Preservation of the Flint Hills — home of the largest expanse of tallgrass prairie in the world — has been cussed and discussed for decades.

In the 1990s, incorporation of the Z Bar/Spring Hill Ranch in Chase County into the national park system caused heartburn among many ranchers who feared the government would take their property. “Private Lands in Private Hands,” read some ranchers’ hand-painted signs after the Z Bar deal went down.

With development encroaching on the precious grassland, ranchers and environmentalists are dropping some of their suspicions of each other and working together to come up with ways to preserve what’s left of the prairie.

Representatives of numerous interests, including U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., met recently on a ranch outside Cassoday and warmed up to the idea of conservation easements. Under such agreements, participating landowners would be paid to keep their land out of development but still be allowed to use the land for grazing cattle.

Instead of plowing under the prairie land for subdivisions and ranchettes, the hills would remain rolling, open and preserved.

“We are trying to protect the essence of the prairie, the open space,” said Brian Obermeyer of Eureka, director of The Nature Conservancy’s Flint Hills Initiative.

Mike Beam, senior vice president of the Kansas Livestock Assn., said, “Some of the conservation groups have concluded that the existing community and working ranches provide a far better protection of the resource than other facets.”

RoxAnne Miller, executive director of the Lawrence-based Kansas Land Trust, called the recent meeting, which included horseback riding and a campfire, a “historic occasion because of the varied interests — ranchers and conservationists working together to preserve a valuable resource.”

Brownback said he was encouraged by the talks. “I hope to be able to work with ranchers and conservationists to ensure the tallgrass prairie is there for our grandchildren,” he said.

Rancher Kay Perschbacher and her cutting horse drive a small herd of steers toward the loading pens in the Flint Hills near Strong City. Ranchers and environmentalists are increasingly working together to protect the Flint Hills grasslands from encroaching development.

The last stand

At one time, the tallgrass prairie stretched across 170 million acres, from Manitoba to Texas. But during a short span in the 1800s, most of the land was settled and partitioned.

Only 4 percent of the original tallgrass prairie remains, and two-thirds of that is in the Flint Hills of Kansas, a swath running from north of Manhattan to Cowley County and into Oklahoma, where the prairie is called the Osage Hills.

In Kansas, the limestone and chert hills covered by native grassland species have remained relatively protected from most development because of economic factors that produced a cattle-ranching livelihood. The bluestem grasses are ideal for grazing.

But the beauty of the Flint Hills also could be their undoing.

Tallgrass Prairie National PreserveGrassland Easement ProgramEasement FAQFlint Hills Initiative

“There are a lot of threats out there, knocking on the door of the Flint Hills,” Obermeyer said. “Progress and development is creeping its way in.”

Studies show that 35,000 acres of native rangeland in Butler County were lost to ranchette development from 1992 to 1997. And housing isn’t the only threat.

Pressures are mounting to install huge wind turbines in the Flint Hills to harness the natural high winds and produce electricity.

Expensive landscape

In order to save the prairie from the bulldozer, conservationists and ranchers say they want to put together a long-term program of conservative easements.

The problem is money — or lack of it.

Obermeyer said discussions were so preliminary at this point that no one was certain how much money was needed. But he indicated preserving major portions of the Flint Hills would cost tens of millions dollars spent over decades.

And any delay in moving on the issue will increase the expense, officials say.

“There is some school of thought that now is the time to get something in motion before what’s left shrinks to development,” Beam said.

Those who attended the meeting said more discussions were planned with the hope of getting a funding proposal before Congress next year.

Brownback has encouraged the various interests to keep talking and come up with specific legislation.

“The remaining native tallgrass prairies in the Flint Hills are not only a great treasure for Kansas, but are a great treasure for the nation,” Brownback said. “They stand as a testament to the good stewardship practices of Kansas cattle ranchers.”