- The tallgrass prairie ecosystem, unique to North America, is an important part of our natural heritage.
- Only 1% of the original tallgrass prairie remains. With 99% of prairies gone, they are more rare than rainforests.
- Because so little of this native habitat remains, many prairie species are rare or endangered.
- Prairie plants possess great indigenous and aesthetic value, and many have important medicinal, economic, or climate-fighting uses.
- Tallgrass prairies are biodiverse ecosystems. Their rich soils - supported by abundant deep-rooted forbs (flowers) and grasses - provide essential habitat for numerous plant and animal species, such as birds, pollinators, and mammals.
- Millions of bison - commonly known as buffalo - used to roam the prairie plains; they are America's largest land mammals.
"What a thousand acres of Silphiums looked like when they tickled the bellies of the buffalo is a question never again to be answered, and perhaps not even asked."
-Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (1949)