Most American prairies are gone. These people are working to bring them back
From a field on an Illinois university campus, to rare, untouched land in Texas, here are some efforts to replant once-abundant prairie in the Midwest and Great Plains.
Tag: great plains
A native prairie bird lost federal protection. People are still trying to save it on private land
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates millions of lesser prairie chickens may have once scurried across a range of almost 100 million acres across the Great Plains. Today, scientists estimate there are only about 27,000 left in five states – Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado.
Solar for All would have powered emergency housing in a Midwest town. Then the EPA cut the funds
Municipalities and nonprofits across the country may have to abandon planned solar energy projects after the Environmental Protection Agency announced it was terminating a $7 billion grant program to expand solar access.
Why are locally-grown fruits and veggies often more expensive than what’s at the grocery store?
As part of the “Food Routes” series, Harvest Public Media explores three big factors that affect produce prices in the Midwest and Great Plains.
Midwest states east of ‘tornado alley’ are bearing the brunt of severe storm season. Here’s why
Tornadoes have killed 68 people in the U.S. in 2025, with the majority of those deaths in Kentucky and Missouri.
The U.S. sold this tribe’s land illegally. It’s now the latest Native group to get its home back
There are more than 500 miles between the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation’s tribal reservation in northeastern Kansas and 1,500 acres of mostly prairie in northern Illinois.
It’s warmer and drier than usual in the Midwest this fall. Here’s what that means for producers
Fall is typically a drier time of the year for the Great Plains and Midwest. But drought is once again rearing its head in much of the region, and experts are not seeing relief anytime soon. As Ralph Lents harvests corn and soybeans on his farm in southwest Iowa, he said some precipitation would be
Farmers in the Plains are in ‘dire straits’ due to drought, wildfire conditions
Most of Illinois has had plenty of rain, but even with a few recent rains, much of the Great Plains are in a drought. Wildfires have swept across the grasslands and farmers are worried about how they’ll make it through the growing season. https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s60/audio/2022/05/drought-in-plains-hpm-web2.wav Listen to this story here. Randy Uhrmacher is in his tractor,