During the morning session on Nov. 30 at the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association’s 14th Annual Conference in Harrison Hot Springs, B.C., Dr. John Pattison-Williams presented his talk on grassland inventories in Canada, the United States and Mexico. 

John noted that North America has experienced major loss of the grassland biome with only 38 per cent of temperate grassland biomes remaining across the continent. To help solve this, an intergovernmental collaboration, named Commission for Environmental Cooperation, has implemented a Grasslands Conservation and Migratory Birds project across North America. It is out of this project that John’s work with grassland inventories comes from.  
 
“Why do we measure?” asked John. “Why do we care?” Inventory is an iterative process involving economics, policies and end users. As an economist, from a profit stance, if there is no inventory and no knowledge of the value it is providing, we can’t tell what the profitability is. Finances affect and shape policy and comes back to the end users, for whom does it matter? 
 
Grassland remote-sensing workshops were held with the various grassland mapping groups in May 2023 and September 2023 to learn what is going well, as well as to discuss limitations and next steps. These workshops featured presentations from eight different organizations working on grassland inventories in different regions across North America. 
 
There are several grassland inventories underway and the project is currently putting together a preliminary table of the current state of all the inventories. This table includes the regions, physical extent, grassland definition, etc. Some preliminary strengths of the project are dedication, passion, wisdom, insight and intelligence. Multiple inventories across North America allows for long-term research, increasing technology advancements. 
 
Weaknesses of the project are due to varying definitions and classifications of grasslands. There is also limited integration between groups and language and cultural differences makes it hard to create accuracy assessments.  
 
Next steps include the need to keep the collaborations going across all the grassland inventories, as well as developing a data-repository platform. Overall, this project showcases ongoing research that is developing into a coherent national story. 

Additional Information 

Grasslands Conservation and Migratory Birds 

2023 conference recordings

To hear all of this session, you can purchase access to it and all of the recordings from the 2023 conference proceedings. Note, if you attended the 2023 conference, the recordings are available for free to those who registered for the conference. For more information, email [email protected]. 

2024 annual conference 

We’re heading to Guelph, Ontario Dec. 3 to 7 for the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association’s (CFGA) 15th annual conference. The CFGA is excited to partner with the Ontario Forage Council on this not-to-be-missed event that will celebrate the important environmental and economic role forages and grasslands play in Ontario, across the country and around the globe. 
 
This year’s theme is Roots to Success: The Foundation of Resilient Agriculture. During this not-to-be-missed three-day event, we will learn about exciting and cutting-edge happenings in the forage sector and gain valuable information and inspiration for anyone involved in the forage and grassland sectors across the country. Visit the conference website for more details.