Land once purchased for a nuclear power plant is now 6,000 acres of restored prairie

By Charity Nebbe,

Published May 2, 2023 at 7:00 AM CDT

Ways To Subscribe

Less than 0.1% of Iowa's tallgrass prairie remains today, which once covered 85% of the state's land prior to European-American settlement.

This complex ecosystem is about much more than tall grasses, as discussed in this episode of Talk of Iowa recorded in front of an audience on Earth Day, April 22 at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Prairie City.

Host Charity Nebbe talks with wildlife biologists Jim Pease, Pauline Drobney, and Pete Eyheralde about what led to the establishment of the refuge and its bison herd and its purpose of restoring and reconstructing native ecosystems.

Guests:

Jim Pease, associate professor emeritus, Iowa State University
Pauline Drobney, retired prairie and savanna biologist, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Pete Eyheralde, associate professor of biology, William Penn University

Land once purchased for a nuclear power plant is now 6,000 acres of restored prairie

Less than 0.1% of Iowa's tallgrass prairie remains today, which once covered 85% of the state's land prior to European-American settlement.

Subscribe to the Daily Digest, your five minute read to know what's happening in Iowa and around the country.