Expanding Crisis in the Prairie Pothole Region

When farm programs, known as “swampbuster” and “sodsaver,” began protecting wetlands and adjacent grassland ecosystems 25 years ago, the vast majority of wetlands in the U.S. already had been destroyed. The crisis has continued with the removal of protections in previous farm bills and factors encouraging the accelerated conversion of land to cropland. This factsheet shows the history of this ecological crisis, and how changes in the 2013 Farm Bill could affect the Prairie Pothole Region.