Tallgrass Prairies

(Abby Brown, the host of FIND Iowa is standing in the prairie at Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge. She is wearing a dark, pink polo shirt and her blonde hair is tied back in a pony tale at her neck. The wind is blowing her hair round like she's standing in front of a box fan.  The prairie grass is made up of all different shades of green from yellow-green to the dark green of a winter pine tree. It's  like looking at a painting made by putting small dots close together on a canvas to create a picture.) 

[Abby Brown] This glorious display of prairie pretties is a feast for the eyes. But it's what we can't see that's even more amazing.

(Abby squats down beside three tall prairie grasses.)

[Abby] It's the roots of these plants that are so surprising. They do a lot of important work for the soil.

(music)

(Tall prairie grass rolling and blowing in the wind like waves on the ocean. 

Yellow and white prairie flowers.

Prairie grass with green knobs along the stem and hair-like whiskers coming out from the base of the stem to the top of the prairie grass.

A field prairie grass with trees off in the distance.)

[Abby] So, Karen, what makes this a tallgrass prairie?

[Karen Viste-Sparkman, Wildlife Biologist] Well, tallgrass prairie is named for the tallgrasses, so there's species of grasses that get 6 to 10 feet tall.

(Karen has shoulder length blonde hair and is wearing glasses with a solid, dark frame. She is wearing a light tan shirt with a patch on the upper left arm with dark brown pants.)

[Abby] Wow. Will that happened right here eventually?

[Karen] Yes.

[Abby] Wow.

[Karen] Yeah. Right now, it's still summer. They're still growing. But as the summer goes on, they'll just keep getting taller. The roots are really important. Of course what's on top is beautiful, but underground, there's a lot of things going on. What you see above ground is only a fraction of the plant.

[Abby] Wow.

[Karen] Most of the plant is underground in the root system.

Yellow prairie flowers.

[Abby] So what does that mean for the soil that the roots are doing so much work underneath the ground?

[Karen] Prairie plants actually help create the soil that we have here in Iowa by growing underground and decomposing over the centuries. 

[Abby] And I know in Iowa we have some fabulous soil and this is all contributed to it.

[Karen] Yes. The prairie created the top soil that is such good farmland in Iowa.

(music)

(A green and yellow tractor harvesting a corn field.)

[Karen] The roots of these plants do an important job. They actually take carbon out of the air through their leaves and put it underground into their root systems.

(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] And that has a special name, what's it called?

[Karen] Carbon sequestering.

(music)

(Yellow-green, prairie grass blowing in the wind.

A field of prairie grass with dots of yellow, purple and white flowers scattered about like several "you are here" dots on a map.

A white prairie flower with soft petals that form a bowl shape around the flower's center.)

[Abby] Can tallgrass prairie be anywhere in Iowa?

[Karen] Most of Iowa was tallgrass prairie before the area was settled.

[Abby] And how about today?

[Karen] Today, very little of it is prairie.

[Abby] But there are pockets all over the state?

[Karen] Yeah. (music)

(A field of prairie grass with dots of yellow, purple and white flowers scattered about like several "you are here" dots on a map.

Abby stands in the tall prairie grass.)

[Abby] Do you think the pioneers had any idea how plowing up the prairie would affect future generations? How about now? And how might future generations benefit from our work in reconstructing the prairies today?

(A prairie field with farm fields in the distance.)

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

(text on the screen) FIND Iowa, The Coons Foundation, Pella, Gilchrist Foundation

(text on the screen) Iowa PBS Education