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Standing on a high spot in the northeast corner of Glacier Creek Preserve’s Allwine tract, the breeze swishes the grass while geese soar overhead, chattering as they go. The hilltop, favored by many, allows a bird’s-eye view of the restored prairie, or the closest thing to it, with the barn and research plots across the way and the outline of old farming terraces, visible only from a distance, now re-claimed by native vegetation. Other prairie travelers are speckled along the trails, while some offroad it, seeking to fully immerse themselves within the tallgrass. An ecosystem few get to experience, restored by those at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Situated among the rolling hills of eastern Nebraska, tucked between croplands and residential neighborhoods, lies UNO’s Glacier Creek Preserve, a 525-acre restored tallgrass prairie. A mystery to most but a home for some, the preserve is often utilized as a teaching tool for UNO science classes, revitalizing the native tallgrass prairie ecosystem of which less than 1% remains.
The preserve, located about 25 minutes from UNO, is the university’s only field station utilized for research first and education as “a close second,” according to the preserve director and UNO ecology professor, Tom Bragg, Ph.D. It’s also open to the public, with certain guidelines, and allows visitors to get a glimpse of the landscape that historically dominated the Great Plains…