[1] In the Dust Bowl years of the mid 1930s, many farms and ranches of the western Great Plains were abandoned due to drought, overgrazing and soil blown from plowed fields.

The U.S. Forest Service requested that the Central Plains Experimental Range be established to research improved management practices on fragile grasslands.

Early studies at CPER focused on understanding plant life on native prairie and abandoned plowed lands, and on gaining knowledge of experimental techniques for measuring vegetation and livestock responses to different grazing systems.

Colorado State University and its Natural Resources Ecology Laboratory (NREL) have conducted extensive research at the site.

[5] Scarlet globemallow is the most common forb and while plains prickly pear cactus and shrubs/subshrubs (fourwing saltbush, broom snakeweed, rabbitbrush, spreading buckwheat, and fringed sagebrush) are present, they do not represent a large component of total biomass on the site.