Take a Closer Look at the Prairie

North America’s remaining native prairies are an understated, yet world-class tourism attraction.

From a distance, the prairie may appear a simple field of grass. But up close, prairies are complex and abundant ecosystems supporting a range of organisms – including humans.

Indeed, part of the reason they are so sparse is due to their fertility. The great majority is now agricultural land. Once upon a time,  170 million acres of native prairies existed in North America, reaching from Indiana to Kansas and from Canada to Texas. Today less than 4% remains, and most of that is contained in the Flint Hills of Kansas – where settlers were unable to plow the ground due to its rocky soil.

Tourists can experience the beauty of virgin tallgrass prairie by visiting several state and federal preserves in Eastern Kansas. Two easily accessible sites – identified in our map of the Top 50 Ecotourism Sites of the Great Plains – are theKonza Prairie Natural Area and the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.

Earlier this summer I had the opportunity to be a tourist in the tallgrasses just outside of Lawrence, at the University of Kansas Field Station. The Field Station is largely dedicated to faculty and student research and education, but also includes five-miles of public nature trails where a visitor can either wade through the knee-high native grasses and forbs pioneer-style, or opt for a wheel-chair-accessible paved trail.

Grassland birds, bees, and butterflies fluttered among the little bluestem and Indian grass. I learned the names of many of the flowering forbs on a guided plant walk with KU’s Kelly Kinscher, author of several books on edible and medicinal plants of the prairie. The names still stick in my head: rattlesnake master, ground plum milkvetch, fire-on-the-mountain, and Jerusalem artichoke.

This recent weekend trip to Kansas inspired me to check out the native prairies around where I live in Lincoln, Nebraska. Both Nine Mile Prairie – managed by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln – and the Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center are short trips from the city center.

This summer is the perfect time to get out and explore North America’s native grasslands. Here are several events coming up to get you out there and exploring the prairie: 

• Friday July 25 – Barn Jam at Prairie Plains Resource Institute’s Griffith Prairie outside of Aurora, Nebraska. Bring your own picnic supper and enjoy music and a walk through the hills at this beautiful loess hills prairie in Central Nebraska.

• Saturday, September 13 — Twlight on the Tallgrass, at the Spring Creek Prairie Aububon Center near Denton, Nebraska. Celebrate at dusk as the prairie grasses mature and the fall wildflowers come into full bloom. Interact with authors, biologists, photographers, writers, artists, and other professionals who gain insight and energy from the prairie. Catch tadpoles and grasshoppers, learn to identify wildflowers and grasses, see all the stars in the night sky, and enjoy a beautiful autumn evening.

• September 26-28 — The Prairie Festival at The Land Institute near Salina, Kansas. Dubbed an “intellectual hootenanny,” the early fall festival brings in thought leaders from throughout the world for talks about issues ranging from the environment and agriculture to the economy and energy. Enjoy bonfires, a sunrise prairie walk, open-air dinners and camping in the tallgrass.