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Conservation & Education > Conservation Projects > Wah'Kon-Ta Prairie
Wah'Kon-Ta Prairie Project
Kay Johnson began to take groups of GOAS volunteers up to The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) Wah'Kon-Ta Prairie in 1998. This prairie is located near El Dorado Springs, Missouri, and provides habitat for Greater Prairie Chicken, Upland Sandpiper, Henslow's Sparrow,
and a wide variety of plants, animals and insects associated with high quality prairie habitat. These work crews removed barbed-wire fence from land donated to TNC by private owners. Work crews also cut trees and removed brush before large equipment was mobilized by TNC for prairie habitat
recovery and restoration.
Over the last four years, GOAS has organized and provided volunteers to conduct Meade's Milkweed surveys each spring, and to collect seed several times during the fall. Native wildflower seed is a very valuable market commodity, with the rare downy gentian's
seed, as fine as ground cinnamon, "through the roof" in value, according to TNC personnel. This seed may be sold by TNC, or used to restore prairies in other parts of the state and region. Over 125 species of native prairie plants make up seed mixtures made at Wah'Kon-Ta.
Contact Kay Johnson for more information.
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