To the editor:
Thanks for the article in Thursday's Journal-World extolling the beauty of native prairies. We would like to inform your readers that they don't have to drive hours to visit the prairie. The Kansas Land Trust has been working for 16 years to preserve native prairies and other lands of ecological significance throughout the state, including right here in the Lawrence area.
Working with landowners who love their land, KLT accepts conservation easements that ensure the land will be preserved in perpetuity. One of the prettiest prairies anywhere is the Akin Prairie in eastern Douglas County, which is preserved with a conservation easement through KLT, and is open to the public for daytime visits. It's on North 1150 Road, just west of Douglas County Route 1057.
KLT offers a guided prairie wildflower walk on privately owned pristine prairies every spring. Other nearby prairies with public access include the Ivan Boyd Prairie Preserve, near the Black Jack Battlefield east of Baldwin City, and the Prairie Center on 135th Street, west of K-7 near Olathe.
RoxAnne Miller,
KLT executive director,
Lawrence
Comments
canyon_wren 10 years, 7 months ago
When I was a student at KU in the late 50s-early 60s, I took a great botany class, "Trees and Shrubs" (we called it "Twigs and Stems," in the winter!). It was taught by a graduate assistant from New Jersey, I think, and he was telling us about this patch of prairie grass on the campus, just below Watkins Hospital and next to the Home Management Bldg. He told us it had never been mowed, and we walked over to see it. As we topped the hill, he was horrified and speechless to see a fellow mowing it. Later he realized that it had never been PLOWED, though it had been mowed regularly! Undoubtedly, both the patch of prairie and the Home Management building disappeared years ago.
Ragingbear 10 years, 7 months ago
A 50 yard long, 20 yard deep swath of uncut grass is not an ecosystem. Anyone trying to claim that these little patches are somehow saving the environment are idiots at best.
canyon_wren 10 years, 7 months ago
Maybe I missed something, but who is claiming those small patches are "saving the environment"? It is just nice to have those patches for people to see how the prairie used to look. Now, setting aside the Tall Grass Prairie NP at least saves THAT environment for a little while--unless and until it gets cluttered with windfarms. Let's hope that never happens!
Ragingbear 10 years, 7 months ago
Who do you think funds these patches of "native grass"? Do you realize that over $50,000 is spent supposedly preserving that patch on Clinton Parkway? Do you know which department pays for it? No, because all you do is just sit in your own little world and deny that man is destroying the environment as you order in yet another burger encased in styrofoam.
KLATTU 10 years, 7 months ago
Go Ragingbear! Let's finish paving the world. We're almost done. Don't pay attention to the constant, disastrous flooding that's costing the taxpayers of this nation billions. If God hadn't wanted his world paved over he wouldn't have invented asphalt.
imastinker 10 years, 7 months ago
I always figured that was done to save money. It's a great place to have a car accident though, because there are no stop signs and the native grass blocks the view of clinton parkway.
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