INature: 700 words to convince a skeptic... why conserve prairies?

I had occasion to write a ≤ 700 word essay to "Explain the importance of prairie conservation to an audience that is not particularly interested in nature." Here goes (with a picture for good measure)...

Compass plant (Silphium laciniatum). Like other asters, each "flower" is itself an assemblage of many sterile or fertile flowers. Photo by Karen Thada.

It is no surprise that prairies are so rare today, having declined some 90-99% across their original range. Prairies are incredibly productive. They have been producing massive amounts of forage for many thousands of years, their shoots and roots leaving the soil an annual deposit of fertility. This soil is fundamental to making our own livelihood as a species, so it’s a difficult but important question to ask why prairies should play a role alongside and within our human system.

There are many details of our own human history that we preserve – stories of migration, discovery, and social change. But our human history is tied up in specific places, resources, and even organisms. Prairies are a living library. Their genetic code holds records of past weather patterns, of plows and grazers and fires. By maintaining and restoring prairies, we keep a link with our past and provide a story for our children to live into.

We directly profit from several measureable services that prairies provide. When a prairie absorbs and retains floodwater, it has saved communities downstream from flood damage. Natural vegetation holds back soil and filters contaminants, reducing the need for expensive water treatment, as well as retaining fertility to grow crops. Prairie conservation doesn’t have to be all or nothing, either. Prairies evolved to withstand pressure from grazers, and there are many cattle owners who are making a living off of biodiverse prairies. Researchers have found that farmers who installed a few well-placed strips of native vegetation in plowed fields achieved a disproportionately high level of “ecosystem services” like flood and erosion control.

Prairies can also be considered as an insurance policy for a risky future. There are hundreds of species of prairie plants containing thousands of genes. These genes do it all - producing complex chemicals and hormones, forming associations with fungi in the soil, or helping the plant tolerate drought. We are dependent on plants for 100% of our food (animals eat plants, after all!) and understanding the genes in prairie plants (or even using them) can help us develop higher-yielding food crops. The more species we can save, the better our insurance policy. The same goes for replacing fossil fuels with prairie-harvested biomass, developing new medicines, or perhaps even developing a new food source. We have so little prairie left, it would be foolish to let this precious resource disappear forever.

Although at first glance we might not find prairies entrancing, it helps to stoop low and take a closer look. Much of the beauty and drama we see in other landscapes – like crushing avalanches or towering trees – are also happening in the prairie on a reduced scale. Hundreds of plants and thousands of insects are all busily growing, migrating, and competing. We have only studied a few of the species to any great extent. In a prairie, you can find a monarch butterfly on a transcontinental migration to ancestral grounds known only to its grandparents. A tiny yellow spider blends in with a yellow flower, waiting for a bee to ambush. But even some of the large-scale drama is still around. Nothing gets the blood running like a roaring wildfire, or a one-ton bison bull charging at a rival.

Prairie conservation in the U.S. is not really about preserving nature untouched and apart from human society. Prairies evolved with an active human presence and we are present in even greater numbers today. But considering the many ways we directly benefit from prairie ecosystems, not to mention the diverse and theatrical plays they put on every year, maintaining these biodiverse treasures is a responsibility we can proudly embrace.