Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie

by Dave Hage, Josephine Marcotty

A vivid portrait of the American prairie, which rivals the rainforest in its biological diversity and, with little notice, is disappearing even faster

“This book describes—in loving, living prose—one of the world’s greatest and most important landscapes. And it does so while there’s still time to save some serious part of it.”—Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

The North American prairie is an ecological marvel, a lush carpet of grass that stretches to the horizon, and home to some of the nation’s most iconic creatures—bison, elk, wolves, pronghorn, prairie dogs, and bald eagles. Plants, microbes, and animals together made the grasslands one of the richest ecosystems on Earth and a massive carbon sink, but the constant expansion of agriculture threatens what remains.

When European settlers encountered the prairie nearly two hundred years ago, rather than a natural wonder they saw an alien and forbidding place. But with the steel plow, artificial drainage, and fertilizers, they converted the prairie into some of the world’s most productive farmland—a transformation unprecedented in human history. American farmers fed the industrial revolution and made North America a global breadbasket, but at a terrible the forced dislocation of Indigenous peoples, pollution of great rivers, and catastrophic loss of wildlife. Today, industrial agriculture continues its assault on the prairie, plowing up one million acres of grassland a year. Farmers can protect this extraordinary landscape, but trying new ideas can mean ruin in a business with razor-thin margins, and will require help from Washington, D.C., and from consumers.

Veteran journalists and midwesterners Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty reveal humanity’s relationship with this incredible land, offering a deep, compassionate analysis of the difficult decisions as well as opportunities facing agricultural and Indigenous communities. Sea of Grass is a vivid portrait of a miraculous ecosystem that makes clear why the future of this region is of essential concern far beyond the heartland.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, History, Science, Environment, Audiobook, Ecology

474 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 27, 2025

Reviews

[Caleb Fogler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sea of Grass is an informative nonfiction text about the environmental history and greater conservation efforts necessary on the American prairie. I personally was fascinated with the history sections of the book both on the natural environment and human’s impact on the prairie. The authors also included landmark research studies to demonstrate human impact and its consequences overtime that impact both local communities and contribute to global climate change.

A large section of the book explores public policy regarding the protection of the prairie and how new innovative farming techniques can restore parts of the prairie, while still being profitable for farmers and local communities. These practices seem like no brainers solutions to me, but receive considerable pushback from the local communities who could benefit from them. I thought the authors’ use of personal testimony from individual farmers and political figures show the obstacles that environmental conscious farmers and conservation groups face when trying to restore the natural environment. Overall it’s a fascinating book for anyone interested in environmental history and restoration efforts.

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is somewhere between 2.75 to 4.25 stars, depending on how much knowledge one brings to the issue already, per a guide I use more and more in my own reading of nonfiction books.

For me, there were two main things I learned.

One was the use of tile drains in the boggy Midwest. Via Marc Reisner's "Cadillac Desert," I have long been familiar with them in irrigated areas of the desert Southwest, to reduce salinity in the soil water level beneath roots and carry off the salts in the West's alkaline water. The broad principles are the same.

The second was the development of new corn and soybean seed types for the northern high plains. (I have a friend whose wife, also an acquaintance, was born in Highmore, South Dakota, featured in the book.)

That said, the authors appear to pull some punches, and to miss some things.

One pulled punch? Bison in Yellowstone National Park almost certainly do NOT transmit brucellosis to cattle. That said, elk on the adjacent National Elk Range, fed hay in winter as if they were cattle, almost certainly DO, but ranchers and hunters in Montana and Wyoming don't like to talk about that.

Second and related, and also tied to a 2-star reviewer here? The degree of animus from ranchers toward bison, though mentioned, seemed downplayed.

Third, the degree to which it's not an either or of conventional big ag or people in West Virginia or New Delhi starving is underplayed.

Fourth, the degree to which Big Ag lobbyists control discussion on any possible changes to farm legislation, from expanding the conservation reserve program through expanding the types of crops eligible for insurance to sliding scales on insurance coverage.

There's lesser pulled punches here and there in the book.

One missed thing? The North American prairies don't magically stop at the 49th parallel. Especially since the authors wrote for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and they write in part about the Red River Valley, more on what's new in Canadian farming and ranching would have been good.

Another? The Noble Research Institute, a leader in regenerative ranching ideas, is nowhere mentioned.

A third, partially but not totally beyond this book? Just how "hollowed out" much of the plains is, not only from larger farm and ranch size, but consolidation in the agribusiness world, especially in things like meatpacking.

So, if you don't know what a local soil conservation district is, you might learn a fair amount. If you do? Not so much.

Speaking of, the authors don't discuss the thousands of SCD check dams across the country, backing up large ponds or small lakes, many of them constructed during the Depression and at the end of their estimated or expected life spans.

I thought about giving this a starless review but ended at 3 stars.

[Lynn Broaddus · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s only April and I already know my top non-fiction pick of the year: “Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie”. It’s that good.

Before I cracked the book’s spine I privately thought “How much am I really going to learn?” but I was mesmerized from page one. I quickly learned that I couldn’t keep it on my bedside table because I’d never get any sleep if I did.

The book starts off by orienting the reader to the prairie itself – it’s magic, its ecology, and its role in America’s nineteenth century transformation – then brings us to the predicament those advancements, if you’ll pardon the word, have placed us in today. Habitat and biodiversity loss, for sure, but also dead zones, pollinator collapse, flooding, drought, climate change, to say nothing of the social havoc it’s wrought for both farming and indigenous communities. Fortunately, the book closes with glimmers of hope – creative, passionate efforts that, if amplified, will lead us out of the morass.

Along with the narrative arc and overall theme, I got a kick out of the factoids dropped into “Sea” like glimmering coral atolls. Where else would I learn the mystery behind growing seedless watermelons, why the Red River flows north, or how long it takes for water to get from one end of the Mississippi to the other?

Hage and Marcotty hit it out of the park with this one. “Sea of Grass” is a game changer – for conservationists, farmers and ranchers, but also for history buffs, foodies, policy makers, and for anyone who has even a mote of curiosity about the world and their role in it.

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

You might not realize it, but the American prairie isn't just a vast expanse of nothing, it's an important and endangered ecosystem.

The gist of the book is that (1.) the prairie is both a biological hotspot and carbon sink on par with the tropical rainforest but (2.) due to being seen as "a vast expanse of nothing" it doesn't have the romance or legal protection of other landscapes so (3.) it was/is in in the process of being destroyed (the tallgrass prairie of the midwest is 99% gone, and the shortgrass prairie of the western plains is getting plowed due to advances in agriculture) and (4.) that destruction unleashes a triple-whammy of releasing carbon stored in the ground, replacing native plants with the fossil fuel-intensive corn and soybeans, which sends contaminants into drinking sources and aquatic ecosystems, but (5.) now that we realize the biological, climatic, and cultural significance of the ecosystem various restoration efforts are in place however (6.) forces backed by Big Ag, Big Oil, plain ol' fashioned GOP politics are doing everything they can to stop those efforts. It's pretty bleak.

A lot of times, when you read a book about some sort of ecosystem, species, natural phenomenon or what have you it follows a three act structure: The first part talks about the miraculous nature of the thing. The second part talks about the near total destruction of the thing. The third part talks about how we now understand the importance of the thing and a group of dedicated activists, scientist, and/or policymakers are saving the thing. This book tries to do that, but the "ruin" of Part II makes the "redemption" of Part III sound like too little too late. All throughout the book we're hearing about areas the size of New York, or half of Iowa, or whatever, being plowed every year, or having their drinking water contaminated. Then we hear about a prairie restoration project in Minnesota. When they finally mention the size, it's...55 square miles. Really just a drop in the bucket of what used to be. Lots of books about ecological topics make me sad, but like I said earlier, it's bleak.

I would give it 4.5 stars, because some of the chapters go on for a little too long, but I rounded up to 5. The chapter on the reintroduction of the buffalo was my favorite.

[Musavvir Mahmud · Rating 5 out of 5]

The American grassland is probably one of the most underrated great things of America. And this book describes it beautifully. The history, the ecosystem, the relation between nature and human - it's a great story of our beautiful earth. I read the book right after I visited those grasslands so I could visualize lots of things easily. Great book about a great landscape!

[Kerry Pickens · Rating 4 out of 5]

My problem with this book is not that’s it’s irrelevant or poorly written. I have just been reading books that are on overlapping topics having to do with natural history and I was aware of many issues covered in this book. For example, I recently read Timothy Egan’s Worst Hard Time and this book also has a chapter on the dust bowl. I belong to the Native Plant Society and worked at university agriculture research department so I am aware of the issues and learning more all the time. It’s not as grim as people think there are conservation ranching projects like the Bamberger Preserve in Texas that all over the country. Agricultural researchers are looking at alternatives for cattle feed (insects) and biofuels (sea algae) that do not require pesticides and water resources.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall I thought this was a well-written and interesting read, with a few personal caveats. It took me a while to get through it, which is a personal failing, but it actually is very readable for all of the information packed into it.

I do think it's a slight disservice to readers that the subtitle doesn't mention anything about farming, because essentially the middle 200 pages of this book are a primer on farming in the former prairies. I suppose it's obvious to spend so much time on farming, because they've taken over the prairies, but I was unprepared. That being said, I thought the look at farming and farming-adjacent environmental issues in the past and present was surprisingly eye-opening, as I know nothing about agriculture. The authors also portrayed farmers fairly while still acknowledging the damage being caused.

My other minor complaint is that at times you can tell this was derived from a newspaper series. Some key points or important pieces of data about the importance of the prairies or carbon sequestering or other thesis points were repeated in subsequent chapters, which makes sense if this was serialized. Not a major issue, but noticeable. However, despite two authors, I didn't notice any split in the writing voice.

Honestly though, I feel I learned a lot from this book and am thinking about fertilizer more than I ever thought I would. Just be prepared for the prairie/farming content distribution!

[Massimo Gulino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well rounded book detailing the many issues facing the prairie and how they were destroyed to begin with. I had no idea how ignorant I was to the plight of conservation within the Great Plains. Having read Buffalo for the Broken Heart, I see what’s possible for our food system. Really it takes a government willing to fund clean water, from local to state to federal level.

[Peter Herrel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned lots about prairies! Skipped the chapter on bison, but I wish the landscape was filled wall to wall the big beasties.

[Jonathan H · Rating 5 out of 5]

grass is cool, bison stick out their tongues while running, lets visit the Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge in MN or American Prairie in Montana

[elio · Rating 4 out of 5]

took me forever because i didnt want it to be done. made me cry a lot.

[LAErin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just terrific.

[Lisa K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid popular writing about the ecology of the western prairie. Hoping I retain some basics, such as how important grasses are in fixing and storing carbon, and the wild tile drains under so so much of the west. Good examples of conservationists, ranchers, farmers, tribes working together.

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

The authors begin Part Three of their book with this quote from Robin Wall Kimmerer:
"Plants know how to make food and medicine from light and water, and then they give it away."

That pretty much summarizes how essential the prairie (a sea of grass) is to our health, our environment, our well-being.

[George O. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent derailed summary of the downside of modern agriculture. And well written.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3.5*

I learned a lot, though parts of the framing were concerningly neoliberal with regard to the genocidal history of the grasslands.

[George · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some excellent material, marred all too frequently by completely unnecessary political partisanship. A real shame.

[Off Service Book Recs · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If a place isn't worth a vacation, is it worth protecting?"

To know something is to understand it, and with understanding, can come love and protection. For many Americans, the North American prairie is an oft out-of-sight, out-of-mind backdrop - a checkbox on a middle-grade geography test, a painted backdrop in a history lesson, and a wide, flat, and likely boring stretch of a trip to more exciting and exotic places by and or by air. Though the American prairie often takes on a mythical, aloof, barren, and somewhat despairing backdrop for TV dramas and old-time cowboy shows, it - like the universe - contains multitudes, providing a dazzling and dramatic backdrop for endless cycles of new birth, rebirth and reincarnation for untold numbers of living creatures that call the great grass seas home.

Though strangers from strange lands found this walkable sea to be unforgiving and ungovernable when they arrived over two centuries ago, human innovation in the form of the steel plow, artificial drainage, and nitrogen fertilizers sparked a revolution that would change the land and its people (both its native inhabitants and its foreign colonizers) forever. With great change, unfortunately, comes the opportunity for great calamity, which the farmers, consumers, and inhabitants of this landscape in modern times are experiencing first-hand as the balance of the prairie tips toward insurmountable ecological disaster.

Part epic history, part ecological exploration, and part call to arms, "Sea of Grass" draws readers to the unsung wilderness of a faraway sea - one of a biological diversity that would put a tropical rainforest to shame, and from which great transformation - and both boundless success and unfathomable loss - has been unearthed.

I adored this book, and highly recommend the audiobook while taking a walk through whatever kids of nature you have available to you. I definitely learned a lot about American prairie land that I had no knowledge of before - and that's as someone who likes to regularly read books about nature, ecology, and plant/animal/life science. I also really loved how the historical exploration of the prairie blended seamlessly into a bigger discussion around colonialism, resource exploitation, science in the name of "progress", and current affairs.

I think this book was a great call-to-arms that also explored on a more approachable level the way that these greater players - 200 years of history, a ecological cataclysm, and endless miles of "unused" land - affect individuals, families, communities, and cities on an intimate level. Readers interested in finding something to believe in and love about American in a time where that is increasingly hard, and who wish to learn more about the ways in which people are fighting back against the loss of an irreplaceable ecosystem (and potentially what they can do to help) should pick up this masterpiece!

[Randall Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an informative and timely clarion call identifying environmental dangers of current US agricultural policy and its associated destruction of the North American prairie. Well-researched and objective in tone. Incredibly apropos given recent WaPo article about exploding rates of cancer in young people living in the nation's Corn Belt (10/27), an area that is in the middle of (literally and figuratively) this story.

There is extensive discussion of the environmental degradation caused by nitrate-based fertilizers ala Rachel Carson and Barry Commoner in decades past. From the Red River Valley to the Gulf of Mexico, manmade pesticides have polluted our drinking water and continue to poison us in great numbers. Agricultural interests debunk these claims and suggest it's a small price to pay for the abundance of food they produce in the process.

As the WaPo story illustrates, these chickens are finally coming home to roost in great numbers, in ways that debunk those who maligned Carson, Commoner, et al., as Cassandras. This sh** is getting real and this book again draws our attention to a critical problem we face but one about which we don't hear much anymore. The murmur might have died down recently but the problem hasn't gone away and has only gotten worse.

The authors are journalists who wrote this book to expand on a series of articles they published previously in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where both work. I've been reading history extensively since undergraduate and graduate study of history in the 1980s. I'm always tickled at how much better journalists are at telling a story then historians or other academics who write books of this nature.

I have only one small quibble with this book, that otherwise would earn a 5-star rating from me. The authors published their newspaper series in 2012 Figured they would have completed their manuscript for this book within the last year or two. Despite some brief follow-up information in the Epilogue, would have liked some more detailed/recent updates on efforts by individuals and organization identified in the book to arrest some of the environmental destruction on the Great Plains.

Think their extensive analysis could have benefitted from some more detailed updates on what has happened, good and bad, to the subjects and locations they identified, over the past 10 years? Also, would have liked to hear their perspective on what might happen in the future, i.e, some prediction on whether these disparate efforts will reach a critical mass and perhaps make a substantial difference over time.

Again, my complaint shouldn't otherwise detract from a well-told tale that should be of interest to a wide swath of our countrymen and -women. READ THIS BOOK!!

[Fred Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book. It's well researched and up-to-date with plenty of interviews of different viewpoints on the ground and in organizations. The descriptions of research from the University of Minnesota are from people and labs I'm very familiar with. They were well represented and also covered contrary views as well. These are complex topics because people live and work on the Prairie, and aside from everything else, they need to make a living. Everybody in the Plain States can't just move somewhere and we just convert it to a Buffalo Commons. Not to mention the food grown. I grew up on the Prairie as a grandchild of homesteaders. I worked at the University of Minnesota around these sustainability and climate topics so I'm pretty familiar with both points of view. I thought this book covered them both pretty well. It can help you understand both the Ecology of what's going on and the Economy. There's obviously ideology in there as well but the book has a number of examples showing how to incorporate both those views into ways to address some of these issues going forward and deal with the ideology.

Some quotes -

"Some parts of Minnesota- the land of 10,000 lakes - have entire counties where not one lake is safe for children to swim. The EPA has stated that agriculture has become the nation's leading source of water pollution and rivers."

"Corn and soy beans have become more profitable than cattle, largely because generous federal subsidies and breakthroughs in hybrid seed and herbicides have made crop farming practical in the dry Dakotas. Now the plows are slicing up the mixed and short grass prairies of the western prairie, a place that has been in grass for thousands of years. The result? Ecologist say the North American grasslands are among the most endangered ecosystems on earth."

"Joe Handelsman estimates that a 10% increase worldwide in what's called soil organic matter -carbon rich plant and animal residues that are decomposing- in the next few decades could reduce atmospheric carbon by a remarkable 25%."

The term “sparing versus sharing” is used to refer to spare the prairie by converting it back to wildland or share it between traditional species and farming / ranching. There are examples of both but clearly in the long term it has to be shared. It's a long battle but there are definitely signs of things going in the right direction. Highly recommend the book.

[Gary Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review of “Sea of Grass” is a bit difficult, as the book provides an excellent documentation of a very real problems but then struggles some with objectivity. The book highlights the negative impacts of intensive corn-soybean cultivation throughout the Midwest and less convincingly of grazing systems further west. The criticisms of these human impacts from agriculture come across as a bit gratuitous in not recognizing human impacts on the East Coast and other areas of human habitation. This is despite a clear attempt to balance the perspectives of those dependent on agriculture with its detractors. Various issues - some are minor – suggest a lack of balance in the way they are treated. Aren’t seeds dispersed in cattle droppings, as in buffalo? How different is methane production from cattle versus wild ruminants? Buffalo are called ‘priceless’ despite many examples cited of actual prices for buffalo. European displacement of native people may be rightly criticized as colonization, but displacement of one group of native people by another is treated as a normal process. There is little discussion of pre-European human impacts on the grasslands – perhaps these were limited but the large Cahokia city must have had impact. The book is an important read but should be approached critically, as the authors may be taking the very real chemical runoff problems of the Corn-Soybean Belt and trying to generalize too far.

[Philip Kuhn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on the American Prairie. It's arranged into three section--past, present, and future. The section on the history of the prairie is excellent and should be used in college and high school history classes. It's informative without getting bogged down into too many details.

The section on the present is an interesting expose on farming in the Midwest, and in the world in general. Hage details how we have destroyed the land and the fertile soil that the native grasses produced, only to dump tons of chemical fertilizers and pesticides on them to grow more crops. All these chemicals end up running into creeks, which run into rivers, which drains into the Mississippi River and creates a "dead zone" the size of the state of New Jersey.

The authors also cover the other contemporary issues facing farmers and environmentalists, so it's not just a history lesson. Things like bugs, fertilizer, Federal subsidies.

The last part deals with efforts by conservationists to protect the land and restore some of the native prairie when helping farmers and ranchers. The authors talk to a lot of farmers in the area, as well as university experts. It's depressing to read about how many ranchers are plowing under the remaining prairie grass to grow more corn. As if we don't have enough already.

It's a really excellent book. I'd give it 6 stars if I could.

PHILIP KUHN

[Brandon Pytel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this in the leadup to my four-day jaunt across Kansas and Missouri. Though pretty long and detailed, it’s exactly what I wanted in an environmental, political, and geological history of the prairie that makes up so much of the middle of the country.

But above all it is a history of a colonized land, taken by European settlers encouraged by an American government, whose arrogance of progress led to the degradation of lands, a destruction that would wreak havoc on native peoples and the land alike.

Hage and Marcotty do a great job at dividing this history by chapter, focusing first on different elements that define the landscape of this land, from the Prairie to the Plow to the Nitrogen, each way describing how we altered this landscape, sometimes for good, but mostly for bad. Or at least with an abandonment of reason for short-term profit.

We learn of the ecology of the land, how it works as an agricultural paradise, in chapters on River, Dirt, Bugs, and Water, each showing us the valuable and intricate system on makes this such fertile ground — and what we have to lose if we take it for granted.

In Ranchers, Farmers, and Tatanka, we learn of the people who settled on and manage this land. The different solutions, the different politics, the different food grown, and rural-urban divide, and the culture surrounding this land and its history.

The thing is, this isn’t all bad. This prairie “produced astonishing beauty, gave land to landless immigrants, and built a prosperous rural society while establishing the West as a uniquely American place.” But we also sucked this land dry and plowed over it recklessly in our pursuit of the American dream.

Now we must not only face the ecological problems we created, but also a new set” climate change, water scarcity, tainted well, vanishing wildlife, polluted rivers, etc. But Sea of Grass also offers a vision of hope, laden with solutions and people that are changing practices to respect this land and make it work for people and for wildlife for future generations.

It’s just such an all-encompassing perspective and deep dive of a region that is so often overlooked. And it’s written with clarity and accessibility, weaving historical context throughout, that it makes for a rewarding and enlightening read.

[Laura Hoffman Brauman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The prairie is a particular topic of interest for me. I love prairies and we converted a little under an acre of lawn to prairie 3 or 4 years ago and planted another section about the same size this year. It doesn't take much to convince me of the value of the biodiversity that grasses and wildflower support. In Sea of Grass, Hage starts by exploring the environmental value of prairie - including biodiversity, protection against pollution, ability to store carbon, protection of the natural resource of soil - and on and on. After making the case for it's value, he explores the way the history of agricultural practices and our drive to always have more has led to the loss of most of the grasslands across the country. The elements of this around IL, Iowa, etc were not surprising to me - but I was not at all familiar with how much grassland has been lost in the last 40 or 50 years in the western prairies including western Nebraska, Montana, and the western Dakotas. He then looks at the way that conservation groups, many lead by local farmers and land owners are working to protect and restore grasslands and to utilize regenerative farming practices. This was a fascinating read blending environmental and nature writing and history.

[Dawn Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I [mostly] enjoyed this book [the narration was STUNNING] and learning about the prairie and all the harm that we have done to it and all the ways that people/scientists/conservationists are trying to save/restore it, MUCH of this book was W A Y above my pay grade and I struggled with all of the [important] science that is much of this book. The history part was both amazing and heartbreaking and had the whole book had just been the history, this would have been a five-star read for me.

That said, this is a V E R Y important book to read right now [one of the things stated in the book about some of the land not being renewed IN OUR LIFETIME was mind-boggling] and if you can wade through some of science [or just struggle to understand like I did], then this book is absolutely for you. It really is an important read and the history that is in this was really illuminating. While this book was a bit overwhelming for me, I am so glad that I read it and will never look at "the land" the same ever again.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dave Hage, Josephine Marcotty, and Random House Publishing Group - Random House for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

After taking a prairie walk with the authors, and having an ongoing conversation with Dave Hage, his and Jo Marcotty's collaboration on the history and state of the American prairie existing between the Smokies and Rockies was a must read. And I came away thinking, "Why isn't this required reading in high school science classes, or for farmers on the government dole? Incredibly, some of the people they interviewed are old friends or people I have met. This I knew ahead of reading, that this is the most altered ecosystem on the planet, even more so than the rain forests in South America. They blend natural history with current commodity ag practices, focusing on those who have an eye on protecting what remains of the last productive soil on the planet. Unlike David Montgomery's "Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations," which in itself is a sobering effort, I found more hope here, and that their last chapter focused on falconer/bison guru Dan O'Brien, gave Sea of Grass a high level of acknowledgement. A well written, timely and necessary book that I highly recommend!

[Kristin F · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t shut up about this book. I can’t help it, I’m telling everyone I know about the grass, the prairie, the agriculture, the animals and the insects and the agrochemicals. I’m talking about the complicated relationship between conservation of lands and waters and the agribusiness and necessity of feeding people. I’m ranting about the corporate interests that prevent us from incentivizing or requiring landowners to make even small changes to protect our lands and waters.

This book was a brilliantly researched and executed look into all the forces that have shaped and continue to shape the prairie. I was all in from the second I learned that only 1% of unplowed tallgrass prairie remains in America— and I appreciate the authors’ nuanced and informative look at what that has meant for all beings that make their home on this land. This is a book that energizes me. I can’t recommend it more.

[Jfp · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the Goodreads synopsis it notes the genres for this book including: History, Nature, Science, Ecology and American History. It definitely checks all those boxes and could also include others including the business of agriculture.

What a fascinating and insightful read. If one has any interest in any of the above topics along with a passion for how nature and people can co-exist you will find this book a great read. The authors do not paint a pollyann-ish picture, but do give several examples of where we can find hope.

I often find that journalists know how to research and tell a complex and in-depth story in an interesting and engaging way. This book is a great example of that gift.

[Ben Goldfarb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honored to provide a jacket blurb for this terrific book; here's what I wrote:

As epic in its scope as the prairie itself, SEA OF GRASS deftly chronicles the tragic destruction of North America's grandest ecosystem and the inspiring movement to restore it. Hage and Marcotty balance heartbreak and hope in this wise, impassioned ode to the prairie and its inhabitants, human and wild alike. Like an expanse of tallgrass, this book bursts with surprising life — you'll meet maverick farmers, rogue environmentalists, and ornery bison, all engaged in the vital project of saving our most vital biome from the vast forces that imperil it.
—Ben Goldfarb, award-winning author of Crossings and Eager

[Bob Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short story of the central plains

This book describes in some detail the dynamics i witnessed growing up in north east montana in the late 1940s and the1950s and the 1960s. I failed to fully understand the conflicting thoughts and policies of that era.

I did see the empty chemical barrels in the coulees. I saw a goodly number of folks struck down by what we know now is the plague of Rachel Carson, silent spring...will we ever learn the lessons?

Hope springs eternal with the good solid stories of buffalo, regenerated fields, crop rotation and other solutions posited in the well done work.