Historically a vast ocean of grasses could once be found throughout Kansas, but today our diverse prairie biome is collapsing. In this podcast, Dirac Twidwell, professor of rangeland ecology at UNL, talks about how our prairies are disappearing. Trees continue to spread throughout Kansas’ prairies, and that’s causing our open grassland landscapes to decline. For ranchers, saving the prairie environment means being a tree killer, not a tree hugger.
Read more about the aggressive canopy that’s swallowing the Great Plains in A ‘Green Glacier’ of trees and shrubs is burying prairies, threatening ranchers and wildlife. Learn how “a juggernaut unleashed by humans is grinding slowly across the Great Plains, burying some of the most threatened habitat on the planet beneath dense junipers and shrubland.”
Up From Dust is hosted and reported by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and David Condos. This episode was written by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and produced by Mackenzie Martin with editorial support from Scott Canon and Suzanne Hogan. Mix by Celia Llopis-Jepsen and Byron Love.
