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As the Corps moved into present-day South Dakota, they became aware of how the land was changing. Its wide, open vastness and grasslands inspired them, and its abundance led them to rapture. The sheer number of big game animals — pronghorn, bison and elk — was staggering. In fact, scientists often compare America’s historic prairies to Africa’s Serengeti. Again and again, in their journals and reports home, the men called this land a Garden of Eden. Limitless vistas greeted them. Food was plentiful and easy to take.
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In Their Own Words... |
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"These extensive planes had been lately birnt and the grass had sprung up and was about three inches high. vast herds of Buffaloe deer Elk and Antilopes were seen feeding in every direction as far as the eye of the observer could reach."
~ Lewis | | The expansive feeling that, for many, evokes the American West largely has disappeared. As homesteaders moved into the region, land was divided and divided again. It became farms and homes and communities. Two centuries later, much of these grasslands have disappeared. About 85 percent of South Dakota’s grasslands and 96 percent of North Dakota’s are lost. Some consider America’s tallgrass prairie — with less than 1 percent remaining nationally and in the Dakotas — the most imperiled ecosystem in the world.
Still, there are places where the sweeping panoramas that Lewis and Clark saw remain. Open prairies with long grasses sway in the wind, surrounded by wildflowers and meandering streams. The Conservancy has preserved and protected some of these last great places, while restoring still others. In a handful of locations, enough land was available to work on a landscape scale, truly allowing the vistas that inspired Lewis and Clark to thrive once again.
In addition to working with partners across the entire landscape of the Great Plains, the scale of some of the Conservancy’s preserve work here is formidable:
5,593 acres at Cross Ranch, N.D.
7,017 acres at Davis Ranch, N.D.
2,103 acres at John E. Williams Preserve, N.D.
7,800 acres at Samuel H. Ordway, Jr. Memorial Preserve, S.D.
Large, protected landscapes, like these, can support the variety of animals and plants needed to create a healthy ecosystem. Working on such a large scale meant the land could once again support bison, which have been reintroduced at the last two listed preserves. | 
