| Fast Facts |
location
north of Tulsa to the Kansas-Nebraska border
ecoregion
Osage Plains/Flint Hills Prairie
project size
4.9 million acres
preserves
Tallgrass Prairie, Konza Prairie, Flint Hills Tallgrass Prairie, Sunset Prairie
public lands
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Fort Riley Military Reservation, Western Wall Wildlife Management Area
partners
ranchers, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, Oklahoma State University, Tulsa University, University of Oklahoma, Kansas State University
natural events
greater prairie chicken courtship dances, spring; bison calve, April–June; prescribed prairie fires, April; peak wildflower blooms, mid-May–mid-June, August–September | |
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Only in the Flint Hills can one still experience horizon-to-horizon vistas of native tallgrass prairie, once one of the continent’s most extensive natural systems. |
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Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.
© Frank Oberle |
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To early explorers and pioneers, the undulating hills of northern Oklahoma were an endless sea of grass blanketing the land in all directions. The grasses—big bluestem, Indian grass and switchgrass—grew to more than 10 feet, high enough to brush saddle horns and require settlers to stand in the saddle to locate their grazing cattle. The tallgrass prairie harbored abundant wildlife like the greater prairie chicken, coyotes and bobcats—but the bison that roamed in massive herds most symbolize its grandeur.
For millennia, the tallgrass prairie defined the Great Plains, stretching from Texas to Canada and covering 142 million acres of America’s heartland. The landscape was shaped and sustained by the natural forces of climate, fire and grazing interacting over time and across wide-open spaces. Today, less than 10 percent of the tallgrass prairie remains in isolated fragments. The largest tracts are in the Flint Hills of Kansas and Oklahoma. |
Prescribed burn,
Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.
© Jim Brandenburg/Minden Pictures |
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Most tallgrass prairie disappeared when the pioneers pushed westward, planting corn and transforming the plains into the breadbasket of a growing nation. With their rocky terrain making them untillable, the Flint Hills became an enclave of ranches and cowboys amidst the Great Plains’ crops and farmers. But without the grazing patterns of native ungulates like bison and the regular sweep of wildfire, the tallgrass prairie has suffered. | |
The Nature Conservancy in 1989 seized a rare opportunity to restore a functioning tallgrass prairie ecosystem to presettlement condition. We purchased the Barnard Ranch, a 29,000-acre grassland in Osage County, Oklahoma, anchoring the southern end of the greatest stretch of tallgrass prairie remaining in North America. Here at what became the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve we have reintroduced fire and, in 1993, we released a herd of 300 bison to roam freely on the preserve. Since then their numbers have grown to some 2,000. In reuniting these two native elements of the tallgrass—fire and bison—we are restoring a piece of North America’s natural heritage.
Learn more about The Nature Conservancy's work in Oklahoma. |
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| Conservation Profile |
targets
native tallgrass prairie, bison, greater prairie chicken, big bluestem
stresses
habitat loss to industrial and residential development, invasive species, altered fire and grazing regimes
strategies
secure conservation easements, develop techniques to combat invasive species, restore ecosystems through fire management and grazing
results
32,800-acre preserve created; bison herd established; preserve hosts 20,000 visitors per year | | | | |
