Be sure and look for this picture in the current edition of the Flint Hills Heritage Newsletter
Okay, I know. My productivity in writing posts about the Flint Hills and the tallgrass prairie has been lacking recently. If you need something to read, then let me recommend the Flint Hills Heritage Newsletter.
This newsletter, created by the Heritage Task Force of the Flint Hills Tourism Coalition, is now available for downloading. It features several great articles about upcoming events, the heritage of the Flint Hills, and some suggestions on ways you can get involved in the efforts of the task force.
In the interest of full disclosure, however, I should let you know I was involved in the production of the newsletter. I submitted a couple of those articles. Before you turn up your noses at the self-serving nature of this post, let me say I will try to make it up to you by dedicating the remainder of this entry to some other newsletters I enjoy. I have nothing to do with the production of the following newsletters, which gives them an advantage.
The Kansas Land Trust is a great organization that seeks to preserve natural ecosystems, ranch and farm lands, scenic landscapes, and historic places through conservation easements or land donations. This organization does not work exclusively in the Flint Hills, but several of the conservation easements established through the efforts of the Kansas Land Trust have been aimed at tallgrass prairie places in the Flint Hills.
The Kansas Land Trust produces a quarterly newsletter, Stewardship Notes, and posts the current edition along with an archive of past editions on its newsletter page at its Web site. The current edition of Stewardship Notes includes an article on the KLT’s efforts to preserve the 580-acre Kenneth Muller family ranch in Morris County.
A similar, but very different, organization is the Ranchland Trust of Kansas. Like the Kansas Land Trust, the Ranchland Trust of Kansas uses conservation easements to protect native ecosystems in Kansas. The focus, however, of the Ranchland Trust of Kansas, which is an affiliate of the Kansas Livestock Association, is to preserve agricultural land — working landscapes — like tallgrass prairie pastures and similar ranching environments.
The Ranchland Trust of Kansas Web site includes a news page, which offers links to current and past editions of its newsletter. The current edition of that newsletter includes a story about the history of the organization and its future goals.
Yet another organization working to preserve the Kansas Flint Hills landscape is the Tallgrass Legacy Alliance. As the name indicates, the focus of this organization is to preserve the tallgrass prairie, and this goal is being accomplished by keeping ranchers working the prairie. Another unique feature of the TLA is its makeup. The TLA is actually an alliance of several other organizations, groups as diverse as the Kansas Livestock Association, Kansas Farm Bureau, The Nature Conservancy, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, Wildlife Management Institute, and others.
The Tallgrass Legacy Alliance also puts out a newsletter, The Prairie Pen, which is a collection of short articles dealing with various ranching and prairie issues. Sometimes technical, the newsletter is always a great source for information about Kansas’ and the Flint Hills’ ranching heritage.
For an entirely different kind of newsletter, let me recommend The Prairie Falcon, which is the newsletter of the Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society. This newsletter, obviously, focuses on birding and bird-watching issues. Stories in The Prairie Falcon cover topics like book reviews, practical suggestions for birdwatching, and information on particular bird species. In the current issue, you can even order bird seed for feeding the wild bird population.
And speaking of the Audubon Society, the Audubon of Kansas also puts out its own e-mail newsletter, which can be found at the newsletter page of the organization’s Web site.
One of my overall favorite newsletters is Bison and Bluestem, the newsletter of the Friends of Konza Prairie. It’s one of the benefits of being a member, but anyone can see the most recent edition of Bison and Bluestem at the newsletter page of the Friends’ Web site.
Finally, I want to mention the newsletter of The Nature Conservancy, which owns most of the land of the Konza Prairie Biological Station and the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.
The Nature Conservancy’s newsletter is called Great Places and it’s free when you join the organization. The newsletter is customized to your physical location, which means in my case, the newsletter comes with a lead story about Kansas. You can see past issues of Great Places at the Nature Conservancy’s newsletter page of its Web site. The latest edition of the Kansas Great Places led with an article about the Flint Hills Initiative, which describes how the Nature Conservancy is working with the Tallgrass Legacy Alliance in preserving the native Kansas tallgrass prairie.
So while you are waiting patiently for me to write, be sure to read the above newsletters. There, now I’ve given you plenty of reading material.
Dennis, Once again I turn to you for permission to use one of your articles on my monthly radio program. The article titled Flint Hills, protector of the Tallgrass prairie found in the Fall Flinthills Heritage Newsletter is worth sharing with our listeners here in Greenwood Co. Most of us in this area are pretty near-sighted and think only of the Flint Hills as being in our immediate area. Your article on the extent of the original size of the prairie is a good one and should provide some interest in our listeners–perhaps some call-ins. Phil Johnston, Kotefm.com The first Thursday of each month, at 9:00 A.M.
Just so others know, I sent Phil an e-mail with permission to read the story from the newsletter. Be sure and listen to his show the first Thursday in February at 9 am at KOTEfm.com. Phil has a good show.
Dennis, I am getting old. Cant remember if I replied to you with a “thanks” for permission to use your article “Flint Hills the Tallgrass Praire Protector.” I am planning to talk about the border war and it will be a long program. If I dont get your article in this time, it will be on in March. Again, thanks for the go ahead. I left Manhattan in 72 to go to Russell as HS principal, so your wife was lucky, she didnt have to put up with me. Philj