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Native grasslands and their associated wetlands are crucial to emerging natural resource issues in South Dakota.� We utilized the South Dakota Farm Service Agency�s Common Land Unit (CLU) data and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) county mosaic aerial imagery to evaluate 22.6 million acres of land 44 eastern South Dakota counties to determine the extent of remaining native grasslands.� We analyzed land in approximately one mi2 sections to identify all cropping and other land disturbances.� Remaining land tracts were then categorized as potentially native grassland or woodland.� Finally, we removed all known water bodies > 40 acres as defined by the South Dakota Statewide Water Bodies layer to determine the remaining undisturbed grassland/wetland complex. Overall, 5,488,025 acres (24.2%) of eastern South Dakota were designated as potentially native land.� Approximately 14.9 million acres (65.9%) were deemed to have a cropping history while approximately 1.6 million acres (6.9%) were found to have some type of land disturbance not indicated by a CLU crop code, for a total of 16.5 million acres (72.8%) of all lands with a proven disturbance history.�Within the 22.6 million-acre evaluation area, 1.4 million acres (6.1%) were found to have permanent protection from future conversion.� Nearly 1 million acres of the approximately 5.5 million acres of undisturbed land (17.5%) had some type of permanent conservation protection status. �In total, we identified 962,734 protected native acres, representing only 4.3% of eastern South Dakota�s total land base. Our results will inform future decisions regarding grazing management, endangered species, and water quality related to buffer zones, wetlands, and storage and will serve as a template for the northern Great Plains.