GENTRY -- Once again, as a result of not mowing, Gentry's small section of native prairie has been filled with wildflowers and wildlife.
The small section of prairie is unique in that it is one of few native prairies remaining in Benton County which have never been plowed. As a result, it is home to a wide variety of native plant species no longer found in other rural areas of the county.
And not mowing has allowed the plants to flower and produce seed so that the native prairie can be replenished and grow even more beautiful when the flowers bloom each summer.
For several years, the native prairie blazing star (also known as liatris pycnostachya) was mowed before it could bloom. But letting the prairie grow, by only mowing around its roadside edges, has allowed the plants to flourish and fill the prairie with its reddish-purple flowers.
It was hoped that the land, owned by Randy Bever, might at some time be purchased and preserved as a native prairie and provide a place where Gentry residents and students might be able to observe and study native prairie plants and animals. So far, costs and a lack of funding to purchase the land have made preserving the prairie permanently unlikely.
Yet, in spite of the likelihood that one day the prairie will be no more, it flourishes today and provides a unique opportunity to view the beauties of nature without even leaving town.
The small prairie is located on land along Bever Street in Gentry, just west of the city park and just south of the Gentry Post Office.
General News on 07/30/2014