Forbs and grasses and Cheshire cats: What is a tallgrass prairie?

By Paul A. Johnsgard

When I was very young, I used to walk along railroad track right-of-ways near my home in the Red River Valley of eastern North Dakota. I didn’t know that the “turkey-foot grass” that grew higher than my head was something special, and under its more formal name of big bluestem is a charter member of the tallgrass prairie that once covered much of eastern North Dakota. Somewhat later my mother began to teach me some of the native prairie flowers that grew in low meadows near their once-homesteaded farm near the Sheyenne River. Today this area has been preserved as part of the Sheyenne National Grassland, the largest federally owned area of tallgrass prairie in America. I learned there to identify such beautiful plants as tall blazing star and Canada goldenrod, and acquired at least a nodding acquaintance with milkweeds, sunflowers and some of the other more common and colorful wildflowers. At least as importantly, I learned to associate such glorious birds as marbled godwits and bobolinks with patches of native prairie, which even then were mostly confined to very hilly, very rocky or very sandy sites at the very edges or beyond of what was once glacial Lake Agassiz, the heart of the Red River Valley. I much later learned that such relatively rare prairie plants and animals are “indicator species,” and that if one wishes to find them (and protect them), it is necessary to protect the entire prairie community.

When I came to Lincoln, Neb., in 1961, there were still dozens of relict prairies near town, where I could go to see the prairie birds and plants of my childhood. But, as the years passed, these prairies disappeared one by one to agriculture or suburban developments, like disappearing Cheshire cats. But these disappearing cats usually didn’t leave so much as a smile. A few scattered teeth were often all that remained, in ditches and at the edges of fields where the deep roots of perennial grasses like big bluestems allowed them to continue for a time their losing battle against plows and herbicides. Even the fairly new house we bought at the then-edge of Lincoln still had a few shoots of big bluestem that fought valiantly for a few years against the socially acceptable bluegrass. After being warned by the authorities about tolerating such “weeds” in my yard, I, too, accepted defeat.

One of the few remaining public-access prairies near Lincoln persisting into the 1990s was Nine-Mile Prairie, a once privately owned pasture of some 800 acres on hilly glacial moraine that had been studied intensively during the 1930s by Professor John Weaver and his students. During World War II, part of the prairie was taken over by the military for use as an ammunition storage site, and its size gradually diminished to somewhat more than 200 acres. The prairie was acquired by the University of Nebraska in 1983 and is now protected and managed for both research and as a historic prairie. It is freely available to the public for nonconsumptive purposes, such as nature study, birding and hiking.

By a stroke of good fortune, and some ambitious money raising on the part of the state and local chapters of the National Audubon Society, a 626-acre prairie was acquired in 1998 that is just three miles south of Denton, Neb. This prairie is also located on unplowed glacial moraine and is almost as botanically diverse as Nine-Mile Prairie. Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center is now the jewel in Nebraska’s prairie crown, with a new interpretive center and a staff including several trained biologists. Wachiska Audubon Society, the local Audubon chapter, donated an additional 14-acre adjacent woodland. More recently an adjoining 168-acre parcel of prairie was purchased. Local fundraising also made that possible, with the wonderful lead gift made by the McConnell family, bringing the prairie’s total acreage to 808 acres, of which about 650 acres are native prairie. This new addition is in the process of prairie renovation by controlled burning, mowing and other techniques, which allow a visitor to see how overgrazed prairies can be restored to near-pristine condition.

The animal list for Spring Creek Prairie includes over 210 bird species, 30 mammals, 50 butterflies, and countless other invertebrates. The flora of Spring Creek has now been well inventoried and includes over 370 plant species. Excluding trees, aquatic plants and woods-adapted plants, there are well over 200 prairie species. Although the majority of the individual plants are perennial grasses, grass species actually make up only about 20 percent of the native prairie flora. Broad-leaved herbs, which are collectively called forbs, comprise about 70 percent of the species, while shrubs and a few woody vines add the remaining 8 percent. So, it is the forbs that give the greatest structural complexity to prairies, and these includes a large number of plants in the sunflower (aster) family, fewer in the legume family, and very few in such families as the orchids, only one of which is known to occur at Spring Creek. While the grasses are wind-pollinated, many of the forbs are pollinated by insects, and it is this latter adaptation that has produced the displays of multi-colored and scented flowers in spring and summer that at times turns the tallgrass prairie into a garden. At Spring Creek Prairie, the flowering of the purple coneflower in June and July is a summer highlight, while several asters such as New England aster and other blue to purple asters vie with downy gentians to be the final fall hosts to honeybees and bumblebees during late October.

I confess that spring is my favorite time to visit Spring Creek, when the migratory birds are returning and the first spring flower such as violets rush into bloom to complete their flowering before being shaded out by the earlier grasses and taller forbs. But each season has its attractions. The tall prairie grasses are nearly all “warm-season” species, waiting for the oppressive heat of mid-summer to put on their most rapid growth. By September, the Indiangrass and big bluestem may easily exceed six feet in a wet year, and to lie down in a stand of these grasses and look to the sky above is to know how an ant’s view of its world might appear.

The tallest hills of Spring Creek Prairie are among the highest points in Lancaster County, affording a spectacular unobstructed view in all directions. Sitting on one of these hilltops, one can close one’s eyes and listen to the sounds of near-solitude, sometimes marked only by the songs of a distant meadowlark, the scream of a soaring red-tailed hawk or, in spring, the soft kettledrum sounds of courting greater prairie chickens. Last year, the autumnal equinox happened to fall almost exactly on the night of the full moon, so I decided to watch the simultaneous sunset and moonrise from the top of one of these tall hills. I sat on a large quartzite boulder that protruded a few feet above the ground, a souvenir of the melting glacier that had shaped these hills during the last ice age. It was like watching one beautiful curtain fall in the west as another equally stunning curtain was rising in the east.

By November, the prairie has quieted down, with the starches, sugars and other carbohydrates that were manufactured by perennials during summer now safely stored in root systems many feet below ground, well out of reach of grazing animals. What is left are the rusty brown skeletons of leaves and stems that make for spectacular fall panoramas, especially when contrasted with the red leaves of shrubby sumacs and the blues of cloudless fall skies.

Winter is a time for hardy souls to walk the prairie trails in search of snowy tracks marking the passage of coyotes, rabbits, deer, raccoons, mice and other mammals that otherwise are likely to remain hidden. Much of the activity of small rodents occurs under deep snow; its insulating quality allows the temperature at ground level to remain only a few degrees below freezing, even if the air temperature above the snow should approach zero. Foxes, coyotes and some owls can hear the sounds made by unseen mice and voles as they scurry about unseen and will suddenly pounce on them from above. By December, the long blue shadows of grass cast on the snow by the pallid winter sun provide only cold comfort, but do offer the promise of a sun that by January will be rising sooner, slowly increasing in strength and providing both life-giving light and heat to the waiting plants and animals.

Some public-access prairies in eastern Nebraska

In spite of all the losses of prairie sites, scattered remnants remain in eastern Nebraska and adjoining states. I have assembled comparable information on nearly 80 Nebraska prairie sites and several others in six states from North Dakota and Minnesota to Kansas and Missouri. All of these may be visited, although some are on private land and require advance permission. A few of the best sites are listed below, but the entire list may be found in my online booklet, “A Guide to the Tallgrass Prairies of Eastern Nebraska and Adjoining States” at http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/biosciornithology/39. The dozen or so prairies owned by Wachiska Audubon in southeastern Nebraska include some of the state’s best, and nearly all are located within 50 miles of Lincoln.

Audubon Spring Creek Prairie (Lancaster County). 808 acres. Drive three miles south from the western edge of Denton; entrance gate on east side of road. Native tallgrass prairie uplands, some small wetlands, including a spring, and some mature deciduous woodland. Interpretive center present. Owner: Audubon Nebraska. Daily admission fee. (402) 797-2301 or http://www.springcreekprairie.org/.

Nine-Mile Prairie (Lancaster County). 240 acres. Drive four miles west on West O Street in Lincoln, then go north on Northwest 48th Street to W. Fletcher Road and one mile west. Walk south from the parking area to the prairie. Owner: University of Nebraska Foundation. http://snr.unl.edu/aboutus/where/fieldsites/ninemileprairie.asp

Pioneers Park (Lancaster County). 626 acres. A nature trail extends southwest from the Chet Ager Nature Center into restored and native prairie. The Prairie Center has restored prairie and a native plant garden. The best area of native prairie is located east of the golf course (west of the parking area near the elk statue). Lincoln municipal park, located southwest of West Van Dorn and Coddington Avenue. Interpretive center present. Owner: City of Lincoln. (402) 441-7895.

Henry Dieken Tallgrass Prairie (Otoe County). 12.6 acres. From western end of Unadilla, drive 1.5 miles south on Highway 2, then 0.75 mile west (northwest corner of section 15, south side of road). Notable for its diverse wildflowers, including two rare orchids. Owner: Wachiska Audubon. (402) 488-9032.

Twin Lakes Wildlife Management Area. (Seward County). l,300 acres, about 600 acres of grasslands, two lakes, marshes, wooded bottomlands and upland prairie. Located 0.5 mile north and 0.5 mile west of I-80 Pleasant Dale exit. The best prairie is southwest of the smaller lake, on west side of WMA. Owner: Nebraska Game & Parks Com­mission. (402) 471-0641.

Wildcat Creek Tallgrass Prairie (Gage County). 32 acres of low meadow. Located five miles south, one mile west and one mile south of Virginia, then west 0.25 mile on dirt road. Or drive two miles west and 5 miles north of Liberty, then 0.25 mile west (section 4, on north side of road). Notable for its butterfly milkweed. Owner: Wachiska Audubon. (402) 488-9032.

Homestead National Monument Prairie (Gage County). Located 4.5 miles west of Beatrice on Highway 4. About 100 acres of restored prairie on a historic homestead site. Includes a 2.5-mile trail through riparian wooded habitats and restored prairie. Interpretive center present. A local plant list is available. Owner: National Park Service. (402) 223-3514.

Some major Midwestern tallgrass prairies

Iowa

Jasper County
Neil Smith National Wildlife Refuge. 8,654 acres. Restored tallgrass prairie 20 miles east of Des Moines near Prairie City. Bison and elk are being reintroduced. (515) 994-2415

Monona County
Loess Hills Wildlife Area and Sylvan Runkel State Preserve. 2,900 acres. Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources. Ridgetop prairie and oak forest. From Onawa, take County Road L-12 north 6.8 miles, turn east (across Little Sioux River) on Nutmeg Avenue, and then south, via 178th Street for 2.5 miles to parking area. Sylvan Runkel State Preserve is across the road to the north. (712) 458-2428

Plymouth County
Broken Kettle Grasslands. 3,000 acres. Owned by The Nature Conservancy. Loess hills prairie and oak woodlands. From I-29 in Sioux City, take Highway 12 (Exit 151) north about 10 miles to County Road K18. Continue on Highway 12 for four miles to Butcher Road, then go east about one mile. The office is on SR 12, 0.5 mile north of Butcher Road (712) 568-2596

Kansas

Geary and Riley Counties
Konza Prairie. 8,616 acres. Owned by The Nature Conservancy and managed by Kansas State University. A major prairie preserve in the Flint Hills near Manhattan. Tallgrass and mixed-grass prairie. Fourteen miles of trails are open daily from dawn until dusk, conditions permitting. (913) 272-5115

South Dakota

Grant County
Samuel H. Ordway Jr. Memorial Prairie Preserve. 7,800 acres. Owned by The Nature Conservancy. Tallgrass prairies and wetlands; the largest tallgrass prairie in South Dakota. Located eight miles west of Leola on Highway 10. (605) 439-3475 or (701) 222-8464

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