The Importance of Conserving and Re-Establishing Our Prairies

The importance of mid-western prairie can be disregarded easily, deemed uninteresting, “fly-over” areas between the East and West coast. I too, lamented my home of landlocked Iowa, with its absence of any vast oceans or beaches. It took me 15 years until I began to appreciate my own state’s wildness, and two more years after that until I was madly in love with it. To spare the next generation from a costly ecological ignorance, a quick lesson on the importance of Iowan Prairie should be taught.

Prairie is Iowa’s ocean. Prairie grass moves to resist you like a tidal wave struggles against your entrance to the sea. Go deep into the depths of a prairie, and you will find a hidden world of life that teases you with stories of a lost world. Tall-Grass Prairie used to be Iowa’s biggest natural habitat. Now, all that we have left is one tenth of one percent. The loss of prairie and its species are immeasurable, yet the consequences of invasive species flourishing and soil quality diminishing are easily noticed. As a child in an Iowan public school, I learned about dolphins and cheetahs and other exotic animals only possibly available to see by a trip to a zoo. I was never once taught about animals and plants native to Iowa. I never learned about life Iowan, and never had a classroom discussion on how we have lost, and continue to lose, so much of our native habitat. An early education can spark an understanding of the importance of conservation- and that is something I wish that all students, not only Iowan, could learn about in school.

Iowa soils are soybean and corn havens. Livestock graze on the lush grasses of glacier- flattened land. However, none of this would be possible without the prairie that inhabited the land before it became farms that feeds our nation. Like there are different types of oceanic ecosystems, there are different kinds of prairie: dry, wet, and mesic (think: mix of dry and wet). Mesic prairie soil became the ideal foundation for growing crops. Unfortunately, this also means that Mesic prairie is the most endangered prairie ecosystem. Yet prairie is resilient, and there have been many efforts made to reintroduce prairie back into its mother.

Native plants and grasses thrived through a deep root system that allowed them to find water even in dry months. When these deep-rooted systems would die, thousands of bacteria and fungi would return to the earth and replenish the soil. Mezic prairie is fantastic for water retention. As a result, conservationists have encouraged farmers to begin planting buffer strips between crop sections to prevent fertilizer runoff, and to reintroduce native species into their homes.

I want to share this information with people that may have never experienced what it’s like to lose yourself in a tall grass prairie. Even if they do, there is always something to be learned, and it is important to be grateful for things that improve our lives even if they are unseen. Prairies boast no giant natural landmarks, but they possess the tools needed for pollinators to spread life. Everything from the food we eat to the tiny flowers we pick rely on the species that prairie shelters. Everyone- not only Mid-westerners- should remember prairie ecosystems, regardless of their physical visibility, the next time the word ‘conservation of the comes to mind.

Questions or Comments can be sent to mmorrow@smith.edu