Sesquicentennial Spotlight Tour - Scientific and Natural Areas:

The SNA program preserves natural features and rare resources of exceptional scientific and educational value.

To learn more about the unique areas found in the Prairie Region, click here:
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/snas/prairie.html

 

Minnesota has 5 distinct major types of prairie:

Blanket Flower Prairie
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/snas/sna02027/index.html

Blanket Flower Prairie straddles the ecotone between the prairies to the west and the eastern deciduous forest. This distinctive feature is highlighted by the unusual combination of eastern and western plant species. Hill's thistle and sky-blue aster are found here at the western edge of their range, while Hooker's oat-grass and blanket flower are at their eastern most distribution. Dry prairie dominates the upper slopes of the rolling hills on this site with mesic prairie in low areas. Small groves of aspen are scattered about. Old fields within the site will, over time, be planted with native prairie seed collected from the site. Take some time to look for plants such as pasque flower, porcupine grass, dotted blazing star, silky aster, prairie dropseed, blue grama grass, pinweed, and purple prairie-clover.

Cedar Mountain
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/snas/sna02034/index.html

Cedar Mountain lies on bedrock knobs and ridges that, at 3.4 billion years old, include some of the oldest rocks known to occur in North America. These knobs were once islands in Glacial River Warren, the huge river that drained Glacial Lake Agassiz at the end of the last glacial period and cut the valley now occupied by the Minnesota River. The central knob in the area includes two rock types known only from this site; Cedar Mountain Gabbro and Cedar Mountain Granodiorite. The SNA supports areas of native dry and mesic prairie, rock outcrop, flood plain forest, and oak woodland habitats. The high quality prairies and rock outcrops of Cedar Mountain are uncommon in Minnesota and becoming increasingly rare due mostly to human activities. They also contain several rare plant populations, including the state and federal threatened prairie bush clover (Lespedeza leptostachya); a state endangered lichen, Buellia nigra; and three rare plant species found in Minnesota almost exclusively on rock outcrops; plains prickly pear cactus (Opuntia macrorhiza), water hyssop (Bacopa rotundifolia), and Carolina foxtail (Alepocurus carolinianus).


Glynn Prairie
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/snas/sna01103/index.html

The Glynn family donated this land to The Nature Conservancy, which in turn gifted the site to the SNA Program. The 35-acre level mesic blacksoil prairie is a rare plant community in this area of rich farmland. Much of the prairie slopes toward an old stream channel, where the prairie community becomes wetter. Slight knolls gently undulate along the slope. Once used as sheep pasture, some native plants may have been lost to grazing, yet the species list is rich. Prairie grasses include big bluestem, Indian grass, prairie cordgrass and porcupine grass. Leadplant, ground plum, larkspur, purple coneflower, prairie gentian, blazing star, gayfeather, flax, monarda, evening primrose, heart-leaved alexanders, and death camus complete this rich portrait of deep-soil prairie. Butterflies gather under the summer sun to feed on this unique source of nectar in a surrounding sea of cropland.


Mound Springs Prairie
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/snas/sna02026/index.html

Located on the border with South Dakota, Mound Springs Prairie preserves one of the largest remaining prairie complexes on the Prairie Coteau of southwestern Minnesota. A diverse dry prairie is found on the hills of this site. Typical grasses include sideoats grama, little bluestem, Indian grass, blue grama and porcupine grass. Wildflowers to look for include purple coneflower, scarlet gaura, locoweed, rough blazing-star, prairie phlox, and heart-leaved alexanders. A species of white prairie clover (Dalea candida var. oligophylla), a species of special concern, can be observed here at the easternmost edge of its range. It has only been documented in six counties in Minnesota?all of which border South Dakota. The site was named for the interesting domed seepage wetlands occurring in the low swales. These "mound springs" are a rare wetland called a calcareous seepage fen. They occur where cold water, rich in alkaline minerals, flows out at seepages. A deep bouncy peat occurs on these seepages that has an interesting assemblage of wetland plants.


Rock Ridge Prairie
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/snas/sna02025/index.html

Come visit one of the highest quality black-soil prairies remaining in this area. It is part of the Red Rock Ridge prairie landscape; a series of prairie preserves lying along a ridge of Sioux quartzite outcrops that include Jeffers Petroglyphs State Historic Site and The Nature Conservancy's Red Rock Prairie Preserve. This site is host to prairie bush clover (Lespedeza leptostachya), a federally threatened species. Upland sandpipers, jackrabbits, leadplant, big bluestem, coreopsis, and alum root are some of the native species that are often seen on this prairie. The rock outcrops have features such as "mud cracks", "glacial scars", and ancient beach "ripples". Buffalo grass, commonly found further west, grows here in the hotter and dry environment of the rock outcrops.

Scientific Natural Areas:

  1. Agassiz Dunes
    2. Blue Devil Valley
    3. Bluestem Prairie
    4. Bonanza Prairie
    5. Clinton Prairie
    6. Compass Prairie
    7. Cottonwood River Prairie
    8. Des Moines River Prairie
    9. Felton Prairie
    10. Frenchman's Bluff
    11. Glynn Prairie
    12. Gneiss Outcrops
    13. Holthe Prairie
    14. Joseph A. Tauer Prairie
    15. Kasota Prairie
    16. Lundblad Prairie
    17. Malmberg Prairie
    18. Osmundson Prairie
    19. Ottertail Prairie
    20. Pembina Trail Preserve
    21. Prairie Bush Clover
    22. Prairie Coteau
    23. Prairie Smoke Dunes
    24. Richard M. & Mathilde Rice Elliot
    25. Sandpiper Prairie
    26. Santee Prairie
    27. Swede's Forest (Homme-Kollin Unit)
    28. Twin Valley Prairie
    29. Verlyn Marth Memorial Prairie
    30. Western Prairie
    31. Yellow Bank Hills

 NOTE – these areas are open to the public for observation and education, but not for intensive recreational activities. For more information on visiting a SNA, please visit http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/snas/rules.html.