A prairie is a grassy area that has very few to no trees and contains rich, fertile soil. Prairies at one time covered 18 million acres of Minnesota; however, today most of Minnesota’s prairies have been converted into farmland. These richly diverse biomes originally spread all across the Midwest, but now only 1% of the original prairie lands remain intact.
In a natural prairie ecosystem a fire would occur every 3-5 years, most often started by lightening. Since allowing fires to naturally occur in a city park is unsafe, park employees administer a prescribed burn to simulate the fire prairie ecosystems need to thrive. Burns quickly return nutrients to the soil, remove dead plant matter that could choke out new growth, and kill non-native and woody plants. The land you see in front of you is technically not a spot where a prairie would naturally occur. Prairie plants were planted here because their deep roots are ideal for holding the soil and preventing erosion from the nearby river, even when the river floods. Installing a prairie ecosystem also created a home for many native animal species. The prairie you see here actually butts up against another ecosystem: a woodland. The boundaries between two biomes such as these often have an interesting ecological significance called the edge effect. Animals such as white tailed deer, blue jays, and robins are often found on the edges of prairie/woodland ecosystems because they prefer to eat plants and insects found in the prairie and seek shelter and protection in the woodlands from predators.