The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Wild and remote, the Tallgrass Aspen Parkland is the most intact grassland system in Minnesota and the only site within the Great Plains that retains its top megafauna – animals like wolves, cougar, black bear, elk, bald eagles and sandhill cranes.

Stretching for some 2 million acres across northwestern Minnesota and southeastern Manitoba, Canada, the Parkland is also home to a thriving elk herd. Due in large part to conservation efforts by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the elk herd stands at some 250 head, up from less than 100 just 10 years ago.

All of the conservation lands within the Parkland are open to the public for a wide variety of public uses, including hunting, fishing, hiking and snowmobiling, and protect important habitat for a wide variety of wildlife species.

Tallgrass Aspen Parkland

The woodland-prairie mosaic of the Tallgrass Aspen Parkland remains much unchanged since 1857, when explorer Henry Hind wrote about “hummocks of aspen and willow” on ancient lake ridges. Here the prairie of America’s heartland transitions to the conifer forests of the north.