Wumple.com

From the Joplin Globe (Missouri): Last winter, as most Southwest Missouri residents took shelter from the wave of ice that pummeled the region, Noppadol Paothong stood alone in the middle of Prairie State Park.

The 34-year-old former Joplin resident had spent the better part of four days in the deserted state park in Barton County braving the elements as he sought to take pictures of the bison herd that roams the tall grass prairie.

Watching through the lens, he saw one of the animals peel from the herd and begin making its way toward him.

Paothong, a photographer for the Missouri Department of Conservation, said he’s been chased by all manner of animals (including snapping turtles and snakes). As a joke, his co-workers at the department even gave him a piece of Plexiglas to use as a shield to protect himself.

Read the full article, "The Nature of Art with Noppadol Paothong", at the Joplin Globe.  Also visit Noppadol Paothong’s web site and blog.

N8 of Chappel Hill, NC blogged about seeing three lifers (first time in his life seeing a specific species of bird) on the prairies of Missouri where he grew up.  N8 saw Le Conte’s Sparrow, Brewer’s Blackbird, and Cackling Goose.

N8 wrote: "And so on the day after Christmas we traveled westward, to the place where the last hills and hollows of the Ozarks are shrugged off in favor of the wide sweeping vistas of the prairie. It’s not a place I traveled to regularly when I was a young birder, it’s only recently been realized as a great birding locale, so here was the possibility for several new birds merely an hour from the place I grew up. One in particular was our quarry for the day, and for us to get a shot on it we needed to travel to Bois D’Arc (pronouced Bo Dark) Conservation Area west of Springfield."

Read more about it on N8’s blog.

From an NPCA article by Krista Schlyer: In the rolling hills of Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, the dance of the greater prairie-chicken mimics the rhythms of the landscape.

The story highlights Texas A&M graduate Rebekah Foote’s work studying Greater Prairie Chickens at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.

Read the full story, "At Home on the Prairie", on NPCA’s web site.

Voting for the 8 Wonders of Kansas ends tomorrow (midnight on Dec 31st, 2007) so go vote for Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve & the Flint Hills as one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas!

Vote here!

Kansas.com is running an article about Bill Watson, a Wichita banker who helped create Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve by making the initial loan to purchase the Z-Bar Ranch. 

Mr. Watson went on to become the CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) for many years before returning to the banking industry.

Read the full article, "A Conversation With: Bill Watson is a rarity in the Wichita banking community", on Kansas.com.

From the Birmingham News: The Alabama Chapter of the Nature Conservancy has signed an option to buy a 3,000-acre tract that adjoins the state-owned archeological park at Old Cahawba and is a remnant of the rich-soiled tall-grass prairies that once covered 1,000 square miles of central Alabama.

"There are expanses of native, natural grassland with very few non-native weeds and grasses. So, it is close to being a little slice of what Alabama used to be like that first attracted the settlers there," Oberholster said.

Too shallow to support large forest trees, the prairies supported smaller trees such as Eastern red cedar, redbud and hackberry, and large expanses of tall grasses such as yellow Indian grass and little bluestem, grasses more commonly associated with the Great Plains.

See the article, "Alabama chapter of Nature Conservancy working on deal to buy 3,000-acre tract near Old Cahawba that includes tall-grass prairies", at Everything Alabama for the full story.

A hillside of native prairie grasses and False Gromwell.  A prairie pothole in the summer.  Rolling hills with prairie flowers in the foreground.

These are some of the tallgrass prairie landscapes that Bruce Morrison has depicted in his work.  Paintings, drawings, serigraphs, and photographs are among the mediums he uses to convey the beauty of native landscapes.

Bruce has also donated many works to help conservation groups and educational organizations.

Learn more about Bruce and his artwork, including how to purchase some of his work, on the Morrison’s Studio web site.  Bruce also has a blog called Prairie Hill Farm Studio.