The Mission

Our mission is to protect, preserve, and restore native grasslands.

Locally, more than ninety-five percent of these wonderful places have been destroyed by human development. We mean to, in some small way, correct that mistake.

Our approach is to actually do the work of conservation.

As we can, we try to protect the few grasslands that remain through purchase of title or conservation easement. More frequently, we create new grasslands through the complex process of ecological restoration.

We would like to help you do the same.

We present here much of the science and engineering needed to successfully manage and restore native grasslands. There are 'rooms' and 'tools' here for you to investigate. And although these objects are virtual, they are not at all imaginary.

Search

The most general way to find information on this website is to do a search. Enter one or more keywords in the box and then click the button. Advanced search options are available on the search results page. You may search by object class (plant, contact, ...) and/or by object type (domain, task, album, ...). Try it. It works great.

The Directory

This is a collection of people and places related to grassland conservation. These are divided into sections such as Organizations, Natural Areas, and Agencies. There are controls for selecting which sections of the directory to view. To open the directory, click the Directory button - the first item on the Resources menu.

The Gallery

This is a collection of photographs, maps, drawing which relate to grassland conservation. Like an art museum it's organized into galleries, which present collections, which contain photographs.

For example, in the 'Places Gallery' you might find a 'Prairie' exhibit which has an album of photographs of Bluebird Prairie. You can begin to explore the Gallery by clicking on the 'Gallery' button at the upper left.

The Inventory

This is a collection of grassland plants and animals. The plants are organized by sere and habitat. The animals are organized by taxon and domain. You can view a list of all species or just those of a particular kind. For example, you may wish to see early succesional plants which are well adapted to wet, sunny places.

The Library

This is a collection of books, manuals, pamphlets, and so forth, which relate to grassland conservation. The books (files) are hierarchically organized by topic.

For example, in the 'Conservation Science' aisle you might find a 'Grassland Birds' shelf which has a book about bobolinks. You can enter the Library by clicking the 'Library' button.

The Newsroom

This is a collection of articles from newspapers, journals, newsletters, and blogs, which relate to grassland conservation. They are presented as a simple list with the newest articles first. New articles are added daily; articles are retained for one week.

The Portfolio

This is a collection of habitats organized by ecosystem. There are, for example, many different types of prairies, each with their characteristic species. We include here all types of prairie, savanna, thicket, woodland, and sunny wetland found in the upper Mississippi Valley. That is, all types of local grasslands.

The Workshop

This is a collection of tools used in grassland conservation. They are organized by task. For example, you may wish to see information on all prescribed burn tools, or all seed collection tools.

Enjoy.