{ 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.
2323 Quebec Street, Suite 201
Vancouver BC Canada V5T 4S7
David Suzuki Foundation
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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
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,
