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North American prairie once extended
across the mid-continent region from Canada to Texas and from
the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachian forest. The vast
landscape was nearly continuous grassland, transitioning
gradually from shortgrass steppe in the west to tallgrass
prairie and savanna in the east.
Today, Great Plains grasslands
are fundamentally altered by the conversion of prairie to
cropland and pasture, the removal or disappearance of native
ungulates, drainage of wetlands, and an increase in woody
vegetation through plantings and fire suppression.
Estimates of the loss of native
prairie range between 80% and 99.9%, with the largest estimated
losses for tallgrass prairie and oak savanna. Fragmentation of
the tallgrass prairie ecosystem has left our national parks with
a unique challenge to help preserve remnants of this nearly
vanished habitat.
The goal of the Prairie Cluster I&M
Program is to design and implement long-term monitoring for
seven park areas in the Midwest:
Six of the parks in the Prairie
Cluster are relatively small, historic parks. Until recently,
the native prairie and savanna vegetation of these parks has
primarily been treated as a backdrop for interpreting each
park’s cultural significance. Restoration of prairie and savanna
communities was undertaken mainly to recreate historic
landscapes. More recently, the contribution of these remnant
grasslands to regional biodiversity has been recognized. The
seventh park in the Prairie Cluster,
Tallgrass Prairie National
Preserve, was recently created with the legislative purpose
to preserve the tallgrass prairie ecosystem.
While each park has a unique mission
and represents a distinctive component of regional biotic
diversity, these parks share many natural resource management
issues. All include high-quality prairie remnants, sites
requiring complete restoration, and a continuum of resource
conditions between these two extremes. The two most eastern
parks,
Wilson’s Creek NB
and
Effigy Mounds NM
are
also managing oak savanna remnants. Restoring prairie/savanna
vegetation to disturbed sites and managing grassland communities
with prescribed fire are common resource management priorities.
The small size of the parks makes
them particularly susceptible to external threats. Agricultural,
residential and industrial development are prominent land uses
adjacent to these parks. Because small parks are often
inadequately buffered against edge effects, invasion by exotic
plant species is a pervasive problem. Water pollution is also an
urgent external threat. Because the parks are small, their
springs, creeks and ground water are particularly vulnerable to
external pollution sources, and cannot be insulated by buffer
zones or resource management inside the parks. Most of the parks
must also protect unique habitats and manage state or federally
listed, rare and endangered species.
Documents that summarize our program
are available for download using the links below.
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