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...of tall and short, warm- and cool-season grasses; forbs, which are mostly what we consider weeds nowadays; and native flowers, clovers and other legumes. The vast native prairie grasslands acted as an enormous solar collector converting and storing the energy of the sun in the form of sugars and starches in the roots and leaves of its diverse plants. In Eastern Kansas, where we still get more than 30” of rainfall per year, many of those grasses have a vast network of roots that extend as many as six feet into the ground. In nature, this grassland would have been mown almost to the ground by the teeth of grazing animals as they roamed constantly throughout the vast prairie. As you can guess, this would present a great shock to those plants. As you can also imagine, a herd of a million bison, large and heavy, with razor-sharp hooves, pummeled the topsoil at the same time as these plants were being grazed off. But fortunately, those deep roots provided a vast reserve of energy for re-growth after the animals had passed. This all happened at the same time that the top layer of soil was receiving a massive infusion of organic matter-rich manure and nitrogen-rich urine – the perfect growing medium for the partially digested and sprouting seeds present in manure. And those razor-sharp hooves? Millions of perfectly evolved plows for mixing and turning all this mess into the prime opportunity for both the re-growth of the original plants as well as the new growth of sprouting seeds. Typically, this cycle would only occur in a given area once or twice a year allowing plenty of rest time for recovery. Omnivorous predator species such as mountain lions, wolves, pumas, coyotes, and even bobcats encouraged the tight bunching and constant movement of the herd...read more