The conversion of grassland to crops may be easing in the Great Plains, but not nearly enough to reassure supporters of further restrictions on the practice.
In its annual “Plowprint Report,” the World Wildlife Fund said farmers dug up a total of 1.9 million acres of grassland to plant crops in the U.S. and Canadian areas of the Great Plains in 2022, While that was slightly more than the 1.6 million acres recorded the prior year, it’s the latest in a string of years that have fallen below a 10-year average.
Although the reasons for modest declines aren’t entirely clear, they may reflect poor weather from year to year that discourages corn plantings, for instance, rather than a longer-term trend, said Clay Bolt, communications director for the WWF’s Northern Great Plains program. The previous 10-year average was 2.6 million acres converted.
In any case, the organization said, the amount of grassland — including native prairie — that’s being lost is unacceptable.
