Webster’s dictionary defines prairieland as “land in or predominantly in grass” [3]. The definition goes on to mention examples of this type of land.
Mississippi River valley that in its natural uncultivated state usually has deep fertile soil, a cover of tall coarse grasses, and few trees [3]
One of the dry treeless plateaus east of the Rocky Mountains that merge on their east side with the prairies proper and are characterized by shorter grasses and drier less fertile soil [3]
I think that a picture is better than any definition I can provide. Prairielands are beautiful landscapes and the most beautiful prairielands, in my opinion, are the ones in the United States. This natural beauty is in grave danger. In the U.S. only about 1 percent of the tall-grass prairie remains [4]. This is why conservation is vital for the lands to remain untouched and preserved.
What is land conservation?
Land conservation is preserving the land by stopping anything that would jeopardize its continued existence. That simply means keeping the land exactly how it is and keeping it that way in the future. Usually this effort needs support from many different agencies. For example, government, private, non-profit organizations partner together with private citizens to preserve the target areas. These organizations believe in conserving land against development, because of the tremendous negative effects that development has on its surrounding environment.
There are hundreds of organizations worldwide that preserve all types of land and forestry. I am going to focus on prairieland conservation and discuss three different initiatives that have had a positive effect on conserving U.S. prairielands.
Coastal Prairie Conservation Initiative:
The Coastal Prairie Conservation Initiative (CPCI) is a Texas organization that is comprised of many different federal and state entities, private organizations, and private landowners. The CPCI started in 1999. Their goal is to conserve Texas coastal prairieland at a scale that is meaningful to the indigenous wildlife populations [1]. Currently there is less than 1 percent of untouched coastal prairieland [2]. The CPCI is pushing to change that. They are providing incentives to the private land owners to encourage them to keep their lands privately owned.
They have made tremendous strides in their efforts to save the Attwater Prairie Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido attwateri), which would have easily been extinct if not for their efforts. Even though the species is still alive in the wild, it simply does not have enough untouched coastal prairieland to live on. As of fall of 2010, there is an estimated 90 Attwater Prairie Chickens alive in the wild. But those numbers will increase in the future as long as the CPCI stays involved.
Midewin Tallgrass Prairie Restoration:
The National Forest Foundation started this program in 1996 [5]. The program is committed to conserving and restoring prairielands in Illinois. The prairie they are focusing on conserving and restoring is about 60 miles southwest of Chicago. The reason why the term “restoration” is used is because they are determined not only to preserve, but also to restore the land to its former abundance. Since the land is dominated by aggressive, nonnative weeds, they would need to replant seeds that belong to the indigenous plant life in order to restore it natural ecosystem.
Katy Prairie Conservancy:
This is another prairie conservation effort in Texas. They are a conglomerate of professional individuals that were founded in 1992 as a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving prairieland and prairie wildlife in the Katy Prairie [6]. The organization uses many negotiation tools to conserve the land that is a fraction of its former size. Another tool they utilize is education. The have an award winning education staff that works with the youth to educate them about the importance of preserving Katy Prairie.
These organizations, along with many others, have a difficult task ahead of them. As the population grow, there efforts will become more difficult. Their passion alone is not enough, they need support. I encourage you to get involved and do whatever you can to show your support for prairieland conservation, because with no support prairieland will be a thing of the past.
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[2]www.partnersinflight.org/pubs/mcallenproc/articles/PIF09_Education_Communication/Ortego_PIF09.pdf
[3] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prairie?show=0&t=1316674953
[4] http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG3238.html
[5] http://www.nationalforests.org/conserve/programs/conservation/midewin
[6] http://www.katyprairie.org/Howwework.html
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