N America’s Grasslands Slowly Disappearing -- No One’s Paying Attention

"The Great Plains lost more grassland to agriculture in 2014 than the Brazilian Amazon lost to deforestation, says a recent report from the World Wildlife Fund. And it argues that the continued expansion of cropland in the region may be threatening birds, pollinators and even drinking water, while releasing millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.  

The Great Plains region is a vast expanse of land, mostly covered in grassland and prairie, stretching from northern Texas all the way up through Montana and the Dakotas into Canada. For more than a century, the area has been known chiefly for cattle ranching — but in more recent years, millions of acres have also been converted into farmland for crops like wheat, alfalfa, corn and soybeans.  

While deforestation and the expansion of agriculture in places like the Amazon Basin are well-known issues around the world, the decline of grassland and prairie ecosystems may be much less publicized, even in North America which is home to one of the 'last great extents of temperate grassland on the planet,' according to Martha Kauffman, managing director of the WWF’s Northern Great Plains program."

Chelsea Harvey reports for the Washington Post November 29, 2016.