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Ask any Canadian kid to name the world’s most endangered ecosystem, and chances are you’ll hear one of the following answers: 1) rainforests; 2) coral reefs; 3) leave me alone.

Ignoring the last answer, there’s a good reason why kids, and most other people, think that rainforests and coral reefs are the most endangered ecosystems; the planet’s most critical and urgent habitats in need of conservation. Tropical rainforests and coral reefs are incredibly important for protecting the planet’s biodiversity. They are a cornucopia of millions of species and display the incredible and beautiful forces of life that create diversity. We are continuing to lose tropical rainforests, and coral reefs are at increasing risk from pollution, rising water temperatures and ocean acidification (the latter two a consequence of climate change). There is no question that both of these are endangered.

These two ecosystems are also the focus of international campaigns to protect “hotspots” of species diversity. I was brought up in an era when every hamburger was blamed for the clearing of Brazil’s rainforests. Many of the world’s biodiversity hotspots are within tropical rainforests and coral reefs, and they are the focus of education and awareness campaigns shown on Canadian news and taught in Canadian classrooms.

Now, what if I told you the world’s most endangered ecosystem isn’t tropical rainforests or coral reefs? It’s a different habitat. And one that is much closer to home than you might think.

Recent studies have found that the Great Plains of the U.S. and Canada have lost a greater proportion of intact grassland than the Brazilian Amazon has lost rainforest.

The world’s most endangered ecosystem

Endangerment comes down to risk — the risk of losing a species, habitat or ecosystem for future generations. When we look at the risk factors for endangerment  — past loss, current amount of conservation, potential for future loss — the winners (actually the losers) are temperate grasslands, including the good old Great Plains of Oh Canada that stretch across southern Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and the grasslands of BC’s interior.

The world’s most endangered ecosystem is right here at home.

Globally, temperate grasslands cover about eight per cent of the Earth’s land surface. They generally exist in the interior of continents, where there is not enough rain and snowfall to support forests.

There are many reasons why temperate grasslands are endangered. They are the original breadbasket of the world. Over 50 per cent have been converted to crops and other land uses. Much of the remaining are intensively grazed, replacing what were some of the planet’s greatest concentrations of wild grazing animals with cattle, goats and sheep.

Around the world, temperate grasslands are faced with continuing habitat loss, fragmentation and desertification, impacting both biodiversity and local people that rely on healthy grasslands for their livelihood.

The loss and continued threats to temperate grasslands was recognized in 2008, when the International Union for the Conservation of Nature declared temperate grasslands as the world’s most endangered ecosystem. Two years later, a paper published in the Journal of Ecological Letters about global habitat loss and conservation found that temperate grasslands had the highest Conservation Risk Index compared to all other terrestrial ecosystems. This high risk is a result of large-scale conversion of temperate grasslands and very few protected areas. A recent paper in the journal Science examined habitat types around the world, and temperate grassland were identified as the ecosystem with the greatest impacts and land use pressures.

A picture of decline

In many ways, the fate of Canada’s temperate grasslands mirrors the fate and state of this ecosystem around the world. More than 70 per cent of Canada’s prairie grasslands has been converted. A 2010 report on the status and trends of Canada’s major habitat types found that our grasslands are the only major ecosystem type in our country that is impaired, and continuing to decline.

The endangerment of grassland habitat in Canada has cascaded into the endangerment of many grassland species. More than 60 Canadian species at risk depend on this habitat, including species that symbolize our grasslands, such as plains bison, swift fox and greater sage grouse. Just this year, a report on the State of North America’s Birds concluded that many grassland birds are rapidly declining, and some species have lost over 70 per cent of their population in the last 40 years. The songs of birds such as Baird’s sparrow, Sprague’s pipit and chestnut-collared longspur are slowly dimming on our prairies.We need grasslands, and grasslands need our helpWe need grasslands, and grasslands need our help

We need grasslands, and grasslands need our help

The loss of Canada’s grasslands is a loss for Canadians. In addition to wide-open prairies, our grasslands also contain wetlands, lakes, rivers and valleys. Canada’s grasslands support fishes, waterfowl and breath-taking avian migration spectacles as millions of birds stop to rest and feed during their migration to the boreal and Arctic.

In an ecosystem that is created by a lack of water, grasslands are critical for allowing water to infiltrate into the ground, providing base flow to rivers and streams, and holding water during floods. Grassland are important for carbon storage, with intact native prairies proving to be particularly effective at sequestration and long-term storage in their deep and extensive root networks.

Grasslands can also showcase how people and nature can coexist. Many of Canada’s grasslands have a long history of sustainable cattle grazing. This grazing has supported generations of prairie ranchers, can help to maintain grassland health and benefits many species of prairie wildlife.

The loss of Canada’s prairies is also a loss for the world. Among the last places on Earth to shelter grasslands at a meaningful scale are the grasslands of North America’s Great Plains, and despite a loss of 70 per cent, Canada has some of largest and best sites remaining. A global assessment of critical places to conserve temperate grasslands identifies Canada’s prairies as a priority.

From early efforts to protect the last wild plains bison that roamed the prairies, to the establishment of “regeneration” national parks¹, to protect dwindling populations of pronghorn antelope, to the return of the swift fox to its native habitat in 1983, Canadians have shown a passion and ability to conserve and restore our grassland heritage.

Conservation is a community effort

The Nature Conservancy of Canada has protected more than 197,684 acres (80,000 hectares) of grasslands in properties from coast to coast, including large, intact areas such as Old Man on His Back in southern Saskatchewan. There is also a key, and immediate, opportunity to conserve large areas of prairie and maintain local ranching economies by protecting community pastures in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba — public lands that are managed to protect both biodiversity and sustainable grazing in local communities.

Witnessing the rapid loss of habitats and species at a global scale can bring on a feelings of both urgency, and helplessness. It can also be easy to think of it as someone else’s issue and that direct responsibility lies elsewhere.

Here in Canada, we have opportunities to protect and restore habitats that are important for Canadians, and important for the world. We have an opportunity to protect and restore our grasslands.

Watch Dan Kraus, weston conservation scientist at NCC, discuss the importance of conserving this precious ecosystem on CTV’s morning show, Your Morning.

Cattle ranchers Blain and Naomi Hjertaas have seen vast improvements on their 800-acre-farm in southeastern Saskatchewan over the last 20 years by changing their land management approaches.

Their practicality and forward-thinking have earned them the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association (SSGA) 2018 Environmental Stewardship Award.

Making a switch from grain to grass, restoring wetlands and taking centuries-old cues from grazing bison were part of their winning formula. Here’s how the Hjertaas’ tweaks led to their success.

Centuries-old practices improve soil health

Located near Redvers, Hjertaas Farm has been in the family for 102 years, with Blain and Naomi the third generation. Today, Blain and Naomi own 40 cows, and custom graze about 90 cow-calf pairs. Their son and daughter-in-law, Martin and Thyra, graze about 500 ewes (lambed out to total about 1,000 sheep). They do this all on 800 acres.

About 20 years ago, the Hjertaas made the switch from grain to grass farming. One of their primary motivators was to improve their farm’s soil health. In 2003, Blain learned about holistic management—making decisions that are sociologically, environmentally and financially sound. The Hjertaas adopted holistic management  principles and applied them to their farm.

This included incorporating multi-species rotational grazing, and duplicating what the bison did on the same land several hundred years ago.

“What we’ve done on our farm over the past 20 years is we’ve tried to make decisions that are good for us as people and good for us financially but everything must also be good for our land and the environment,” he says.

Restoring wetlands, reviving the land in Redvers, Sask.

The Hjertaas Farm is in the black soil zone with an abundance of wetlands. In his early grain farming career, Hjertaas got rid of the water by draining the sloughs, so he had more land available to grow his crops.

“When I discovered holistic management, I realized that draining those sloughs wasn’t particularly intelligent,” he notes. “Luckily, Ducks Unlimited had a program to reverse the process.”

The Hjertaas worked with DUC improve their grazing environment through DUC’s Wetland Restoration Program. According to DUC agrologist Kylie McRae,  the Hjertaas built ditch plugsearthen berms—to restore the wetlands when the program was still very new.

“Some benefits of restoring previously drained wetlands include increased watering locations for livestock and healthy forage production for livestock,” says McRae. ”Restoring wetlands also adds both plant and wildlife biodiversity to pastures.”

Hjertaas says installing the ditch plugs wasn’t a difficult task to complete and the results are worth the effort. “The ditch plugs allow us to store more water on the landscape which is beneficial to us and the production of grass,” he notes. “Most of the sloughs are small, and they dry up relatively quickly. In turn, we’re able to grow quite a lot of healthy grass in those low spots.”

Hjertaas notes the restored sloughs have cleaner water and increased biodiversity on the property. “One of the things we’ve noted over the years is that as our land begins to heal, we don’t have runoff running directly into the dugouts and sloughs, it infiltrates the soil first. This makes a huge difference in the water quality.”

Passing along the knowledge

Hjertaas is now a holistic management instructor. He also partners with DUC to host producer field days and workshops, as well as grazing club meetings/tours. He was also instrumental in the 4-H pilot project Southeast Greener Pastures Grazing Club. The Hjertaas Farm is part of an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada study that looks at the health of farming landscapes. This study evaluates measure such as soil carbon sequestration to wildlife to socio-economics to grass production. To that end, Hjertaas says the ultimate goal to any healthy landscape is diversity.

“People want to see diversity; they want to see wildlife; that’s important to society’s goals,” he notes. “The way I’m managing my land is better for everyone, plus I’m providing better food by doing it. Properly managed livestock are the only way to heal the earth.”

WORKING TOGETHER

Learn how DUC landowner programs can benefit your business while helping nature.