Prairie Days highlight NW Mo. native grasslands
NOPPADOL PAOTHONG/MDC PHOTO
A remnant of northwest Missouri prairie in full summer bloom will be the focus of a two-day event later this month at Dunn Ranch and the Pawnee Prairie Natural Area in northern Harrison County. Missouri Department of Conservation staff will be on hand to discuss grazing nutrition and the importance of prairie ecosystems. Nature Conservancy personnel will offer participants tours of the Dunn Ranch bison herd.
BETHANY, Mo. — Ever wonder what northwest Missouri looked like in the days before paved highways and production farming?
Area residents will have the opportunity to sample the pleasures of the region’s largely vanished native habitat Friday, June 24, through Saturday, June 25, during Prairie Days, a Missouri Department of Conservation/Nature Conservancy event set for Dunn Ranch and Pawnee Prairie Natural Area in Harrison County.
Decades ago, millions of acres of wildflowers and grasses dominated the region’s ecosystems, a trait that produced some of the world’s richest farming soils and ultimately contributed to today’s scarcity of surviving unplowed prairieland.
But MDC biologists, working in concert with farmers and private landowners, as well as groups like the Nature Conservancy, are striving to ensure a brighter future for prairie plants and wildlife.
Today, the conservancy’s 3,200-acre Dunn Ranch is the anchor site of the 70,000-acre Grand River Grasslands prairie restoration effort stretching across parts of northern Missouri and southern Iowa.
Prairie Days was organized in order to acquaint the public with the initiative, and to give folks a first-hand look at some prime prairie landscape in the midst of its stunning summer glory.
The event will begin with a mixer set for 9-11 p.m. Friday, June 24, at the Dunn Ranch Prairie headquarters, 16970 W. 150th St., Hatfield, in extreme northwestern Harrison County. The ranch itself is located west of Eagleville and can be reached off Interstate 35 via Route M.
Other offerings will include a guided bird hike at MDC’s Pawnee Prairie from 5:30 to 7:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Additional tours and exhibits are scheduled between 8 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Saturday at Dunn Ranch. Concessions will be available. All activities are free, and no prior registration is required.
MDC staff will be on hand to discuss the importance of prairie plant life to grazing nutrition, and Nature Conservancy personnel will offer tours of the Dunn Ranch bison herd.
According to a Nature Conservancy release, Dunn Ranch Prairie comprises one of the last fully functioning tallgrass prairie ecosystems in the region. Almost 1,000 acres of the site have never been plowed, and the topsoil in places is 40 inches deep.
Bison were reintroduced to the site in 2011, and a number of rare native plant species have emerged, including sensitive briar, shooting star, and eared false foxglove.
Dunn Ranch is also home to one of the last populations of greater prairie chickens in Missouri, and the federally endangered Topeka shiner — a species of minnow — was reintroduced to streams there in fall 2013.
For more information on Prairie Days, call MDC’s Northwest Regional Office in St. Joseph at 816.271.3100.
Information and a map for the Pawnee Prairie Natural Area are available at http://on.mo.gov/1KOa8Xv. The Dunn Ranch Prairie website is located at http://bit.ly/1ellp2i.
