Put on your hiking boots and bring the bug spray for a walk through Greene County’s “jewel of a prairie” with a plant expert leading the way on Saturday, June 28.
The walk, sponsored by the Greene County Historical Society and the Friends of Greene County IA Parks, steps off at 9:30 am. Tipton Prairie is located south of Cooper near Squirrel Hollow Park.
To get there, go east from Highway 4, stay on E57 through Cooper to R Ave. The prairie is on the south side of the road before the Atkins Bridge over the Raccoon River.
Thomas Rosburg, a prairie expert, will lead the walk.He has surveyed Tipton, identifying native plants and taking soil samples, and he’s drafting a management plan to rid the plot of invasive non-native plants without the use of chemicals.
A biology professor at Drake University in Des Moines, Rosburg practices regenerative agriculture on his small holding. He established the Drake Prairie Rescue and Restoration Program in 2003. It provides hands-on experience in prairie ecology for students who have helped save prairies on 65 sites across Iowa.
Owned by Greene County Conservation, the four-acre prairie is home to more than 180 species of native plants, according to Chris Henning of the local Friends of Parks, an organization dedicated to enhancing the county’s parks.
“It’s one of the best, if not the best, of the virgin prairies left in Iowa,” says Henning. “It’s a jewel of a prairie.”
