March of industrial agriculture decimating native grasslands as American Prairie increases preservation holdings

Ag producers have destroyed shelter belts to plant industrial crops that deplete aquifers and now drought is blowing toxin-laden topsoil into downwind states. Spring wildfire seasons begin in eastern Colorado, western Kansas, the panhandles of Oklahoma, Texas and other Republican-held areas where moral hazard and poor ranching practices routinely decimate the high plains. 

Led by The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit that began buying land in western South Dakota in 2007, sold some of it to Badlands National Park in 2012. The World Wildlife Fund, Defenders of Wildlife and the Nature Conservancy teamed up with the National Park Foundation, Badlands Natural History Association, Badlands National Park Conservancy and the National Park Service Centennial Challenge fund to expand the bison range at Badlands National Park by nearly 35 square miles.

Annual analysis from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reveals 1.6 million acres of grasslands across the US and Canadian Great Plains were destroyed in 2021 – continuing a steady, devastating trend in the region. The Plowprint report once again identified row crop expansion as the primary driver of plow-up, erasing the equivalent of an area greater than the state of Delaware from the map in only 12 months. Destruction of grassland habitat is driven by economics often underpinned by well-intentioned government policies that incentivize conversion rather than protection. [World Wildlife Fund]

But, whether it's American Prairie's bison grazing on ground administered by the Bureau of Land Management in Montana, the US Department of Agriculture killing cattle on the Gila or feds shooting goats in the Tetons socialized grazing just isn't enough to keep some Republicans happy.

American Prairie is pleased to announce the acquisition of three new properties that are rich in wildlife and waterfowl, and provide important habitat connectivity to its existing Wild Horse and White Rock units. These three latest acquisitions bring American Prairie’s total deeded and leased property to more than 462,000 acres. [American Prairie]

BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning has called nearly every Trump era ruling illegal including the failure to manage mustangs safely while blows to morale and an exodus of employees have contributed to horse mortalities during gathers. Welfare ranchers and Republican Earth haters have even resorting to calling Director Stone-Manning an ecoterrorist for her efforts to preserve and restore natural landscapes in the Mountain West.

Greater sage grouse habitat is disappearing at a rate of some 1.3 million acres per year much of it in Wyoming but the BLM doesn't record results of the degradation on private land although it's known to be extensive. Ginned-up belligerents in the so-called "Freedom Caucus" are whining that 8,576 acres or about .02% of a proposed protection area would be locked out to livestock grazing where the current permittee hasn't run cattle for some 27 years. 

An increasing number of scientists believe the US Fish and Wildlife Service isn't doing enough to crack down on red states that flout or simply ignore protections for vulnerable species. 

Learn more at Progressive Farmer.

Prairie dogs are ecosystem engineers whose landscaping helps define the Great Plains. They spend 70% of their lives in subterranean burrows! For the 1st time, @NationalZoo researchers are tracking these underground underdogs as they go below the surface.https://t.co/dAdFguxKb6 pic.twitter.com/XKngAWJsfS

— American Prairie (@AmericanPrairie) October 25, 2023