Big Muddy Speaker Series presents:

Presentation by Mike Leahy, Natural Areas Coordinator for the Mo. Dept. of Conservation

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Minsky’s Pizza in the City Market – 427 Main St., Kansas City, MO

Two hundred years ago around a quarter of the floodplain of the Missouri River was covered by waving grasses, sedges, rushes and wildflowers – a bottomland prairie community.  Inhabiting this natural community was a wide array of creatures from massasauga rattlesnakes to American bitterns.

Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), an important wet prairie species.
photo courtesy of Mike Leahy, MDC.

These bottomland prairies were of historical significance including the cultural history of the Missouri Indians as well as early European and European American explorers and settlers.

Mike Leahy, Natural Areas Coordinator for the Mo. Dept. of Conservation, will describe the physical, biological and cultural attributes that led to the formation and then destruction of the prairies of the Missouri River floodplain.  We’ll also explore current places to visit to see remnants of this natural community type and current efforts at protecting, restoring or recovering bottomland prairies and associated habitats of the floodplain.