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Millions of acres of farmland in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Montana were abandoned during the drought of
the 1930s. Some of this acreage was acquired and designated for restoration by the federal government in 1933 and became a part of the Dust Bowl Land Unit Projects under the National
Industrial Recovery Act.* In 1960, under the Federal Multiple-Use Sustained Yield Act, approximately 4 million acres were designated as national grasslands to be managed, like national forests, by the U.S. Forest Service. Texas has 118,000 acres of national grasslands. Prior to European settlement, more than 20 million acres of tallgrass communities covered the Texas Blackland Prairie, the Fort Worth Prairie, the Fayette Prairie, and the Coastal Prairie. The national grasslands, like our national forests, are used for multiple purposes, including wildlife habitat, cattle grazing, and recreation. These grasslands are important wildlife habitat. The U.S. Forest Service has no plans to purchase additional lands or otherwise acquire new grasslands in Texas.*
Though there is little native prairies and grassland habitat remaining, the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department has identified the "patches" of shortgrass prairies in the Panhandle, the coastal marshes of the Gulf and the montanee grasslands of west Texas as priority habitats that should be
restored.*
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NATIONAL GRASSLANDS
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Source: Henry Chappell, "Discovering the Grasslands," Texas Parks
and Wildlife, No.3 (TPWD, March 1997), 34.
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