Emporia ? Grazing stocker cattle on his tallgrass prairie pastures each summer is part of Tom Moxley’s livelihood as a Morris County rancher.

And that’s one reason the Flint Hills rancher wants to save the prairie and preserve it for generations to come.

“We live here, and we love it,” Moxley said of the Flint Hills, one of the largest unplowed landscapes in the world. “But the serious question is whether it will be around another generation or two without attention. It will not. Nothing stays the same.”

That’s why Moxley and other Flint Hills ranchers, along with more than a dozen organizations, have been sitting down at the same table for almost three years, looking at ways to save what remains of the tallgrass prairie.

Group members, including ranchers, Kansas Farm Bureau, Kansas Livestock Assn., Natural Resources and Conservation Service and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, call themselves the Tallgrass Legacy Alliance. The still-young program aims to bring private landowners and others together to work to save what remains of the tallgrass prairie.

“Organizations and ranchers have come together in alliance on one thing we all agree on,” he said, “that we share a love for the Flint Hills, and that we want it to survive through a new generation of Kansas folks both ranchers and the public.”

Jim Minnerath doesn’t like taking credit for getting the alliance off the ground, but he was the one who had been looking for an idea to enhance and restore the 5 percent of tallgrass prairie that remains today.

After a Nebraska friend started a program out of concern for the Nebraska sand hills, Minnerath didn’t see why a similar program wouldn’t work for the tallgrass prairie. So Minnerath decided to incorporate the idea into his work as a wildlife biologist with the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program through the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

And, amazingly enough, he was able to get wildlife and agriculture groups to sit down at the table and discuss his idea.

Moxley will admit he was a little skeptical about sitting down with wildlife agencies.

“There was some cynicism,” Moxley said. “I didn’t know if there would be any chance to work with U.S. Fish & Wildlife or Kansas Wildlife & Parks.”

Jim Minnerath, a wildlife biologist with the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, helped start the Tallgrass Legacy Alliance. He sits among the tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills region.

But there is one thing everyone agrees with, Minnerath said. It is the goal to “preserve, enhance and restore the tallgrass prairie though education and financial partnership with private landowners, operators and private and public entities in a manner that will strengthen and improve the economic, social and cultural foundations of the region.”

Public awareness sought

The group is moving forward to educate the public as well as look for funding sources to improve the prairie, Minnerath said. The alliance has had an educational workshop discussing the effects of wind farms and coal-bed methane production in the Flint Hills.

In the past year, companies have been exploring these options trying to get landowners to sign leases for possible production. Each member has different viewpoint on these issues, but the alliance wants to educate, not take a position, Minnerath said.

“We’re not taking a stand for or against,” he said. “We want to provide information on each approach what the effects may be to the land, the wildlife.”

Other issues being tackled include sericea lespedeza, an invasive species that is taking over the tallgrass prairie. Members have set up a spot-spraying program with cost-share funds to help control what is an expensive problem for landowners.

The group also is encouraging the development of conservation easements to preserve wide-open spaces. With easements, in some cases, the landowner gets a payment as well as keeping the land from being developed.

For future generations

Some issues might not come up for 10 or 20 years, but by addressing them now, members are looking to the future and planning, rather than waiting until the last minute to decide what should be done to solve the prairies problems.

What members hope is that future generations will have the opportunity to benefit from the tallgrass prairie that the native landscape is one everyone can enjoy in the future.

“As ranchers, we only have recently realized that the prairie won’t preserve itself,” Moxley said. “There are too many things attacking it. If we don’t take proactive action, we won’t have prairie in 50 years.”

Mike Beam, senior vice president of the livestock association, said he thought the organization was moving in the right direction. He has worked with the alliance and many association members serve on the board.

“It’s moving in a methodical and positive manner,” Beam said. “We need to promote that the prairie is a valuable resource and try to preserve it.”