Restoring the Land

Restoring the Land. . , Minnesota has lost 99 percent of its native prairies and 92 percent of its old-growth forests. This 13-acre parcel seeks to recover part of that original landscape. , Susan Windgrow - Prairie Island resident., Southeastern Minnesota is a diverse land. Here is a mosaic of prairies and bluffs, ravines and river valleys, rich wetlands and the Mississippi. For thousands of years it has been a place of great diversity. This region marks the transition zone between the prairie grasslands to our west and the coniferous forests to the east., The shape of this land is the result of a rather curious event. Some 75,000 years ago, a great sheet of ice started to cover North America. It was centered on what is now Hudson Bay. As this glacier moved south, it did not pass over this region. It covered the land to our west and east. The glacier was like nature's biggest bull-dozer, scraping the land flat and depositing layers of rock and gravel. It was the last glacier to cover North America., When this glacier finally started to melt, it released tremendous amounts of water. Great torrents flowed over this land, carving out these bluffs and ravines, and creating what would become the longest river valley in North America, the Mississippi., In this diverse landscape mastodons, mammoths, turtles and giant river fish found a home. Over time, the diverse food supply attracted early Native Americans. People have walked this land for roughly 12,000 years., During the course of 12 centuries, change is inevitable. The most significant impact started in the mid 1800s. Riverboats transported early settlers to the region. Prairies then became farmland. Oak groves were harvested to build houses. Gravel was excavated to build roads and railroad beds. The native landscape changed. For example, 99 percent of Minnesota's native prairies are now gone., This area is an effort to restore a sample of Goodhue County's native prairies and woodlands., Trails wind through its acreage. Interpretive signs along the trails provide information.