The Nature Conservancy Announces Land Sale in the El Dorado Springs Area

ST. LOUIS — The Nature Conservancy has sold a 785-acre tract in the El Dorado Springs area. The property identified as T6-3 is located west of Short Ford Road approximately three miles north of El Dorado Springs. The T6-3 tract consists of 785 acres and was sold in fee-simple estate, meaning with no restrictions or easements

The property was sold because tract did not have the attributes necessary for native prairie habitat or attributes able to be protected by a conservation easement. The proceeds from the sale will be invested in The Nature Conservancy’s Land Preservation Fund and used to purchase and enhance additional property. The Nature Conservancy is going to continue to actively manage the Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie and acquire additional land and conservation easements that will further protect and enhance the prairie landscape and prairie chicken habitat.

David Perkins of Unionville, Missouri, is the new owner of the property. At the time of the sale, Perkins stated his intentions for the property were to develop the site for hunting, primarily deer, turkey and duck.

The El Dorado Springs area is very important to The Nature Conservancy in Missouri. This 3,670-acre Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie preserve is the last functional prairie landscape east of the Flint Hills and the largest protected prairie in the Osage Plains. An adjacent 520-acre prairie parcel in St. Clair and Cedar counties, northeast of El Dorado Springs, is owned by the Missouri Department of Conservation.

More than 220 native plants live at Wah’Kon-Tah, including the federally endangered Mead’s milkweed. Native species include the greater prairie chicken, deer, coyote, fox, eastern cottontail rabbit and the endangered prairie mole cricket. These species are thriving amid the prairie’s tall native grasses and wildflowers, as are prairie birds.

"Wah'Kon-Tah Prairie is an important part of El Dorado Springs' heritage. We want future generations to be able to experience the prairie and have a glimpse of what the majority of this region looked like pre-settlement. We're working aggressively in our management to make that a possibility. I encourage everyone to come to Wah'Kon-Tah and see the progress -every year there is noticeable improvement,” said Stacia Whitaker, Wah’Kon-Tah preserve management assistant and local resident.

The Conservancy is collaborating with the Missouri Department of Conservation to sustainably manage existing prairie areas and to work with owners of privately owned prairies and ranches in the 10,000- acre region surrounding Wah’Kon-Tah. Specific conservation activities include creating the Osage Plains seed cooperative to collect and plant native grasses seed, reducing harmful, non-native plant species and conducting controlled burns. These burns benefit deep-rooted prairie grasses and flowers by removing dead vegetation, encouraging new growth and preventing the infiltration of brush, trees and non-native prairie grasses. This improves habitat for prairie birds, mammals and butterflies

In 1998, the Missouri Program created the state’s second largest protected prairie through a purchase linking Wah’Kon-Tah and Mo-Ko prairies in Cedar and St. Clair counties.

Information on properties for sale by The Nature Conservancy can be viewed at nature.org/conservationbuyer/.

Please contact: Jim Wildman at The Nature Conservancy, 2800 S. Brentwood Blvd., St. Louis, Mo., 63144, phone 314-968-1105, and email jwildman@tnc.org, for more information on The Nature Conservancy’s properties for sale.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 14 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific.

Together with our members and conservation partners, The Nature Conservancy in Missouri has protected more than 140,000 acres of critical natural lands since 1956.