Great Plains Sand Prairie
Global Name:
Northern Great Plains Sand Prairie
Global Rank:
G3?
State Rank:
S3S4
(see reason below)
External Links
State Rank Reason
These grassland habitats are much less common than the dry mixedgrass prairie but likely have not declined in condition and extent to the same degree nor are they likely as threatened by invasive species, grazing practices or other uses.
General Description
This National Vegetation Classification Group is composed of sand prairies, which are a unique grassland type occurring mostly as localized patched in sandy soils across the western Great Plains. In Montana, they are most common in the very eastern part of the state though can be found in scattered locations across the plains. These habitats are largely confined to areas where sandstone caprocks have weathered, depositing large amounts of sand onto the adjacent landscape. Patch size often corresponds to the area of exposed caprock sandstone, and small patches predominate, but larger patches are found embedded in the encompassing Great Plains Mixed Grass Prairie, and usually occupy higher positions in local landscapes where former caprock formations have eroded into more subdued and planar topography. Soils can be relatively thin or deep due to varying amounts of downslope movement of weathered sands. Soil textures are mostly sands and sandy loams. Needle and thread (Stipa comata) is often the dominant grass species. Other common species include Prairie Sandreed (Calamovilfa longifolia), Sand Bluestem (Andropogon hallii), Bluebunch Wheatgrass (Elymus spicatus), Threadleaf Sedge (Carex filifolia) and Carex inops ssp. heliophila are common dominants. Big Bluestem and Sand Bluestem are found only as small patch occurrences in easternmost Montana, while other graminoids typical of the mixedgrass prairies are also found in Sand Prairie habitats. Soapweed Yucca (Yucca glauca) commonly occurs on these sandy, upland sites.
This group is equivalent to the Great Plains Sand Prairie Ecological System.
Diagnostic Characteristics
Grass-dominated; Sandy Soils; Great Plains Region; Warm and Cool Season Grasses
Typical Dominants: Prairie Sandreed (Calamovilfa longifolia), Sand Bluestem (Andropogon hallii), Needle-and-Thread (Stipa comata), Carex inops ssp. heliophila
Similar Systems
Range
This group is found in mostly localized areas throughout the Great Plains in Montana but is most common in the very eastern part of the state including in areas such as the Medicine Lake Sandhills and around Medicine Rocks State Park. Scattered occurrences may be found in central Montana near the western edge of the Great Plains in pockets of sandy soil.
In Montana, G889 occurs in Level III Ecoregions: 42 (Northwestern Glaciated Plains) and 43 (Northwestern Great Plains).
In Montana, G889 occurs or potentially occurs within these Major Land Resource Areas: 46 Northern and Central Rocky Mountain Foothills, 52 - Brown Glaciated Plains; 53A - Northern Dark Brown Glaciated Plains; 53B - Central Dark Brown Glaciated Plains; 54 - Rolling Soft Shale Plain, 58A,B,C,D - Northern Rolling High Plains, 60B - Pierre Shale Plains, Northern Part.
Density and Distribution
Based on 2025 land cover layer. Grid on map is based on USGS 7.5 minute quadrangle map boundaries.
Mapped Distribution by County
Big Horn, Blaine, Carbon, Carter, Cascade, Chouteau, Custer, Daniels, Dawson, Fallon, Fergus, Garfield, Glacier, Golden Valley, Hill, Lewis and Clark, Liberty, Mccone, Meagher, Musselshell, Park, Petroleum, Phillips, Pondera, Powder River, Prairie, Richland, Rosebud, Sheridan, Stillwater, Sweet Grass, Teton, Toole, Treasure, Valley, Wheatland, Wibaux, Yellowstone
Based on 2025 land cover layer.
Spatial Pattern
Small Patch and Large Patch
Environment
This group is found on sandy and sandy loam soils, generally in areas with a rolling topography, although it can occur on ridges, midslopes and/or lowland areas. Occurrences are often intermixed with the Great Plains Dry Mixed Grass Prairie, which occurs on less sandy soils. The climate is temperate, mostly continental and semi-arid to arid. Precipitation occurs mostly in the Spring. Summers are hot and dry, except for locally occurring, high-intensity convective storms. Soils are susceptible to wind erosion. Wind is a dominant factor that shapes the landscape where this group occurs as it sometimes scours sand and vegetation from small areas and creates blowouts. In most of eastern Montana, substrates supporting this group have weathered in place from sandstone caprock; thus the soils are relatively thin.
Vegetation
Graminoid species dominate the sand prairies, though shrubby species and forbs are often present. Prairie Sandreed (Calamovilfa longifolia), Sand Bluestem (Andropogon hallii), Needle-and-Thread (Stipa comata), Bluebunch Wheatgrass (Elymus spicatus), Threadleaf Sedge (Carex filifolia) and Carex inops ssp. heliophila are common dominants. Big Bluestem and Sand Bluestem are found only as small patch occurrences in easternmost Montana, while other graminoids typical of the mixedgrass prairies are also found in Sand Prairie habitats. Soapweed Yucca (Yucca glauca) commonly occurs on sandy, upland sites. Characteristic forbs include species of Scurf pea and Breadroot (Pediomelum, Psoralidium), Narrow-leaved Purple Coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia) and several species of Milkweed (Asclepias). Skunkbush Sumac (Rhus trilobata) and Creeping Juniper (Juniperus horizontalis) are commonly found on shallow sandy soils, often associated with breaklands. Other shrubs occasionally found within this type include Silver Sage (Artemisia cana) and Wyoming Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis).
In Montana, Sand Prairie vegetation types are represented by 2 Alliances and 5 Associations within the National Vegetation Classification. These include 1 Alliance and 3 Associations that have a shrubby vegetation component. Additional, herbaceous-dominated types may exist in the state, either undescribed or unattributed to Montana.
National Vegetation Classification
Download the complete NVC hierarchy for Montana
TT4 B04 Temperate-Boreal Grassland and Shrubland
TT4.b S58 Temperate Grassland and Shrubland
TT4.b1 F116 Temperate Lowland-Montane Grassland and Shrubland
TT4.b1.Nf D023 Central North American Grassland and Shrubland
TT4.b1.Nf.6 M052 Great Plains Sand Grassland and Shrubland
TT4.b1.Nf.6.b G889 Northern Great Plains Sand Prairie
A1201 Calamovilfa longifolia - Hesperostipa comata - Andropogon hallii Sand Prairie Alliance
CEGL001471 Calamovilfa longifolia - Carex inops ssp. heliophila Grassland
CEGL001473 Calamovilfa longifolia - Hesperostipa comata Grassland
A1540 Yucca glauca - Calamovilfa longifolia Sand Prairie Scrub Alliance
CEGL001457 Rhus trilobata / Calamovilfa longifolia Shrub Grassland
CEGL001499 Yucca glauca / Pseudoroegneria spicata Shrub Grassland
CEGL002675 Yucca glauca / Calamovilfa longifolia Shrub Grassland
*Disclaimer: Some Alliances and Associations are considered provisional. Some require further documentation to verify their occurrence in the state
and some may be modified or deleted in future revisions after collection of additional data and information.
Dynamic Processes
Wind is a dominant factor that shapes the landscape where this group occurs. Wind sometimes scours sand and vegetation from small areas and creates blowouts. These blowouts may initially be colonized by species such as Yucca glauca, and Indian Ricegrass (Oryzopsis hymenoides). Eventually, these blowouts succeed to other communities (Savage 1937, Ramaley 1939b, Tolstead 1942, Harrison 1980). Fire frequency and extent are also thought to have declined since settlement because of fuel removal by livestock grazing and fire control (Burzlaff 1962, Wolfe 1973). Consequently, active dunes and large blowouts are less common now.
These grasslands provide excellent summer forage and need careful management to prevent grazing out desirable species. Overgrazing also kills out desirable shrubs, especially Amorpha canescens and Prunus pumila var. besseyi (Ryan et al. 1994). These grasslands often respond rapidly to management. Deferment of grazing in the late spring and summer generally favors warm-season grasses such as Andropogon hallii, Bouteloua gracilis, Calamovilfa longifolia, and Schizachyrium scoparium. Drought also causes declines in cover of all species, especially tall grasses, and can make the grassland more vulnerable to blowouts. Grazing during droughts increases the intensity of the damage (Ramaley 1939). Many of these stands, especially those disturbed by wind and grazing, are vulnerable to invasion by exotic annual species of Brome (Comer et al. 1999).
Management
Grazing should be managed to avoid instigation and perpetuation of blowouts and vegetation loss within this group. Prescribed fires can also be used to enhance, maintain and restore these sites.
Restoration Considerations
In addition to reestablishing ecological processes such as prescribed fire, some restoration sites may require the reintroduction of native dominant grass species such as prairie sandreed, sand bluestem and needle and thread. Restoration efforts should utilize seed sources collected from nearby sand prairie remnants to augment and maintain genetic diversity of isolated, remnant plant populations.
Species Associated with this Community
- How Lists Were Created and Suggested Uses and Limitations
Animal Species Associations
Please note that while all vertebrate species have been systematically associated with vegetation communities, only a handful of invertebrate species have been associated with vegetation communities and invertebrates lists for each vegetation community should be regarded as incomplete. Animal species associations with natural vegetation communities that they regularly breed or overwinter in or migrate through were made by:
- Using personal observations and reviewing literature that summarize the breeding, overwintering, or migratory habitat requirements of each species (Dobkin 1992, Hart et al. 1998, Hutto and Young 1999, Maxell 2000, Werner et al. 2004, Adams 2003, and Foresman 2012);
- Evaluating structural characteristics and distribution of each vegetation community relative to the species' range and habitat requirements;
- Examining the observation records for each species in the state-wide point observation database associated with each vegetation community;
- Calculating the percentage of observations associated with each vegetation community relative to the percent of Montana covered by each vegetation community to get a measure of "observations versus availability of habitat".
Species that breed in Montana were only evaluated for breeding habitat use. Species that only overwinter in Montana were only evaluated for overwintering habitat use. Species that only migrate through Montana were only evaluated for migratory habitat use. In general, species are listed as associated with a vegetation community if it contains structural characteristics known to be used by the species. However, species are not listed as associated with a vegetation community if we found no support in the literature for the species’ use of structural characteristics of the community even if point observations were associated with it. If you have any questions or comments on animal species associations with vegetation communities, please contact the Montana Natural Heritage Program's Senior Zoologist.
Plant Species Associations
Please note that while diagnostic, dominant, or codominant vascular plant species for a vegetation community have been systematically assigned to those communities and vascular plant Species of Concern were systematically evaluated for their associations with vegetation communities, the majority of Montana’s vascular plant species have not been evaluated for their associations with vegetation communities and no attempt has been made to associate non-vascular plants, fungi, or lichens with vegetation communities. Plant species associations with natural vegetation communities were made in a manner similar to that described above for animals, but with review of Lesica et al. (2022) and specimen collection data from the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria. If you have any questions or comments on plant species associations with vegetation communities, please contact the Montana Natural Heritage Program's Program Botanist.
Suggested Uses and Limitations
Species associations with vegetation communities should be used to generate potential lists of species that may occupy broader landscapes for the purposes of landscape-level planning. These potential lists of species should not be used in place of documented occurrences of species or predicted habitat suitability models (this information can be requested at: https://mtnhp.mt.gov/requests/), or systematic surveys for species and onsite evaluations of habitat by trained biologists. Users of this information should be aware that the land cover data used to generate species associations is based on satellite imagery from 2016 and was only intended to be used at broader landscape scales. Land cover mapping accuracy is particularly problematic when the vegetation communities occur as small patches or where the land cover types have been altered over the past decade. Thus, particular caution should be used when using the associations in assessments of smaller areas (e.g., evaluations of public land survey sections). Finally, although a species may be associated with a particular vegetation community within its known geographic range, portions of that vegetation community may occur outside of the species' known geographic range.
Literature Cited
- Adams, R.A. 2003. Bats of the Rocky Mountain West; natural history, ecology, and conservation. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado. 289 p.
- Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria. https://www.pnwherbaria.org/ Last accessed May 30, 2025.
- Dobkin, D. S. 1992. Neotropical migrant land birds in the Northern Rockies and Great Plains. USDA Forest Service, Northern Region. Publication No. R1-93-34. Missoula, MT.
- Foresman, K.R. 2012. Mammals of Montana. Second edition. Mountain Press Publishing, Missoula, Montana. 429 pp.
- Hart, M.M., W.A. Williams, P.C. Thornton, K.P. McLaughlin, C.M. Tobalske, B.A. Maxell, D.P. Hendricks, C.R. Peterson, and R.L. Redmond. 1998. Montana atlas of terrestrial vertebrates. Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, University of Montana, Missoula, MT. 1302 p.
- Hutto, R.L. and J.S. Young. 1999. Habitat relationships of landbirds in the Northern Region, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station RMRS-GTR-32. 72 p.
- Lesica P., M. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2022. Manual of vascular plants, 2nd Edition. Brit Press. 779 p.
- Maxell, B.A. 2000. Management of Montana's amphibians: a review of factors that may present a risk to population viability and accounts on the identification, distribution, taxonomy, habitat use, natural history, and the status and conservation of individual species. Report to U.S. Forest Service Region 1. Missoula, MT: Wildlife Biology Program, University of Montana. 161 p.
- Werner, J.K., B.A. Maxell, P. Hendricks, and D. Flath. 2004. Amphibians and reptiles of Montana. Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing Company. 262 p.
- Species of Concern Associated with this Community
Vascular Plants
Mammals
Birds
Reptiles
Amphibians
- Diagnostic, Dominant, or Codominant Plant Species for this Community
Vascular Plants
- Other Native Species Commonly Associated with this Community
Vascular Plants
Montana Version Authors
S. Mincemoyer, T. Luna and L. Vance
Version Date
12/4/2024
References
- Literature Cited AboveLegend:
View Online Publication
Burzlaff, D. F. 1962. A soil and vegetation inventory and analysis of three Nebraska sandhills range sites. University of Nebraska College of Agriculture Research Bulletin 206. Agricultural Experiment Station. 32 pp.- Comer, P. (editor), L. Allen, S. Cooper, D. Faber-Langendoen, and G. Jones. 1999. Selected shrubland and grassland communities of the northern Great Plains. Report to the Nebraska National Forest. The Nature Conservancy.
- Harrison, A. T. 1980. The Niobrara Valley Preserve: Its biogeographic importance and description of its biotic communities. A working report to the Nature Conservancy. Minneapolis, MN. 116 pp.
- Ramaley, F. 1939. Sand-hill vegetation of northeastern Colorado. Ecological Monographs 9(1):1-51.
- Ryan, M. G., L. A. Joyce, T. Andrews, and K. Jones. 1994. Research Natural Areas in Colorado, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and parts of Wyoming. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. General Technical Report RM-251. , Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Fort Collins, CO. 57 pp.
- Savage, D. A. 1937. Drought survival of native grass species in the central and southern Great Plains, 1935. USDA Technical Bulletin 549.
- Tolstead, W. L. 1942. Vegetation of the northern part of Cherry County, Nebraska. Ecological Monographs 12(3):257-292.
- Wolfe, C. W. 1973. Effects of fire on a sand hills grassland environment. Proceedings of the Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference 12:241-255.
- Additional ReferencesLegend: View Online Publication
Do you know of a citation we're missing?- DeVelice, R.L., S.V. Cooper, J.T. McGarvey, J. Lichthardt, and P.S. Bourgeron. 1995. Plant communities of northeastern Montana: A first approximation. Montana Natural Heritage Program, Helena, MT. 116 pp.
- Kudray, G.M. and S.V. Cooper. 2006. Montana's Rocky Mountain Front: Vegetation Map and Type Descriptions. Report to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Montana Natural Heritage Program, Helena, Montana. 26 pp. plus appendices.
- Shiflet, T. N., editor. 1994. Rangeland cover types of the United States. Society for Range Management. Denver, CO. 152 pp.
- Singh, J. S., W. K. Lauenroth, R. K. Heitschmidt and J. L. Dodd. 1983. Structural and functional attributes of the vegetation of northern mixed prairie of North America. The Botanical Review 49:117-149.
- Umbanhowar, Charles Edward. 1996. "Recent Fire History of the Northern Great Plains". American Midland Naturalist. 135 (1): 115-121.
- Weaver, J.E., F.W. Albertson, B.W. Allred, and A. Heerwagen. 1956. Grasslands of the Great Plains: their nature and use. Lincoln, NE: Johnsen Publishing Company. 395 p.
- Wright, J. C. and E. A. Wright. 1948. Grassland types of south central Montana. Ecology 29:449-460.
- Web Search Engines for Articles on "Northern Great Plains Sand Prairie"
