The new book, "Sea of Grass," traces the history and future of the American prairie, laying out the stunning loss of grassland in North America and meeting the people fighting to bring it back.

Prairies once covered huge swaths of Missouri and Illinois, but now the majority of this ecosystem has been converted to farmland. Less than 1% of native prairie remains in both states.

In a new book, " Sea of Grass : The Conquest, Ruin and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie," environmental journalists Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty chronicle the history and future of this essential landscape. Hage and Marcotty were guests on St. Louis on the Air on Wednesday.

"Many of us Midwesterners think, 'Oh, it's that flat, boring part before you get to the mountains,'" Hage said. "What we

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