Prairies in Iowa

(A young girl standing in the middle of a prairie. She is wearing a peach colored shirt with dark pants.) 

[young girl] Prairies are wonderful.

(music)

(An aerial view of a prairie.)

[Abby Brown] Prairies are wonderful for a lot of different reasons.

(A tallgrass prairie in spring.)

[Abby] Not too long ago, before farm crops and cities were part of our landscape, prairies were everywhere in Iowa.

(A tallgrass prairie. White flowers in a sea of grass waving back and forth in the air like a crowd of people at a rock concert.)

[Abby] But now the prairies are almost extinct. We're heading out on an investigation to find out more about Iowa's prairies.

(A tall grass prairie dotted with tall golden flowers standing in rows between the grass blades like guards standing in line.)

[Abby] Why do you think they've almost disappeared?

[young girl] Prairies are important.

(A group of bright, purple flowers waving in the wind as monarch butterflies fly about landing on the flowers at random.)

[Abby] Prairies do amazing things, like pull carbon out of the air.

(start animation)

(From top to bottom, we see a yellow circle with yellow u-like waves around it like what you would create if you were making a birthday streamer, the sun. Under the sun is the green prairie plant that looks like stalks of grass coming out of the ground like the green hair on a toy troll doll. Above and around the green prairie plant are blue bubbles representing carbon gas in the air.  To the right of the prairie plant are the words “Prairie plants take carbon gas out of the atmosphere.” 

There are three blue arrows in the center of the prairie plant. Each of the arrows point down and the last arrow is faded as if the arrow is going away. As the animation moves forward, the arrows move down the prairie plant over the long roots of the plant. The prairie plant roots look like spaghetti noodles that have been laid out to dry. The prairie plant roots are shown to grow down through five sections of soil.

Each brown section is a different color of brown. The top section is a dark brown, the next section down is lighter, the third section is a medium brown. Not as light as the second section and not as dark as the first section. The fourth section is also a medium brown. It is darker than the third section, but not as dark as the first section. The last section is as dark as the first section. There are  three individual roots of the prairie plant touching the bottom of the fifth section of dirt like a small child standing on tip-toes to reach an out of reach object.  

There are darker blue bubbles around the roots of the prairie plant starting in the third section of dirt all the way down to the last section of dirt. The bubbles are numerous in the third section and get less and less as you get closer to the last section of dirt like a bottle of pop that you have left out on the counter overnight. Words to the right of the animation starting at the bottom of the third section of dirt over the fading arrow say “Prairie plants store carbon in and around their roots, deep underground.”)

(end animation)

[Abby] Just like trees. They can also protect the soil and keep it healthy. Prairies are important to birds, insects and animals.

(A water bird flying across a prairie.

Buffalo grazing on the prairie.)

[young girl] Prairies are not all the same.

[Abby] That's right. There are different types of prairies in Iowa. Sand prairies are a unique ecosystem full of unusual and beautiful plants. Iowa’s fastest lizard lives in a sand prairie here, too.

(An Iowa sand prairie.

A yellow petaled flower growing close to the ground.

A lizard with a tale and four feet and six yellow stripes running down it's back.)

[Abby] Wetland prairies have water. You might recognize the cattail plants in these prairies.

(Tall plants with brown tops that look like big, brown que tips at the end of the plant stem.)

[Abby] Tallgrass prairies were historically the most common type of prairie in Iowa. They have plants so tall you could play a great game of hide and seek.

(The young girl jumps up in the air and throws her hand up.)

[young girl] I love prairies.

[Abby] Caring for Iowa's prairies is a very important part of making sure they survive.

(A man's walks across a grassy area with a lit, handheld torch that is pointed down.)

[Abby] Come along on this journey as we find out why fire helps prairie, how people are reconstructing prairies in some parts of our state, and most of all, what makes prairies awesome.

(A tan butterfly sitting on a bunch of orange flowers as the flowers wave in the wind.)

[Announcer] Funding for Find Iowa has been provided by the following supporters.

(text on screen Find Iowa, Pella, Gilchrist Foundation)

(text on screen Iowa PBS Education)