Grassroots Works for Grasslands The cooperation of willing
landowners within focus ar-ea's is crucial to the efforts.
Although much work is done on public land on behalf of
grasslands wildlife, stabilizing these populations requires that
habitat improvements be expanded on private land. Fortunately,
private landowners have expressed interest in a wide range of
projects, and have demonstrated long-term commitment to imp-
roving their grasslands. Although grassland wildlife face many
perils, two are particularly threatening. One is fescue, an
aggressive, exotic grass that crowds out beneficial food and
cover plants. About 17 million acres or 40 percent of Missouri
grassland is now occupied by fescue. The second is the
encroachment of trees that were once controlled by prairie
wildfires and native browsers. Thousands of miles of relatively
new tree lines provide travel lanes, hunting perches and denning
sites that support predators. Grassland birds and small mammals
nesting near these tree lines fall prey to elev