Why Prairie Matters — Views from MPF and our Members
At least 15 million acres of Missouri—more than one-third of the state—were prairie at the time of European settlement. Fewer than 90,000 acres remain.
Temperate grasslands of the world—including Missouri’s remaining tallgrass prairies—are the most endangered, least conserved of any terrestrial habitat on earth.
Missouri’s remaining prairies are stunning in their ecological wealth and complexity, and they, and all their components, are ours to conserve for the benefit of future generations.
Missouri’s prairies are home to a remarkable diversity of plant, animal, and insect life. More than 800 native plants, hundreds of native pollinators, other insects and invertebrates, and a diversity of vertebrate animals are known from Missouri’s prairies.
Pictured from left are: ragged fringed orchid, northern crawfish frog (Bruce Schuette photos), Sampson’s snakeroot (Allen Woodliffe photo), and upland sandpiper (MDC photo).
Prairie plant roots, some growing as deep as 15 feet, store carbon and build and anchor rich soil. One acre of established prairie can produce 24,000 pounds of roots (Iowa State University). One acre of established prairie can absorb 9 inches of rainfall per hour before runoff occurs (University of North Iowa). Prairies naturally filter water, protect streams from flood events, and help recharge precious groundwater supplies.
Seeds of many plants that are hardy, water-efficient, and beautiful for home and corporate landscaping originate from Missouri’s prairies.
Photos of Alberici headquarters in St. Louis, landscaped with native prairie plants, by Carol Davit.
Considering all the energy required for fertilizers, water, tractors and other farm tools needed to grown corn for ethanol, prairies have been documented to produce more net energy on an acre of degraded soil than corn on an acre of fertile soil. (Tilman, et al. 2006. Carbon-Negative Biofuels from Low-Input High-Diversity Grassland Biomass. Science 314, 1598).
Photos of baling prairie hay in Minnesota For bioenergy; strips of prairie left for wildlife in Minnesota. Photos by Jacob Jungers.
Prairie matters to the Missouri Prairie Foundation. MPF owns more than 2,600 acres of high quality prairie, and manages an additional 1,500 acres in cooperation with public partners and private landowners. MPF has successfully advocated for the protection of thousands of additional acres held in public trust, and provides prairie restoration assistance to private landowners.
Photo of MPF’s Golden Prairie, a National Natural Landmark, by Paul Cox.
Prairies require constant management. Invasive trees and exotic plants must be kept in check so that native prairie plants can thrive. MPF’s prairie operations manager battles sericea lespedeza at Jerry Smith Park prairie, an original prairie remnant, in Kansas City. At MPF’s Schwartz Prairie in St. Clair County, more than 330 native plant species have been documented, and thrive thanks to outstanding stewardship.
MPF’s prairie operations manager battles sericea lespedeza at Jerry Smith Park prairie, an original prairie remnant, in Kansas City, Photo by Larry Rizzo. MPF’s Schwartz Prairie in St. Clair County, Photo by Glenn Chambers.
The Missouri Prairie Foundation continues to gather information about its prairies. Its annual Prairie BioBlitz, for example, brings biologists and nature enthusiasts together to document prairie species. At this year’s BioBlitz on June 4, and 5, 2011, biologists found an Arkansas darter in a stream at Golden Prairie, a candidate for federal listing. The larva of an unexpected cycnia (tiger moth), was also located on the prairie.
Arkansas darter, Photo by Gary House. Larva of an unexpected cycnia (tiger moth), Photo by Shelly Cox.
Below, several of the Missouri Prairie Foundation’s more than 1,600 members offer their thoughts on why prairie matters to them.
Jim Jackson, member since 1966;
This is how it was: thousands of years of tallgrass prairie and one hundred years of getting it plowed under. Now we know that something wonderful as been largely eliminated, so it’s our duty to preserve, protect, and enhance what living remnants continue to thrive. Tallgrass prairie should be forever.
Photo by Carol Davit.
Dana Thomas, Executive Director, Institute of Botanical Training, Salem, Mo.
Prairie matters the same way musical masterpieces matter. If you stand silent in a prairie, you will hear strains and see patterns emerge with unfathomable complexity. The melodic curve of insects and grassland birds will create the symphonic backdrop for the blended mosaic of a hundred shades of green, reminding you of the immeasurable ecological interactions that allow the earth to function as a harmonious whole.
Justin Thomas, Director, Institute of Botanical Training, Salem, Mo.
Prairie exemplifies the structural, spatial and temporal diversity of organisms actively expressing their genetic potential in concert. It offers a much-needed glimpse at stability in a rapidly destabilizing world. It gives us a platform from which to understand phytogeography, bison, fescue and the plow. It matters, like all of nature matters, because it inspires and gives us something intrinsically greater than ourselves in which to see ourselves. Prairie gives us hindsight and hope.
Andrew Williams, President, Prairie Biotic Research, Ames, Iowa
A natural prairie is a piece of the original fabric of the world. It’s full of beauty, of color, of tactile stimulation, of fragrance; it’s full of puzzles and surprises and mystery. It’s different every hour of every day, and no two visits are the same for a visitor with a bit of curiosity and wonder. It changes by day and night, with temperature and season, as wind rises and falls. It refreshes one’s spirit with its wildness, wide open to the sky, and suggests to the suggestible that we have a future, still.
Photo by Rebeca Christoffel.
John Alberici, President, Alberici Group, St. Louis, Mo.
Establishing a native prairie planting at our headquarters campus was a practical, beautiful, and natural landscaping choice. It is an extension of our LEED platinum office that sends a visible message to the community about our values and commitment to a sustainable future.
Allen Woodliffe, Ecologist, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Chatham, Ontario, Canada
I love the vast, wide-open spaces where one can see the expansive diversity and the macro world, all at once. Prairies are a heritage that came perilously close to being lost, so we savor the remnants that are a fuzzy reminder of what once was. The tremendous biodiversity, seasonal color variations, and solitude are inspiring and refreshing to one’s soul.
Photo by Kristin Woodliffe.
Doris Sherrick, Vice President, Missouri Prairie Foundation, Peculiar, Mo.
Prairies have mattered to me since I can remember. As a very small child, the beauty of prairie flowers called me to roam the fields in search of them. Many years later, prairie beauty is still a call to me, but as many prairie secrets are being revealed—their contributions to water quality, soil fertility, unique ecosystem with many prairie-dependent species—prairies matter even more, and I know we simply must find ways to permanently protect and restore more remaining remnants.
Jeff Cantrell, Education Consultant, Mo. Dept. of Conservation, Neosho, Mo.
I adore the native grassland for what it is: a treasure that you cannot experience from the road or standing to the side. One must wade in like the ocean and feel the tide of grasses under the palms of your hands. I justly count all the prairie life encountered as my given heritage.
Photo by Cyndi Cogbill
Donnie Nichols, Missouri Master Naturalist, Warsaw, Mo.
Prairies are important to me for the opportunities they provide. When I give prairie tours, if I can inspire just one person to understand how important prairie ecosystems are, and that person inspires another, and so on, perhaps I can help our prairies for following generations. We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever but to help protect something that will.
Cyndi Cogbill, Public Service Assistant, Mo. Dept. of Conservation, Joplin, Mo.
Our nation is rich with ecosystems, but for me the iconic symbol of the United States is the prairie. I cherish the deceptively subtle diversity. From afar the waving grasses hide a multitude of life from the iridescent dung beetle, newborn bison, and indescribable purplish blue of downy gentian to the deep-reaching and life-giving roots. Each is a treasure, as is the vast, comforting solitude.
Dave Murphy, Executive Director, Conservation Federation of Missouri
Prairies are the rarest of natural landscapes. Their luxuriant grasses sustained the largest herd of big mammals in history. Their fertile soils provide food and clean water. Their expansive landscapes inspire songwriters, poets and authors with beauty and freedom. We are poorer for their depletion and abuse. We are richer for their resilience and fertility.
Becky Erickson, Biologist, Ashland, Mo.
Underlying its obvious beauty, prairie is the most important ecosystem we have in North America. Diversity of prairie plant and animal life is higher than woodlands’. Prairie cleans our air, filters our water, builds the soil that we know use to grow our food, fuel, and clothing. We have only begun to learn from prairie and it is almost gone.
George Deatz, President, Friends of the Garden, Springfield, Mo.
A prairie is a natural living “photograph” that should be home to a variety of native plants and wildlife. When I think about our heritage represented by the collection of native plants with wildlife in a prairie habitat I am reminded that by working together, another place and time can be preserved for future generations to learn from and enjoy.
David and Karma Nees, Real Estate Agents and Prairie Conservationists, Garfield, Arkansas
Prairies are wild, romantic, and full of life. They are in constant motion from the wind, birds and butterflies. There colors change year around. From the blacks, grays and greens from a late winter burn to the vibrant colors of the spring bloom. Then it’s the sunflowers and Blazing stars of summer to the golden hues of the tall grasses in fall. Then they go back to sleep only to awake again in the spring.
Stuart Miller, Prairie Gardener and Pecan Grower, Columbia, Mo.
Prairie matters because of the big sky, the seasonal colors of the plants and animals, the feel and sound of the wind and the vanishing horizon. It matters because of the black earth and the life within. Prairie matters because it represents what has been lost, what has been restored, and the possibilities of what may be.
Amy “Honk if you love Prairies” Juhala, Naturalist, Joplin, Mo.
Prairies create connections. Connections with our foremothers who lived and struggled on an endless sea of grass. Connections of life and death as a fat vole becomes dinner. Connections with my child. Sharing a patch of milkweed and hopefully a regal fritillary. And leaving with a fresh perspective of the prairie I thought I knew when he becomes my teacher.
Photo by Jeff Cantrell
Brianna, Kyle and Jacob, Seneca, Mo.
-I like the prairie because it is pretty and it has lots of wildflowers in the spring and summer. My favorite thing on a prairie is the Indian Paintbrushes. You can see a lot of wildlife besides just flowers. Brianna, age 10, Seneca, Mo.
-I like the many different colors the prairies hold. I think that all the animals on the prairie are interesting, especially the prairie-chicken. I like the prairie-chicken the best because it has colorful feathers and is the only chicken that I know of that is wild. Kyle, age 12, Seneca, Mo.
-The reason I like prairies is because they are wide and open. I like the openness so I can see the larger world around me. Jacob, age 15, Seneca, Mo. Photo by John Hacker
Ann Butts, prairie lover
To me, a prairie is the soul of the natural world—a place where man and nature come together to sniff and breathe, walk and crawl, study and relate. Prairies fulfill all our notions of what our Maker intended when he mixed together water, air and soil, and allowed them to randomly share space with plants and animals.
Photo by Calvin Cassady
Hope Wolfe, age 6, Sedalia, Mo.I like the Cole Camp Prairie Day, because I liked the fun stuff. I got my face painted, got to dance (German music), and I like the tables especially the honey and snakes. I liked Boomer when he walked around and I got my picture with him. I liked the games because I got to throw bean bags and listen to bird calls.
Kevin Carpenter, IT Guy, Novice Cattleman and Prairie Owner, O’Fallon, Mo.
Biodiversity matters to me. Topsoil matters to me. Prairies provide a home for the first and help build the second.
Ric Mayer, Greenfield, Mo.
Prairie matters to me because I once didn’t think about prairie at all. Then I once thought it was weeds. Then I once thought it was quail and rabbit habitat. Now I think of it as I once did and a whole lot more; I am engaged, wedding plans to be announced.
Excerpts from “Native Prairie” by R.L. “Bob” Peterson
Singing meadowlark
calling out to only me
makes me feel a part
of something bigger that’s in front of me
standing on a native prairie
Gone are the buffalo
from the place they called their home
they were free to roam
thundering across a golden sea
standing on a native prairie