Elevating the Profile of America’s Grasslands

retreat focus

How might we raise awareness, inspire new perspectives, develop critical relationships, and unlock potential for transformative action related to the grasslands in this country?

America’s grasslands support a significant percentage of imperiled biodiversity and they provide key ecosystem services essential for resilient landscapes. Sadly, grasslands are highly fragmented, often go unnoticed, have been replaced by agricultural and forested landscapes, and are critically endangered.  

This retreat brings together a range of grassland stakeholders to help raise the profile of America's grasslands like never before. It is designed to help us imagine new strategies to protect, restore, and elevate grasslands. We also wish to daylight the incredibly rich connection and stories of America's grasslands to long-term biodiversity, culture, human health, and landscape resilience. This effort seeks to positively impact grasslands nationwide, from California to Maine and Washington to Florida. 

Inspiration and Resources

A Healthy Nature Handbook: Illustrated insights for Ecological Restoration from Volunteer Stewards of Chicago Wilderness. Edited by Justin Pepper and Don Parker.

Audubon Conservation Ranching website – this relatively new program has already enrolled nearly 3 million acres of privately-owned grasslands in the USA. The program certifies land and beef as “bird-friendly” and through development of sustainable and regenerative grazing practices.

Blood Memory, by Dayton Duncan & Ken Burns

"Bringing Back Piedmont Prairies" video, Piedmont Prairie Partnership

Buffalo National Grasslands Alliance: Who We Are video

Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Center for Conservation Media

Citizens for Conservation Website – local land trust based in the Chicago suburbs who performs some of the highest quality prairie restorations in the region using almost only volunteer labor.

Friends of Nachusa Grasslands website – this TNC-owned property ~2 hours west of Chicago contains some of the highest quality prairie restorations in the region. It also employs an innovative volunteer stewardship model that empowers community members to restore no matter their age or qualifications.

Forgotten Grasslands of the South, Reed F. Noss, Island Press book

Forgotten Landscapes: Bringing Back the Rich Grasslands of the Southeast, Yale Environment360, by Janet Marinelli

Grasslands Store Abundant Carbon, Reed F. Noss and Joseph W. Veldman

Grassland intactness outcompetes species as a more efficient surrogate in conservation design, Jason D. Tack, et al.

Grassland: The History, Biology, Politics and Promise of the American Prairie, Richard Manning

Leading Regenerative Brands: Five Paradigm Shifts to Thrive in a World in Flux, GlobeScan

Locating potential historical fire-maintained grasslands of the eastern United States based on topography and wind speed, Brice B. Hanberry and Reed F. Noss

Philip Juras Exhibits

Plowprint Report, WWF

Protecting Our Prairies, Tyler J. Lark

Saving Our Grasslands, WWF

Southeastern Grasslands Institute: video

TREES ARE OVERRATED: Preserving the world’s great expanses of grass could be essential to combatting climate change, Julia Rosen

Thinking Like a Grassland, David Augustine, Ana Davidson, Kristin Dickinson, Bill Van Pelt 

Video on prairie strips in farmland with Lisa Schulte Moore

When Chopping Down Trees is a Gift to the Environment, NY Times, Robert Langellier