In the 1840s, migrants traveling west saw vast native grassland prairies stretching across the central region of the U.S. and Canada, covering more than 500 million acres before later plowing turned much of this land into America’s bread basket. Today about one-fifth of those prairies remain. Wyoming is unusual because more than half of its area is still covered by sagebrush and grassland prairie, and large sheep and cattle ranches have helped spare these lands because free-ranging livestock require broad expanses of prairie. These prairies provide crucial habitat for wildlife including antelope, sage grouse, ferruginous hawks, and many other species, even though conflicts sometimes occur between ranchers and prairie wildlife. A western culture has grown around the native prairies, their ability to provide food for people and wildlife, and the wide-open prairie landscape, and people living on these prairies have come to understand and appreciate their role as stewards of the soil and water for future generations.