The Great Plains consists of miles and miles of sloping hills, a few trees, shrubs, and short grasses. Not very many trees inhabit these lands but far more today than 50 years ago. As time has passed, the land has become more and more vulnerable to erosion and desertification. These transformations have been caused by over-grazing and droughts. If these problems are not addressed, the Great Plains may one day, more or less than a century or two from now, be another Sahara Desert. “The most effective approach to maintaining wildlife within agricultural ecosystems over the long term requires conservation plans to be systematic with agricultural production” (Allen, Cade, Vandever 2001). In order to have a land that will be beautiful in the years to come, some changes need to be made by the people who live on them.

Agriculture and rangeland practices are the main causes of erosion and desertification. Some effects of agriculture and rangeland practices on the environment are, but not limited too, the over-grazing of pastures by large and small animals which will then, in turn, cause the land they graze to begin the process of desertification and erosion and that will cause the animals to

A good quality of soil is need to provide the plants that grow in it with enough nutrients to replenish itself after being eaten by animals. Humans and animals need nutrients to survive. So where do people think they get these nutrients? The plants they eat and the plants get them from the soil they grow in. Soil performs many functions inside the ecosystem. “ Soil quality has been defined as: ‘the capacity of a soil to function, within ecosystem and land-use boundaries, to sustain biological productivity, maintain environmental quality, and promote plant and animal health’” (Wienhold, Hendrickson, Karn 2001). So in order for there to be a balanced ecosystem, the soil has to be of a great quality in order to support the life of plants and animals. Soil quality is only one measure of ecosystem health and is most useful when combined with other ecosystem attributes to be discussed in a later paper. Although droughts and over-grazing are some main problems, they are not the only ones.

Every year many respected journals come out with volume after volume of articles concerning the rapid depletion of the Great Plains. Usually they are the publications like the “Journal of Soil and Water Conservation” or even a local farming community paper like “The Log Cabin Gazette”. These publications have become more and more prominent in the past decade to address the problems and inform the readers of what is happening now more than ever before due to a huge increase in population of herds and natural, wild species. As the herds become larger, over-grazing becomes something that cannot be avoided at all times. When the land becomes over-grazed, erosion starts to happen.

Droughts have had detrimental effects on animal populations. The lesser prairie chicken is one of these affected animals. “Since 1800, the lesser prairie chicken range has decreased *90% and the population size has decreased by more than 97% since 1800” (Applegate and Riley 1998). Most of this decrease has been caused by serious droughts. These droughts have caused a shortage in the lesser prairie chickens food source. This however is not the only reason for their decline. “Intensive agriculture and livestock graz

Some topics in this essay:
Applegate Riley, Cabin Gazette”, Riordan Cicalese, Plains Droughts, Cade Vandever, Hendrickson Karn, Hart Hart, Plains Plains, Sahara Desert, Water Conservation”, animals cause, prairie chicken, soil quality, lesser prairie, short grasses, agriculture rangeland practices, agriculture rangeland, animals humans, bowden 1977, process desertification, desertification erosion, applegate riley 1998, process desertification erosion, lesser prairie chicken,