OUR ENDANGERED PRAIRIES

WHEN PEOPLE THINK about endangered or threatened ecosystems, often the Amazon rainforest or the Great Barrier Reef comes to mind. And those places are important. But there’s another, less well-known yet very important ecosystem that’s endangered: the Great American Prairie.

Prairies and grasslands are some of the most endangered (and least talked about) ecosystems on earth. Grassland biomes have just as much, if not more, biological diversity as any of these other ecosystems. But most of that diversity is underground, in the soil beneath the prairies.

Grasslands are naturally found around the globe. They are common in areas that have extreme or