Unique Prairie

Abby Brown:

My friends and I are out for a hike on this beautiful fall day at Stone State Park. There's lots of forest area, but if we go up just a little bit further, we're going to see some prairie. You guys ready?

Children:

Yeah!

Abby:

Good, let's go!

Abby:

So you guys, take a look! On the right side of us is the woodland and we're literally on the edge of that ecosystem, and to the left is the prairie. Isn't that amazing?

Children:

Yeah!

Abby:

Let's keep going!

Abby:

Hey Dawn!

Dawn Snyder:

Hi!

Abby:

We made it and it is worth it. Check out this view!

Dawn:

Look at it everybody!

Abby:

Isn't that incredible?

Children:

Yeah!

Abby:

Dawn, what are we looking at here?

Dawn:

We are in the tri-state area. So we're standing in Iowa.

Abby:

Ok.

Dawn:

The closest buildings on the flat, we can see roads, that is South Dakota.

Abby:

Oh my gosh!

Dawn:

And if we look at the farthest hills, with the wind turbines on them, what state is that?

Everbody:

Nebraska!

Dawn:

So here we are!

Abby:

Ok. Wow this is a pretty unique place, that's for sure! And, as we came up here, we crossed over from one ecosystem to the other, and in fact I can see the trees turn right into prairie. How does that work?

Dawn:

We're above tree-line now, so we are on the prairie in a micro-climate that is a lot more hot.

Abby:

Feels good!

Dawn:

You felt a temperature change when you came up here. So we have the Loess Hills, those steep, steep hills, give a lot more drier climate, so we can have plants like this special one here in the Loess Hills that you wouldn't find in other parts of Iowa. You might find it in the great plains and in the desert. If you look closely--

Abby:

What is this plant called?

Dawn:

It's called Yucca, or soapwort. So the yucca plant is unique to this area and it has--the leaves are very thick in the fact that it can conserve water.

Abby:

Oh!

Dawn:

So if we're hot and dry up here on the prairie,

Abby:

Which it is!

Dawn:

It is! It has a deep, deep root that we can't see below it, so it can help conserve water by having thin leaves, but also waxy and thick, to keep the water inside them.

Dawn:

If you look at the grasses, or any of the plant above ground, imagine at least twice, if not two thirds of the plant underground more. The more roots underground...

Abby:

Just in the root system?

Dawn:

Just in the roots.

Girl:

What is this going to look like in the spring and summer?

Dawn:

Ahh. Well, when things are in the summer and the spring we're going to have some green, but the grasses are going to stay this color for awhile because these are warm season grasses, but we will have beautiful wild flowers blooming in the spring throughout the summer.

Girl:

What was here first, the trees or the prairie?

Dawn:

Ahh, well that's a great question! These hills, way back when Sioux City was first settled, before when we had the pioneers and the Native Americans that lived here, early photos show Stone Park as not having hardly any trees, mostly covered by prairie and grasses. In fact, the whole state of Iowa, except for where there was a lot of rivers, and the Loess Hills, were covered by prairie. So we've got a lot of grasses, this is one of our grasses here, and basically we've got a mix of grasses and wild flowers in a prairie. And then, over time, the forest keeps creeping up the edges because we don't have, whenever there's a forest fire, or a prairie fire, if it's in town, you want to be safe right? So we put the fires out. We also have more rainfall that we used to have, so that helps more trees grow. And when a tree grows, big, the sun is blocked out, but all the prairie plants love the sun, so they're going to grow and thrive in the sun. But if there's shade covering them, the prairie is not going to thrive. So our forest is catching up to our prairie unless we do things to help manage it.

Abby:

So this took a long time to change from prairie to the spaces where there are now forest, what do you see for the future of this place where we're standing?

Dawn:

Well, I hope that we can continue to have our prairies up in the hills because that's part of our prairie heritage and we have such a unique plant and animal community that if we don't protect our hills and our plants and animals in the Loess Hills, we're not going to continue to have them.

Boy:

They'll go extinct?

Dawn:

Some of them might. There are some pretty rare plants and animals in the Loess Hills.

Abby:

It's been such a wonderful day of hiking. How do the plants, the soil, and even the view where you live compare to what we've seen today, and why might they be different? Have fun investigating!

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