The North American Prairie is rapidly disappearing.
Only 1% of our eastern long grass prairie remains in the Midwest today, while 1 million acres of the western short grass prairie is being plowed up yearly for agriculture.
This beautiful, storied and complex ecosystem is chronicled in the new book Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie, written by Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty, former Star Tribune editor and journalist, respectively.
In a recent What We’re Reading interview, Hage described just how complex even a very small portion of prairie land is.
“If you scooped up 1 tablespoon of prairie soil in your hand, that tablespoon of prairie soil contains more microorganisms than the human population on Earth. So, the prairie is a rich, living, complex thing,” he said.
"If you pull over to the side of the road, if you step out of your car and wade into that tall grass, it's just a riot of color and sound."Dave Hage, co-author of "Sea of Grass"
However, how we envision prairies today is nothing close to reality. Many of us likely think of prairie lands as rolling hills, waves of grass, stretching for miles and miles as far as the eye can see. Marcotty explained that this vision is now a myth.
“When we read books like Little House on the Prairie or books by Willa Cather, or the history books that tell the story of the European colonialism, we sort of think of the prairie as something that's still there, that it's part of our history and that it's there if we go look for it, she said. "But for most of the Midwest … it's gone. And it's a mythological landscape in many ways, in the sense that there's only 1% left. And that 1% is scattered in tiny, tiny little plots all over the Midwest."
Agriculture
The role that agriculture has played on the destruction of our prairies cannot be overstated, nor can the negative effects that artificial fertilizers and certain farming techniques are now having on the environment. But Hage and Marcotty pointed out that the problem lies with “modern industrial scale agriculture” and not farmers.
Hage noted, “We met a lot of wonderful farmers. They're trying to make a living. They're trying to put their kids through college, trying to keep the family farm solvent. We met farmers in western Minnesota — they borrow $1 million every spring just to put a crop in the ground, diesel, seed, fertilizer.
" … They make one little mistake, they take one little gamble that doesn't work out, they could lose the family farm. It would be a catastrophe. And we all know in Minnesota how horrible and sad that would be.”
But can farmers adopt conservation farming techniques and still keep their farms solvent? While some farms have found success in improving their soil, rotating crops and reducing their use of artificial fertilizers, Marcotty noted that on a larger scale, federal policy changes on agriculture are needed.
She said, “I think that in order for the vast majority of conventional farmers to change what they do, it would be really important to change federal policy on ag policy, in terms of the enormous price supports that crops like corn and soybeans get compared to other crops that would allow farmers to diversify. … The insurance and the protections that farmers get from the federal ag bill is very lopsided toward just a handful of crops.”
Conservation and restoration
While there are growing efforts to conserve and even restore prairie lands, progress is mired in the deep cultural divide on what we believe land is for.
Marcotty explained, “There are people who believe that land is and should remain … in a natural state. But there are so many other people, particularly in rural areas, who depend on agriculture for their economy. They think land is there to make money; land is there to be farmed. And the more farmland you have … the healthier your economy.”
Despite this divide, conservation and restoration efforts have been successful. Hage and Marcotty devote a chapter in Sea of Grass to the Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge located in northwestern Minnesota and known as the “largest prairie restoration project in U.S. history.”
Navigating the local politics needed to buy and restore land is tenuous, but Hage and Marcotty noted that the people behind Glacial Ridge found ways to cooperate with the local counties, so they weren't losing revenue and in return were able to get a supply of clean water from the restoration efforts.
While clawing back the land from agriculture was difficult, working with the community to help them understand what the advantages were and what the risks were for continued farming of that land was key to the success of the restoration project.
Sea of Grass is a remarkable book — exhaustively researched, well-written and bound to be included among critical works on the American prairie. Not only does the book illuminate the history and science of this important ecosystem, but it also reminds us of its beauty and biodiversity.
As Hage noted, “If you pull over to the side of the road, if you step out of your car and wade into that tall grass, it's just a riot of color and sound. It's meadowlarks and bobolinks and prairie asters and coneflowers — yellow, purple, red. It is one of the richest sensory experiences you can have anywhere.”
Sea of Grass has recently been named a Minnesota Book Award finalist. Learn more about the book here. Bonus content from the interview can be found below.
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