Human Threats
Overgrazing by livestock and plowing are the two greatest threats to temperate grasslands. Since the development of the steel plow, many grasslands have been converted into agricultural lands because of their rich soil. About 47 percent of temperate grasslands have been converted to agriculture or urban development. Lack of fire and fragmentation are also threats, as is past and present wildlife eradication (including the bison slaughter of the 1800s and ongoing prairie dog poisoning in North America’s plains).