- Description
- Original Prairie
- Prairies Map
- DNR Map
Of all habitats to suffer impacts from European settlement, the tallgrass prairie ecosystem suffered the worse. Less than 1/10th of 1 percent remains of an ecosystem that stretched from Texas to Manitoba and central Nebraska to western Indiana (see [Original Praire] tab). Estimates vary but it has been speculated that as settlers moved west out of the forested Appalachian states they encountered over 200,000,000 acres of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. It was pretty clear that settlers saw the rich soils as ideal to plant crops, and it was easier to clear prairie for cultivation compared to forests once technological advances allowed farmers to break through tough prairie sods. Settlers were more concerned about survival in those times rather than environmental impacts and so they turned the prairie over, planted their crops, and grasses and wildflowers disappeared. The prairie region has become America’s bread basket, and it only took 150 years of cultivation to reduce the vast tallgrass prairie to its current state.
What was not known then but is known today is that tallgrass prairie was one of the nation’s most diverse terrestrial ecosystems. West, southwest, and south-central Minnesota was covered in tallgrass prairie (see [DNR Map] tab). An unbelievable 900 plant species have been recorded in remnant prairies and up to 300 or more species per individual remnant. It is hard to imagine looking over a field from an elevated position of more than 300 species of grasses and wildflowers! The following are some facts about prairies that were taken from a Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources publication encouraging prairie restoration:
- Native tallgrass prairie is the MOST ENDANGERED ecosystem in North America (Kansas State University).
- Native prairie root systems are the BEST natural soil anchors on earth. One acre of established prairie can produce 24,000 pounds of roots (Iowa State University).
- One acre of established prairie can ABSORB nice inches of rainfall per hour before runoff occurs (University of North Iowa).
- One acre of established prairie can INTERCEPT as much as 53 tons of water during a one-inch per hour rainfall event (University of Nebraska-Lincoln).
- Prairie foliage represents a surface area five to 20 times larger than the soil area beneath it (University of Nebraska-Lincoln).
- Prairie planted in roadside ditches makes our highways safer by INCREASING the holding capacity for snow in the ditch provided the shoulder is mowed (MN DOT).
- Natural competition of prairie plants REDUCES the occurrence of weeds in an area (Iowa State University).
- Greater prairie diversity creates greater biotic barriers to PREVENT weed invasion (University of Minnesota).
- One acre of reconstructed prairie can produce more net bioenergy than land used to grow corn for ethanol (University of Minnesota).
It is not difficult to see why we plant prairie. The benefits are staggering. Only in recent decades have we really been able to determine what was lost. Land staff have some excellent examples of mature tallgrass prairie restorations. To see locations on SMSC lands that have been planted in prairie (see [Prairies Map] tab).
