"TALLGRASS PRAIRIE NATIONAL PRESERVE, Kansas — High along the Southwind Nature Trail, the tallgrass prairie waves in all directions, a mix of present-day reality and historical mirage stretching to the horizon much as it did more than 150 years ago.
But tall prairie grasses nodding in the breeze here at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Flint Hills and in a small number of similar landscapes reflect a tiny fraction of those once found within a 450,000-square-mile swath of North America stretching from Canada south through the Dakotas, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and down to the Texas border.
Today, the vast majority of what was an estimated 140 million to 170 million acres of tallgrass prairie is gone, plowed under by 19th century agricultural sprawl and the development that followed.
Clinging to the remnants is a variety of species designated as threatened or endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Despite losses of countless plants and animals, these at-risk species still comprise some of the world’s highest biodiversity. This remaining fraction of their habitat is North America's most at-risk land biome, still shrinking under pressure from development, its heritage species still dwindling. It remains a window into the country’s natural heritage fading."
Kurt Repanshek reports for National Parks Traveler March 1, 2026.
