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Places We Protect

Bluestem Prairie Scientific and Natural Area

Minnesota

Closeup of large flowers with dark centers and long yellow petals in a field of tall grasses as the sun sets in the distance.
Sunset and wildflowers Various wildflowers thrive at TNC's Bluestem Prairie Preserve in Minnesota. © Richard Hamilton Smith

Bluestem Prairie Preserve is one of few places where visitors can see the vastness of the prairie.

Overview

Description

Bluestem Prairie Preserve is one of few places in the state where visitors can experience the vastness of the native prairie that once covered a great portion of western Minnesota and the Dakotas. Watching the prairie chickens "booming" in early spring is a special highlight, and blinds have been built to accommodate viewing. The opportunity to see migratory birds and other native fauna and flora also makes a trip to Bluestem Prairie worthwhile.

Why TNC Selected This Site

Despite its number of landowners, the preserve has remained in native prairie for the most part. Today, it is recognized as one of the largest and highest-quality northern tallgrass prairies in the U.S. When Buffalo River State Park was established, it included only a small portion of native prairie and was used mainly for public recreation along the river. The park boundaries were enlarged significantly in the 1960s when concern grew over rapidly diminishing grassland. Today, TNC is taking many active steps to ensure the protection of this increasingly rare natural treasure.

What TNC Has Done/Is Doing

The Nature Conservancy became actively involved in preserving this native prairie by acquiring more than 1,000 acres south of the Buffalo River in 1975. Since then, TNC has acquired other parcels, enlarging the preserve and enhancing the habitat for native species. While most of the preserve has remained in its natural state, not all of the land escaped cultivation. Furrows are still evident in areas where plowing occurred. At one time, most of the prairie was hayed. Some of the preserve was used for grazing cattle and horses, and this has had an impact on prairie vegetation in specific areas.

TNC manages the preserve through prescribed burning, conducting biological inventories, and controlling non-native species by hand-cutting, mowing and localized spraying. One of the most troublesome exotic plants is leafy spurge. In recent years, TNC has restored more than 677 acres of prairie on the preserve that formerly had been ditched, farmed and used as a gravel pit.

School groups around Moorhead and Fargo use Bluestem Prairie for environmental education, and the preserve continues to be an important site for biological research by area colleges and universities throughout the Midwest.

Access

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Size

6,078 acres

Explore our work in Minnesota

Prairie Chickens

Prairie-chickens were once abundant across the Great Plains. Today, there are only about 360,000 living in small pockets of grassland like Bluestem Prairie.

Habitat loss is the main culprit for the greater prairie-chicken’s decline. The birds rely on large, nearly treeless grassland. Most of their original range has been converted to agriculture over the last several decades, reducing their suitable habitat to a small fraction of what it once was. 

On the lek Greater prairie-chickens venture out to a short-grass patch in the prairie known as a "lek" during booming season. © Mark Staples/TNC
Mating season The male prairie-chicken performs an intricate courtship display, inflating its vibrant orange air sacs to make a low booming sound. © Mark Staples/TNC
Greater Prairie-Chickens The annual mating season for greater prairie-chickens is a spring spectacle. © Mark Staples/TNC
× On the lek Greater prairie-chickens venture out to a short-grass patch in the prairie known as a "lek" during booming season. © Mark Staples/TNC
× Mating season The male prairie-chicken performs an intricate courtship display, inflating its vibrant orange air sacs to make a low booming sound. © Mark Staples/TNC
× Greater Prairie-Chickens The annual mating season for greater prairie-chickens is a spring spectacle. © Mark Staples/TNC

The work that TNC and other conservation organizations do to protect and restore habitat helps ensure the prairie-chickens can continue to survive. 

In the spring, greater prairie chickens put on one of the best spectacles of nature in Minnesota by dancing and booming to attract a mate. 

At dawn, male prairie-chickens venture out to a short-grass patch in the prairie known as a “lek,” where they perform an intricate courtship display in which they hop, strut, flap their wings, fill their vibrant orange air sacs and make a low booming sound. That’s why the behavior is known as “booming.” The displaying birds may even spar with other males, all for the attention of females. 

Booming Grounds (6:26) Learn more about greater prairie chicken booming at Bluestem Prairie.

Visit

What to See: Plants

Bluestem Prairie harbors more than 313 plant species. Seven of these are designated by the State of Minnesota as species of special concern, including sedge, sticky false asphodel, small white lady's slipper, northern gentian, plains reed grass, blanket-flower and oat-grass. The western prairie fringed orchid, a federally threatened species, also grows on the preserve.

What to See: Animals

Besides the greater prairie chicken, other birds found here include upland sandpiper, sandhill crane, marbled godwit (a species of special concern), loggerhead shrike (a threatened species) and Henslow's sparrow (an endangered species). Mammals include the plains pocket mouse and the prairie vole, both species of special concern. These rodents may serve as prey for another species of special concern, the western hognose snake.

The rare regal fritillary, a species of special concern in Minnesota, can be seen at the preserve. The federally endangered poweshiek skipper has not been documented here in recent years. A multi-year research project on invertebrates conducted through North Dakota State University's entomology department has revealed that a rare beetle species, the prairie stinkbug, thrives on a portion of the preserve. This ongoing research project and similar ones are crucial to understanding the prairie's ecological systems and monitoring its needs.

You can visit Bluestem Prairie anytime, but reservations are necessary for the prairie chicken blinds; call TNC's Northern Tallgrass Prairie Office at 218-498-2679. For more information on visiting this and other Minnesota preserves, check out our Preserve Visitation Guidelines.

Photos from Bluestem Prairie

Bluestem Prairie is a beautiful example of native prairie in Minnesota.

Monarch butterflies gathered on a tree branch.
People on horseback in a prairie.
Flowers blooming in a prairie.
Two prairie chickens face each other in a prairie.
Flowers bloom in the prairie.
Monarch butterflies gathered on a tree branch.

MONARCHS : Bluestem Prairie near Moorhead, Minnesota provides habitat for migrating monarch butterflies. © Richard Hamilton Smith

People on horseback in a prairie.

Grazing Lands: Rickford Ranch fall roundup of cattle from The Nature Conservancy's Bluestem Prairie near Glyndon, Minnesota. © Richard Hamilton Smith

Flowers blooming in a prairie.

BLOOM : Prairie flowers bloom at Bluestem Prairie in the Agassiz Beach Ridges landscape in western Minnesota. © Richard Hamilton Smith

Two prairie chickens face each other in a prairie.

Greater prairie chicken: is a species of grassland bird whose numbers have dwindled in many parts of the United States. © Bruce Leventhal

Flowers bloom in the prairie.

PRAIRIE : Black-eyed Susans bloom in the prairie. © Richard Hamilton Smith

Nearby Preserves

Margherita Preserve Audubon Prairie

Margherita Preserve-Audubon Prairie

The Margherita Preserve-Audubon Prairie is part of a network of preserves where the greater prairie chicken continues to live.

Spring Prairie Preserve

Spring Prairie Preserve

Spring Prairie Preserve is an approximately 470-acre property in Clay County, Minnesota. It is the first property acquired under the Conservancy’s Minnesota Prairie Recovery Project.

is a species of grassland bird whose numbers have dwindled in many parts of the United States.

Richard M. & Mathilde Rice Elliott Prairie

This region is famous for its greater prairie chickens. A 20-foot-tall statue of one stands along Highway 52 in the town of Rothsay.

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