About North Meadow Post

What This Site Covers

The Canadian prairies are among the most ecologically significant and historically altered landscapes in North America. Mixed-grass and shortgrass communities once covered an unbroken expanse from the Missouri Coteau to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, supporting a web of interdependent species shaped by periodic drought, fire, and intensive grazing by large herds.

Today, less than a fifth of Canada's original native grassland remains intact. The species documented on this site — plains bison, pronghorn antelope, coyotes, and the broader community of birds, small mammals, and invertebrates that depend on open terrain — tell the story of a landscape under sustained pressure and, in some cases, tentative recovery.

Articles on North Meadow Post draw on published research, government monitoring data from Parks Canada and provincial wildlife agencies, and the published literature on prairie ecology. No statistics are cited without a traceable source, and no organisations are referenced that cannot be independently verified.

Editorial Standards

Content on this site uses a descriptive, neutral tone consistent with natural history writing. Claims about species behaviour, population status, and habitat requirements reflect the current state of published knowledge and are updated when new information becomes available. Where data is incomplete or contested, this is noted rather than glossed over.

Species status designations follow the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and the federal Species at Risk Act registry, both of which are publicly accessible. Provincial designations are noted where they differ from federal assessments.

Geographic Scope

Coverage centres on Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba — the three prairie provinces — with reference to adjacent areas of British Columbia and Ontario where species ranges extend beyond the prairie core. Habitat types covered include shortgrass prairie, mixed-grass prairie, aspen parkland, and the river valley and coulée systems that intersect the open grassland.