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Commentary
"Oceans of Grass" Conservation Assessment Released
Oceans of Grass Released: "Oceans of Grass," (Oceans) a grassland conservation assessment for the Northern Great Plains, will be released in Calgary, Alberta at the 7th Prairie Conservation and Endangered Species Conference on February 26th 2004. Oceans is produced by the Northern Plains Conservation Network (NPCN), a loose affiliation of 20 some conservation and environmental groups working in the ecoregion.
Though it was a collaborative effort, the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) team of scientists was largely responsible for putting the document together. Tyler Sutton, the Grassland Foundation's President, Chaired the group's Steering Committee during the preparation of the report.
The goal of the Oceans of Grass assessment was to first provide an inventory and status-report on the region's flora and fauna and then to makes a number of conservation recommendations to foster the return of grassland wildlife as natural components of the landscape.
The assessment found that the Northern Great Plains is no longer a naturally functioning ecosystem. Given the degradation, NPCN's conservation recommendations took a long term view, and were guided by four principles:
1. The importance of private land conservation, including fostering stewardship of private lands, developing incentives for private land conservation, and acquiring land for conservation at fair market value from willing sellers;
2. That the land and its wildlife are important are important culturally and spiritually for many North American native people, a growing demographic group that is already renewing its relationship with the land;
3. That a healthy and diverse economy based on agriculture and nature can provide can provide a more resilient economic base for the region than either alone.
4. The importance of partnerships with local communities in achieving the vision.
While private land conservation will be important, with less than 1.5 percent of the ecoregion in areas designated primarily for biodivesity conservation, Oceans highlighted the necessity of working across public and private land boundaries to accomplish landscape scale conservation.
The study identified 10 ecologically significant terrestrial conservation areas in the U.S. and Canadian plains that could form core areas for large-scale landscape restoration efforts. One of those regions is the Oglala, Buffalo Gap and Thunder Basin National Grasslands in Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming, respectively. This is a region previously identified by the CA as worthy of large-scale conservation attention. The Oglala National Grassland is just north of Ft. Robinson in Sioux County, Nebraska.
In addition to identifying potential conservation areas, the assessment recommended setting aside 10-15% of the region in areas managed primarily for biodiversity, thought it also affirmed the necessity of working with local communities to accomplish this goal. Another suggestion was the restoration of at least two herds of 10,000 bison.
Please Read "Grassland conservation could restore uniqueness of Northern Great Plains" Published March 18, 2004, in The Lincoln Journal Star.
The Oceans report may be obtained by contacting the World Wildlife Fund, P.O. Box 7276, Bozeman, MT 59771; cfreese@mcn.net; 406-582-0235