The ground breaking ceremony will celebrate the start of construction of the education center, and research complex, which make up the Prairie Learning Center. The center will be used to educate people of all ages and will contain hands-on interpretive exhibits, audio visual programs, classrooms and laboratories. Here, Americans and visitors will discover the richness and diversity of plant and animal life as it existed 150 years ago. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) anticipates the Center will host more than 200,000 people annually. Walnut Creek Refuge was established by Congress in 1991 to restore tallgrass prairie, one of the rarest of North
America s major natural landscapes. In Iowa, as throughout much of the United States, the tallgrass prairie has disappeared as a functioning ecosystem.
"The Services challenge is to reconstruct more than 7,000 acres of tallgrass prairie, affording the public a unique opportunity to explore the "sea of grass" so integral to the nation s heritage and to experience the richness and diversity of plant and animal life as it existed prior to the 1840 s," said Dick Birger, Walnut Creek Refuge Project Leader. "The reconstruction of this habitat will be undertaken with consideration of its role on the leading edge of a new body of knowledge-restoration ecology. The potential contribution to preservation and enhancement of the biodiversity of this Region and the Nation is extensive."
Other major goals of the Walnut Creek National Wildlife Refuge - Prairie Learning Center will include conservation of native biodiversity and research of the restoration of grassland systems. The Refuge is presently home to over 285 species of animals including the Federally endangered Indiana bat. Other Federally threatened species which will be included are Western Prairie Fringed Orchid, Mead s Milkweed, and Slender Prairie Bush Clover.
Prior to European settlement at the beginning of the nineteenth century, over 30 million acres of tallgrass prairie graced the Iowa landscape. Iowa s thick black topsoil which formed as a result of centuries of prairie growth and decay promised some of the most productive areas of food production in the world. Today, only a small fraction of the original prairie remains in limited isolated tracts.
The mission of the National Wildlife Refuge System is to conserve and manage fish, wildlife, and plants of the United States and their habitats for the benefit of present and future generations. The Walnut Creek Refuge will make an important contribution in fulfilling that mission and will become an integral part of the education and conservation community in Iowa.
Directions from Des Moines: Take Highway 163 (University Avenue) east to Prairie City. At the intersection of Highway 163 and Jasper County S6G, turn right (south). Travel 2 miles to South 96th Avenue West. Go right (west) on 96th approximately 2 miles. Signs will be posted.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses more than 530 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies. For further information about the programs and activities of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region, please visit our home page at: http://midwest.fws.gov
