Valuable native prairie seed is loaded into a truck after being harvested from a wildlife management area near Slayton. Restoring prairies is good for a wide range of wildlife. But obtaining native seed for planting prairie grasses is costly.
Prairies are as beneficial to game species as they are to nongame wildlife.
Traditional thinking links prairies to sparrows, larks, and other nongame birds. But pheasants and nesting waterfowl also thrive in the dense and diverse native grasses. Wildlife managers have learned over the past decade that native grass makes excellent habitat for all grassland wildlife species. Prairie plants are better adapted to the landscape than non-native smooth brome and alfalfa, which, throughout the 1960s and '70s, were used to create grassy cover on WMAs. The dense, strong stems of native grass provide sturdier nesting habitat and winter cover for pheasants and other birds.