What a pleasant, peaceful scene. Great sky. I've driven miles out of my way to visit a designated National Grasslands area near the Texas-New Mexico border, hoping to see natural, tall prairie grasses (and to take a photo similar to yours) only to find it being grazed. Quite disappointing. Thanks for sharing a glimpse of a native prairie. What a treasure!
This small piece of native prairie is of the tall grass variety, I think. One of the grasses here is big blue stem which can grow quite tall. Prairies are of three types, tall grass, mixed type, and short grass. The tall grass prairies require more rainfall, so were limited to central parts of the US. Short grass prairies were more common in drier climates of the west.
I'm hoping to return to this prairie later in the summer when the grass has grown much taller. Most native prairie in the US is regularly grazed. Buffalo herds also grazed the prairie, but were constantly moving, so were beneficial to it by cropping grass which promoted growth and leaving fertilizer. Cattle do not move like bison and over grazing is common.
What a pleasant, peaceful scene. Great sky. I've driven miles out of my way to visit a designated National Grasslands area near the Texas-New Mexico border, hoping to see natural, tall prairie grasses (and to take a photo similar to yours) only to find it being grazed. Quite disappointing. Thanks for sharing a glimpse of a native prairie. What a treasure!
ReplyDeleteThis small piece of native prairie is of the tall grass variety, I think. One of the grasses here is big blue stem which can grow quite tall. Prairies are of three types, tall grass, mixed type, and short grass. The tall grass prairies require more rainfall, so were limited to central parts of the US. Short grass prairies were more common in drier climates of the west.
DeleteI'm hoping to return to this prairie later in the summer when the grass has grown much taller. Most native prairie in the US is regularly grazed. Buffalo herds also grazed the prairie, but were constantly moving, so were beneficial to it by cropping grass which promoted growth and leaving fertilizer. Cattle do not move like bison and over grazing is common.