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Badlands National Park is located in South Dakota. The Badlands were created by erosion and deposition, but was not established as a national park until South Dakota U.S. Senator Peter Norbeck and local homesteader Ben Millard worked tirelessly and received approval to preserve the area as a national monument in
1929."(founder-badlands-national-parkl)". The park preserves 242,756 acres also serves as recreational purposes.

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It doesn't rain alot, wich most likely leads to the lack of vegetation besides the grass prairie. this also effacts the animals in the ecosystem.
https://www.nps.gov/badl/planyourvisit/weather.htm

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Location: South Dakota
Established: November 10, 1978
Size: 244,300 acres

They call it The Wall. It extends for a hundred miles through the dry plains of South Dakota-a huge natural barrier ridging the landscape, sculptured into fantastic pinnacles and tortuous gullies by the forces of water. Those who pass through the upper prairie a few miles north might not even know it exists. Those who traverse the lower prairie to the south, however, can't miss it; it rises above them like a city skyline in ruins, petrified.

The Badlands Wall, much of which is preserved within the boundaries of Badlands National Park, may not conform to everyone's idea of beauty, but nobody can deny its theatricality. It's been compared to an enormous stage set-colorful, dramatic, and not quite real. Water, the main player on this stage, has been carving away at the cliffs for the past half million years or so, and it carves away an entire inch (three centimeters) or more in some places each year. But there have been other players, too. Beasts with names like titanothere and archaeotherium once roamed here; their fossilized bones can be found by the hundreds. And today the Badlands Wall serves as a backdrop for bison, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep, as well as the million human visitors who pass through the park every year.

A national monument since 1939, Badlands acquired the South (Stronghold) Unit in 1976, adding yet another dimension to the drama. This large stretch of land belongs to the Oglala, and one of their most sacred places is now preserved within it. It was here, on Stronghold Table, that the final Ghost Dance took place in 1890, just a few weeks before more than 150 Lakota were massacred at Wounded Knee, 25 miles south.

Badlands National Park is considered home to one of the world's richest deposits of mammal fossil beds.

The Oglala Lakota Nation, the second-largest American Indian Reservation in the United States, co-manages half of Badlands National Park.

The Badlands average one inch of erosion per year.

Copy for this series includes excerpts from the National Geographic Guide to the National Parks of the United States, Seventh Edition, 2012,and the National Parks articles featured in "Cutting Loose" in National Geographic Traveler.

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These Colorful, Dramatic Cliffs Are a Half Million Years Old

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Location: South Dakota Established: November 10, 1978 Size: 244,300 acres They call it The Wall. It extends for a hundred miles through the dry plains of South Dakota-a huge natural barrier ridging the landscape, sculptured into fantastic pinnacles and tortuous gullies by the forces of water.

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Badlands has an ecosystem of temperate grasslands with grasses that are ankle up to waist high, moist tall grasses and arid short grasses. Bison, bald eagle, and bighorn sheep adapt to the conditions and thrive in the Badlands environment.

People have positively impacted the environment by the National Park Service personnel manage non-native species and reintroduce native species where they have been extirpated. They negatively impacted it by the park being altered by agriculture or development.

The native species have caused a decrease in plant diversity, altered fire regimes leading to more wild fires, and reduced soil water content. ("Praries and Grasslands", 2016)

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The Badlands formed largely the result of two basic geologic processes of deposition and erosion.The Badlands are  deposited in layers. The layers are composed of tiny grains of sediments such as sand, silt, and clay that have been put together.  Volcanic eruptions to the west continue to supply ash during this time.

The striking scenery of the rugged spires and deep canyons may draw your attention, and the lens of your camera, first. But as you spend more time in this place, the prairie comes alive. Stay awhile and get to know the prairie plants and animals as well as the stark badlands and fossil resources http://www.visitrapidcity.com/parks-monuments/badlands-park