Environmental Science teacher Julie Shcwarting and KU ecology specialist Dr. Helen Alexander founded the Free State prairie 14 years ago. The prairie began as an experiment started by Schwarting, Alexander, and students from KU and Free State, but is now used for a variety of things by numerous teachers and students. Today, the prairie is open to anybody interested in using it.
Schwarting has spent much of her life outside, and her mother worked in a state park during part of her childhood. She said this role her mother took inspired her to start up the prairie, and encourage other kids to get outside.
“I’ve always spent a lot of time outside, and I can’t imagine not doing that. There’s such a sense of peace about being outside that I wanted to make sure that everybody had a chance to see what it was like,” Schwarting said. “Even if you live in an apartment and your parents aren’t outdoorsy people, you should at least be able to experience that.”
With her passion for the prairie, Schwarting was able to help cultivate a space enjoyed by many students and teachers. Now, Schwarting is involved with making sure everybody knows about the resource.
“My role is just to make sure that it will be maintained over time, and make sure everybody knows it’s out there and go use it, because it’s a great resource,” Schwarting said. “It’s used for a lot of things, like Podrasky takes her students out there to take photos, and I know Ms. Cummings took her classes out there just to brainstorm about writing and poetry.”
Although Schwarting said the prairie has allowed various opportunities, maintenance has been challenging at times due to figuring out financing.
“The prairie requires maintenance, and one of the things that maintains a prairie is fire. So we’ve, in the beginning, we were burning every year just to keep the invasive species from popping up and weedy species,” Schwarting said. “… So we’ve got to figure out a way that, either through the school district or the building grounds team, we can get that compensation [provided] to maintain it.”
Junior Noah Place has been using the prairie since freshman year, and was able to take advantage through experiments studying native plants and getting outside assistance from Professor Ben Sikes at KU. Over his time using the prairie, Place has felt very strongly about the benefits the prairie provides students.
“For me the prairie has been an amazing resource and inspiration for the goal of ecology studies and understanding how important native plants are,” Place said. “It helped with the hands-on approach of the basics of plant biology and identifying plant species … hands-on learning can be incredibly effective and useful for tactile learners like myself.”
