture. And it leaves behind grass in a condition that wildlife can still
benefit, that water, rainfall is-- the runoff is improved as the grass captures sediment
and those kinds of things. So rotational grazing is another important land use practice
that is what I would call a good, sustainable land use practice.
Rotational grazing is a method used to ensure no area of grasslands is damaged by
livestock. Livestock will be allowed to access a piece of land only until the grass gets
to about 3 or 4 inches. Then the land should be left to rest to allow the grass to grow
back to a height of at least 6 inches.
Vegetation, climate, and time of year will determine how long a piece of land must be
allowed to rest. This method protects against soil erosion but also ensures land can
be as productive and efficient as possible for farmers and ranchers. Individuals can
make personal choices to support grasslands by purchasing products from
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organizations using sustainable production processes and by supporting organization
and legislation supporting conservation and management of natural grasslands.
Grasslands, like all ecosystems-- the important things on a day-to-day basis are
number one, just be aware. Be aware of their importance. Be aware of the benefits
that those habitats like grasslands or forest provide to people relative to clean air,
clean water, wildlife diversity, all those kinds of things. They provide our food and fiber.
So be aware that land is the most important resource that we have in terms of natural
resources. It's the basis for our food, our fiber, and our wildlife. And so being aware of
that and then understanding the role of public policy to incentivize landowners and
others to properly steward their land is an important thing. And so your advocacy--
contacting members of Congress to support those kinds of legislation is really, really
important.
And I would say that another important thing that people can do is support
organizations whose mission is to conserve those kinds of habitat. Ducks Unlimited in
particular focuses heavily on conservation of grasslands throughout the Great Plains
of North America. Those are important habitats for waterfowl. But they're also
important habitats for agricultural production, for cattle production.
And so using them sustainably is something that we promote. And support of us will
help us promote that. And it will help those producers apply sustainable practices to
make sure that we hand off to future generations quality grassland habitats that we
enjoy today.
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