The nature conservancy receives $500,000 challenge Grant

from the Kresge Foundation

To save remaining prairie for future generations

DES MOINES, IOWA — April 30, 2007—More than 99 percent of our original grasslands are gone and today, those that survive are conservation priorities of state, national and global importance. In Iowa, The Nature Conservancy’s Campaign for Conservation is working to save some of Iowa’s last remaining large, native landscapes for future generations.

To assist in the acquisition of prairie tracts located in Iowa’s three prairie landscapes – the Loess Hills, Little Sioux Valley and Grand River Grasslands – The Kresge Foundation has provided a $500,000 challenge grant to Iowa’s Campaign for Conservation.

The payment of the grant is dependent on the Conservancy in Iowa reaching its campaign goal, $9.5 million in cash or pledges by February 1, 2008. To date, the Iowa Campaign for Conservation has raised just more than $8 million.

“The Kresge Foundation has provided us with a significant boost and an exciting challenge,” said Leslee Spraggins, state director of The Nature Conservancy. “We have a brief window of opportunity to conserve Iowa’s legacy and prairies. With the deadline set by The Kresge Foundation, the sense of urgency is even greater.”

Focusing on Iowa’s six most ecologically important and threatened landscapes, the Campaign for Conservation is funding urgent conservation needs, from direct acquisition to important land management and restoration activities to vital scientific research.

Tracts of land with thousands of acres are not available for purchase in Iowa. To protect prairie in a large landscape, the Conservancy must purchase 50 to 300 acre parcels, one property at a time. With experience and patience, the Conservancy in Iowa has proven successful, demonstrated at Broken Kettle Grasslands, the largest native prairie in the state. In 1992, the Conservancy made its first purchase with 321 acres. Over the next 14 years, Broken Kettle has grown to more than 3,000 acres directly owned by the Conservancy and an additional 1,700 acres protected with conservation easements.

“With the aid of this challenge grant, we hope the campaign can become an even more strategic opportunity to connect with stakeholders and reach out to new donors, volunteers and the general community,” said Rip Rapson, president and CEO of The Kresge Foundation. “We are pleased to be able to make this challenge grant toward the protection of the prairies – the most threatened plant and animal system in the world.”

Today, less than one percent of original prairie remains; making it one of North America’s most endangered ecosystems. On a global scale, the world’s grasslands and prairies are home to nearly 800 million people, providing food, medicine and economic opportunities to countless millions more. But less than five percent of all grasslands globally have been protected for conservation. And these landscapes face ever increasing threats like invasive species, suppression of naturally occurring fire and the conversion of landscapes for agriculture and urbanization.

Iowa’s largest surviving prairies are found in the Loess Hills and the Conservancy’s Broken Kettle Grasslands Preserve contains the largest contiguous native prairie in the state. With the help of partners and local landowners, the Conservancy plans to preserve more than 100,000 acres in the Loess Hills through acquisition and conservation easements, and to maintain healthy ecological systems within a sustainable, working agricultural landscape. Upon completion of the Campaign for Conservation, the Conservancy will be in a position to reintroduce bison at Broken Kettle Grasslands.

Within the Little Sioux Valley, the Conservancy hopes to conserve and restore 20,000 acres of this extremely important prairie, river and wetland system. Several rare species can be found here, including the federally threatened prairie bush clover and eastern prairie fringed orchid.

The Grand River Grassland area along the Missouri and south central Iowa border is a 70,000 acre project area. Plant species that thrive in this area of tallgrass prairie include the compass plant, butterfly milkweed, pale purple cornflower and wild indigo. Grand River Grasslands represents the largest and best grassland bird conservation area, with Henslow’s sparrow, nesting Northern harriers, loggerhead shrike and bobwhite quail.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.

The Nature Conservancy in Iowa has more than 7,500 members and manages 33 preserves totaling over 6,000 acres. Since the Chapter began in 1963, with the aid of volunteers it has been involved in the protection of nearly 20,000 acres in the state, including native prairies, wetlands and woodland communities.

The Kresge Foundation is a national foundation with $3 billion in assets. Through its grant making programs, The Kresge Foundation seeks to strengthen nonprofit organizations by catalyzing growth, connecting them to their stakeholders and challenging greater support through grants. In 2005, the Foundation awarded 212 grants totaling $131,770.027 to organizations in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, South Africa and Mexico.