Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge + Prairie Learning Center

Prairie City, Iowa

Bringing 8,000-acres of indigenous tall grass prairie back to life

Over 99% of Iowa’s 35 million acres of historic tall grass prairie and oak savanna ecosystems were plowed under to make way for crop farming in the 1840s. In the early 1990s, the US Fish and Wildlife Service purchased over 8,000 acres of this land to restore the original ecosystem. Design Workshop worked with a team of ecologists and designers to prepare plans for the Wildlife Refuge. This piece of restored landscape includes a 40,000-square-foot visitor center, interpretive trails, and outlying environmental education sites that communicate the importance of native ecosystems.