Kansas City, Mo. ? Experts responsible for much of America’s open spaces are meeting in Kansas City through Tuesday to discuss ways to improve the nation’s grasslands.

About 1,200 members from across the nation are attending the Society for Range Management conference, where topics vary from controlling prickly pear cactus with fire to grazing with buffalo.

“What is discussed here is more than likely going to end up as policy,” said Carol Blocksome, an agronomy graduate student at Kansas State University.

Dale Bosworth, U.S. Forest Service chief, and Kathleen Clarke, director of the Bureau of Land Management, are participating along with officials and managers for other federal and state agencies, as well as private ranchers. They are reviewing research and programs nationwide.

Grasslands are one of the nation’s dominant land uses. They are essential for cattle production, clean water and recreation. But whether wild prairie or cattle pastures, grasslands have environmental problems, said Steve Clubine, a Missouri Department of Conservation biologist and conference co-chairman.

“We’ve got a lot of grasslands,” Clubine said. “But a lot of it is not healthy. The drastic decline we’re seeing in grassland birds is one of the examples.”

Problems include overgrazing and invasion by non-native plant species.

In Missouri, many public lands are now protected from misuse, but the rich natural mix of grasslands and forest remains to be restored, said Ken McCarty, natural resources chief for the state Division of Parks.

Set fires and tree thinning have returned some parklands to natural savanna, McCarty said. Those areas show lush growth.

“The next step is restoring more of the savannas to show the values that native grasses have,” he said.