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On Earth Day, Endangered Ecosystem still lacks protection |
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Native Prairie vanishing at record rates
The effects of breaking prairie are devastating in drought prone areas
Washington DC – April 21 2008 – One of the most endangered ecosystems on the planet continues to vanish at record rates due to lack of protection. Native prairie losses continue to mount as grain prices and demands for biofuels make the expensive conversion to cropland profitable, despite the costs to waterfowl, wildlife, and the American taxpayer.
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| The effects of breaking prairie are devastating in drought prone areas | “Native prairies are part of Americana – where the buffalo roamed and where hundreds of species of birds and wildlife call home today – and it is in danger of being plowed up,” said Ducks Unlimited Director of Agricultural Conservation Policy Barton James.
Only 22 million acres of native prairie still exist in the Northern Great Plains – and only 1 million acres of that is protected in perpetuity, making it one of the most endangered ecosystems on earth.
“Grassland songbirds like Baird's sparrow, Sprague’s pipet and chestnut-collared longspurs, which depend on native prairie, have undergone the steepest declines of any species group of birds,” said DU Director of Conservation Planning for the Great Plains region Dr. Scott Stephens. “Shorebirds like marbled godwits, willets, and upland sandpipers nest nearly exclusively in native prairie.”
“In addition to the loss of habitat,” continued Stephens, “converting prairies to farmland also releases millions of tons of carbon dioxide that has been stored in the soil by prairie flora, further contributing to climate change.”
High grain prices have prompted the conversion of more than 500,000 acres in 2007, and more than 10,000 acres of native prairie have already been broken the early months of 2008 in Nebraska alone. Ducks Unlimited is supporting a Sodsaver provision in the Farm Bill that would discourage breaking native prairie. Landowners that do break native prairie would be ineligible for crop insurance or other subsidies on the broken land.
Fifty conservation groups, led by Ducks Unlimited, sent a letter to the Congressional leaders of the Farm Bill last week to push for a strong Sodsaver provision in the final bill, which is in conference right now. In addition, Senators John Thune and Tim Johnson and Representative Stephanie-Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota all sent similar letters, reminding their colleagues to protect this vital national resource.
According to a Government Accountability Office report, current farm programs encourage destroying native prairie by reducing the financial risk for farmers to plow up prairies, which generally have marginal agricultural value. This also creates a long-term liability for taxpayers. USDA also recognized the need for a solution to this problem, and has made the inclusion of Sodsaver in the Farm Bill one of the agency’s priorities.
Enacting the Sodsaver provision would remove these incentives, and save more than $23 million over five years and more than $119 million over a ten year period.
“This is a win-win situation,” said James. “Taxpayers win by not subsidizing crops on marginal land, and birds and wildlife keep their nesting grounds safe.”
Neil Shader
202.347.1530
nshader@ducks.org With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization with over 12 million acres conserved. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands - nature’s most productive ecosystem - and continues to lose more than 80,000 wetland acres each year.
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