| Fast Facts |
location
10 minutes from Omaha, Nebraska
ecoregion
Central Tallgrass Prairie
project size
100,000 acres
preserves
Broken Kettle Grasslands, Folsom Point, Sioux City Prairie, McCormack Natural Area
public lands
Five-Ridge Prairie, Hitchcock Nature Area, West Oak Preserve, Loess Hills State Forest, Stone State Park, Waubonsie State Park, Brickyard Hill Natural Area, Star School Hill
partners
Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Missouri Department of Conservation, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, county conservation boards, Loess Hills Alliance
conservancy initiatives
Fire, Invasive Species
natural events
migrating raptors, fall and spring; cut-your-own cedar Christmas tree and holiday event, early December; Loess Hills Prairie Seminar, May/June | |
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Wind and silt shaped this loess topography—considered the best in North America—but native prairies of the Loess Hills may soon be lost without fire to restore and sustain them. |
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Atop a Loess Hills ridge.
© Phil Schermeister/Network Aspen |
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Rising up 200 feet from the flood-plain, the Loess Hills form a 200-mile-long wrinkled-bluff border along the Missouri River. Dry, grass-covered ridges fall off steeply into shady, moist ravines where leafy plants and mosses thrive. Loess—a soft, wind-blown silt—covers most of Iowa and is the reason for its fertile soil. But only in China and along the Rhine River do loess deposits rival the depth of Iowa’s Loess Hills.
Once covered entirely in prairie grasses, the Loess Hills were described by Lewis and Clark as “bald pated” during their expedition in 1804, as they traveled upriver beneath the bluffs in their keelboats. Fifty years later, the Mormon Trail passed through these same ridges. The dugouts cut into the bluffs by west-bound Mormons as shelter from wind and weather are still evident today. |
Regal fritillary on butterfly milkweed.
© Frank Oberle |
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The Loess Hills’ rugged topography and mix of dry soil, exposed slopes and wet hollows enable western species like yucca, cowboy’s delight and skeleton weed to flourish alongside plants native to eastern states. Rare species like the ornate box turtle, bobcat and Great Plains skink make their home here. In 1984 a previously undescribed fern, |
| the prairie moonwort, was discovered in these hills. The varied landscape also attracts as many as 19 species of raptors, which follow the ridgelines on their annual migrations, getting lift from the updrafts of wind rising from the slopes. | |
More than a century of agricultural cultivation and accompanying fire suppression has allowed eastern red cedar, elm and dogwoods to take hold on slopes where native tallgrass prairie once grew. To return fire to the landscape and thus eliminate these invasive species, The Nature Conservancy is working with federal resource agencies and local conservation and agricultural interests to initiate a controlled burning program. Recognizing that grazing bison once helped shape the prairie, in time we will also reintroduce these ungulates as an important component of native prairie restoration.
Learn more about The Nature Conservancy's work in Iowa. |
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| Conservation Profile |
targets
butterflies like the regal fritillary, upland sandpiper, ornate box turtle, bobcat, plains pocket mouse, Great Plains skink, yucca, skeleton weed, prairie moonwort
stresses
fire suppression, residential development, invasive species, inappropriate grazing, fill dirt mining
strategies
acquire land, secure conservation easements, restore ecosystems through fire management, engage community in natural resource management, encourage conservation management of public land, promote ecologically compatible land-use practices
results
nearly 27,000 acres in conservation management; collaborative fire program launched | | | | |
