Naturalist Book Discussion: Sea of Grass

The North American prairie is an ecological marvel, a vast, grass-covered expanse once home to bison, elk, wolves, pronghorn, prairie dogs, and bald eagles. Together, plants, microbes, and animals formed one of the richest ecosystems on Earth and a major carbon sink, but agricultural expansion has decimated what remains. When European settlers arrived nearly two centuries ago, they saw not a wonder but a wilderness to conquer, and with the help of the steel plow, drainage, and fertilizers, they transformed the prairie into some of the world’s most productive farmland. This revolution fed the Industrial Age and made North America a global breadbasket, but it came at an immense cost, the displacement of Indigenous peoples, pollution of rivers, and the near-collapse of native wildlife. Today, industrial agriculture continues to erase a million acres of prairie each year. In Sea of Grass, veteran journalists and Midwesterners Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty explore this profound relationship between humans and the prairie, revealing both the challenges and possibilities faced by farmers and Indigenous communities as they navigate a future where preservation and productivity must coexist. Hage, a Pulitzer Prize, winning editor from St. Paul, and Marcotty, an award-winning environmental journalist from Minneapolis, bring decades of insight to this vivid portrait of a miraculous and imperiled landscape whose fate holds meaning far beyond the heartland.