COLUMBUS -- Just beyond the rush of traffic along State Route 23 and the great expanses of corn and soybeans covering Central Ohio is a bit of what settlers may have seen centuries ago as they rolled north onto the Sandusky Plains. Big bluestem and Indiangrass, as high as a rider on horseback, and the vivid colors of prairie wildflowers cover much of the 25-acre OSU-Marion Prairie and Nature Center.

This patch of tallgrass prairie, a reminder of a once-important part the nation's natural heritage, is not in a pioneer cemetery or along an old railroad right-of-way. Instead, it blooms on former agricultural land in the heart of Marion County. Ecologist Peter S. Curtis and other scientists from the College of Biological Sciences at The Ohio State University are applying the tools of restoration ecology to establish a new prairie behind the OSU-Marion campus.

With only 100 acres of prairie remaining from an estimated 75,000 acres originally growing in Marion, Crawford and Wyandot counties, the OSU-Marion Prairie is an important part of statewide efforts to preserve and restore Ohio's ecosystems and biodiversity, Curtis said. It also is a living laboratory, offering students from preschool through graduate school an opportunity to explore biology outside the classroom.

With such beauties as the royal catchfly, gray-headed coneflower and Riddell's goldenrod, the OSU-Marion Prairie and Nature Center is a favorite retreat for artists, school and community groups or people simply looking for a quiet place to walk and reflect, he said. "This prairie is not a flower garden, but a dynamic ecosystem where nature is free to follow her own course," Curtis said.

Every few years in late winter the prairie is put to the torch in a safe, but dramatic, controlled burn. This recreates the natural cycle of fire that is so important to the health of the tallgrass prairie. The last controlled burn of the prairie took place in April 1999.

With growing public awareness of the value of healthy ecosystems and their role in our quality of life, Ohio State biologists are using the restored prairie to study how best to convert land no longer needed for agriculture back to its presettlement condition.

Curtis said that years of fertilizer applications make these abandoned fields ideal for weeds, but tough for native prairie plant species to regain a foothold. Along with fire as a management tool, Ohio State scientists are experimenting with adding sawdust to the soil as a way of removing the nitrogen on which weeds thrive.

Their research is paying off. From a few big bluestem plants in 1977, the prairie now has nearly 200 species living in nine areas of Sandusky Plains real estate. In 1988, the prairie was designated an Ohio Natural Landmark. Efforts are under way to expand the prairie to occupy as much as 25 acres of land.

Unlike most of the other prairie areas in the Sandusky Plains, the OSU-Marion Campus Prairie welcomes visitors. For more information on the OSU Marion Nature Center and Prairie, contact Director Robert Klips, (740) 389-6786, extension 6269.

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