3.28.2008 8:45 AM

Ethanol and the Unlucky 13

Alternative Fuel Frenzy Leading to Extinction of Grassland Birds?

A Burrowing Owl, one of the unlucky 13.

Photo: Frank Leung / Istock

By Dan Shapley

A swath of the American Heartland that has remained untouched, in many cases, for centuries, is being plowed up for – what else? – corn.

Since Congress mandated increased use of the alternative fuel ethanol, the price of corn has spiraled upward, dragging with it the price of just about every other food staple. As we've chronicled, the trade offs for this biofuel have been substantial, from world hunger to the polluting of the Gulf of Mexico from massive fertilizer runoff.

But USA Today chronicles another facet of the corn ethanol boom today: The loss of native grasslands, which in many cases taxpayers have paid to preserve. At least 2.5 million acres of formerly preserved lands will be planted this year, according to one estimate, and that follows a decline in native grasslands of a stunning 24 million acres from 1982 to 2002 – that's bigger than the state of Indiana.

With the grasslands go the grassland birds. The Nature Conservancy has labeled The Unlucky 13.