Working Today to Preserve Tomorrow

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Read about conservation easements and enhanced tax incentives under "Tools and FAQ's"

New Historic and Conservation Easement!
It is a busy and productive time at Northern Prairies. The big news is that Norma and Jerry Wilson have donated a perpetual conservation easement on their 144 acre historic farm in Clay County, South Dakota. To be known as the “Prairie Bluffs Conservation Easement”, the easement protects from development a rich combination of mixed native woodland, native and restored prairie, natural springs and a magnificent vista across the Missouri River valley. The easement also protects the Severson Cabin, which is recorded on the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest extant house in Clay County. The cabin’s distinctive dovetail notching and squared logs are a unique representation of Scandinavian construction features. This protected property is also the subject of a widely-acclaimed eco-memoir by Jerry Wilson, titled “Waiting for the Coyote’s Call”.

The Prairie Bluffs easement assures open space in a developing area, while also protecting water sources, native grasses, wildlife habitat, and a lasting example of prairie settlement. In addition, to donating the perpetual easement itself, the Wilson’s have made a generous endowed donation to Northern Prairies’ Stewardship Fund, assuring the means by which we will monitor and enforce the easement in the future. Most of all, the Wilson’s generous donation is another example of the conservation ethic of private landowners, which is at the heart of Northern Prairies’ mission. (See more on the Wilsons under the “Landowners” tab above.)




Harvey Dunn Project Phase IV Funding Approved
On March 15, 2011, the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission approved a grant of $1 million for the Harvey Dunn Grassland Preservation Project, Phase IV, through the North America Wetland Conservation Act (NAWCA). This ongoing project has been very successful in protecting grasslands in Brookings and Kingsbury Counties in east-central South Dakota near the home of artist Harvey Dunn.  This grant was made possible through matching contributions from South Dakota Game Fish and Parks Department, Ducks Unlimited, landowner Carol Quail, and the sponsorship of Northern Prairies Land Trust and US Fish and Wildlife Service.

NAWCA grants require the sponsoring partners to provide matching funds which more than doubles every tax dollar spent. The project, started in 2007 also raises funds through the donation of an original painting from the granddaughters of Harvey Dunn, The Prairie Trail, which has been printed and marketed by The South Dakota Art Museum.

Interior Secretary Salazar Visits SD to Promote Conservation Project
Jim Madsen, Field Biologist for Northern Prairies Land Trust in Watertown, South Dakota attended a meeting with United States Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar on April 29, 2011. The meeting focused on the proposed federal Dakota Grassland Conservation Area and was attended by representatives of US Fish and Wildlife Service, private landowners, and numerous conservation groups. The primary goal of the conservation area would be to utilize conservation easements as a tool to both preserve 2 million acres of grasslands and wetlands in SD, ND and MT, and keep ranching families in a financial position to stay on the land. 

Although his time with the Secretary Salazar was brief, Jim provided following factual background on both the Tallgrass and the Northern Mixed Grass Prairie. The prairies are fragile and composed of hundreds of species of grasses and forbs in various mixtures of dominance and diversity. Some estimates put the number of different species of grasses and forbs in excess of 1,500.  All of these species have evolved over thousands of years through a 4 to 7 year regime with fires either starting naturally and or by the American Indians. It was then followed by intensive grazing by bison and other ungulates and finally to a period of rest. As residue built up and the progression of the plant community shifted from forbs to grasses, the regime started all over again. Jim’s primary point is that we can’t recreate the prairie once we’ve converted it to cropland. We can reseed some of the grasses and we can reseed some of the forbs but the mix and diversity will be lost forever. We don’t have the knowledge to know the diversity. Even if we did, the cost of recreating it would be monumental. We need to preserve it now.

Preserving the Tallgrass Prairie: The tallgrass prairie once stretched from southern Canada to Texas and covered over 140 million acres.  In some places it was so tall that a person had to stand on a horse’s back to see over it. Today, less than 4% remains. Northern Prairies works to preserve, protect and re-establish the tallgrass prairie in South Dakota and Nebraska as native habitat and working lands.(See Projects and News.) This great resource can provide exceptional habitat for plant and animal life, especially the declining native grassland birds, as well as substantial forage for ranching operations. However, the tallgrass is under increasing pressure from conversion to cropland. When this happens, not only is this habitat and resource lost, there are also substantial amounts of carbon released to the atmosphere.

How Important is the Tallgrass Prairie?

• Native tallgrass prairie is the MOST ENDANGERED ecosystem in North America. (Kansas State University)
• Native prairie root systems are the BEST natural soil anchors on earth.
• One acre of established prairie can produce 24,000 pounds of roots. (Iowa State University)
• One acre of established prairie can ABSORB 9 inches of rainfall per hour before runoff occurs. (University of North Iowa)
• One acre of established prairie will INTERCEPT as much as 53 tons of water during a one-inch hour rain event. (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
• Prairie foliage represents a surface area 5 to 20 times larger than the soil area beneath it. (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
• Natural competition of prairie plants REDUCES the occurrence of weeds in an area. (Iowa State University)
• Greater prairie diversity creates greater biotic barriers to PREVENT weed invasion. (University of Minnesota )
• One acre of reconstructed prairie can produce more net bioenergy than land used to grow corn for ethanol. (University of Minnesota)

  Click here to see a poster of prairie plants and their root system.
  

The Value of Green Space
Recent publications have outlined health and well-being benefits of green space and commons in urban landscapes as well as the economic paybacks of parks and open space. Case studies are contained in Restorative Commons: Creating Health and Well-Being through Urban Landscapes, edited by Lindsey Campbell and Anne Wiesen, published by USDA Forest Service at www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/8810 , or additional copies can be obtained from USDA Forest Service, Publications Distribution, 359 Main Rd, Delaware, OH 43015, and Fax: (740) 368-0152. The Trust for Public Lands just released Conservation: An Investment That Pays; The Economic Benefits of Parks and Open Space; available at their web site www.tpl.org .

HOW FINE-TUNED ARE YOUR BIRD IDENTIFICATION SKILLS?

Gerhard Assenmacher, a landowner in south-central Nebraska, who donated a conservation easement to Northern Prairies, has photographed a wonderful collection of birds located on his property.  Click here to see how many you can identify.