Evergreen Audubon Meeting: Nebraska Sandhills: Sea of Grass

Description

Encompassing more than 20,000 square miles, the Nebraska Sandhills comprise the largest remaining expanse of mixed- and tallgrass prairie in North America. Sharp-tailed grouse, long-billed curlews, and badgers roam the hills; bald eagles, trumpeter swans, and black terns nest around thousands of shallow lakes and ponds. With a human population of less than one inhabitant per square mile, the Sandhills may resemble the prairie of the of the Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Lakota. The enduring beauty of this landscape, 97 percent of which is under private ownership, demonstrates that rural communities practicing sound land stewardship can preserve native ecosystems.
Speaker Steve Jones is a graduate of Stanford and Boston Universities and a long-time resident and teacher in Boulder County, Colorado. He is author of The Last Prairie, a Sandhills Journal and Owls of Boulder County, and co-author of The Shortgrass Prairie, Colorado Nature Almanac, and the Peterson Field Guide to the North American Prairie.
Refreshments and the Evergreen Audubon business meeting will follow.