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Background and Objectives: Intermediate wheatgrass (IWG) is an underutilized perennial grain in the Canadian market with excellent nutritional and environmental benefits. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the growing environment on the physiochemical and functional properties of IWG grown in three different growing locations in the Canadian prairies. IWG flours were compared between growing locations and years as well as alongside Canada Western Red Spring Wheat whole meal (CWRS‐WM) and refined flour. Findings: The proximate composition of IWG flours between years and growing locations had significant (p <.05) differences for protein, fiber, and ash content but showed little difference for starch content. Owing to differences in proximate composition, variances in mixing parameters, starch pasting properties, and protein profiles were observed. Overall IWG performed poorly in a bread system at 100% incorporation largely due to its lack of high molecular weight glutenin. Conclusion: Understanding the impacts that growing location and year have on the proximate composition and therefore working parameters will aid in the development of new wheat products fortified with IWG. These products will contribute to a more resilient and diverse food system, that will provide nutrient‐dense food options for consumers. Significance and Novelty: There is very limited research on IWG grown in the Canadian prairies, and this study is among the first studies focused on characterizing IWG grown in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plains Bison once had the largest population and range of any terrestrial herbivore in North America. Bison now occupy less than 2% of their historic range, mostly behind fences of state-run and private organizations. In 2014, Indigenous groups across North America signed The Buffalo Treaty, calling for bison rewilding. This paper examines barriers to rewilding on Canada's prairies in the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Through interviews we asked government and NGO representatives what prevents bison reintroduction and rewilding. Our results suggest that the main barriers are social acceptance and material resources. These findings support previous research in the United States and Europe and provides a foundation for future research that could include other actors, such as landowners, Indigenous organizations, and industry representatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Prairie region of Canada is an agriculture-intensive area and is strategic to Canada's food security. Moisture deficit due to extreme temperatures leading to high evapotranspiration can have significant impacts on water availability, resulting in poor crop yield. The primary objective of this study is to quantify the spatial structure and dependency of extreme temperatures by employing Max-Stable Process (MSP) modeling on daily annual maximum temperature data spanning 1970–2020. The spatial trend surface of the marginal parameters of the Spatial Generalized Extreme Value (SGEV) shows that geographical coordinates, topography due to the Rocky Mountains, and proximity (Euclidean distance) to Hudson Bay are important covariates in capturing the spatial trend of extreme temperatures. Furthermore, through the SGEV, important products such as the point-wise return periods and levels were derived using the best selected model as determined by Takeuchi's information criteria. The return levels show that the southern portion of the Canadian Prairies shows a consistent increase in extreme temperature for all the return periods. The results show that all the return periods mentioned above have extreme temperatures exceeding 37 °C in the southern portion of the Canadian Prairies. An unconditional simulation using the fitted MSP model provided various realizations of temperature extremes. The results from this study provide important insights into extreme temperatures in this important region, where water resources management is crucial. This study will be beneficial to the hydrologists, water resource specialists, climate change scientists and policy makers involved in the monitoring of extreme events in the Canadian Prairies.

Although vegetation succession in the Piedmont of eastern North America favors closed-canopy forest in the absence of disturbance, historical evidence suggests upland vegetation of the region was, in near history, characterized by areas of heliophilic vegetation, such as prairies, savannas, and woodlands. While some work has been undertaken to characterize putative remnant communities at the local and subregional level, there has been no comprehensive, quantitative study to characterize the breadth of heliophilic vegetation commonly referred to as "Piedmont prairies" in the mid-Atlantic portion of the Piedmont, despite evidence that more than one community type is likely represented. We fill this gap by assessing Piedmont prairie communities in the present-day landscape using the best quantitative vegetation data currently available from the Carolina Vegetation Survey vegetation-environment database. We extracted records for 195 permanent vegetation plots representative of upland, terrestrial, open or semi-open vegetation in the Piedmont of the Carolinas and Virginia, a region coinciding with 17th- and 18th-century accounts of historical savannas. Through hierarchical clustering (flexible-β) and stride analysis (plotting the PARTANA ratio and silhouette width), we determined the optimal partition for our dataset to be 12 clusters. The R package optpart was used to move plots between clusters to further ensure plots are members of their best-fit cluster. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination was used to visualize compositional trends in the dataset. We identified 12 major types of heliophilic vegetation that can be categorized into five larger groupings: Piedmont Oak-Hickory and Red Cedar Woodlands, Piedmont Glades, Piedmont Pine Woodlands, Piedmont Savannas and Grasslands, and Piedmont River Terrace Glades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tallgrass prairie is among the most threatened ecosystems but is often fragmented and surrounded by human‐modified landscapes. Small mammals are integral components of tallgrass prairies. However, little is known about how landscape composition, configuration, and management impact small mammals in tallgrass prairies.We conducted a systematic literature review to identify species‐specific and community associations with three broad topics: landscape composition, landscape configuration, and management practices.We identified 61 studies that assessed our variables of interest. We categorised the location, species assessed, variables monitored, and results by species and for the community.The majority of studies (64%) were conducted in two states, Illinois and Kansas. Deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus), prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster), and white‐footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) showed specific associations with landscape variables, with deer mice preferring bare ground and recently burned plots, and prairie voles preferring thatch and negatively associated with prescribed fire. White‐footed mice were frequently associated with wooded areas.Small mammal biodiversity was positively associated with patchy habitats containing greater diversity in vegetative composition and management regime. Management and land composition were both relatively well studied for several species; habitat configuration was understudied.We identified significant gaps in our understanding of small mammal landscape ecology in tallgrass prairies. With tallgrass prairie restoration a growing trend in this region, a greater understanding of drivers of small mammal populations will be crucial to successful restoration efforts. Future research should focus on understudied areas and species, and examine how habitat heterogeneity impacts small mammal biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is a primary manager of federal public lands in the northern Great Plains region, with over 400,000 hectares (ha) of mostly grassland and wetland administered under the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS). More specifically, the Service manages > 100,000 ha of mixed-grass and tallgrass prairie in northern Great Plains states. Prairies range from small, isolated < 16-ha tracts embedded in agricultural landscapes to > 10,000-ha contiguous tracts embedded within grassland-dominated landscapes. The mission of the NWRS is uniquely wildlife/wildland oriented, with human uses secondary in importance. As such, the expectation is that natural plant communities occur as relatively high-quality habitats. Grant et al. (2009) explored this expectation, concluding that "Despite 40–70 years of protection, the integrity of many prairies held in public trust continues to decline, primarily because of invasion by cool-season, introduced plants and woody vegetation." To address this concern, the Service proposed a program to evaluate restoration of Service-owned prairies following principles of adaptive management, including a decision support function. Our purpose in this paper is to update 14 years of development and implementation of the Native Prairie Adaptive Management (NPAM) program. We confirmed that Service-owned prairies continue to be degraded by invasive plants, especially Bromus inermis (smooth brome) and Poa pratensis (Kentucky bluegrass). However, NPAM has facilitated a significant gain in our understanding of ecological restoration and management of prairies in the region, increasing hope that restoration successes can occur when viewed over the long-term (i.e. many decades). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary explores the vulnerabilities faced by temporary foreign workers (TFWs) in Manitoba, Canada within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. TFWs often endure substandard working conditions and lack access to essential healthcare services due to their status as non-citizens. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated their precarious situation, with TFWs experiencing disproportionately high rates of infection. Conducted in partnership between Migrante Manitoba and the University of Manitoba's Institute for Global Public Health, our research aimed to examine the healthcare barriers around vaccine uptake among TFWs in Manitoba by locating it within the wider structural context of inequality. We highlight the need for a comprehensive understanding of the unique healthcare needs and barriers faced by TFWs.

This article considers the gardening work of prairie women in the context of farming difficulties and agricultural rehabilitation on the Canadian Prairies in the 1930s and 1940s. It is based on analysis of gardening coverage in the Western Producer (a prairie periodical aimed at English-speaking farm families) and engagement with the records of federal government officials involved in the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration and the Experimental Farms Service. The article establishes the significance of women's gardening work and its important role in agricultural rehabilitation. In doing so, the article makes clear the ambition underlying agricultural rehabilitation, a federal government project intended to help protect permanent homes for settler families on the Canadian Prairies. Contributing to the understudied topics of rural experiences in women's history and of women's experiences in environmental history and the history of knowledge, the article illustrates the importance of considering gendered knowledge from below in grappling with the consolidation of agricultural colonization on the Canadian Prairies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]