The Future of the Great Plains .
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 become starved and eventually become extinct due to the loss of their food source and change in their habitat. These disasters can be greatly reduced, if not stopped, by careful consideration and planning by farmers and with cooperation with the climate.
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.