We might consider our prairies like those old growth oak trees–an ancient grassland. With tremendous investment in roots, the prairie grasses are able to be burned off and cut most years unlike the oaks, but the critters who live in the old growth grassland aren’t so lucky; when the mower comes, if they aren’t able to move out of the way then the inhabitants are toast. Through the first half of the 1900’s, the mowers came about once per year and most species were able to work with this arrangement. Since then the ancient grass has been replaced with alfalfa, and the mowers visit five, six, seven, eight times per growing season, causing enough destruction for most species to abandon these fields entirely.

Photo by Arlene Koziol