Prairie Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Prairie is a type of grassland that is characterized by the presence of grasses without many trees and a generally low altitude with few hills or other uplands. The prairie tends to promote the lifestyle of herders or nomads and has in more recent years become home to large-scale and often intensive agriculture which may have required the resettling of indigenous people away from their traditional lands.

Although it is possible to categorize the pampas of Argentina or the steppes of Central Asia as prairie, the term is more usually applied (particularly in the United States) to the rolling grassland that covers more than two million square miles of the central United States and extends into parts of Canada. These lands have become almost mythologized in the American psyche for their role in opening up the west of the continent and as remote, rural agricultural areas.

It is believed that French explorers of what is now the central United States labeled the high plains regions of states such as Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Dakotas, as well as the mid-plains to the east, ranging from Texas to Manitoba in Canada, as prairie or meadow. Almost the entirety of this vast area of land has now been transformed to become farmland, either through dryland techniques or, more recently, by drawing upon the below-ground water resources of the Ogallala Aquifer. The nature of the topography lends itself to economies of scale and scope in agriculture. This was accentuated by the allocation of land as a very cheap resource to settler families. Consequently, the transformation of the land into cattle or crop growing territory has been conducted on a large and uniform scale. This form of agriculture has enabled farmers to provide large amounts of produce of comparatively even quality and low cost. This has had significant impact upon the ability of farmers to feed a growing population and also to export food.

One of the main problems threatening the sustainability of existing living practices in North American prairie regions is the provision of water resources. The depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer and existing above-ground water resources, together with continuing increase in demand for water and the changes being wrought by global climate change, mean that most agricultural and residential practices will have to change significantly.

Since the 1970s the U.S. government has been encouraging and legislating for changes in the high plains regions, in particular, to try to mitigate excessive strain on water resources. This has included changes in agricultural practice and in patterns of urban residential planning. However, these changes as presently manifested are likely to prove insufficient. New regulatory structures and licensing systems might prove to be effective in the short and medium term through trading of water rights and diversion of resources. As climate change leads to alterations in the regular pattern of seasons, changes in demand for power and water will stretch existing preparations for supply and demand management of these goods.

Wildlife supported by prairie regions has been considerably reduced in terms of variety and number as agriculture has spread across the land and transformed it. This makes nature reservations of great importance in maintaining existing stocks and offering the opportunity to rebuild depleted stocks of at least some species. Maintaining reservations against the pressures for commercial development will require strong and well-policed regulation allied with a high level of political will.

Bibliography:

Dennis S. Nordin and Roy V. Scott, From Prairie Farmer to Entrepreneur: The Transformation of Midwestern Agriculture (Indiana University Press, 2005);
David R. Percy, “Responding to Water Scarcity in Western Canada,” Texas Law Review (v.83/7, June 2005);
Candace Savage, Prairie: A Natural History (Greystone Books, 2004);
E. Weaver, Prairie Plants and Their Environment: A Fifty Year Study in the Midwest, reprint ed. (University of Nebraska Press, 1991).