Trees and shrubs are invading prairies, hurting the wildlife and making it harder to ranch. Yet it's hard to know the full extent of the problem, so Kansas State University found a way to map it out on the cheap.

Kansas State University scientists are enlisting the help of artificial intelligence in the effort to conserve what’s left of North America’s shrinking grasslands.

Zak Ratajczak, an assistant professor and grassland biologist, says K-State scientists have trained a computer model to map in detail different kinds of woody vegetation affecting prairies, such as the aggressively spreading evergreens called eastern red cedars.

“You have to give it lots of samples,” Ratajczak said. “Then it figures out what the general characteristics are of eastern red cedar based on height and how

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