KC Cares: Grassland Heritage Foundation uses flames and formal education to protect prairies
Photo courtesy Grassland Heritage Foundation
As much as the Midwest is known for its prairies, they’re in shorter supply than you might think. Grassland Heritage Foundation is doing its best to make sure that there are prairie areas in Kansas that are protected and nurtured.
Their current prairie preservation efforts are focusing on Snyder Prairie, about half an hour north of Topeka, and Leadplant Prairie, just south of Garnett. They have also worked together with other organizations on prairie restoration projects such as the one at the Black Jack Battlefield and Nature Park near Baldwin City.
Photo courtesy Grassland Heritage Foundation
One task involved in many prairie restorations is getting rid of invasive plants, such as vine honeysuckle. Reintroducing native plants to take their place is another important step.
That’s where they need lots of volunteers: clearing the invasive plants, transplanting native seedlings and just spreading seeds throughout the prairie area.
“It’s surprisingly peaceful doing restoration work, just being out in the prairie, because you get in a nice rhythm. It can be kind of cathartic,” says Mike Campbell, president of Grassland Heritage Foundation. “… There’s a lot of work to be done by hand. For me, there’s a certain satisfaction in just being part of something that’s been here for a long time and hopefully will be a long time, so it just has real lasting value.”
For the Black Jack Battlefield project, they were able to go to the nearby Ivan Boyd Prairie Preserve, and with permission from Douglas County, collect seeds to spread.
The non-profit has been around since 1975, when it got started by working with others to help establish the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Flint Hills area.
One of its oldest projects is the Prairie Center, located slightly west of Lake Olathe. The group owned the land for years before turning it over to Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, though they continued to manage it for about seven years.
When it comes to restoring and maintaining prairies, a controlled burn is one of the more eye-catching tasks.
Photo courtesy Grassland Heritage Foundation
“You set the prairie on fire in an effort to knock back the shrubs,” Campbell says.
Volunteer Hilary Kass has helped with a few controlled burns at Snyder Prairie.
Photo courtesy Grassland Heritage Foundation
“They just need extra hands to help with that, and it’s a super fun, interesting, exciting thing to do,” she says.
Although she had no prior experience with controlled burns, she was still able to lend a hand.
“Because I’m an unskilled person, I don’t use the drip torch, and I don’t use the water tanks, but I have a rake, and I rake to keep the fire in area we want it in and separate it from the area we don’t want it to burn,” Kass says.
Getting to spend time on the prairie was a special experience for her.
“I love the opportunity to be out in a remote place that I wouldn’t otherwise have access to and to be able to just move through this open grassland and to work with a group of people around a conservation activity,” she says.
Doing her part to help with conservation feels good, Kass says.
“It just gives me a chance to do something kind of wild, right? You get to be in this more wild environment and working with fire, which we generally don’t get to handle very much. So I think maybe it’s an exciting, earth-based project or earth-based activity to be involved in,” she says.
Education is also a big part of what the organization does, from workshops about native plants to school programs.
To help grow the next generation of people knowledgeable about prairie ecosystems, the group also awards scholarships to graduate students researching prairies at Kansas universities.
For more information about Grassland Heritage Foundation, visit grasslandheritage.org.
