The Great Plains, One of the Best Places in The Americas
Visit the extreme environments and incredible creatures of the Great Plains.
From the snow-covered landscapes of Alaska to the southern tip of Chile and all points between, The Americas takes viewers on an epic 10-part journey of natural splendor. In the third episode, we spend our time in “The Wild West,” a landscape populated by fearsome rattlesnakes, industrious woodpeckers, and the Great Plains, one of the most expansive and diverse environments on the planet.
How rain, wind, and fire sculpt the Great Plains
The sprawling Great Plains stretch for approximately a million square miles, covering roughly one-third of the continental United States. You can find parts of the plains in Montana, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. Above the northern border of the U.S., the plains extend into the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.
The Great Plains are bordered by the Rio Grande in the south, the Mackenzie River delta in the north, the Interior Lowland in the east, and the Rocky Mountains in the west. There on the western border of the plains, the mountains funnel cold northern winds and warm southern winds toward one another, generating some of the most powerful thunderstorms in the world.
The rains bring water but they also bring lightning, and wildfires. The flames burn down more than a million acres of the Great Plains every year, transforming the landscape into a charred and blackened thing, seemingly devoid of life. But it’s all a part of the ordinary life cycle of the plains.
Super powered grass supports prairie bison on the Great Plains
Periodic wildfires have helped to define the Great Plains and the sorts of plants and animals who live there. The flames destroy anything above the surface, preventing trees and other large plants from gaining a foothold, while allowing grasses to thrive.
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While wildfires burn down everything in their path, grasses have evolved to make a quick recovery. Their root systems extend more than 15 feet underground where the flames can’t get to them. Once the fire has died out, the roots pick up excess nutrients from the ashy soil and regrow their grassy tops. The plains are covered over in a new layer of grass within a few weeks. The fires determine what sorts of plants can survive on the plains. In turn, that determines the sorts of animals who come calling. It’s not the ideal home for forest-dwelling critters but it’s perfect for the plains bison.
Standing 6 feet tall at the shoulder and weighing more than a ton, the bison is one of the most iconic animals in North America. Roughly 200 years ago, there were an estimated 60 million bison roaming the continent. Thirty years later, they had been reduced to less than 1,000, through systematic hunting efforts and habitat loss. Fortunately, the bison was rescued from the brink of extinction and today there are approximately half a million in various populations across the Great Plains and elsewhere.
Sandhill cranes snack and dance on The Americas’ Great Plains
Today, much of the Great Plains have been converted into farmland, a vast stretch of agricultural operations sometimes called America’s Breadbasket. Farming efforts have reshaped the landscape but some species, including the sandhill crane, have managed to survive just fine while taking advantage of the proverbial breadcrumbs.
Every year, vast flocks of sandhill cranes return to the Great Plains to eat corn kernels left over from the recent harvest. It’s a snack run before they continue to their nesting grounds in a marshy tributary off the Mississippi River. Roughly half a million cranes gather together there to find their mates and raise their young.
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Standing 3 to 4 feet tall, the sandhill crane is covered in gray feathers, save for a red patch on their head. Once at the nesting ground, males begin to dance by jumping up and down while flapping their wings. If they’re dance moves are impressive enough, a female will join in, but choosing a dance partner is no simple decision. Sandhill cranes mate for life and they can live for 30 years or more.
Once a couple of cranes have hit it off on the dance floor, they’ll lay a couple of eggs and incubate them together. Eggs usually hatch after a month and young cranes leave the nest within a day, alongside their parents. By the time they are 2.5 months old, they’ve learned to feed themselves and to fly, but they’ll stay with their parents for another 6 months or so, following them on the next migration. Then it will be their turn to return to the Great Plains and the big dance.
Where to Watch The Americas
The Americas debuted with a special two-part premiere on Sunday February 23, at 7:00 p.m. ET. Viewers were treated to a documentary double feature two weeks in a row, following a schedule change. Future episodes will air weekly on Sundays at 8:00 pm ET and will be streaming on Peacock the following day!
