BIOtheNUMBERS

The Great plains of United States has witnessed 70% of its area fragmented, by roads and highways, into parts smaller than 385 square miles. Grasslands hold an estimated 33% of the carbon stored in terrestrial ecosystems.

Tallgrass prairie in the USA as of 2000: 19% has been converted to urban area, 71% converted to agriculture, and 10% remains as grassland.

“Tallgrass prairie once covered 140 million acres of North America. Within a generation the vast majority was developed and plowed under. Today less than 10% remains, mostly here in the Kansas Flint Hills.”  National Parks Service

According to the Nature Conservancy, “The Oklahoma Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is the largest protected remnant of tallgrass prairie left on earth.”  Prior to urbanization and agriculture the tallgrass prairie once stretched from Texas to Minnesota and its grasses grew within the borders of 14 states.