This is one of our largest remnant bluff prairies – about 4 acres. It’s on our western bluff on a steep south-facing slope.  There’s a small savanna area on top – between the remnant and Western Prairie.  Just below the savanna is the main prairie remnant, below that is another savanna area, and below that is Pine Point Prairie.

 

Here are photos and stories from Big View Prairie from each year:
2025,   2024,   2023,   2022,   2021,   2020,   2019,   2018,   2017,   2016,   2015,   2014,    2013,    2012,    2011,    2010,    2009,    2008,    2007,    2006,    2005,    2004,    2003,    2002,   2000/2001

This is a view of the point taken with Mike’s drone in September 2023.    On top of the bluff is Western Prairie, below it is the narrow savanna area, then the Big View Prairie remnant, then the larger savanna, then Pine Point Prairie.

 

Big View Prairie has our best view of the surrounding country – from the top we can see more than 4 miles down the valley, looking over farms and wooded hills.

 

This is an aerial view of the farm with Big View Prairie marked in red.

 

This is one of our favorite views, so I have many more photos of the view than I do of the prairie itself.  It’s looking from the top of Big View Prairie out over Praag Valley – the tiny town of Praag is just around the hill at the far end of the valley.

 

When we bought the land there was a pine plantation all along the lower edge of the prairie.  We had the pines logged in 2002, and then a thicket of brush grew up where the pines had been.  Starting in 2017 we cut some of the brush and then hired people to cut and treat the rest.  I planted prairie seeds in the cleared areas.    Erik and Beth from Kule Region Forestry also worked on the savanna area above the pines – clearing the smaller trees and brush.  In the fall of 2023 we had them mow the old pine plantation area with a forestry mower to grind down the old pine stumps and the resprouting brush.  This series of photos show the way the bluff looked in 2000, and the changes we’ve made.  (See more about this project here – in the stories about Pine Point Prairie.)

 

This is the main part of the remnant prairie – with Western Sunflower blooming in 2015.  The edges of the prairie are much more open now than they were in this photo.

 

Below the prairie is remnant savanna with scattered open-grown oaks, and exposed rocks.

 

Beth and Erik from Kule Region Forestry have been cutting trees and brush to open up this lower savanna since about 2018.  Here’s a view of it from spring 2022.

 

To the west of the prairie, and along its top edge, is more overgrown savanna.

 

To the west of the prairie, beyond the savanna woods, is a small overgrown dry prairie remnant that we call Corner View Prairie.  It also looks out onto Praag Valley.  I’m cutting back trees and brush around the edges to enlarge it, and clearing brush and invasives from the middle.

 

Click Here for a list of the plants I’ve found in the prairie and savanna areas.