I grew up hearing about permafrost from relatives in North Dakota and Montana, and from my father, who did farm work summers in North Dakota when he was a teenager.

Do farmers in North Dakota still battle permafrost? What about ranchers in Montana? It seems to me that if the permafrost is receding, we might be experiencing something like warming on a large scale, almost of global proportions. I can't think of a good term for it, but maybe you can guess what I'm getting at.

This gives a hint at what's happening: http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/essay_romanovsky.html

Does anybody here have other research or personal knowledge of a change in the permafrost? I have to admit I'd particularly like to hear the personal experiences, since that's how I first heard about permafrost.