Prairie Remnant Lives Among the Dead

Nature Conservancy will provide expertise in prairie restoration within the City of St. Louis

ST. LOUIS—January 6, 2006—A tiny jewel of Missouri prairie heritage lives in Calvary Cemetery in north St. Louis City overlooking the Mississippi – and it’s the only surviving prairie remnant inside the Highway 270 corridor. The Nature Conservancy, in partnership with the Archdiocese of St. Louis, the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Missouri Botanical Garden and The Green Center, is working to protect, restore and sustain this prairie remnant through a cooperative agreement between the participating agencies and the community.

When Auguste Chouteau co-founded St. Louis more than 240 years ago, this low bluff overlooking the Mississippi River floodplain was mostly prairie with a few scattered trees. Today, this same bluff makes up the northeastern corner of the historic Calvary Cemetery with the last known remnant of the original tallgrass prairie that once covered nearly two-thirds of St. Louis City. Surviving among the dead, this prairie remnant is near Chouteau’s grave as well.

Calvary cemetery covers 477 acres and approximately 25 acres contain patches of native prairie remnants with high restoration potential, including the presence of more than 130 species of native flowering plants.

The history of human interaction with the original prairie pre-dates settlement of St. Louis by Europeans, when Native Americans used part of this prairie as a burial ground. In the early days of settlement in the mid 1700s, soldiers from nearby Fort Bellefontiane were interred here.

Calvary Cemetery was formally incorporated in March 1857, when Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick purchased and dedicated this land to a new cemetery. The existing prairie remnant is near the grave of St. Louis co-founder Auguste Chouteau. Other notable St. Louisans buried at Calvary include: Dred Scott, General William T. Sherman, Tennessee Williams, Kate Chopin and Surveyor General Antoine Soulard.

“The Archdiocese has agreed to protect and set aside this prairie remnant for the next 100 years to allow for the management of this significant piece of prairie,” said Msg. Robert McCarthy, the archdiocese’s cemeteries director. “This is an opportunity to preserve one of the jewels in the St. Louis landscape and include our local community in this collaborative effort to celebrate and learn from this unique find.”

While relatively well preserved for decades within Calvary Cemetery, this last rare remnant of original prairie is in urgent need of protection and restoration.

“The current condition of this prairie is severely deteriorated from a combination of factors, including habitat degradation, exotic species infestation, encroachment of woody vegetation, fire suppression and past land-use history,” said Doug Ladd, director of conservation science for The Nature Conservancy. “Unless immediate conservation action is taken, this small island of our prairie heritage is in peril of being lost forever.”

This fall, native grass seeds were harvested at the site and will be ready to plant by the spring. With its extensive experience in prairie restoration, The Nature Conservancy will provide technical expertise in prairie restoration and monitor progress of the restoration project an ongoing basis. The Missouri Department of Conservation will also lend expertise in prairie restoration and facilitate and implement fire management, vital to any prairie restoration project.

The Missouri Botanical Garden will provide scientific expertise and the facilities for the cultivation and replanting of native plants. They will also facilitate the acquisition and production of native plant material.

The Green Center will lead community outreach and education programs and provide leadership in coordinating community volunteers for conservation activities.

In cooperation, all the partners will provide support and guidance in applying and securing grants and funding for this project.

“We plan to use fire and do controlled burns in the spring to prepare the prairie for the initial hands-on restoration this summer. Initial replantings are scheduled for next winter,” said Ladd. “A priority for all the partners working on this project is to engage our local community with a vast array of educational opportunities, exposure to conservation and environmental work and seasonal employment opportunities.”

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 138,000 acres of critical natural lands since 1956. Visit us on the Web at nature.org/missouri.