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Tallgrass Prairie Preserve: No. 1 of 7

The 39,650-acre Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is home to more than 300 bird species, including this painted bunting, the upland sandpiper and the scissor-tailed flycatcher. Photo courtesy Harvey Payne.

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Tallgrass Prairie Preserve: No. 2 of 7

The greater prairie chicken at home on the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Located near Pawhuska, this preserve was the first large-scale landscape project for The Nature Conservancy when it purchased the land from the Chapman-Barnard Rach in 1989. Photo courtesy Harvey Payne.

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Tallgrass Prairie Preserve: No. 3 of 7

With less than 4 per cent of tallgrass prairie remaining on earth, the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is the largest protected remnant of this landscape still in existence. Photo courtesy Mike Fuhr.

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Tallgrass Prairie Preserve: No. 4 of 7

The preserve’s bison herd has grown from about 300 from a private 1993 donation to about 2,700, on the rolling Oklahoma plains where the big beasts were nearly killed off by the late 1880s. Photo courtesy Harvey Payne.

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Tallgrass Prairie Preserve: No. 5 of 7

“In the past 25 years, our Oklahoma chapter of has burned almost a million acres statewide. We use ‘patch burns,’ or prescribed fires, to mimic historical fire frequency, and that helps prevent catastrophic wildfires from taking place,” notes Meghan Raleigh, donor relations manager for the Oklahoma chapter of The Nature Conservancy. Photo courtesy Tom Klare.

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Tallgrass Prairie Preserve: No. 6 of 7

The preserve provides refuge for the migrating monarch butterfly, as well as bees and other pollinators. Photo courtesy Jay Pruett.

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Tallgrass Prairie Preserve: No. 7 of 7

Of the preserve's bison herd, TNC's Meghan Raleigh notes: “We round them up once a year, and we sell 600 to 700 a year to keep the population steady and sustainable, but we really don’t mess with them at all. We try to keep them as wild as possible.” Photo courtesy Harvey Payne.

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