Prairie. Candace Savage

      

      { PRAIRIE }

      CANDACE SAVAGE

       PRAIRIE

      A NATURAL HISTORY

      { updated, with a new preface }

       PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES R. PAGE

       ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOAN A. WILLIAMS

      ADVISORY PANEL RICHARD CANNINGS Consulting Biologist Penticton, British Columbia

      SYDNEY CANNINGS

      Coordinator NatureServe Yukon Yukon Territorial Government Whitehorse, Yukon

      DR. KENNETH F. HIGGINS

      Professor emeritus Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences South Dakota State University Brookings, South Dakota

      DR. JOHN JANOVY

      Varner Professor of Biological Sciences University of Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska

      DR. DAN JOHNSON

      Professor of Environmental Science Department of Geography University of Lethbridge Lethbridge, Alberta

      DR. DOUGLAS H. JOHNSON

      Research Statistician and Senior Scientist Grasslands Ecosystem Initiative Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center United States Geological Survey Jamestown, North Dakota

      DR. HENRY MURKIN

      National Director Conservation Ducks Unlimited Canada Oak Hammock Marsh Conservation Centre Stonewall, Manitoba

      DR. PAUL G. RISSER

      Chair University of Oklahoma Research Cabinet Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

      JOAN A. WILLIAMS

      Consulting Biologist Calgary, Alberta

      Copyright © 2004, 2011 by Candace Savage

      Photographs copyright © 2004, 2011

      by James R. Page or by photographers credited

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a license from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For a copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

      Greystone Books

      An imprint of D&M Publishers Inc.

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      Vancouver BC Canada V5T 4S7

      www.greystonebooks.com

      David Suzuki Foundation

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      Vancouver BC Canada V6K 4S2

      Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada ISBN 978-1-55365-588-6 (pbk.) ISBN 978-1-55365-899-3 (ebook)

      Editing by Nancy Flight

      Copy editing by Barbara Tomlin and Lara Kordic

       Cover design by Naomi MacDougall

      Front cover photograph by Joel Sartore/National Geographic/Getty Images

      Cartography by the Canadian Plains Research Center

      Distributed in the U.S. by Publishers Group West

      We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the Province of British Columbia through the Book Publishing Tax Credit, and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.

       To the memory of my parents Harry Sherk, 1920–2003, and Edna Sherk, 1919–2008

      CONTENTS

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ONE: Where Is Here?

TWO: Digging into the Past

THREE: The Geography of Grass

       FOUR: Secrets of the Soil

       FIVE: Home on the Range

       SIX: Water of Life

       SEVEN: Prairie Woodlands

       EIGHT: The Nature of Farming

       NINE: Long-Range Forecast

       FOR MORE INFORMATION

       APPENDICES

       MAP CREDITS

{ PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION }

      There is no way to hold back the future. But we can shape the course of events by engaging—fully, deeply, and passionately— with the present. . . This approach is sometimes referred to as a strategy of “no regrets,” because the work is worth doing now, no matter what happens next.

      EVEN NOW, SEVEN years after the fact, I can vividly recall the moment when I wrote those words, read them back to myself, and realized that I was done. My book on grassland ecology and conservation, the impossible project that had occupied me night and day for so many years, was finally finished. At the time, my main emotion was not so much elation—the satisfaction of a job well done—as giddy relief that I had managed to get the thing completed, somehow. It hadn’t been easy. Just as I sat down to write the concluding chapter, my partner, Keith, was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. (Don’t worry: he’s alive and well.) A couple of weeks later, my father suffered a stroke and died in hospital.

      No matter what happens next. Being alive is a risky business, and the inevitable conclusion of our life stories is not what, given our druthers, most of us would choose. We’re born; we die. And between the time when the lights switch on and the lights switch off, what are we to do? Let’s assume that you and I number among the fortunate minority of humanity who enjoy reasonable access to the basic necessities: food, clothing, shelter, and community. With our survival needs met, how do we “improve each shining hour” so that our brief lives are not a flash in the pan but a flash of brilliance? How do we craft lives of purpose and significance?