WWF’s 2024 Plowprint Report marks a significant increase in geographic scope, now covering the full contiguous United States and the grasslands region of Canada, with data dating back to 2012. While the focus of the Plowprint Report remains on the grasslands of the Great Plains, the increased extent allows for information on other geographies and enables countrywide or regional comparisons to other methods of grassland analysis.
Additionally, this year’s report is the first to include dynamic urban expansion tracking. This new capability allows for tracking of cropland that is eliminated for development, including that which has been absorbed by urban and exurban expansion (areas located outside of a city’s suburbs, but still has a connection to the city in terms of jobs and services) and energy development. As former croplands are removed from production, these activities can drive new conversion of grasslands to row crops in other areas.
In 2022—the year this report examines—approximately 1.9 million acres of grasslands were converted to croplands across the US and Canadian portions of the Great Plains region. This figure, while significant, represents a slight improvement from the previous 10-year average of 2.6 million acres per year. In the Northern Great Plains region, which represents one of the world’s four largest intact temperate grasslands, 480,000 acres—an area 2x the size of New York City—were converted in 2022. This is lower than the 10-year average of about 630,000 acres per year, but, as with conversion across the Great Plains, this is not an acceptable level of loss.
Download this year’s report to learn more about the state of grasslands across the Great Plains and the policy opportunities that WWF has identified as offering the most promise for the future of this irreplaceable landscape.
