(guitar, bass, ; drums
play in bright rhythm)
(Carl Madsen)
The native grasslands and the
prairies of the plains states
is a jewel
and a national treasure.
(Jim Ringelman)
America's native prairie really
is a phenomenal resource.
It's actually one of the most
imperiled ecosystems
in the world.
(Jim Faulstich)
We've lost just
tremendous amounts
of native grass in this area.
(Kurt Forman)
What we have going for us is
the partnership with ranchers.
(Karen Kreil)
And the saying is, that
"Anyone can love the mountains
but it takes soul
to love the prairie."
(woman)
This program is funded
in part by a grant
through Ducks Unlimited, from
the MDU Resources Foundation,
which is funded annually
by contributions
from its member companies,
MDU Construction Services Group,
MDU Utilities Group,
Knife River Corporation,
and WBI Holdings, Inc.,
and by the members
of Prairie Public.
(guitar ; clarinet play soly)
(female narrator)
One of America's
greatest resources
is also one of its least
appreciated.
That's why native prairie
is on the list
of the world's
most threatened biomes.
Native grass has been
disappearing in record amounts
the last few years,
converted to cropland.
The bulk of the conversion is
happening
in the Prairie Pothole Region
of North and South Dakota,
where there are the last great
remaining stands of grass.
This is also the continent's
most productive breeding ground
for waterfowl, songbirds,
and other wildlife.
Nowhere are the grasslands
more intact in this region
than that landscape called
the Missouri Coteau,
which is kind of that narrow
hilly area
that was kind of at the terminus
of the last glaciation.
It tends to be poor soils,
but it's an area that's also
very rich in wetlands,
and it's that matrix
of wetlands and grasslands
that attract waterfowl
to the region,
provide the resources both
for food and for habitat
for nesting in, and therefore,
they are the very best of
the best habitats that we have
left in this part of the world.
You could think, in Central
South Dakota,
there is a tract of land that's
2700 square miles contiguous
of largely native grass with
enough wetland densities
to average 100 breeding
duck pairs per square mile.
That's an incredibly unique
landscape
that you can find
nowhere else on the continent.
(Dr. Scott Stephens) The native
prairie areas with the wetlands
are really diverse systems that
include
a whole rich community of plant
life, forbs and flowers.
(Mike Forsberg) Some of these
other landscapes
that just knock you right
in the teeth
as soon as you see them,
Great Plains, these places,
you have to really linger, you
have to get into 'em,
you have to get to know them
like you get to know a friend
and build that relationship.
And it's only then
when you start to see
how remarkable they are,
how important they are,
and how valuable that they are.
For the last 3-1/2 years
I've been working on a book
on the Great Plains.
And basically it's to put a face
to the lingering wild
that's left.
You can look down
at a square meter of prairie
and spend an entire day.
There is so much life,
and that life is all around you,
and it's also at your feet.
But you just don't see it
if you don't get into it,
and I think that's the thing.
It's the biggest conservation
challenge in the plains to me,
if they can understand it,
then they can appreciate it.
If they appreciate it, then
they can value it.
And if they value it, then
they'll want to conserve it.
It's not lions
and tigers and bears
but it's every bit
as remarkable.
(Carl Madsen)
The native grasslands and the
prairies of the plains states
is a jewel
and a national treasure
the same as the redwoods
of California,
the Rocky Mountains,
the great rivers.
(Karen Kreil)
Once I was introduced to
prairie, I fell in love with it.
It has such a subtle beauty.
I think that because of that,
it's hard for people who aren't
from here
to have an appreciation for it.
They drive by the prairie and
wetlands at 75 miles an hour
and think that it sort of
looks all the same.
But if they stepped out of their
vehicle and took a walk,
they'd see 250 species
of plants,
150-plus species of birds,
including many migratory birds,
insects, wildlife galore.
(bird sings)
I just feel such a sense
of place in the prairie.
And the saying is that
"Anyone can love the mountains,
but it takes soul
to love the prairie."
(Randy Meidinger)
Across the hilltops here you can
imagine hundreds of years ago,
the massive herds of bison
that once roamed
across the prairie here.
We have dozens of teepee rings
scattered across the hilltops.
You can just see where the rocks
were placed
in circular fashion to hold down
the buffalo hide.
There's also many wagon trails
coming across the Coteau region
here that are still intact.
That's part of our history where
the pioneers and homesteaders
came across the prairie here.
And once you destroy
that prairie,
you lose that forever.
Certainly you can plant grasses
and native grass and forbs
back onto the prairie,
but it's taken 10,000 years
for Mother Nature
to get these hundreds of
different grasses, forbs,
sedges, mosses, and lichens to
be in the place that they are.
(cicadas chirp)
(piano plays softly)
(Jim Ringelman) Just in the last
5 years,
we've lost almost 400,000 acres
of native prairie in North and
South Dakota.
That's a substantial amount, and
if that rate continues,
a large percentage will be lost
over a period
of a couple decades.
(a cow moos)
(Jimaulstich)
We've lost tremendous amounts
of native grass in this area.
A real concern I have is
the amount of true native grass
that's being broke and
converted,
and when I say broke,
turned to farm ground and
converted to cropland.
There's a real push for more
crops, grain crops are
obviously more profitable than
the average cattle operation
the last couple years.
(a cow moos)
(Harris Hoistad)
The threats to prairie
grasslands are significant.
There's so many other economic
forces that are driving
the whole grassland conversion
thing.
The fuel prices right now are
driving people
to break up prairie grasslands
to grow corn for ethanol.
Not to say that ethanol's bad,
it's just that it's adding
one more factor into that
equation that is causing people
to take a second look and think
maybe I suld break that up
and try and grow
some corn on it.
Doug Goehring)
There's only so much margin
to work with
on every acre, so ultimately
what happens is
you are not squeezing enough
out of there
to meet your family living,
to meet your cost of living.
So those farms continually
got bigger,
and there's a point at which
you have to determine,
do you continue to grow,
or what are you going to do to
try to make these things work?
And there's some
tough decisions made.
And the reality is about every
year things change enough
that one year it might have been
somewhat economically feasible
to have more cattle or to be
in a livestock operation,
and the next year grain
production looks like
it's actually
a little bit better.
But it does come back
to this issue
of what's my legacy going to be
when I leave this land?
What are my children, what do
they want to do with this place?
What are my intentions for it?
(Kurt Forman)
What's different
in recent years is that
the majority of the native
grassland loss
is occurring in
the prairie pothole region.
For example, the last 3 years
we know that 80%
of the native prairie converted
to tillage agriculture
occurred in the prairie pothole
region of South Dakota.
Most people don't realize
that particularly for ducks,
the majority of the birds
that we're interested in,
including upland nesting ducks,
nest in grasslands.
Songbirds, shorebirds.
(motor rumbles)
(narrator)
Each spring in the Dakotas,
scientists evaluate what effect
the loss of grassland has
on how successful
nesting waterfowl are
at producing
the next generation.
We found 5 or six nests today,
which,
just in the short time we were
searching, was pretty good.
This is good nesting habitat,
thick vegetation as
a result of all the rain.
Having the large expanses
of grassland make it easier
for the birds to disperse
their nests
and make it more difficult
for the predators
that would search
for those nests to find them.
(Kurt Forman) What we're
interested in, bird production,
bird conservation, is a strong
relationship
between the patch size
of a grassland
and that grassland's ability
to produce ducks, pheasants,
and a wide array of songbirds.
(narrator)
In North Dakota,
when the eggs begin to hatch,
researchers put bands on the
legs of hens and ducklings
to follow their travels.
(Jacob)
We've captured
a hen blue-winged here.
We found her yesterday
and marked her nest.
We're leg-banding these birds
and also putting nasal markers
on them,
so that if a hunter shoots
this bird somewhere,
or if this bird is found
or recaptured somewhere,
that band number
is unique to that bird,
and it can be reported,
and then that will go
in this bird's data file
and we'll know a little bit
about migration and also learn
a little bit about
just how long these birds live
and their survival rates
while they're up here
on the breeding grounds
in the prairie pothole region.
We're going to pull her nest
file up on our PDA.
We have all the nests
entered in here.
Once a bird is banded,
that number is assigned to that
bird throughout its life.
When they are in the uplands
incubating eggs,
it's a dangerous time for them.
A lot of hens
become predated by predators,
and it's also
a stressful time for them.
There's a lot of food available,
but you've got
the demands of laying eggs
and preparing for a molt,
so it's also a fairly physically
demanding time for them.
And then on a year-to-year
basis, site fidelity,
which is basically
how site faithful
these birds are
in nesting locations.
Some of these birds
we've been able to document
over the past several years,
return to the same site to nest.
We're particularly interested
in blue-winged teal
because North Dakota
is the main area
where the continental
blue-winged teal population
comes every spring
to nest and reproduce
and subsequently raise ducklings
that end up
in the fall migration.
We've got fresh hatched
blue-winged teal ducklings.
These probably hatched
earlier this afternoon,
and they've dried off now,
and we're
going to put leg bands on these
not even day old ducklings.
It's a female.
Okay now
that they're all banded,
we're just going
to take them back
and put them back in their nests
and then cover them up
so that their mother
can come back
and uncover them and find them
and eventually lead them
to the nearest pothole,
where they'll begin feeding
and start growing.
(narrator)
As the young ducks
are learning to fly,
researchers in South Dakota
capture even more for banding.
(Randy Meidinger)
This is an adult male
blue-winged.
You can tell obviously
by the blue patch.
Are we doing left foot?
Left leg upsidedown
this year.
Some of these birds
are pretty good travelers.
We've banded
birds here
on the Goebel Ranch in
mid September,
and two days later,
they were
harvested in early
teal season
on the Gulf Coast, so they can
really move when they need to.
(a duck call)
(a duck call)
(shotgun fires two shots,
a dog whines)
(man) Fetch him!
This is the Horseshoe Lake
Hunting Club
here in Morehouse Parish,
Louisiana.
Because of the type of habitat
we have,
the type of food we have,
we typically see gadwall,
also known as gray ducks.
We shoot mallards and widgeon
and green-winged teal.
(a whistle blows)
The prairie pothole region,
or the Missouri Coteau
of North Dakota
is very important to ducks
'cause that's where they breed
in the glacial landforms,
the water and very importantly,
the grasslands of North Dakota
are what's critical to ducks.
Ducks nest in the grass and they
take their broods to the water,
and so that's
what makes it important.
The average gadwall or mallard
or whatever from Louisiana
will make its way back in March,
in that time frame,
and then they'll breed
and then they'll come back
to us to Louisiana in October.
They actually spend more time
in the wintering grounds
than they do
the breeding grounds,
but again,
those breeding ground times
are very critical
to the population.
(Randy Meidinger)
This is an example
of native prairie pasture
that supported livestock for the
last hundred-plus years.
And just this spring, they were
sprayed down with herbicide
to kill the native sod
and soybeans were planted.
(Harris Hoistad)
It's going fast.
Technology has changed,
equipment has changed.
It's so easy to convert prairie
into cropland.
It used to be in the old days,
in the '40s and '50s
that you had to physically
turn the land over
with some type of implement.
Now you can plant
right into the sod,
and the corn and soybeans will
grow right through it.
(fiddle ; guitar play)
From the first sodbuster
that came here,
he broke the prairie to grow it,
so it started changing
immediately.
And you can go back
to the Atlantic Coast
when the pilgrims landed, we
changed things, for the better.
For those of us who eat 3 meals
a day, we're glad it's changed.
(Karen Kreil)
Grassland birds are
declining at a rate
faster than any other
bird communities.
So just from that standpoint
alone, it's a concern.
But on the other hand,
I really like bread,
I really like corn on the cob.
(Doug Goehring)
Those farmers want to provide
a living for their families.
They want to feed
a growing world,
understanding that food security
means something.
A country without its ability to
feed itself will be held hostage
by every other country in the
world.
(Karen Kreil)
It's going to be
an incredible challenge
for both conservation
and agriculture to work together
to find a way to ensure
that we have
grasslands and wetlands
for the future,
but at the same time, meet
our growing needs for food.
(Carl Madsen) I remember
in the mid to early '70s,
we had a big grain boom
at that time.
We plowed up a lot of land
and said we got to meet
this big market, we've got
to go-- that did not last.
We were left with a lot of
fragile lands that were broken.
Now we're looking
at the same thing,
and we've got to ask
the question, will it last?
And should we be making our
long-term plans
to permanently
convert grasslands
to meet this immediate
market demand?
(Jim Faulstich) Between the
rocks, the potholes,
we tend to be a dry area, it's
just more conducive
to raising grass than crops in
the typical scenario.
I guess my concern long term is
that the way the production
costs are going up,
mainly fertilizer
and diesel fuel,
I question how sustainable
farming's going to be
in the long run
on these marginal lands.
(narrator)
A United States Government
Accountability Office report
says federal farm programs
may inadvertently be
encouraging grass conversion.
The nonpartisan research group
says farm program payments
provide a significant incentive
to convert grass to cropland.
The report says federal crop
insurance in particular,
takes most of the risk out
of raising crops
on land less suited for farming.
(Jim) When you can look at being
subsidized
and have crop insurance,
and you can get insurance on
grasslands as well,
but a typical payment back
from insurance on grassland
may be 2 to 3 bucks an acre,
where on cropland
it may be 200 to 300.
That's not
a level playing field.
The good Lord put grass here
for a reason,
and it's unfortunate
that the tables are tilted
so far to the cropping side.
Cropping is important,
we farm too.
It's just that it's an awful
important ecosystem,
not only
from a rancher's standpoint,
I mean I don't think people want
to give up eating beef
and the other products
that come from livestock.
The question is how much grass
loss can we lose before the
whole grassland based ag economy
doesn't remain sustainable,
and then we see a wholesale
loss of it
as there's no cattle barn to
take your cows to,
there's not enough pasture
to maintain
the large herds of cows
that we have now.
And if we see that, we'll see
huge detrimental impacts
on the wildlife population.
(Brad Magness)
I have a concern,
not just because I'm a rancher,
but because I run a livestock
auction market.
When I see grass get torn up,
that's just that many fewer
cattle that might have a chance
to come through my sale.
So now along comes the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service
and other donors and said
we want to reward guys for
good stewardship of taking care
of the grass.
So it wa't a hard decision
because it really wasn't going
to alter any of our operations.
(Harris Holstad)
The Magness family came to us
a couple of years ago
and expressed an interest in our
grassland easement program.
And they had a very, very nice,
very, very attractive piece
of property in that
over 95% of it was
unbroken native prairie.
If you'll look off to my right,
you'll see a wetland there.
And way back in the day,
I don't know
if it was in the '30s or '20s
or when, with horses
they dug a ditch across here
to drain that wetland.
The Fish and Wildlife Service
filled this back in
to where they feel that this was
the original grade,
so that that will
hold water again,
as opposed to just running on
and running on.
And there's years that that's
the only feed you might have is
in that wetland, so I'm not
opposed to preserving that.
(a cow moos.
birds sing)
(narrator)
Keeping the grass
in beef production
is a key to protecting it.
Cattle producers own the vast
majority of this region's grass,
and wildlife and livestock
do a good job of sharing
the same space.
Helping cattle producers stay
viable will mean the grass
will still be there for cows,
wildlife, and people.
What we have going for us is
the partnership with ranchers.
We have estimates that there's
about 5-1/2 million acres
of native grass remaining in
eastern South Dakota.
Almost all of that is in
a grazing regime, so you have
landowners, ranchers,
who have a vested interest
in maintaining that grassland
for their reasons.
And those are
the same reasons in many cases
that we're interested
in that same landscape.
Keep the grass
and the water in place
for grazing
and for wildlife production.
There's interest from landowners
to protect these areas
that's sort of consistent
with their view of how this land
should be used,
and so they're interested in
protection of it via easement.
Our science tells us these are
the most important areas
for waterfowl and a whole host
of other wildlife.
Really, we just need the funding
to sort of get that job done.
Probably one of the greatest
feelings
that I've ever had is
to be able to do something
so positive
and something that will have
meaning for a very long time.
(narrator)
Private donors are helping
conservation groups
and public agencies
work with landowners
to protect native prairie.
(Karen Kreil)
It's about the future.
There's no other way
to look at things because
we have a responsibility,
I think,
to ensure
that all of our children,
the children of the world
have wild places,
they have grasslands
and wetlands
so that they continue
to be able to recreate in them,
to gain the benefits from them.
(Michael Forsberg)
The land ethic Aldo Leopold
talked about.
The soil has to be well
taken care of,
the grass has to be
well taken care of,
the water has to be well taken
care of
and that will sustain life.
And that means all life,
from the tiniest little insect
to the most powerful species
on the planet-- us.
When we start to lose wildlife,
when wildlife
becomes compromised,
and when the systems that
sustain wildlife
become compromised,
that's the proverbial
canary in the coal mine--
because guess who's next.
(birds sing.
cicadas chirp)
(Carl Madsen) I hope that 40
years from now,
we can say boy,
we were wise
to hang on
to some of this
because we really need it for
clean water, for clean air,
for livestock production,
for wildlife,
and for all the good reasons
that we have natural resources.
(birds sing.
cicadas chirp)
(woman)
This program is funded in part
by a grant
through Ducks Unlimited,
from the MDU Resources
Foundation,
which is funded annually
by contributions
from its member companies,
MDU Construction Services Group,
MDU Utilities Group,
Knife River Corporation,
and WBI Holdings, Inc.,
and by the members
of Prairie Public.