As the co-founder of American Prairie, Curtis Freese is an ecologist working to help restore the wildlife in the grasslands of the Great Plains. His book, "Back From the Collapse," is a study in what's happened over the years in the Great Plains and what's being done to establish a large refuge that will let bison, wolves, beaver, prairie dogs and grassland birds thrive once again.
In explaining his title, Freese said that the collapse refers to animal populations that have seen losses of 90 percent or more. "The beaver was the first to go in the early 1800s due to the fur trade," he told Steve Tarter.
The loss of beaver meant a keystone species was affected. "Beavers are the ultimate ecosystem engineers, surpassed only by humans in their ability to alter the landscape and what grows on it," stated Freese.
Beavers have even more impact on the semiarid systems found on the western Great Plains. "Beavers can ecologically transform small upland streams from narrow channels of water bordered by grass to ponds and marshes bordered by forest with far-reaching consequences for biodiversity," he said.
Freese pointed out that Native Americans recognized the beaver's role in the ecosystem.
Following the decimation of beaver populations, the bison and big predators were all but eliminated in the Plains before the 19th century was over, he said.
"In the 1880s and 1890s, four to six thousand wolves were killed every year just in eastern Montana," said Freese, noting that tactics included loading up a dead buffalo with strychnine. "Pretty soon there'd be a dozen dead wolves around the carcass," he said.
Freese touts present efforts to add on to the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in Montana, an area that spans 5,000 square miles. "American Prairie (americanprairie.org) wants to run it just like a national park," he said, adding that camp sites and huts are available to the public.
The Great Plains was once the American version of the Serengeti, said Freese, referring to the African refuge with its lions, wildebeest and Cape buffalo.
"People have forgotten what that looks like," he said, touting the range of North American animals that once roamed the Great Plains.
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