Conservationists launch effort to restore prairies

Four conservation groups are teaming up to try to restore some of the country's original grasslands and preserve the wildlife that depends on it. The groups announced the partnership Tuesday. Members say only 10 percent of North America's 585 million acres of original native grasslands remain, putting wildlife that live there at peril. The goal is to improve 60 million acres of habitat. Terry Riley, of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said the project's focus will be on grouse because those birds are a bellwether of the prairie's condition. "We have found that prairie grouse are one of the most sensitive (species) to change," said Riley of Albuquerque, N.M., formerly a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Other groups in the new Prairie Grouse Partners are the Mule Deer Foundation, Pheasants Forever and the North American Grouse Partnership. With help from U.S. Department of Agriculture data, the groups identified all the counties with prairie and assessed the condition of the grasslands. The area stretches from the plains in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, east as far as Ohio and south to the Gulf of Mexico...AP