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Places We Protect

Zimmerman Prairie

Minnesota

Close-up of a marbled godwit. © Jim Williams

This preserve is a unique prairie remnant that is dominated by wet to mesic tallgrass prairie.

Viewing

Overview

Description

Why TNC Selected This Site

Northern tallgrass prairie is one of the rarest ecosystems in North America. Once a vast sea of grasses and wildflowers, much of the remnant prairies have been converted to crop fields. Zimmerman Prairie preserves a small portion of unbroken tallgrass prairie. Many prairie plants and animals thrive at this unique site.

What TNC Has Done/Is Doing

Periodic controlled fire and mowing help keep brush and trees from invading and out competing the prairie wildflowers and grasses. Unfortunately, some introduced species are found on the site. TNC stewards are working to minimize their expansion and to reduce their impact on the native plants that have thrived here for centuries.

Access

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Size

80 acres

Explore our work in this region

What to See: Plants

This preserve is dominated by mesic tallgrass prairie, with some depressions and swales. Wet prairie is more adapted to the low areas with higher soil moisture caused by poorly drained soils containing silt and clay. These wet prairie areas often have a thick mat-like layer of dead vegetation covering the ground surface. Slough sedge and grasses such as prairie cordgrass dominate these wet zones.

Rare plants of interest found at Zimmerman are the single-spiked sedge and the small white lady-slipper. White-tailed deer and eastern cottontail rabbits have been known to feed on the buds and flowers of the white lady-slipper.

What to See: Animals

Grassland birds significantly use this preserve. A few species of note that nest within the prairie are the marbled godwit, upland sandpiper and the greater prairie chicken.

For more information on visiting this and other Minnesota preserves, check out our Preserve Visitation Guidelines.