{"id":786,"date":"2021-01-11T04:18:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T11:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forestcamping.com\/blog\/?p=786"},"modified":"2020-12-04T15:33:40","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T22:33:40","slug":"grass-has-been-around-a-long-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.forestcamping.com\/dow\/suzi\/grass-has-been-around-a-long-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Grass has been around a long time"},"content":{"rendered":"

We left the mountains of Arizona for the \u201cLone Prairie\u201d, a..k.a. the rolling expanses of\u00a0 Rita Blanca, Kiowa, Black Kettle, and McClellan Creek national grasslands.\u00a0 Fred and I were exploring the differences, history, and beautiful landscapes.<\/p>\n

Looking out across the vast expanse of prairie\/grassland got me wondering just how did it all come to be.\u00a0 The opening line the Peterson Field Guide for The North American Prairie<\/em> is: \u201cGrass has been around for a long time, perhaps 50 or 60 million years.\u00a0 But the North American Prairie as we know it evolved quite recently.\u201d\u00a0 Some say the Rocky Mountains which bound the prairie on the west, are between 100 and 200 million years old!\u00a0 The age of the\u00a0 Appalachian Mountains, the prairie\u2019s eastern boundary, are said to be 450 million years.\u00a0 So, how could the prairie be so much young then the mountain ranges that surround it?<\/p>\n

\"DinosaurAs I understand it, 70 million years ago the area we explored was a warm swallow sea filled with carnivorous fish and multi-ton dinosaurs wandered along the sea\u2019s marshy edge.\u00a0 About 65 million years ago, a geological event called the Rocky Mountain Uplift occurred.\u00a0 About the same time the climate changed.\u00a0 The result was dinosaurs and monster fish were replaced by ancient camels, rhinoceroses, horses and other herbivores began to wander over the evolving grass-covered area.\u00a0 This occurred\u00a0 between 25 to 14 millions years ago.\u00a0 Than, starting about 2.5 million years ago 26 episodes of sharp cooling sent mile-deep glaciers flowing from the north to cover the prairie as far south as Nebraska, Kansas, and Illinois but not as far of New Mexico, Oklahoma, or Texas.<\/p>\n

Looking across today\u2019s landscape it is hard to image, during those periods of cold, stands of spruce trees were common around here.\u00a0 But as temperatures warmed and the glaciers receded, the cold loving trees were replaced by grass which dominated the landscape.<\/p>\n

\"Grass,As Fred and I look at over this landscape of sun, wind, and grass, we must be reminded the prairie is still an evolving organic entity.\u00a0 What we see today is the results of millions of years of change, of nature\u2019s experimenting with flora and fauna.\u00a0 The camel, rhinoceroses, and horses that once roamed the grassland 14 million years ago have been replaced by pronghorn, prairie dogs, and bison of modern times.\u00a0 The grasses have changed, too.\u00a0 They evolved for the location and for the animals that depended on them.\u00a0 It is all amazing.\u00a0 And perhaps the most amazing thing, as I understand, is that this landscape is a totally unique American ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\"GrasslandThe four national grasslands we are exploring are in an ecosystem identified as \u201cShortgrass Prairie.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 These grasslands are located in the Rocky Mountain \u201crain-shadow\u201d which means, for most of the year, the area receives it little or no rainfall and the\u00a0 grass is dull and dry (a.k.a. cured).\u00a0 But come late Spring the jet-stream brings rain up from south and the grassland is lush and at its best.\u00a0 Wildflowers that bring color to the land but grass is the most important component of the landscape.\u00a0 The root systems of grasses, with names like Blue Grama and Buffalo Grass, weave a dense mat in the soil and hold the dirt in place even in the driest of times.\u00a0 This probably explains why after years of drought, we don’t experience another \u201cdust bowl\u201d event.\u00a0 The grasses hold the dirt in place.\u00a0 It’s a hard lesson learned from the 1930’s Dust Bowl days.<\/p>\n

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