We visited the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Flint Hills of Kansas today. The preserve is owned by a nonprofit trust and managed by the National Park Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Kansas Park Trust. The reason for this funky ownership model is because of local politics: it took years to create this preserve because of community suspicion of federal government ownership of land. (This might also explain its relatively low-key presence: there was no signage along the road to help direct us to the preserve- though it wasn't at all hard to find). We had a fabulous time on our visit: there is a great information center, several trails through the prairie and a free, ranger- guided 90 minute bus tour through the preserve. While the priairie was once the largest of America's seven ecosystems, only 4% remains. If anyone finds themselves anywhere near Kansas, I would strongly recommend a visit to the preserve to see a really interesting piece of our history. Above is a picture of Grace and Lucy with Ranger Ron.
We visited the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Flint Hills of Kansas today. The preserve is owned by a nonprofit trust and managed by the National Park Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Kansas Park Trust. The reason for this funky ownership model is because of local politics: it took years to create this preserve because of community suspicion of federal government ownership of land. (This might also explain its relatively low-key presence: there was no signage along the road to help direct us to the preserve- though it wasn't at all hard to find). We had a fabulous time on our visit: there is a great information center, several trails through the prairie and a free, ranger- guided 90 minute bus tour through the preserve. While the priairie was once the largest of America's seven ecosystems, only 4% remains. If anyone finds themselves anywhere near Kansas, I would strongly recommend a visit to the preserve to see a really interesting piece of our history. Above is a picture of Grace and Lucy with Ranger Ron.
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