Places to Go: Twenty-Five Mile Prairie CA

Twenty-Five Mile Prairie Conservation Area

A tale of two prairies

It is the best of prairies; it is the worst of prairies — or at least not yet as good as the best of prairies. Twenty-five Mile Prairie Conservation Area (CA) is a 334-acre remnant prairie consisting of two sections of distinctly different quality.

The northern section of Twenty-Five Mile Prairie CA — 120 acres — is a designated state natural area, representing some of Missouri’s best remaining remnant prairie, said Regional Resource Management District Supervisor Kyle Hedges.

Resting on limestone bedrock, rather than the sandstone beneath most of the region’s other prairies, has allowed the soil on Twenty-Five Mile Prairie CA soils to nurture more than 190 species of plants, Hedges said.

“We have some plants that tend to dominate there that we don’t see as abundant elsewhere, like rattlesnake master and wild quinine,” he said. “I see those on other prairies, but not like there.”

Although also remnant prairie with limestone bedrock, the lower two-thirds of the area has not fared as well and is undergoing restoration, he said.

“Chronic overgrazing prior to MDC ownership on the southern end has degraded it. We’ve used seed from the north end to help reseed some of the south end, some of the more abused sites, so you can’t get any more local than that.”