The Last One Percent
Most Endangered Ecosystem In the World
Canada’s prairies are one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. 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.
More than 70 per cent of Canada’s prairie grassland has already been converted to other uses. Much of what is left is fragmented and disturbed. SW Alberta retains the last one per cent of the remaining Great Plains grassland that supports a virtually full complement of species. We need to act now to keep this critical ecosystem from also being fragmented and lost to human activities.
“If we were talking about the last one per cent of the Serengeti, would people be motivated [to save it]?”
Critical To Our Future
Our grasslands are a diverse ecosystem that also contains wetlands, lakes and rivers. This important landscape is critical for providing a base flow of clean water to our rivers and streams, supporting sustainable ranching and preserving an incredible biodiversity of plant and animal species, including many endangered or “at risk”.
For more information on our disappearing grasslands, see the following NCC articles:
The Last 1%: the fight to save Canada's Northern Great Plains
Why Canada’s prairies are the world’s most endangered ecosystem
Carbon Storage
In addition to preserving endangered species, grasslands also play an important role in climate change mitigation. Intact native grasslands are particularly effective at carbon sequestration because of the deep and extensive root networks that store organic carbon up to three meters underground.
Fescue grasslands are almost impossible to restore once disturbed and even if restoration were possible it would take 50 to 150 years to replicate the carbon storage of displaced native prairie.