The Land 1
Extinctions, the Endangered Species Act, Biodiversity, and Biotic Integrity 35
Select Grassland Species 49
Black-footed ferret 49
Western prairie fringed orchid 52
Eskimo curlew 55
Swift fox 58
Dakota skipper butterfly 63
Prairie dog 68
Ferruginous hawk 70
Gray wolf 74
American burying beetle 80
Mountain plover 84
The Ecology of a Degraded Ecosystem 88
Fragmentation 88
Predators 101
Grazing 111
Exotics 120
Water 130
Roads 132
Fire 134
Public Lands in the Grassland Biome 138
The Metamorphosis of Wildlife Conservation 138
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 144
U.S. Forest Service 152
Bureau of Land Management 158
National Park Service 160
State Agencies 161
Can Biodiversity Conservation Occur on Private Lands? 164
The Waning Economy of the Rural Great Plains and Prairies 174
Buffalo Commons 186
The Farm Program 191
A Singular Opportunity 212
Exploring the Reserve Concept 218
Why do they need to be large? 220
Reclaiming lost land 231
Management 235
Tourism, economic, and social value 241
Hunting 246
Hypothetical Reserves 263
Other Sites 284
Idealogy, Reality, Morality, and the Future of the Great Plains and Prairies 288
Appendix 299
Appendix A: counties used for analyses, i.e., Great Plains and prairies 299
Appendix B: endangered, threatened, and candidate species in the Great Plains and prairies 309
Appendix C: scientific names of species listed in text (excluding those in Appendix B) 316
Literature Cited 322