An environmental group has issued a dire warning about the fate of the vast grasslands on the Canadian Prairies.
Nature Conservancy Canada says the grasslands are now disappearing at a rate faster that the Amazon rainforest.
While 20 per cent of the Amazon has been converted to other uses, Nature Convervancy Canada says more than 70 per cent of the prairie grasslands have been converted to other uses, such as agriculture and industry.
Dan Kraus, a Nature Conservancy Canada scientist, says the grassland shrinkage is having profound effect on biodiversity in the region.
“There’s a wild side to the Canadian Prairies, and that’s slipping away from us,” he says.
Kraus says more than 60 rare species make their homes in the threatened environment while millions of migratory birds flock to the Prairies for parts of every year.
Some bird species, he says, have lost 70 per cent of their population over the past four decades and unless something is done the decline will continue.
“It’s still a place where you can have this incredible spectacle of migratory birds,” he says. “We’re trying to protect some of those remnants that we have left.”
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