Table 1.

Floristic composition (percent cover), based on mean values for each comparative era of inventory. The Full Study includes all Service-owned prairies in North Dakota, South Dakota, and northeast Montana, including those of the Dakota Complexes and Drift Prairies (Grant et al. 2020a). Dakota Complexes include five Service-owned administrative complexes in North and South Dakota (Grant et al. 2009). Drift Prairies describe prairies within the glacial drift plain physiographic region located at J. Clark Salyer and Des Lacs NWRs (Murphy and Grant 2005). Low shrubs are primarily Symphoricarpos occidentalis (western snowberry) and Elaeagnus commutata (silverberry). Weedy forbs are predominantly Melilotus spp. (sweet clover), Euphorbia esula (leafy spurge) and Cirsium arvense (Canada thistle).