Prairie

Prairies are special kinds of places where grasses, herbs, and small shrubs grow instead of trees. They are found in many parts of the world, such as the Pampas in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, and the steppe in Romania, Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan. In North America, prairies cover large areas like the Great Plains and parts of many states and provinces.

The word "prairie" comes from French and usually refers to the flat and rolling lands in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. These areas include places such as North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma, as well as parts of other states like Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Texas. In Canada, large prairies are found in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

Prairies have rich soil and support many different plants and animals. They are important for both nature and people because the soil is good for growing food. The climate in prairies is usually not too hot or too cold, making them a comfortable home for many living things.

Etymology

According to Theodore Roosevelt, the word prairie was borrowed from the French people because early explorers from the woods saw big natural meadows of long grass in the Midwest and didn’t know what to call them.

The word prairie means "meadow" in French and comes from a Latin word pratum, which also means meadow.

Formation

The Canadian Prairies began to form when the Rocky Mountains rose up near Alberta. These mountains blocked rain, creating an area with less rain further downwind.

Most prairie soil comes from materials left behind by glaciers that moved south about 110,000 years ago. As the glaciers moved, they scraped the land and carried away rocks and dirt. When they melted about 10,000 years ago, they left this material behind, forming a type of soil called till. Wind also carried fine soil called loess, which added to the prairie’s rich soil.

Tallgrass prairies developed over many thousands of years with help from animals like bison, elk, and deer, and from fires. For thousands of years, native people used fire to help with hunting and travel. These fires helped keep trees away, cleared dead plants, and gave nutrients to the soil. The fires did not harm prairie plants because most of their growth was underground and would grow back. Without these fires and animals, trees would grow and shade out the prairie plants.

Ecology

Prairie ecosystems in North America can be divided into three main types: tallgrass prairie, shortgrass prairie, and mixed-grass prairie. Tallgrass prairies get a lot of rain, over 30 inches a year, while shortgrass prairies are drier, getting only about 12 inches of rain. Mixed-grass prairies get an amount in between.

Prairies are full of life. Grasses are the most common plants, with many different kinds growing together. Besides grasses, prairies have many flowering plants, birds, mammals, reptiles, and insects. These areas need regular fires and grazing animals like bison to stay healthy. Bison help the prairie by eating grass, trampling the ground, and spreading seeds with their dung.

When prairies were turned into farms, the strong roots of the grasses that held the soil in place were destroyed. This, along with severe droughts, led to the Dust Bowl, a time when strong winds blew away the dry soil, causing big problems for people living there.

Human use

Bison hunting

Main articles: plains tribes and bison hunting

For a long time, people lived on the prairies by hunting animals. One of the main animals they hunted was the plains bison. Native peoples used loud noises and big signals to guide bison into special fenced areas called buffalo pounds, where they could be caught with bows and arrows or spears. Sometimes they would lead the bison off a cliff, called a buffalo jump, to catch them easily. Later, with horses and guns, hunting became even easier. But then many people from Europe and Canada started killing bison without caring, which caused their numbers to drop from millions to just a few hundred in just one hundred years.

Farming and ranching

The soil on the prairies was very thick and stuck to early wooden plows, making farming hard. In 1837, a blacksmith from Illinois named John Deere invented a stronger steel plow that could cut through the tough soil, helping people grow crops. Today, many former prairies are some of the best farming lands in the world.

Research shows that fuels made from mixes of prairie plants can help reduce global warming by taking carbon dioxide out of the air. These plants can grow even in poor soil without needing extra nutrients, and they can provide energy while leaving better soil for growing food. Scientists think these prairie grasses can give more energy per area than fuels made from corn. Some of these plants include big bluestem, switchgrass, and prairie clover.

Preservation

Because rich and thick topsoil made the land great for farming, only 1% of tallgrass prairie remains in the U.S. today. Shortgrass prairie is more common.

See also: List of protected grasslands of North America

Significant preserved areas of prairie include:

• Alderville Black Oak Savanna; Rice Lake, Ontario
• American Prairie, Phillips and Blaine counties, Montana
• Clymer Meadow Preserve, Hunt County, Texas
• Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, Alberta and Saskatchewan
• Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area, Grundy County, Illinois
• Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan
• Hoosier Prairie, Lake County, Indiana
• James Woodworth Prairie Preserve, a virgin prairie owned by the University of Illinois, Glenview, Illinois
• Jennings Environmental Education Center, Pennsylvania
• Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, Okeechobee County, Florida
• Konza Prairie, Manhattan, Kansas
• Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, in Will County, Illinois
• Mnoké Prairie, Indiana Dunes National Park, Porter, Indiana
• Nachusa Grasslands, a Nature Conservancy preserve near Franklin Grove, Illinois
• Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, in Comanche County, Oklahoma
• Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, Iowa
• Nine-Mile Prairie, Nebraska
• Ojibway prairie in Windsor, Ontario
• Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, Alachua County, Florida
• Richard Bong State Recreation Area, in Kenosha County, Wisconsin
• Russell R. Kirt Prairie, College of DuPage, Illinois
• Tallgrass Aspen Parkland, Manitoba and Minnesota
• Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas
• Tallgrass Prairie Preserve 32,000 acres (130 km²), Oklahoma
• University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin
• Zumwalt Prairie, Wallowa County, Oregon

Virgin prairies

Virgin prairie means prairie land which has never been plowed. Small virgin prairies exist in the American Midwestern states and in Canada. Restored prairie refers to a prairie that has been reseeded after plowing or other disturbance.

Prairie garden

A prairie garden is a garden consisting mainly of plants from a prairie.

Physiography

Prairies are wide, open lands with grasses and some shrubs, but few trees. They are found in areas with moderate rainfall and a temperate climate. In North America, prairies stretch from Indiana westward to the Great Plains, and northward to the Great Lakes.

These lands were shaped long ago by glaciers. During the ice ages, glaciers moved across the land, leaving behind layers of soil and rocks called drift. This drift created the smooth, flat surfaces we see in prairies today. Over time, rivers and streams have carved paths through this land, creating valleys and small lakes. The soil in prairies is very rich because the glaciers mixed together many different types of rocks and dirt, making it perfect for growing plants.