Northern Tallgrass Prairie
Windom, MN 56101
Plan Your Visit
Each unit of Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge offers visitors a wonderful chance to explore a rare native ecosystem. Although most offer quiet, reflective walks through the prairie with no facilities, several locations have information kiosks, interpretive panels and trails. The Touch the Sky Prairie Unit in Rock County, Minnesota offers trails and several kiosks with interpretive signs for visitors. Other units are in the process of developing visitor contact sites.
Points of Interest
Touch the Sky Prairie Unit
This unit of the refuge was created in 2001 and is in Rock County, Minnesota a few short miles west of Blue Mounds State Park. This remnant tallgrass prairie consists of approximately 1,000 acres of native prairie grasses, wildflowers, several bird species and a small segment of Beaver Creek. A trail approximately one mile in length leads through beautiful wildflowers and a secluded waterfall.
Prairie Smoke Unit
This unit of the refuge is located South-East of Algona, Iowa in Kossuth County. This remnant prairie unit is utilized by waterfowl hunters during hunting season and was purchased by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2002.
Activities
More Activities
Get Involved
Volunteers have always been an important part of the refuge workforce. Individuals and groups offer their time to help meet the refuge mission through: wildlife surveys, monitoring, wildlife research projects, seed collecting, assisting with public events and routine maintenance duties.
Services
About
Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge was established in 2000 to preserve and restore the remaining tracts of the original 25 million acres of tallgrass prairie in Minnesota and Iowa. Currently, only about 300,000 acres remain, and the refuge aims to protect 77,000 acres across 85 counties through conservation easements and government ownership. Managed by various wetland management districts, the refuge works with partners to protect native habitats and grassland wildlife.