Co-sponsored by the Linda Hall Library and Kansas City Public Library.

The Program

At the time of statehood, at least 15 million acres of tallgrass prairie blanketed Missouri—about a third of the state. Missouri’s prairie was part of the great North American prairie ecosystem that stretched from Ohio to the Rockies, north into Canada, and south to Mexico. Today, there are fewer than 60,000 scattered prairie acres remaining in the state. Missouri’s prairie remnants have inherent value, but they also serve us by providing carbon storage, water filtration, pollination, and other measurable benefits. This presentation focuses on the history, beauty, and conservation of Missouri’s prairies, and on facets of a new “tallgrass prairie economy,” which uses an ancient ecosystem as a model for new, sustainable landscapes that benefit people in many ways. 

The Speaker

As executive director for the Missouri Prairie Foundation, Carol Davit oversees fundraising, strategic planning, communications, advocacy, the Grow Native! program, and administration, and has also edited the Missouri Prairie Journal since 1996. Davit has worked for more than 20 years in the conservation and environmental fields in communications, development, administration, and leadership capacities. She has worked for private, nonprofit conservation groups and in municipal and state government. She is the chair of the Conservation Federation of Missouri’s Grasslands Committee and of the MPF’s/Grow Native! Missouri Invasive Plant Task Force. Davit has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in interdisciplinary studies.

Accessing the Program

This free, online program will take place via Zoom. Registration is currently open and will remain open until the event has ended. After you register you will receive an email with a link to join the session. To help us better serve our audiences, we have included some demographic questions in the registration form. Your response to these questions is voluntary but appreciated. Thank you!

Once you register for this event, you will receive email communications from the Linda Hall Library and the Linda Hall Library Foundation. You may choose to opt out of these communications at any time. Your contact information will not be sold or provided to any third parties.

The program will also be livestreamed on the Library’s Facebook page.

This program is funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Its content is solely the responsibility of the Linda Hall Library.

Further reading at the Linda Hall Library

• Comín, F. A. (Francisco A.) Ecological restoration : a global challenge Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010.
• Everard, Mark Rebuilding the Earth : regenerating our planet’s life support systems for a sustainable future Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
• Johnsgard, Paul A. Prairie dog empire : a saga of the shortgrass prairie  Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 2005.