America's Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie
Prior to Euro-American settlement in the 1820s, one of the major landscape features of North America was 240 million acres of tallgrass prairie. But between 1830 and 1900 -- in the space of a single lifetime -- the tallgrass prairie was transformed to farmland. This drastic change in the landscape also brought about a social change for Native Americans; in an equally short time, their cultural imprint was reduced in essence to a handful of place names appearing on maps. This program examines the record of human struggle, triumph, and defeat that prairie history exemplifies, including the history and culture of America's aboriginal inhabitants. It also highlights prairie preservation efforts and explores how the tallgrass prairie ecosystem may serve as a model for a sustainable agriculture of the future.
Watch the trailer America's Lost Landscape
Watch the trailer America's Lost Landscape
Added on July 18, 2008 by RachelCarson100
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