Best State Preserve
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Broken Kettle Grasslands State Preserve is a protected natural area located in the Loess Hills of Plymouth County, Iowa. It is recognized as the state's largest contiguous native tallgrass prairie, preserving an ecosystem characterized by deep loess soils and undulating ridges. Managed primarily by...
Irwin Prairie State Nature Preserve is a 218-acre protected natural area located in Lucas County, Ohio. The preserve is ecologically significant for maintaining one of the finest remaining wet prairie and oak savanna ecosystems in the Midwestern United States. Its landscape is characterized by poorl...
Hayden Prairie State Preserve is a protected tallgrass prairie in Howard County in northeastern Iowa. The approximately 240-acre site preserves one of Iowa's largest remaining examples of largely unplowed native prairie and has been designated a National Natural Landmark. Its plant community include...
Clay Prairie State Preserve is a 40-acre protected natural area located within Clay County, Iowa. Dedicated for conservation in 1985, the preserve safeguards a surviving segment of native tallgrass prairie that has developed on flat, poorly drained glacial till. The landscape is dominated by big blu...
Hoosier Prairie State Nature Preserve is a 1,500-acre protected ecological area located in Lake County, Indiana. Officially established as a nature preserve in 1977, it maintains a rare, transitional landscape where tallgrass prairies, oak savannas, and marshlands intersect. The sandy soil of the re...
Five Ridge Prairie State Preserve is a 990-acre natural area located in the Loess Hills of Plymouth County, Iowa. The landscape is characterized by steep ridges and rugged topography formed by wind-deposited silt. It maintains a mix of tallgrass prairie and bur oak woodland, serving as an important...
Cedar Hills Sand Prairie State Preserve is a geological site in Black Hawk County, Iowa, notable for its dry sand prairie ecosystem and glacial topography, dedicated as a state preserve in 1985.
Rolling Thunder Prairie State Preserve is a 26-acre natural area in Warren County, Iowa, notable for its rugged, steep terrain and protected native tallgrass habitat.
Ames High Prairie State Preserve is a 20-acre protected tallgrass prairie in Story County, Iowa, dedicated in 1978 to safeguard its unplowed native sod and diverse plant life.
Nestor Stiles Prairie State Preserve is a protected tallgrass prairie in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, dedicated to preserving a vital fragment of native grassland ecosystem.
Anderson Prairie State Preserve is a native tallgrass prairie in Pocahontas County, Iowa, notable for its pristine sedge meadow and diverse butterfly populations, officially protected in 1983.
Kalsow Prairie State Preserve in Iowa is a historically significant 160-acre tract of unbroken tallgrass prairie, protected in 1954 as one of the state's first prairie preserves.
Steele Prairie State Preserve in Iowa protects a 200-acre remnant of mesic tallgrass prairie, notable for its deep-rooted native grasses and diverse summer wildflowers.
Cayler Prairie State Preserve in Iowa is a 160-acre National Natural Landmark protecting a diverse, untilled mesic tallgrass prairie within the Des Moines Lobe region.
Doolittle Prairie State Preserve in Minnesota safeguards a 36-acre fragment of wet mesic tallgrass prairie, serving as a vital habitat for the rare greater prairie-chicken.
