Grasslands of the World.pdf - Disasters and Conflicts - UNEP

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Grasslands of the world
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, another major research effort in grassland
ecology was launched with the International Biological Programme (IBP)
(Golley, 1993). The Grassland Biome was established with its focus at Colorado
State University, with Dr George M. Van Dyne as Director. Satellite research
areas were established at the Cottonwood site in mixed prairie vegetation in
South Dakota (operated by South Dakota State University); tall-grass vegetation
in Oklahoma at the Osage site (operated by Oklahoma State University);
and short-grass vegetation at the Pantex Site in Texas (operated by Texas Tech
University) and the Pawnee Site in Colorado (operated by Colorado State
University) (Van Dyne, Jameson and French, 1970). Other grassland sites, such as
desert grassland, mountain grassland and California annual grassland, were also
included in the project. Although the project generated much ecological information
and extensive literature on aspects of grassland ecology, the goal of publishing
a synthesis volume for each of the grassland types was not realized (Golley,
1993). Only the tall-grass volume was actually published (Risser et al., 1981).
The other major outcome of the IBP programme was establishment of
Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites. The argument was made that
ecological problems could only be approached by looking at dynamics of
ecosystems in a long time frame – 10 years or more. The Conyza Prairie in
Kansas (Knapp et al., 1998) and the Central Plains Experimental Range (the
old Pawnee Site of the IBP) are currently LTER sites.
Great Plains agriculture is now facing many challenges from various
sources. This analysis will focus on only a few of these. In the Great Plains,
as well as most of the West, many small towns and communities are facing
extreme economic conditions and many are being abandoned (Flores, 1999;
Licht, 1997). Licht (1997) reported that 81 percent of the Great Plains counties
lost population between 1980 and 1990. There are probably multiple reasons
for this decline in rural communities such as reliance on railroads; influence of
technology and government; better transportation to larger urban areas; location
of agricultural agents in county seats; and governmental policies (Burns,
1982). However, Licht (1997) argues that:
“…the main reason for the collapse of rural communities in the Great Plains is indisputable; the
region’s inhospitable climate, lack of economically valuable natural resources , high transportation
costs and other factors meant that it was never capable of supporting numerous vibrant
economies with high human densities.”
Along with the constriction of rural communities , many agricultural enterprises
have been caught in an economic squeeze, with, on the one hand, high
production costs and, on the other, low prices for their products. This is true in
both intensive agriculture and the livestock sector. Consequently, many smallscale
operators (such as family farms ) are no longer able to operate economically
(Licht, 1997).
Other biological problems relate to environmental concerns. Even though
Lauenroth et al. (1994) considered that grazing lands in the Great Plains had