Unwanted No More: Land Use, Ecosystem Services, and Opportunities for Resilience in Human-In uenced Shrublands

Abstract

North American rangelands have never gotten much respect. In the years following the Louisiana Purchase, the US government commissioned teams of explorers to learn exactly what sort of place they’d acquired. One such expedition headed by Major Stephen Long produced a map labeling the Great Plains—the wetter portion of North America’s range- lands—as the Great American Desert. In his accompanying report, mapmaker Edwin James wrote of the region: ...

DOI: 10.2458/azu_rangelands_v36i2_brunson