In Palliser's Triangle: Living in the Grasslands, 1850-1930

Michael Payne is head of the research and publications program, Historic
Sites and Archives Service, Alberta Community Develop- ment, and
co-author of A Narrative History of Fort Dunvegan.

The heart of Palliser’s triangle is a vast stretch of arid,
grass-covered plains spanning the region between Swift Current and the
Canadian border and from the Cypress Hills to the Missouri Coteau. Based
on research undertaken for Grasslands National Park, this book looks at
the environmental consequences of historical changes in this region. The
volume is chronologically divided into three periods—the buffalo
plains, the range, and the dryland farm—which correspond with the
dominant economic uses of the grasslands between 1850 and 1930.

Potyondi argues that bison had a massive impact on the ecology of the
plains through their grazing habits, the creation of wallows, and even
the tons of excrement they produced every year. Consequently, as people
changed their views of bison from a subsistence to a commercial
resource, the landscape was affected, if only because herds declined and
then vanished completely. The replacement of buffalo herds with cattle
and horses also had ecological consequences. Ranchers viewed wolves,
coyotes, and bears as a threat to their herds and their profits.
Populations of these predators were quickly reduced through hunting,
bounties, and other means. Some, including the swift fox, disappeared
completely. The introduction of cattle and horses also led to
overgrazing in some areas. This in turn resulted in the decline of
native grass species, the proliferation of weeds, and the introduction
of grasses on poorly managed range lands.

Perhaps the greatest changes, however, were a result of the
experimental homesteading of arid lands. Substituting wheat and other
cereal crops for grass in a region with a dry climate and sandy soil is
a social, economic, and ecological disaster just waiting for the next
cycle of drought. The human toll taken by the 1930s on dryland farm
communities has often been described, but this study reveals the heavy
environmental cost as well.

Overall, this book suggests a new way of looking at agricultural
history in western Canada—an approach that considers human beings as
part of an ecological system and environmental change as a cultural, as
well as a natural or scien-tific, phenomenon.