Grasslands

Native grasslands (native prairie) once covered vast areas of North America where it evolved and adapted under moisture stress - punctuated by intense storms, extreme annual temperature cycles, fire and grazing. Native grasslands in North America are amongst the most threatened ecosystem on the planet and it is still disappearing. It is within the grassland regions of Manitoba that the Provincial flower, the Prairie crocus, grows. With the decline in native grassland, many species that relied on the natural mix of vegetation it provided have also sharply declined. Several species reliant on native prairie are listed on the Species at Risk registry. Currently, only a fraction of 1% of the historic tall grass prairie still exists and less than 20% of the mixed-grass prairie exists in Manitoba.