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Iralee Barnard
Hatteberg's People
Reporter: Larry Hatteberg
| September 15, 2002--The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve hosted an Open House this month for those interested in the Tallgrass Prairie. Located at the old Z-Bar Ranch, the 11,000 acre ranch is now operated by the National Park Service in conjunction with the Tallgrass Prairie National Reserve. |  | | The Open House was to raise money to preserve the precious resources and implement planning goals of the Preserve. | 
| For those who don't understand the Prairie, it may be just an open space. But for those who love and understand it like Iralee Barnard, this place is almost magic. | | Iralee's job for the past six years has been to chronicle the Prairie and the plants that grow there. She's a botanist who understands the ecology of the land and its importance to our history. Iralee's office has a great view. "I think as Kansans we probably take our Prairie for granted. I think what is important about the Prairie is our heritage. The Prairie is so subtle, you don't expect too much when you first come, but you go out and you learn a little bit about it. You see the vistas and the grandeur. We have a living museum here. We have a museum to keep those things that are special to us to keep them from disappearing. and the prairie is disappearing." | | Her work documents the grasses, plants and flowers of the Prairie. There are unique plants everywhere like the Compass plant. "It gets its name from huge wonderfully lobed leaves that usually point in north and south directions, so the early settlers gave it that name." |  | | The vastness of this land is surprising. On the Prairie Preserve, park rangers give tours to tourists who just want to see the land the way it was. | One park ranger was visiting with a group from Illinois. "Over there it looks like a tree doesn't it. But to the cattleman the tree is nothing but a big weed. It just takes and takes and takes and doesn't give anything back beneficial to the cattleman," explained the ranger.
"You just inherit, the love of the outdoors and nature and natural things. It's really wonderful. It's a privilege to get to come out and work. There are some days when you're hot and tired and thirsty and ready to go home, but it's always interesting and it's always changing." "Now they say there is only one to three percent of the Prairie remaining and we have most of that right here in the Flint Hills of Kansas and I think as Kansans we just take it for granted. Other states have lost their entire Prairie so we have something really special here in our own back yard." |
The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is located on highway 177 just a few miles North of Strong City, Kansas. The Preserve tells a unique American story about who we are and where we have been. This precious Kansas resource was established in 1996 as a unit of the National Park System.
For more information call: 620 273-8139 |
| | Have a story idea for Hatteberg's People? Send Larry an email with the details. | |
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