The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is southwest of Kansas City and just off Route 50, in an area of Kansas known as the Flint Hills. Most of the remaining North American tallgrass prairie is nearby, the remnant of what was once 400,000 square miles.
The prairie is a complex ecosystem. It currently supports some fifty species of grass and over 400 other plant species, ranging from lichen to trees. In addition, over 200 species of animals live or lived in the prairie, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. Of course, we know of the bison (30 to 60 million of them, at one time), but grizzly bears and wolves also once roamed the prairie.
Fires periodically burned the tallgrass prairie, and controlled burns are still used in the Preserve. The grasses survive the fires because 80% of their mass is underground.
The prairie still exists in the Flint Hills because the limestone and flint below the soil are too close to the surface for effective plowing. As a result, the land was given over to ranches and grazing, and this allowed the grasses to continue to flourish.
The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve was once a ranch, and its outbuildings, such as the one in bottom picture, were built of rocks from beneath the prairie.
