On the mixed-grass prairie in Nebraska’s Loess Canyons, Scott Stout runs a 500-head cow-calf operation on the N-N Ranch with his wife, their five kids aged 9 to 21, and his father-in-law. Part of their…
The Great Plains prairie needs fire to survive. These ranchers are bringing it back.
Regular fires are essential for protecting what remains of the grasslands from a stealthy invader: trees.
ByBrianna Randall
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Bill Sproul lights his ranch on fire every April. So do most of his neighbors in the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas, home to the largest remnant of tallgrass prairie in the United States. People who live in that ocean of swaying green view fire as a boon rather than a burden.
“Fire is what keeps the prairie a prairie,” says Sproul, 68. “If you take out fire, it changes everything.”