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Special to the Daily Mail
Bonnie Teel of Vernon County received some wonderful news on May 18. The previous day, the Missouri Natural Areas Committee, made up of professional biologists from conservation agencies and other groups, had nominated 178 acres of her nearly 1,000-acre Prairie View Farm to become a designated Missouri Natural Area.
"Mrs. Teel's prairie is one of fewer than a dozen high-quality limestone prairie remnants left in Missouri. Most remnant prairies in Missouri are overlying sandstone bedrock," said Mike Leahy, Natural Areas Coordinator for the Missouri Department of Conservation.
The Missouri Natural Areas program recognizes the best remaining forests, prairies, wetlands, and other natural communities in the state for their superlative plant and animal populations, geologic formations, or other outstanding natural features. Missouri Natural Areas are critical components of the effort to conserve Missouri's natural heritage by focusing restoration and conservation efforts on these sites. There are a total of 184 designated Missouri Natural Areas, including Osage Prairie, Horton Bottoms, and Ripgut Prairie Natural Areas, near Nevada, which are open to the public.
Leahy made the nomination announcement during a guided tour he led of Prairie View Farm on May 18, organized in conjunction with the Missouri Prairie Foundation. Teel had invited acquaintances and other nature lovers from the area to visit her prairie, and also to learn about the work of the Missouri Prairie Foundation, on whose volunteer board of directors she serves.
"I'm so proud of this prairie and honored to steward this land, which has been in my late husband's family since the early 1880s," Teel said. "I'm happy to have the opportunity to share this beautiful piece of heaven with others who appreciate the natural world."
Visitors to Teel's prairie were treated to stunning displays of blooming shooting stars, prairie phlox, Indian paintbrush, and other spring prairie wildflowers. These low-growing plants bloom while prairie grasses are still short; Indian grass, big bluestem, and other warm-season prairie grasses will grow taller as the growing season progresses. In addition, blazing star, asters, and other wildflowers will bloom over the summer and into the fall.
"A total of 212 native plant species are known from Prairie View Farm," said Leahy. "With the recent tree removal and other prairie restoration Teel has undertaken, I think we will discover even more native plant species."
Tallgrass prairie once covered 15 million acres of Missouri. Because of prairie conversion to row crops and other human development, today fewer than 90,000 acres remain. A significant amount of this remaining prairie has become degraded through lack of natural disturbances -- prairies developed 10,000 years ago, and were perpetuated by fire and sporadic grazing by bison and elk that keep woody growth in check.
Over the past few years, under the guidance of Missouri Department of Conservation Private Land Conservationist Scott Sudkamp, of Nevada, Teel has had trees cut from draws in the prairie, and conducted prescribed burns, reducing the acreage of the 178-acre tract that in the past was uniformly hayed.
"By cutting trees on the prairie's draws," Leahy said, "the amount of predators that favor wooded areas should be reduced, relieving pressure on the brood-rearing success of ground-nesting grassland birds like dickcissels and grasshopper sparrows, which nest on the prairie. In addition, grasses and wildflowers that thrive in wetter areas will do better now that shade from the trees has been eliminated.
"Mrs. Teel is to be commended for her hard work to protect and improve her prairie,"
Leahy continued. "Natural Area nomination status is a feather in the cap for Prairie View Farm."
For more information on Missouri's Natural Areas Program, and a directory of designated natural areas open to the public, visit http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/places-go/natural-areas