When white men arrived tallgrass prairies covered 400,000 square miles of the North American continent. It fed the Buffalo (Bison) which in turn fed native Americans plus supporting reptiles, birds, butterflies. This sea of grass stretched from the Rocky Mountains to east of the Mississippi River and from Saskatchewan, south to Texas. Prairies began appearing in the mid-continent from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago and developed into one of the most complicated and diverse ecosystems in the world, surpassed only by the rainforest of Brazil. Armand Bayou Nature Center has many acres of original tallgrass -- almost as far as the eye can see.

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European man discovered the rich soils of the prairies about 150 years ago. Finding the prairie soils outstanding for crop production, they plowed the prairie everywhere they could for the production of wheat, corn, and other domestic crops. Today, the most fertile and well-watered region, the tallgrass prairie, has been reduced to but 1% of its original area.