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2011 – Freedom’s Frontier in the Symphony in the Flint Hills Field Journal (Laurie J. Hamilton, Editor)

An Introduction to the Flint Hills and the

Rex Buchanan

Brian Obermeyer

Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/sfh

Recommended Citation Buchanan, Rex and Obermeyer, Brian (2011). "An Introduction to the Flint Hills and the Tallgrass Prairie," Symphony in the Flint Hills Field Journal. https://newprairiepress.org/sfh/2011/nature/1

To order hard copies of the Field Journals, go to shop.symphonyintheflinthills.org.

The Field Journals are made possible in part with funding from the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation.

This is brought to you for free and open access by the Conferences at New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Symphony in the Flint Hills Field Journal by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. An Introduction to the Flint Hills and the Tallgrass Prairie It was Zebulon Montgomery Pike who first coined the name Flint Hills when exploring the region in 1806. In his journal, September 12th, he described the following near the headwaters of the Verdigris River in southeastern Chase County: “Commenced our march at seven o’clock. Passed very ruff flint hills. My feet blistered and very sore.” He went on to say that from one view he could see buffalo, elk, deer, cabrie [pronghorn], and panthers.

EMERALD HILLS Jim Richardson Today one can still see many of disturbance regime of fire and grazing. the same unobstructed vistas that Thin soils and local (in the form Zebulon Pike witnessed more than of , chert, and shale deposits) 200 years ago. The Flint Hills owe also meant that the region was better much of their persistence as a relatively suited for ranching. unfragmented tallgrass prairie landscape Some 285 million years ago, when these to their ranching heritage, one that has sediments were first deposited, Kansas perpetuated, in many cases, the natural looked a whole lot different. At that time,

61 covered by a series of oceans. the thin soils, also deterred plowing in These seas left behind sediments that the Flint Hills--- the primary reason these eventually became layers of limestone hills have remained as native grass. An and shale. Limestone is the sterner, Osage Indian once said that the White generally buff, brown, or white rock Man will have a hard time putting that that forms prominent benches in many iron thing in the ground here [Flint pastures. Varieties of shale are generally Hills]. Chert also fractures with a darker-colored, gray or even red or green, characteristic sharp edge, which is why and much softer. Visible along road Native Americans used it to make tools cuts in the area, shale is often grassed and points, and why it can wreak havoc over in Flint Hills pastures, and is not as on car tires today. apparent as limestone. Each of these rock layers has its Then there’s the flint that gives the own name, usually based on where it hills their name. Flint (also known as was first described. The thick, blocky OCEANS OF KANSAS PALEONTOLOGY chert) is a dense, microcrystalline rock is named Map resides in University of State Museum that is commonly found within some for Cottonwood Falls. Many of the much of the state was covered by a shallow (likely less than a hundred feet deep) and limestone layers. Because of its hardness, rounded hills are capped by the Florence sea. Eastern Kansas probably resembled the sea floor relatively flat, slight drops chert resists erosion. These rocks, and limestone, named for the small town the coast of Florida. (Geologists call in sea level would expose broad areas as these similar land formations “modern dry land, and slight increases in sea level analogues”---or places you can go today to meant that vast areas would be covered by help us understand what things looked water. In short, for millennia, the seas in like in the past.) Kansas was also much eastern Kansas came in and the seas went closer to the equator than it is today. So out. When someone says that Kansas these shallow, warm oceans teemed with was once covered by an ocean, it would ROADCUT IN CHASE COUNTY life. Because these seas were shallow be more accurate to say that the state was Elaine Shea Jones

62 63 While glaciers briefly (in geologic terms) The connection between the hills Approximately ninety native grass covered the northern extension of the and water doesn’t end there. Because so species are found in the Flint Hills, with hills about 600,000 years ago, the hills much of the Flint Hills remains in native big bluestem, little bluestem, Indian south of the Kansas River were not grass, and because many of the streams grass, switchgrass, eastern gama, and glaciated. Thus, the valleys were not here have gravel bottoms, the streams sideoats grama being some of the more carved by glaciers, but by water that cut typically run clear, more like mountain dominant species. But the Flint Hills down through the draws over time. streams than most silt-laden drainages are much more than grass. Over 500 Mark Feiden Though their geology may sound simple, in Kansas. As a result, the area holds native broadleaf prairie plant species the Flint Hills hold surprises. Water many of the central plains’ most pristine (herbaceous forbs) have been documented in Marion County. The Fort Riley accumulates within the cracks, fissures, waters, supporting a rich variety of in the Flint Hills. This rich floristic limestone forms a rimrock in pastures and pore space of the limestone, and shows native fishes and a diverse assemblage of diversity is important for maintaining the near Fort Riley. up at the surface in the form of numerous freshwater mussels. ecological health of the prairie’s natural Within these rocks are the remains springs and seeps. Some of the state’s The Flint Hills are also special communities. The region is especially of animals that populated those ancient largest and purest springs, like Diamond because they represent the last functional important for nesting birds, seas. These are mostly invertebrates. Spring (Morris County), Rock Spring landscape expression of tallgrass prairie, Corals, clams, sponges, sea urchins. A (Dickinson County), and Crystal Spring the most altered major habitat type in wheat-grained shaped protozoan called (Marion County) are in the Flint Hills. North America in terms of acres lost. a fusulinid. A star-fish relative called a With enough time, water has worn Tallgrass prairie once stretched across crinoid. Even the occasional trilobite. away underground channels in the approximately 170 million acres, but today All provide clues about the ancient limestone, and some of those channels less than four percent of the original environment in which the sediments were are big enough to qualify as caves, several tallgrass prairie remains. The Flint Hills laid down. of which go thousands of feet back encompass the single largest tallgrass In the time since those sediments were into the Flint Hills countryside. And prairie landscape remaining in North deposited, parts of the Flint Hills were in places, like Pillsbury Crossing, east America, with more tallgrass prairie again inundated by oceans, but mostly of Manhattan, limestone ledges create remaining here than in all the other the region has been exposed to erosion. impressive waterfalls. BIG BLUESTEM prairie states combined. Michael Stubbs

64 65 conservation priority, and the World Rex Buchanan grew up near Little River, Wildlife Fund recognizes the landscape in Rice County, Kansas, on the edge of the as “one of only six in the . He has an undergraduate degree from Kansas Wesleyan University contiguous U.S. that is globally outstanding and graduate degrees from the University for biological distinctiveness.” Most of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been at the recently, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service , based at the (USFWS) announced the establishment of University of Kansas, since 1978, and is currently the Interim Director. He has been the Flint Hills Legacy Conservation Area, president of the Kansas Association for which authorizes the USFWS to purchase Conservation and Environmental Education up to 1.1 million acres of conservation (KACEE), the Kansas Academy of Science, and the Association of Editors. easements in the Flint Hills. Mark Feiden In 2008, he was named a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. such as greater prairie-chicken, eastern bison and elk, preferentially grazed in meadowlark, and upland sandpiper. The recently burned patches of prairie, which Brian Obermeyer is the Director of The Flint Hills also serve as a staging area for in turn helped maintain the vegetation Nature Conservancy’s Flint Hills Initiative, numerous raptors, and comprise North mosaic. American Indians also influenced a community-based conservation effort to help preserve the last large expanse of America’s only north-south tallgrass these patterns and played a large role in tallgrass prairie in North America – the prairie corridor used extensively by shaping the historic landscape prior to Flint Hills. Brian works with ranchers, migrant birds. Euro-American settlement. FARMER TOWNSHIP PASTURE landowners and other stakeholders to help Climate, grazing, and fire were the The Flint Hills have recently gotten Mark Feiden preserve the biological integrity of this impressive landscape. In addition to his primary ecological processes that shaped much deserved recognition as a national All of these organizations acknowledge work to secure conservation easements, the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Weather treasure. For example, The Nature what Kansans have known for years: Brian oversees stewardship activities at the patterns influenced the growth of Conservancy ranks the Flint Hills landscape The Flint Hills are a remarkable place, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (owned by the Conservancy) and the Conservancy’s vegetation, which in turn affected the as a priority conservation action site, the one that has been millions of years in Flint Hills Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. Brian availability of fuels for burning and forage Kansas Natural Heritage Inventory rates the making, and one that deserves our holds an M.S. degree in Environmental for grazing. Historic herbivores, such as the Flint Hills as the state’s No. 1 landscape understanding and respect today. Biology from Emporia State University.

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