Grasslands - Mountains and Plains: The Ecology of Wyoming Landscapes - page 107

the Great Plains, but all the other species could be re-
introduced. All dead animals would remain for scaven-
gers and nutrient cycling. the prairie dog towns could
grow to be large enough to sustain the black-footed fer-
ret, assuming that the sylvatic plague can be controlled.
Fires would be started or allowed to burn as judged
appropriate, and the area would be large enough that
unintentional wildfires could burn without burning
the whole park. Protection for the neighbors would be
required. Some bison would be harvested to simulate the
effects of the wolves and grizzly bears that are absent.
traveling into this imagined park from any direction,
the aboveground natural diversity of native grasslands
would be immediately apparent.
Fortunately, some prairies in the semi-arid West
have not been plowed, and they have been managed
for livestock production in a way that appears to be
sustainable. the plants are mostly native species, the
all-important belowground food webs probably are still
intact, and the natural diversity aboveground is high if
not complete. Prairie dogs and their associated species
are present. 90 Some intact grasslands are private; others
are on public land, such as in Wind cave national Park
and Badlands national Park in western South Dakota,
and a place known simply as Grassland national Park in
Saskatchewan. 91 in Wyoming, the federal managers of
the thunder Basin national Grassland are working with
adjacent landowners and others to develop a plan for
profitable livestock grazing even while the prairie dog
population is restored to a level that is sufficient for the
reintroduction of black-footed ferrets. More collabora-
tions of this nature are needed. 92
Working with interested landowners, various land
trusts are finding ways to conserve the native grasslands
that remain in a way that provides economic benefits to
the landowners and maintains biological diversity. Such
projects may not have all the components of the original
ecosystem, but they provide a means of conserving some
of them. this approach is highly valued by conservation
biologists. indeed, it is the most feasible one over much
of the West. traditional approaches to livestock manage-
ment are being adapted to achieve the goals of sustain-
ability and conservation. notably, the circumstances
that led to livestock production on large ranches in the
West have also, inadvertently, conserved open spaces
and much of the biodiversity—though not all of it. 93

Unfortunately, those circumstances are chang-
ing, leading to concerns that the values of grasslands
will be lost. Plowing continues, often in concert with
shifts in crop prices and by landowners desiring to take
advantage of government subsidies. the cultivation of
grassland soils is now more often sustainable than pre-
viously, thanks to minimum till or no-till agriculture,
but the grassland ecosystem is thoroughly disrupted in
the process. Some grasslands have been restored, either
by abandoning old fields and allowing secondary suc-
cession to occur, or through the planting of perennial
native species, such as farmers and ranchers are able to
do with funding from the U.S. Department of Agricul-
ture's conservation Reserve Program. Wildlife invari-
ably benefits, but decades if not centuries are required
before the original biological diversity is restored—if
that's possible at all. 94 Such concerns cannot preclude
farmers from making a living from their land, but the
best soils most likely have already been cultivated. With
so much of the grasslands already disrupted, there is
reason to be concerned about further losses.
the intact grassland ecosystem requires an area that
is better thought of as a diverse landscape with ridges
and riparian zones here and there—not a homogeneous
tract of native plants. Ranches in western states often
preserve such mosaics, along with the open space that
is valued by many groups. But the challenges of keep-
ing such large areas intact are becoming greater. the
primary threats are plowing, the widespread effects of
oil and gas development, new wind farms and trans-
mission lines, and the desire of many newcomers to
build their homes in the middle of that open space. the
services provided by grasslands are reduced still further
with a diminished landscape and the introductions of
exotic plants and animals that invariably occur—some
of which could become as problematic as sylvatic plague
or cheatgrass (see chapter 7). Various conservation
organizations (such as the nature conservancy and
other nongovernmental groups) are helping to main-
tain intact grasslands where landowners and agencies
have common incentives for doing so—economic or
otherwise.
Another challenge is presented by climate change.
As described in chapter 3, this has been occurring for
millennia, but the socioeconomic impacts now could
be substantial. crop production could decline because