The Missouri Prairie Foundation has acquired a 38.8-acre prairie remnant in Newton County.
The new tract near Joplin includes 30 acres of old-growth remnant prairie and eight acres with a cropping history that MPF plans to reconstruct as a prairie planting. It’s about two miles from three other prairies in conservation ownership: Noah Brown's Prairie and Carver Prairie as well as the northern portion of the Missouri Department of Conservation's Diamond Grove Prairie.
MPF Vice President of Science and Management Bruce Shuette said they’re very happy to be able to protect the property, especially "given the extreme rarity of unplowed prairie in the state."
MPF said, despite the prairie having been in a hay regime for many years, it’s been able to identify numerous remnant-dependent plants, including prairie coreopsis, lead plant, New Jersey tea and fringed poppy mallow.
Additional surveys of the site are planned in the upcoming growing season.
MPF now owns and manages 5,085 acres of land, it said, "including some of the most biologically diverse old-growth prairies in the state."
Prior to settlement, Missouri was 1/3 prairie, according to MDC, but now just 0.5% of those original grasslands remain.
"Most native prairies have been plowed and planted with crops or cool-season grasses, making remnant prairie among the rarest types of habitat in the world," according to MDC's website. But prairies provide vital habitat for many native wildlife species.
