Personally I could do without the biodiversity of the Amazon even though I think it should be preserved. Radical environmental changes as a result of settlement on the prairies may have had a positive effect in terms of global warming. The native grasses so esteemed by Worster were periodically swept by grassfires that raged across them and in the process released huge amounts of carbon dioxide and clearing much of the prairie of any trees. With settlement and roads virtually around every square mile ,much of the prairie was able to support trees. Aspen bluffs dot all the prairie land around here and there are woodlots here there and everywhere.
Most homesteads have considerable shelterbelts of trees.
Grassfires are limited. Unfortunately, some farmers still insist on burning stubble. However the trees are more environmentally friendly in terms of greenhouse gases than the grasslands were surely. The trees also provide refuge for various forms of wildlife. In fact there are more deer in the southern prairie areas of Manitoba I expect than in the forests of the shield to the north.