The Tallgrass Prairie

Today only a few remnants of the native American tallgrass prairie remain. Most, destroyed in the name of progress.

At the time of settlement, the polite term for invasion of people of European heritage, the tallgrass prairies once covered an area of about 221,430 square miles (573,500 square km.). It extended from southern Manitoba to Texas and from Indiana to eastern Nebraska.

The tough grass roots were able to withstand sweeping prairie fires, thousands of grazing bison, hot dry summers and ferocious winter blizzards and cold.

Early settlers found plowing the sturdy roots extremely difficult.

The end of the prairie came suddenly after the invention of the steel moldboard plow by John Deer in 1837.

Today it is estimated that less than 1% has survived in small patches that were often hard to plow. Even many of these were over grazed by cattle and severely damaged.

Many of the more delicate prairie plants in this diverse biome have become extinct or are near extinction.

As the prairie goes, so also went the species dependent upon it, lacking habitat and competing for space with humans.

The bison is basically gone, the whooping crane was nearly extinct and also many animals and organisms that we as humans are generally unaware of and and see of no importance because of our lack of awareness of them.

In the Bellevue, Nebraska area alone in the past five years, developers see money as more important than the vestiges of prairie and have totally destroyed two irreplaceable prairies to put homes.

As this miracle of life is nearly lost, a few organizations are beginning to see the rich and extensive list of species, and beginning to try to save a few of the remnants.