I met David in college at the University of Iowa, and when we finished school we moved to Waterloo and he practiced law and I taugh After that, we were ready to come back to th And so I taught in Waterloo and he farmed the family farm.

When David died, it was hard for me to see a way with managing acres and acres of and soybeans.

I had good dinners, but it was still a new task for So I started thinking, What else could it be like and what could And Prairie came to mind.

John Madsen's book, Where the Sky Began, came out, a and I both read it.

We loved the idea of Iowa's hist My husband was a big fan of hist so the thought of Iowa's landsca as it was 200 years ago intrigue This beautiful landscape of nati grasses, forms kept our interest, and that was always in the backg 2016.

My husband died in May and it came to me then.

And then the next summer I contacted Laura Jackson.

We had planted some strips of pr just a couple miles south of her I didn't know her then, but something must have made an impression because a year lat after her husband had passed awa she called us up and had this id It's amazing what happens when y any small bit of prairie.

You know, the if you build it, they will come.

You know, the bees show up.

Butterflies show up.

Somehow the birds find it.

And and we'll raise a family the and try to make a go of it.

It's not easy to plant a prairie, but it can be done in one year.

But the management is forever.

They need fire.

And woody invasion is going to h And then you kind of get somethi that goes out of control.

And then a lot of times they the taking them out because they're just too much tr So we started talking in early 2 and then, you know, worked through the various hoops and logistics of working w UNI foundation so that we could get a permanent easement on the land We had to really convince the un that this was a good idea, that this is something that we could take care of prope and not just end up with an alba around our necks, you know?

So we worked out a map that said all right, we're going to do thi chunk in 2018 and then this chun and then 2021, 22.

But this field was very clean.

It didn't have a lot of issues w because it had been farmed for s So it was a ideal spot.

Now, right here is like one litt that's just encapsulates all the things that are blooming right n Pale purple cornflower is just starting to b The white is wild quinine.

The orange butterfly weed is just stunning.

It's just like neon orange.

This other white I think is wild And it is so weird.

It's got that bizarre shape and they aren't very prevalent, but when they are, they just glo I don't have children, so it's wonderful for me.

I can walk on the prairie every but I want to share it and have young people in schools come and about the history and appreciate being outside in all this beauty To work out looking a different to look for insects.

We're looking at sign of insects meaning some of the leaves that woven together or a plant is ben and we go down the stem and we find the little hole of t in the stem.

So this is a planted prairie.

How do you get the insects that need these plants?

Here They come on their own.

How do they find it?

Where's the next prairie?

Around And yet they find this.

I think it's.

Exciting.

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

So it changes every day, particularly this time of the ye after the prairie was burned, that everything is starting to f It's like spring every day.

It's an unending, joyful surpris to come to the prairie every day Well, it was about 85%.

Prairie and the rest, wetlands and woodl The landscape we see today is almost entirely and soybeans, with only very tiny fractions of of that agricultural grassland that used to be there.

You know, I think we're we're doing what w in the face of some pretty stagg facts.

You know, climate change and the know, agriculture continues to i So we try to save as much as we So something makes it so.

Is the glass 99% empty or 1% ful But, you know, there are lots of who appreciate Prairie and want to have some, you know.

So I don't think anyone should be intimidated into thinking, well, I have to have to give them 300 No, You know, but it's just it's an astonishin At the dedication, I quoted Will We come and go, but the land is always here.

The people who love and understa it are the people who own it for a little while.

And then I said, my little while I'm here with you people who love the prairie and dedicating it to you and your stewardship.

But I want you to remember that the original people who loved and understood it cared for it for thousands of years and maintained it as prairie.