You are invited to enjoy an evening in celebration of prairie at the MPF Annual Dinner on August 17, 2024 in Columbia, Missouri.

The event will include a silent auction and social hour, dinner, presentation of awards, and a presentation from Dr. Chris Barnhart: Conserving Prairie Royalty: the Regal Fritillary.

Dr. Barnhart is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Missouri State University, where he taught biogeography and parasitology. His research involves conservation-related biology of butterflies, including regal fritillaries, and freshwater mollusks. He and his wife Debra curate the Dr. Bill Roston Native Butterfly House at the Springfield-Greene County Botanical Center. 

Learn more and register here. MPF members will receive personal invitations in postal mail. We look forward to seeing you on August 17!

She's back! In this MPF Master Class with butterfly expert and photographer Betsy Betros, learn about the high-flying, colorful world of swallowtail butterflies in the Kansas City region. Betsy will take you on a tour of what makes each swallowtail unique and also what defines them as a group.

This master class, to be held via Zoom, will include a presentation and question-and-answer session. A recording will be available only to those who have registered.

Betsy Betros‘ lifelong love of insects began in childhood, and she went on to earn a degree in entomology from Colorado State University, focusing primarily on aquatic insects. She worked for 35 years for the Environmental Department of Johnson County, Kansas, and is also the author of a book on the butterflies of the Kansas City Region.

Wednesday, July 17 at 4:00 p.m.

Cost: Free to all MPF dues-paying members and Grow Native! professional members, or $15 for non-members. Register here.

Visit the MPF membership page to become a member and attend all master classes for free!

Pipevine swallowtail butterfly photo by Betsy Betros

July 20: Bumble Bee Atlas Training & Prairie Tour

The Missouri Bumble Bee Atlas is a statewide citizen-science project aimed at tracking and conserving Missouri’s native bumble bees.

Join MPF Board Member Doug Helmers and volunteer Amanda McColpin on a tour of MPF's Snowball Hill Prairie 35 miles south of Kansas City on Saturday, July 20 from 9:00 a.m. to noon and receive free training on the Missouri Bumble Bee Atlas.

No ID experience is needed! Pack a sack lunch to enjoy on the prairie, dress for a day in the field, and be prepared to pack your trash out with you. Please feel free to bring a lawn chair for the classroom portion of the training. Children are welcome to attend with guardians.

Doug and Amanda—a dynamic husband-and-wife team—have decades of professional conservation experience between them. Learn more about Doug and Amanda, and register here for the July 20 training and tour. Details will be emailed to registrants before the event.

Photo above of participants in a past MPF Missouri Bumble Bee Atlas training by Doug Helmers

Congratulations, New Grow Native! Certified Pros

MPF’s Grow Native! program welcomes five new Certified Pros into the Grow Native! Professional Certification Program (GNPCP), which provides a consistent credential in the use of native plants for landscaping in developed areas of the lower Midwest. Grow Native! offered a testing opportunity for the GNPCP on June 28 at the University of Missouri’s General Services Building in Columbia.

The following individuals earned certification after the June test: Mallary Lieber of Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture; Allana Ross of Grow Native! member Dig Annuals and Perennials; Jenna Sommer of Grow Native! member Mizzou Botanic Garden; Bridget Whittaker of Grow Native! Member Saint Louis Zoo; and Caitlin Willis of Native Gardens KC. These newly Certified Pros join those who previously earned certification since the program launched in 2022.

Additional 2024 testing opportunities are scheduled for August 9 in Kansas City and December 13 in Springfield. Learn more about the program here, and see a list of all of the Grow Native! Certified Pros here.

July 31: MPF Webinar: Dark Sky as a Natural Resource

At any given moment, half of the Earth’s surface is experiencing night. Electrification and industrialization have altered the nature of the night. Today, more than 80% of the world’s population and 99% of North Americans live under light-polluted skies.

Excessive and misdirected outdoor lighting disturbs the ecological balance in the environment by adversely affecting plants as well as birds, pollinators and other insects, and wildlife in general. Bad lighting affects humans by disrupting the circadian rhythm, and by causing glare that is harmful for pedestrians and drivers.

In this webinar presentation, Dr. Vayujeet Gokhale, a professor of physics and astronomy at Truman State University, will describe the problem and solutions to light pollution, based on the "Five Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting." He will outline the environmental impacts of light pollution on all living things, particularly on migratory birds and will explore ways to preserve darkness at night.

This free webinar, to be held via Zoom, will include a presentation and question-and-answer session. The webinar will be recorded with a link sent to all registrants, as well as posted to the MPF YouTube channel.

Wednesday, July 31 at 4:00 p.m. Register here.

Photo of night sky by Dr. Vayujeet Gokhale

2024 MPF Marker Match: Help Build Prairie Acquisition Funds

Susan Lordi Marker and Dennis Marker have generously committed to match gifts of any amount to a total of $25,000 to create a special $50,000 MPF prairie acquisition fund this year.

Of Missouri’s original 15 million acres of prairie, fewer than 45,000 acres remain, with this number dwindling due to land conversion pressure and other threats. For this reason, in recent years MPF has accelerated its land acquisition program, to save as much old-growth, unplowed prairie as we can while it still exists.

Throughout its history, MPF has been able to acquire original, unplowed prairie thanks to land donations, grants, and generous financial gifts from members and other supporters. Continuously building funds restricted to land acquisition positions MPF to act quickly when prairie remnants become available for sale.

In 2024, MPF offers an opportunity for prairie enthusiasts to contribute to a special campaign to raise funds for land acquisition. Thanks to a generous match gift from Susan Lordi Marker and Dennis Marker, all gifts of any amount will be matched to a total of $25,000, resulting in $50,000 additional funds restricted to land acquisition.

"The Missouri Prairie Foundation has been acquiring old-growth, unplowed prairie since 1969, and in the past 10 years, MPF has acquired more prairie remnants than any other group in Missouri in that time frame," said Susan Lordi Marker. "Because of habitat loss, climate change, and other threats to native biodiversity, acquiring original prairie for permanent protection is more important now than ever. I hope you will join Dennis and me in making a gift to help MPF raise vital funds restricted to additional land acquisition. Every prairie remnant is precious and—working as a team, we can make a difference—we can save more of these natural treasures!”

Many thanks to those who, as of July 15, have already contributed toward this match opportunity, with their cumulative donations totaling $12,298: Sharon Bachmann, Alice Bloch, Rebecca Ederer, Neil Heimsoth, Steven Hollenbeck, Larry & Joan Hummel, Mike Johns, Holly Kinser, Judy & Glen Longworth, Marge Lumpe, Rose Magaw, Jeanne Ortega, Orbie Overly, Margo Farnsworth & Jim Pascoe, Mike Rieger, Bev Sturgis, Margie & Ted Tarkow, and Kamia Taylor.

To make a gift to support MPF’s land acquisition fund, please click the link below or send a check to:

Missouri Prairie Foundation

c/o Bank of Missouri

P.O. Box 856

Mexico, MO 65265-0856

and write “land acquisition” on the memo line.

Or donate online here. After you enter a donation amount, an option to designate your gift to the 2024 Marker Match will appear.

Photo above of MPF's Schuette Prairie by Bruce Schuette. Photo above of Susan Lordi Marker and Dennis Marker by Rick Kraft

All prairies are grasslands, but not all grasslands are prairies.

In Missouri, grasslands include unplowed, old-growth prairie; glades; savannas; pastures and hay fields of tall fescue (Arundinaria festuca) or other non-native grasses; prairie plantings; and "old fields," which is a vague but useful term to describe grassy areas that may have been established after forest or woodland was cleared to create pasture, may contain native and non-native plants, and is no longer grazed.

Some species of animals, like many grassland birds, require wide, open grassland spaces; abundant food sources; and vegetative structure appropriate to their life history. Some prefer thicker thatch, like Henslow's sparrows, whereas others need thinner vegetation, like grasshopper sparrows. Most grassland birds need different kinds of structure at different times of their lives and even in the same day, for instance, sparser areas so morning dew doesn't soak their chicks, but thicker areas so nests are well hidden.

Unplowed prairie is ideal habitat for many grassland bird species, but many grassland birds also breed in prairie plantings, and even old fields can support specific grassland birds. In fact, several years ago, the site with the highest number of Henslow's sparrows known in Missouri was MPF's Bruns Tract, a 160-acre prairie planting. Likewise, many species of mammals, insects, amphibians, reptiles, and plants occur in original, planted, or disturbed native grasslands. They are all "grassland obligates" or "grassland-dependent."

Other species, however, and often for reasons that are not well understood, are completely dependent on unplowed, old-growth prairie—they are "prairie-obligates," or almost exclusively so. In Missouri, some examples of prairie-dependent species include grass pink orchids, prairie mole crickets, regal fritillary butterflies, crawfish frogs, and an estimated 190 moth species, as mentioned at the beginning of this enewsletter. In regard to that "almost exclusively so" disclaimer above, in recent years, Missouri Department of Conservation biologists have successfully translocated crawfish frogs from original prairie to a prairie planting, thus expanding their populations. Likewise, habitat for regal fritillaries can be established in Missouri on prairie plantings if their larval host food—species of prairie violets—can be successfully propagated and grown on the plantings. However, there are challenges to violet seed collection and germination, and currently, unplowed, old-growth prairies remain the only viable habitat for regals in Missouri.

If unplowed, old-growth prairies are gone, some grassland species will likely continue to thrive on prairie plantings, but those that are prairie-dependent will disappear. Moreover, even 30 acres of original prairie remnant in Missouri can support more than 300 plant species, including many with high CC values, and thousands of arthropod species depend on that plant diversity, but most prairie plantings (while still extremely important!) contain, at best, dozens of plant species, making them much less biologically diverse and unable to support as great a diversity of arthropods. Original prairies are also critically important seed sources for the native seed industry—so that prairie plantings and prairie gardens can be established.

MPF works hard every day to ensure that irreplaceable, unplowed, old-growth, biologically diverse prairies are always a part of Missouri's natural heritage, along with both prairie-dependent and grassland-dependent species. Your support is making an important difference in our work, every day. Thank you!

Above, the grass pink orchid (Calapogon oklahomensis) is completely prairie dependent. If prairies disappear, so will the grass pink orchid. The black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) occurs on unplowed, old-growth prairies and on planted prairies, along roadsides, in old fields, and other disturbed areas. It is grassland-dependent, but not prairie-dependent. Orchid photo by Bruce Schuette. Black-eyed Susan photo by Mervin Wallace.