Prairie Areas on the Lewis and Clark Trail

Photo:  UNO Department of Biology

When you travel along the Lewis and Clark Trail throughout much of the Midwest today, you primarily see mile-after-mile of croplands. Depending on the state, you’ll see endless acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, alfalfa, oats, rye and even sunflowers. Gone are the limitless acres of prairie.

During the time of the pre-European settlement (the landscape seen by Lewis and Clark), prairie covered more land in the United States than any other type of vegetation – more than the deciduous forests of the East that spread from Maine to Georgia, more than the deserts of the Southwest, more than the boreal forests that covered our northern border from Maine to Minnesota.

Fortunately, there are pockets of untouched prairie lands still waiting for those who want to learn about these unique ecosystems. The biology department at the University of Nebraska Omaha preserves three areas in their Nature Preserve Consortium – Glacier Creek Preserve, T.L. Davis Preserve, and Turkey Creek Preserve. All are near the Omaha metro area.

To learn more, go to: https://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-arts-and-sciences/biology/nature-preserves/index.php