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Article: The persistence of the Prairie: An ancient ocean of grass is now a farmer's paradise.(The Home Forum)
- Article from:
- The Christian Science Monitor
- Article date:
- October 31, 2000
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 The Christian Science Publishing Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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There are not "Do Not Touch" signs at the prairie museum here in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. No glass cases or stuff to read on the walls. Not even any walls, in fact.
The "museum" is the Kernen Prairie, owned by the University of Saskatchewan. It's 320 acres of uncultivated land surrounded by farmland being crowded by new houses as Saskatoon expands.
Fred Kernen gave the university the land in 1977 so that scientists could learn how the grasses and other plants growing there work together as an ecosystem.
Grasses used to cover vast swaths of North America. (See map, above.) Before settlers sailed from Europe to North America, the grasses ...