A national grassland is an area of protected and managed federal lands in the United States authorized by Title III of the Bankhead–Jones Farm Tenant Act of 1937 and managed by the United States Forest Service . For administrative purposes, they are essentially identical to national forests , except that grasslands are areas primarily consisting of prairie . Like national forests, national grasslands may be open for hunting, grazing, mineral extraction, recreation and other uses. Various national grasslands are typically administered in conjunction with nearby national forests.
4-409: Fort Pierre National Grassland is a United States National Grassland in central South Dakota , south of the capital city Pierre and its neighbor Fort Pierre . The national grassland is primarily a mixed-grass prairie and has a land area of 115,890 acres (46,900 ha). In descending order of area it lies in parts of Lyman , Stanley , and Jones counties. Part of the movie Dances with Wolves
8-566: The average size of a national grassland is 191,914 acres (77,665 ha). The largest, the Little Missouri National Grassland in North Dakota, covers 1,028,784 acres (416,334 ha), which is approximately the median size of a national forest. As of September 30, 2007, the total area of all 20 national grasslands was 3,838,280 acres (1,553,300 ha). The catastrophic Dust Bowl of the 1930s led to
12-709: The edge of the Great Plains . Those four are in southeastern Idaho , northeastern California , central Oregon , and a reserve in Illinois . The three national grasslands in North Dakota , together with one in northwestern South Dakota, are administered jointly as the Dakota Prairie Grasslands . National grasslands are generally much smaller than national forests – while a typical national forest would be about 1,000,000 acres (400,000 ha),
16-776: Was filmed there. It is managed by the U.S. Forest Service together with the Nebraska and Samuel R. McKelvie National Forests and the Buffalo Gap and Oglala National Grasslands from common offices in Chadron , Nebraska . There is a local ranger district office located in Pierre . This article related to a protected area in South Dakota is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . National Grassland All but four national grasslands are on or at
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