WWF Report, November 2016
In 2014 the Great Plains lost more acres of grasslands than the Brazilian Amazon lost to deforestation, according to a new report from World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Fifty three million acres of America’s Great Plains have been lost since 2009, threatening important and iconic species like grasslands songbirds, the monarch butterfly, and native bumble bees.
“America’s Great Plains are being plowed under at an alarming rate,” said Martha Kauffman, WWF’s managing director of the Northern Great Plains program. “Centuries old, critical prairie habitat that’s home to amazing wildlife and strong ranching and tribal communities is rapidly being converted to cropland and most people don’t even realize it.”
Read the full article here. View the 2016 Plowprint Report here. This document provides information on grassland conversion to croplands and is intended to broaden public awareness of grasslands loss.
Posted October 2, 2017