ABSTRACT
Acknowledgment ................................................................................................... 117 References .............................................................................................................. 117
Grasslands are critically important ecosystems that serve as habitats for a variety of species of perennial grasses and other herbaceous vegetation, birds, animals, and insects. However, a majority of grassland biomes have been transformed, converted, or altered by human intervention on a global scale, with very few natural intact areas remaining. In North America, the grassland biome was once the most extensive, but has become one of the most threatened ecosystems (Samson and Knopf 1994). Since the remaining grassland ecosystems are inherently fragile, effective management strategies are important to address impacts driven by anthropogenic activities such as overgrazing, urban expansion, agricultural intensification, invasive species, and wildfire suppression under a changing climate. In fact, grassland management strategies have been moving toward integrated ecosystem and landscape-based approaches to address the impacts by focusing on areas such as biodiversity conservation, habitat restoration, and sustainable resource management (Bizikova 2009; Estrada-Carmona et al. 2014; Jun 2006). Such broad-scale plans bring partners and stakeholders together to realize common and shared objectives that consider both local and landscape-wide needs.
