MDC will offer free Prairie Day event Sept. 17

Visit Wah'Kon-Tah Prairie near El Dorado Springs for tours and exhibits  

El Dorado Springs, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) will host a free Prairie Day event 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 17, at Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie near El Dorado Springs. Tallgrass prairie is a diverse ecosystem of native grasses, wildflowers, upland streams, insects and wildlife. Prairie Day will offer wagon tours of the prairie, wildflower walks and conservation exhibits.

Co-host for the event is The Nature Conservancy. Much of the Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie Conservation Area is owned by the Conservancy but managed by MDC in a partnership. The St. Clair County Cattlemen’s Association will provide food concessions.  Representatives of the Osage Nation will discuss the tribe’s historic ties to the Upper Osage Grasslands.

MDC staff will discuss the role prairie plays today, whether it’s preserving the iconic grassland birds like the prairie chicken, conserving plant diversity, boosting wildlife habitat or providing a place to learn how conservative grazing can be used to improve wildlife habitat.

Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie and the nearby Taberville Prairie hold remnant flocks of prairie chickens, which are endangered in Missouri. But the key to those flocks surviving is the native grasses and wildflowers that provide food and good places to nest, raise broods, hide from predators and survive winter. The same warm-season grasses and forbs also can provide summer grazing forage or winter hay for livestock. Bobwhite quail and other ground-nesting birds also benefit from prairies or the use of native grasses and forbs in pastures.

Prairies are also simply beautiful to look at, either across the open horizons, or by observing the plant diversity during a hike. Prairies also harbor wildlife such as songbirds, deer and turkeys.

For information about Prairie Day, call 417-876-5226. Information and a map for Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie Conservation Area is available at https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/places/wahkon-tah-prairie. To learn about prairie in Missouri, visit http://mdc.mo.gov.

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MDC and partners offer Prairie Days tours at Dunn Ranch

Free event celebrates grassland heritage with bison, birds and wildflowers

Bethany, Mo. – Northwest Missouri’s grassland heritage will be celebrated at Prairie Days June 24-25 at Dunn Ranch in Harrison County. Bison, butterflies, birds and native plants that support them will be on display. Experts will interpret prairie ecology at a free event sponsored by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), The Nature Conservancy, and the Missouri Prairie Foundation. No registration is required and all ages are welcome for hikes, tours and exhibits.

    A social and mixer will be held 9 to 11 p.m. at the Dunn Ranch Prairie headquarters onFriday, June 24. The movie “Green Fire,” a documentary about legendary conservationist Aldo Leopold, will be shown. The headquarters  is at 16970 West 150th St., Hatfield, Mo. This rural address is west of Eagleville and can be accessed off Interstate 35 via Route M.

   Saturday, June 25. The kickoff is a guided bird hike 5:30 to 7:30 a.m. at MDC’s Pawnee Prairie Natural Area. This prairie is three miles northwest of Dunn Ranch and is accessed off South 140th Avenue, south of Hatfield. Visitors can walk on unplowed prairie remnants with diverse wildflowers, warm-season grasses and birds, as well as restored native grassland.

   At Dunn Ranch, activities begin at 8 a.m. with bison tours, prairie plant identification, grazing and nutrition sessions, and prairie ecology topics such as pollinator insects, mammals, amphibians and headwater streams. Visitors can view prairie tracts in bloom with wildflowers. Experts will discuss how water, plants and creatures interweave a prairie’s richly productive life cycles. The Conservancy utilizes a bison herd on the ranch in forage management. But other species contribute to the prairie’s colorful abundance, too.

   Pawnee Prairie and Dunn Ranch Prairie are part of a broader public and private partnership to enhance prairie species in the Grand River Grasslands. The effort extends north into Iowa with programs such as habitat management to boost prairie chickens, which are endangered in Missouri and Iowa.

   For more information on Prairie Days, call the MDC Northwest Regional Office at 816-271-3100. Concessions will be available onsite. No registration is required for the free activities.

   Information and a map for Pawnee Prairie Natural Area are available athttp://on.mo.gov/1KOa8Xv. To learn about Missouri prairies, visit http://mdc.mo.gov.

   To learn about Dunn Ranch Prairie, visit http://bit.ly/1ellp2i.

MDC to host Prairie Days with The Nature Conservancy

Free event at Dunn Ranch and Pawnee Prairie showcases prairie ecology and history

Eagleville, Mo. – Prairie grasses and wildflowers once waved in summer winds throughout northwest Missouri. Trees grew in scattered groves in the grassland ecosystem along streams and some ridges. But the grasses and wildflowers provided the main food base for bison, elk, prairie chickens and butterflies. Very little prairie remains today after 200 years of settlement and farming greatly changed land uses. 

   Prairie Days, however, will give visitors a look back in time and an update on what public-private partnerships are doing to preserve and restore grassland ecosystems. The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) will host the free event on Friday, June 26, and Saturday, June 27. Activities will begin at 8 p.m. Friday with asocial and movies at TNC’s Dunn Ranch, 16970 W. 150th St., Hatfield, Mo. On Saturday, birding hikes will be offered 5:30 to 7:30 a.m. at MDC’s Pawnee Prairie, which is northwest of the ranch. Then Saturday’s activities will shift to Dunn Ranch from 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. for bison herd tours, wildflower identification, grazing sessions and presentations on prairie critters and ecology.

  Camping will be available at Dunn Ranch without hookups. Harrison County Lake offers camping with some hookups and primitive sites. Motel lodging is available in Eagleville and Bethany. Booths or demonstrations will be offered by Missouri Prairie Foundation, Missouri River Bird Observatory, Pure Air Natives, Inc., Missouri Master Naturalists and Hamilton Native Outpost.

   Prairie Days will also showcase the public-private partnerships in the Grand River Grasslands. The cooperative effort spanning the Missouri and Iowa state line helps private landowners with grassland management for better production returns and in ways that help grassland species, such as Missouri’s endangered prairie chickens.

   Harrison County’s earliest settlers might be surprised to learn that prairie chickens and the grasses that supported them became scarce.

   “Originally about three-fourths of the land of Harrison County was prairie and one-fourth timber, according to the “History of Harrison County" published in 1921. "The timber was generally along the streams of water, and some on hilly tracks roughened and divided by ravines.”

   The book describes extensively tree species and uses in the woodland areas. Incredibly diverse native wildflowers and grasses that dominated the landscape did not get a similar description. Only in a maturing conservation movement in recent decades has the rich productivity and beauty of prairie plants and wildlife become appreciated.

   Pioneers did value wild game for food and for money from the fur trade.

   “When the county was first being settled game was plentiful, such as deer, turkeys, prairie chickens, quail and there were some elk,” according to the history. “It was reported about this part of the county that David Travis was one of the best hunters among the early settlers and in addition to other game occasionally killed an elk.”

   Bison were found in Missouri prior to the arrival of European trappers and settlers, but apparently not in large numbers, according to “The Wild Mammals of Missouri,” by Charles W. and Elizabeth R. Schwartz. But MDC’s Pawnee Prairie and TNC’s Dunn Ranch were in their final range.

   “By 1840, only remnants of this magnificent animal were found in the northwestern and southeastern sections of the state,” the Schwartz’s wrote, “and these soon disappeared.”

   TNC has restored a bison herd to a fenced range at Dunn Ranch. Studies at the ranch include how the bison and prairie species interact on an ecological basis. MDC conducts research and restoration for prairie species on both public and private lands in the Grand River Grasslands.

   Late June is a pretty time to visit Missouri’s prairies as many flower species are in bloom, such as coneflowers.   For more information about Prairie Days, visit http://mdc.mo.gov/NWprairiedays, or call T.J. Peacher, MDC conservation education supervisor, at 816-271-3100.

    Information about Pawnee Prairie and maps are available at http://on.mo.gov/1LlXs50. Dunn Ranch information is at http://bit.ly/1ellp2i.

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MDC to match $1.3 million in federal dollars to help Missouri landowners with key habitat conservation

MDC anticipates matching USDA grant monies over next five years to help Missouri landowners improve wildlife habitat on grasslands, glades and woodlands.

J. R. Flores, Missouri State Conservationist
for the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the
 U.S. Department of Agriculture (left) and
Director of the Missouri Department of Conservation
Bob Ziehmer (right) sign contracts that will provide
more than one million dollars in federal funds to
MDC for habitat conservation by Missouri private landowners.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) recently announced that it will receive $1.3 million in federal grant monies from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help private landowners in Missouri improve grasslands, glades, and woodlands on their properties for both wildlife habitat and agriculture production. As the Conservation Commission approves annual expenditure plans, MDC plans to match the federal grant monies over the next five years through its existing Private Lands Services program.

The $1.3 million in federal dollars was provided through the USDA’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). The purpose of the RCPP is to further the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of soil, water, wildlife, and related natural resources by providing cost-share and incentives to private landowners.

“The Missouri Department of Conservation has a proven track record of successfully implementing USDA conservation programs and we have brought millions in federal cost-share dollars to Missouri landowners,” said MDC Private Land Services Division Chief Bill White. “Our partnership with the USDA is a national model.”

MDC’s Private Land Services staff provides expert advice and assistance to more than 29,000 private landowners in Missouri each year to help integrate forest, fish and wildlife management with agriculture production to help landowners reach their land management goals. These services often include financial assistance through cost-share grant mo

nies from the Department and other sources.

White explained that the cost-share grant monies will be dedicated to enhancing grasslands in northern and western Missouri for both livestock grazing and wildlife, such as quail, and will include MDC Quail Focus Areas and grassland Conservation Opportunity Areas. The funds will also be focused on restoring glade and woodland habitats in the Ozarks of southeastern Missouri through cost-share funds and incentives for forest landowners.

“Quality of the land for both livestock and wildlife is one of our main concerns, and programs such as these that help us reach our goals are greatly appreciated,” said Dennis Puppe, president of the Harrison County Cattleman’s Association.

“We endorse the RCPP for glades and woodlands in southeast Missouri and offer to assist the Department of Conservation with regional outreach and education to promote healthy and sustainable woodlands,” said Jim Summers, executive director of the Missouri Forest and Woodland Association.

For more information on the Department’s Private Lands Services and cost-share-grant-funding opportunities, contact an MDC Regional Office or local MDC Private Land Conservationist. Find both online at www.mdc.mo.gov under LOCAL CONTACTS.