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Nature Notes: At one time, Minnesota prairies filled the eyes and the senses

More than a third of Minnesota was covered in prairie vegetation before European settlement

For the Minnesota Star Tribune

July 7, 2016 at 5:56PM

The steep slopes and valleys of the Hole in the Mountain prairie south of Lake Benton are home to more that 200 species of wildflowers and 60 different grasses, sedges and rushes. Native Americans who passed through the half mile wide valley called it "Hole in the Mountain" or "Mountain Pass." ] Minnesota State of Wonders - Summer on the Prairie. BRIAN PETERSON � brian.peterson@startribune.com Lake Benton, MN 08/02/14 (Brian Mark Peterson — Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

A prairie is defined as a North American natural grassland, composed of a mixture of perennial grasses and forbs. Many of the forbs are showy blooming wildflowers, but all are nonwoody herbaceous plants. Most prairie plants are long-lived perennials, living for decades — even centuries. Each autumn the upper plant parts die back to ground level, but the roots remain alive.

Before European settlement on the plains of the Midwest and West, prairie grasses and wildflowers stretched as far as people could see. More than one-third of Minnesota (in the south and west) was covered with prairie vegetation. Hundreds of thousands of square miles in the United States are known today as farmland but were at one time the prairie and home to bison, antelope, pollinating insects, and many more organisms.

Only between 1 and 2 percent of the prairie remains in Minnesota. It was through the initiative of individuals and conservation groups that remnant prairies still exist. These remnants must be guarded from being plowed up, sprayed with herbicides or ruined by overgrazing or continuous mowing. They are our remaining link to a world that lived 10,000 years ago.

I recommend this weekend as a time for a prairie visit. Now is when many of the grasses and forbs are growing tall, some more than 6 feet, and many are in bloom. Explore a place such as the Schaefer Prairie, a 160-acre relic in McLeod County where more than 200 plant species have been recorded, the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, or Linnaeus Arboretum in St. Peter each with restored prairies.