STRONG CITY ? The Kansas Park Trust assumed ownership of the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve on Thursday, taking over the nation’s only privately held National Park Unit.

The 11,000-acre Flint Hills preserve had been owned for the past 11 years by the National Park Trust, a not-for-profit agency based in Washington.

Ownership will be transferred to the Nature Conservancy, also based in Washington, under a separate agreement with the Kansas Park Trust, which will remain involved in promoting the preserve.

The Kansas trust was formed in 2004 by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker, former Gov. Mike Hayden, television journalist Bill Kurtis and former U.S Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, who was also a U.S. House member from Kansas.

A $4.8 million gift to the Nature Conservancy from the estate of a Wellington couple, Frank and Frances Horton, will retire debt and fund improvements.

The National Park Trust bought the former Z-Bar Ranch for $4.7 million in 1994 in an effort to preserve part of the nation’s only remaining tallgrass prairie ecosystem.

The money came from Texas cattleman Eric Bass, who donated $1 million to the trust and prepaid a 35-year grazing lease.

“We were aware of the challenges we were facing when we agreed to become involved in this preservation effort, and it hasn’t been easy,” said Paul Duffenack, chairman of the National Park Trust. “But looking at the bigger picture, if the National Park Trust hadn’t taken on this challenge, there wouldn’t be a Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve today.”

Federal legislation creating the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve passed in 1996. Since then, the National Park Trust has built trails and preserved historic buildings for donation to the National Park Service.

The preserve is open to the public and is a key part of the tourism economy in Chase County.

“Even when no one else was willing to take on stewardship of this land, the National Park Trust not only accepted the role of steward, but also helped bridge the gap between public and private interests to preserve this land for the public’s benefit,” said Lee Fowler, a state district judge who is also chairman of the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Advisory Committee.