Background

The creation of a prairie park as a unit of the U.S. national park system has a long and controversial history. In the 1920s, academics at Midwestern universities first began to study the feasibility of preserving a portion of tallgrass prairie ecosystem within the national park system. The idea was given little real consideration until the early 1960s, when a prairie national park was proposed in Kansas. Fear of the use of eminent domain by the federal government and ranchers' reluctance to lose prime grasslands for grazing stalled the idea.

In the 1970s, a split developed between prairie park proponents. Some wished to see the creation of a museum park that would commemorate the history of ranching on the Great Plains. Others were concerned with preserving a piece of the true prairie ecosystem before it disappeared. In 1975, the National Park Service (NPS) conducted a prairie park feasibility study. As one of the study's land acquisition and management concepts, National Park Service planners included a Flint Hills agricultural reserve model based on the British national park concept. This model envisioned regional management of privately owned land "based on a unified effort, beginning at county and state levels,"ⁱ and stressed the distinctive cultural as well as natural history of the Flint Hills prairie landscape of Kansas and Oklahoma.

In 1988, the National Audubon Society secured an option to purchase the 10,984-acre Z Bar Ranch near Strong City, Kansas. Many who had been working toward the establishment of a prairie park saw this as a potential opportunity and moved quickly to propose the creation of a national monument as an alternative use of the land. Local concern again centered on the fear that federal involvement could lead to additional land being purchased through eminent domain, federal controls on adjacent property owners, and removal of the land from local tax rolls. But the possible sale of the Z Bar Ranch started a dialogue that brought together representatives of a number of distinct interests and viewpoints. This dialogue was carried out in the halls of Congress as well as on the Kansas prairie. Ultimately, it was agreed that a private nonprofit organization could purchase and own the land and manage it in partnership with the National Park Service. In 1994, the National Park Trust (created by the National Parks and Conservation Association in 1983 as a nonprofit land trust) bought the Z Bar Ranch after National Audubon's option expired.

The 1996 congressional legislation that established Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve limited federal ownership to no more than 180 acres of the nearly 11,000-acre ranch, and required that it be acquired by donation. The legislation also stipulated that the preserve be managed in conjunction with the property owner (the National Park Trust). The designation of "preserve" rather than "park" offered the National Park Service more flexibility in managing the area in partnership with the National Park Trust. Necessary activities such as grazing and honoring the current 35-year oil and gas lease could continue. The legislation established a thirteen-member Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve advisory committee to be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior.

ⁱConard, Rebecca, and Susan Hess. Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Legislative History, 1920-1996. Prepared by Tallgrass Historians L.C. for National Park Service Midwest Support Office, 1998, 21. Unpublished.