However, other accounts make it clear that at least some settlers quickly recognized the fertility that was to be found underneath the towering prairie grasses. Early settlers also found these sparsely treed areas to be easily settled. These plains form a beautiful natural park, finely diversified with hill and dale, covered with a lovely green sward, enameled with a variety of the most exquisite flowers, and planted, as if by Nature's own hand, with groups of feathery pines, oaks, balsams, poplars, and silver birches. Red Cloud pioneer cemetery near Castleton portrays a sad symbolism, as its aging markers stand watch over a small tallgrass remnant, a tiny island portraying bits of both our natural and cultural past, surrounded by cultivated fields. Walpole Island, owned by the Council of the Three Fires, arguably contains the finest remaining example of tallgrass communities in Ontario, and speaks to the success of their management approach in conserving this fire-dependent ecosystem.
Natives also make direct use of prairie plants for medicinal, food, and other practical uses.
Lindsay Rodger except as noted.