The Smoky Hills Focus Area is limestone fence post country.

The Smoky Hill and Saline Rivers landscape comprises rolling to nearly level tallgrass and mixed grass prairie vegetation types, with abundant outcrops of sandstone and limestone. This landscape still contains some large tracts of high quality tallgrass and mixed grass prairie that are currently used primarily for grazing. These native prairie pastures provide important seasonal habitat for migrating birds as well as crucial nesting and brood rearing habitat for grassland nesting birds such as the greater prairie chicken.

"Clematis fremontii is one of our rarest plants...", says Janet E. Bare, author of Wildflowers and Weeds of Kansas.

The range for Fremont's leather plant (Clematis fremontii) is very small in Kansas, found only in the northcentral region. Pastures in the Smoky Hills Focus Area with these wildflowers are unique and have something that can't be found in any other part of the Kansas grasslands.

The Kansas Partners Program is working with landowners in the conservation of these native prairie landscapes by cost sharing on practices to remove invasive woody plants, promote proper grazing use of the grass, and maintain pastures in healthy grass stands that are economically beneficial to the ranchers and biologically beneficial to wildlife species.