Sandhills Grasslands - Nebraska Sandhills
by Susan Rissi Tregoning
Title
Sandhills Grasslands - Nebraska Sandhills
Artist
Susan Rissi Tregoning
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
The many shades of green in the prairie areas of the Sandhills always amazes me.
The Sandhills were created during the last Ice Age; as the glaciers retreated, winds blew the loose sand depositing it into dune-shaped formations as high as four hundred feet tall. These dunes stretch over a quarter of the state in length and are twenty miles wide. Thus, creating the largest sand dune formation in the Western Hemisphere!
Then the grasses took root and stabilized the dunes. When the early settlers discovered that the Sandhills were unsuitable for growing crops, they began raising livestock. Thanks to the lack of crop production, these grasslands are 85% intact natural habitat. They have over 720 native plants and only 7% exotic grasses, less than half of the exotics that other prairies in the Great Plains have. As a result, the Sandhills are a unique ecoregion. With native grasses covering 19,600 square miles, the Sandhills region is the most extensive contiguous and least disturbed prairies in the United States.
Copyright 2021 Susan Rissi Tregoning
Uploaded
August 19th, 2021
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Viewed 3,029 Times - Last Visitor from Fairfield, CT on 04/19/2024 at 1:45 AM
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