Thanks so much for visiting our little web site! Please send us an e-mail. We'd love to hear from you.

South Fork Prairie is on private property and is not open to the public. This website is our way of sharing the many beautiful and unique aspects of it, with others. Because we’ve received government funding and assistance from state and federal employees, we think it’s important to provide this technological tour to anyone with an interest in native prairies.

Members of the Missouri Native Plant Society plan frequent field trips to South Fork, and have been of great help to us in identifying and documenting plant species. See our Links page to get information on the organization, and to find out how you can attend the next field trip.

We are also happy to consider requests for a private tour. Just shoot us an e-mail!

Our Backstory

In the spring of 2000 we purchased our property in Cass County, Missouri. We had lived and raised our family in Prairie Village Kansas, surrounded by the comfort and convenience of modern suburbia. We were never more than ten minutes from the nearest grocery store or Starbucks. Our jobs were an easy fifteen minute commute. The idea of having land in the country was quite intimidating at first. In fact, we initially considered just moving to a bigger house in one of the many newer neighborhoods to the south of Prairie Village. It seemed to be the natural progression for Johnson Countians like us.

Somewhere along the way though, those neighborhoods full of oversized behemoths with three car garages and four bathrooms, just lost their appeal. We started wondering if what we really wanted was a different way of life, not just more square footage to maintain. We began taking drives out in the country, scribbling down the names of realtors from For Sale signs we saw along the way. In the beginning, even forty acres seemed a frightening proposition. But soon we were looking at fifty, sixty, even hundred acre properties without flinching. The more we thought about owning land, the more infatuated we became with the idea.

We first looked at the property that includes South Fork Prairie on a beautiful day in autumn. It was one of those incredible October afternoons in Missouri, when the sky sparkles a brilliant blue, and the air is brisk and full of promise. It was as though this land knew it was on display, and pulled out all of the stops in an effort to impress us with its potential. Geese, winging their way south, honked lazily to each other as they sailed swiftly over our heads. Fragrant cedar glades shimmered in golden fall sunlight. Leaves of bright yellow and orange crackled under our eager footsteps as we walked the land with our realtor. We were smitten.

In April of the following year, after agonizing over the decision for months, we closed on the property. Shortly thereafter, David received a call at work from Missouri Department of Conservation agent, Phil Needham. When David phoned me later to say that the agent wanted come to our land to "check on the milkweed," I thought he was kidding. "Something about a rare kind of plant," He explained, every bit as mystified as I. We agreed to meet with the agent at our property to find out just what was so special about this mystery plant.

At that meeting, Phil explained that the presence of a state endangered species of milkweed known as Mead's Milkweed had been documented on our property by the Conservation Department some years earlier. As he walked the land looking for the elusive milkweed, he pointed out plants that grow only in areas where there has never been plowing, tilling or agricultural activity of any kind. Although we had noticed that this particular piece of our property seemed to have an abundance of unusual wildflowers and grasses, we had no idea that it was an actual native tallgrass prairie remnant. We received a little education that day from Phil Needham on the importance of preserving small remnants like ours, where plants and animals exist in an ecological balance that has remained the same for thousands of years.

We were excited about the prospect of playing some role in the preservation of a rare plant species and eager to learn how best to go about protecting and restoring the little prairie. We were put in touch with Missouri Department of Conservation's Regional Biologist Larry Rizzo, and Cass County Private Land Conservationist Nick Prough. Larry and Nick wasted no time in providing information, giving advice and helping to educate us in prairie restoration and preservation. Larry's help was critical in securing funding through a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The grant program, called "Partners For Wildlife," enabled us to embark on an aggressive plan to beat back invasive trees and shrubs in order to allow native plants to flourish.

Over time, cedar trees, locusts, hedge and other opportunistic plants had encroached upon the prairie, and were threatening much of the native flora there, including the Mead's Milkweed. With funding from the Partners For Wildlife program, we were able to pay for the removal of many of those invasive plants, allowing native species to thrive. There is still much work to be done, and we are very grateful for the continued assistance of dedicated professionals like Larry and Nick, who are tireless in their efforts to help landowners with projects like ours. We have seen an increase in the numbers of native flowers and plants, each year since starting restoration work.