Big Bluestem

by Annick Smith

On one of North America's last remaining expanses of grassland the Nature Conservancy has begun what is perhaps the boldest ecological experiment ever attempted. They are not simply conserving the natural beauty of this place, where eight-foot-tall grasses roll for miles under limitless prairie skies; they are studying it and shaping it anew, bringing back the bison once hunted here by native Plains horsemen, and seeding with fire to liberate the natural biodiversity of. a land never broken by the plow. On the stage that is the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve many dramas have unfolded. Indians, white settlers, ranchers, oil barons, scientists, and politicians have all taken roles alongside Nature's players - geologic phenomena, weather, the intricately interwoven lives of plants and animals. In Big Bluestem, Annick Smith traces the fascinating story of this land that, like the grasses, endures, and should endure, in its glory forever.