The Forest Service currently administers twenty National Grasslands consisting of 3.8 million acres of public land. These grasslands are managed for various purposes, including forage, fish and wildlife, timber, water, and recreation resources. While National Grasslands are valued for these basic goods, they also deliver other important services often perceived as free and limitless. Ecosystem services can be taken for granted because they lack a formal market and are traditionally absent from society's balance sheet. As a result, their critical contributions are overlooked in public, corporate, and individual decision-making. The Forest Service promotes public awareness of the importance of forests and grasslands to human well-being.

What are Grassland Ecosystem Services?

The health and well-being of human populations depend on the services provided by ecosystems and their components: the organisms, soil, water, and nutrients. Ecosystem Services are the process by which the environment produces resources such as clean water, forage, and range; habitat for wildlife; and pollination of native and agricultural plants.

National Grassland Ecosystems provide services that:

• Disperse seeds
• Mitigate drought and floods
• Cycle and move nutrients
• Detoxify and decompose waste
• Control agricultural pests
• Maintain biodiversity
• Generate and preserve soils and renew their fertility
• Contribute to climate stability
• Regulate disease-carrying organisms
• Protect soil from erosion
• Protect watersheds and stream and river channels
• Pollinate crops and natural vegetation
• Provide aesthetic beauty
• Provide wildlife habitat
• Provide wetlands, playas
• Provide recreation
• Provide research opportunities

What Are Grassland Ecosystem Services Worth?

Over 1 million visitors enjoy the ecosystem services provided on the National Grasslands annually. Aesthetic beauty is one example of an ecosystem service provided on the grasslands for which there is no substitute. For many, nature is a source of wonderment, inspiration, peace, solitude, beauty, and rejuvenation. The estimated value of aesthetic and passive use of forest ecosystem services alone is $280 million annually in the United States. Our National Grasslands provide aesthetic beauty in many forms, including wildlife viewing, by being home to a diversity of species, including golden eagles, grouse, pronghorn, elk, prairie dogs, and bison. National Grassland units contain the largest representation of threatened and endangered species. In addition, our grasslands contain thousands of species of wildflowers and stunning grass-filled vistas that are available year-round for the viewing enjoyment of our public.

Natural ecosystems and the plants and animals within them provide humans with services that would be difficult to duplicate. For example, pollination is a service without a technological substitute. Our National Grasslands provide habitat for thousands of species of pollinators. While placing an accurate monetary amount on ecosystem services is often impossible, we can calculate some of the financial values. Many of these services are seemingly performed "free" and yet are worth many trillions of dollars. Over 100,000 animal species - including bats, bees, flies, moths, beetles, birds, and butterflies - provide free pollination services. One-third of human food comes from plants pollinated by wild pollinators. The value of pollination services from wild pollinators in the United States alone is estimated at four to six billion dollars annually.

Most scientists believe there is a direct relationship between increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and rising global temperatures. Through photosynthesis, plants capture carbon dioxide and remove it from the atmosphere. Because the National Grasslands contain large areas of intact prairie and other grassland types, they provide the ecosystem service of carbon sequestration in grassland vegetation and soil organic matter. Grassland ecosystem services help sustain, support, and fulfill human life. These services can be tangible or intangible but are nevertheless critical for sustaining human well-being.

For More Information

• Ecological Society of America
  • Ecological Society of America - Fact Sheet
  • Ecological Society of America - Carbon Sequestration in Soils (PDF, 0.6 MB)
  • Ecological Society of America. Issues in Ecology, "Ecosystem Services: Benefits Supplied to Human Societies by Natural Ecosystems" (PDF, 0.5 MB). No. 2, Spring, 1997, Ecological Society of America.
• Harris, J. A., R. J. Hobbs, E. Higgs, and J. Aronson. 2006. Ecological Restoration and Global Climate Change. Restoration Ecology. Vol. 14, No. 2: 1y70-176.
• Krieger, D. J. 2001. Economic Value of Forest Ecosystem Services: A Review. The Wilderness Society, Washington, D.C.
• Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (M.A.). 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis (PDF, 14.9 MB). Washington, DC: Island Press. 137 p. (August 22, 2007).
• Myers, N. 1995. Environmental services of biodiversity. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA Vol. 93: 2764-2769.
• Sustainable Rangelands Roundtable

Dakota Prairie Grassland Nature and Science

Bird Status and Distribution on the Cedar River and Grand River National Grasslands, 2011

As an aid to visitors and researchers alike, this document describes bird habitats, categories of birds, and their types. Dan Svingen, David Griffiths, and Carolyn Griffiths provided the updated version, which includes photographs of most birds taken within the Cedar River and Grand River National Grasslands. 

Plants of the Cedar River and Grand River National Grasslands, 2008

This booklet, by Kurt Hansen, summarizes the current list of known plant species found in the Grand River Ranger District, with many photos of plants.