LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - From the entrance on the eastern edge of Nine-Mile Prairie, a mass of never-plowed Big Bluestem grass sways atop a hill in view of its likely future and remembered past.
Deactivated nuclear bomb bunkers to the northwest are relics of the prairie’s past, and the Lincoln city skyline to the southeast offers a view of the future as it inches closer and closer.
Part of the former Lincoln Air Force Base, the 230 acres off Northwest 48th Street and West Fletcher Avenue escaped a life of yearly plowing and planted corn or soybeans, said University of Nebraska-Lincoln biologist and Nine-Mile Prairie Director David Wedin.
Owned by the University of Nebraska Foundation and under the stewardship of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the Nine-Mile Prairie is among the 1% of tallgrass prairie land left in the continental U.S., according to the prairie’s master plan published earlier this year.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports the land carries on the legacy of prairie that once blanketed 200 million acres east to Indiana, up to Manitoba and south to Texas.
“What this looks like is going to depend on what’s around us,” Wedin said.
Wedin and others associated with Nine-Mile Prairie hope to help raise the prairie’s profile as the city and county craft the 2050 Lincoln-Lancaster County Comprehensive Plan.
What’s going on near the prairie preserve fits now, but with city planners anticipating continued growth in northwest Lincoln, Nine-Mile Prairie preservationists hope to have a hand in protecting the neighborhood.
Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Department Director David Cary said the current comprehensive plan already denotes Nine-Mile Prairie.
But Wedin and others associated with Nine-Mile Prairie’s preservation hope to raise its level of prominence in the 2050 plan and hopefully influence future land use surrounding it.
Neighbors aren’t an issue now, he said.
“How do we ensure we’re still in good shape in 2050?” Wedin asked.
Named because it sits 5 miles west and 4 miles north of the UNL campus downtown, Nine-Mile Prairie came under the university’s management after a successful effort by the Wachiska Audubon Society to preserve it for teaching, research and nature study.
Wedin brings his students out to demonstrate land management techniques, and researchers use it as a control environment in their experiments, he said.
Last week, about 60 UNL Army ROTC cadets searched Nine-Mile Prairie for flags planted by senior ROTC members Taylor Butalla, Ryan Martin and Kirk Martin, a test of their physical navigation skills.
In addition to its teaching and research value, Nine-Mile Prairie would make a great city park, said Tim Knott.
Knott, who is a member of the Wachiska Audubon Society, said Nine-Mile Prairie deserves protection from overdevelopment.
“It cannot be found again,” Knott said.
The prairie wouldn’t be a typical neighbor.
For one, Wedin said, a key grassland management strategy on Nine-Mile Prairie is controlled burns that wipe out invasive weeds and preserve the native grasses and shrubs resilient on the prairie.
“Those bunkers don’t care,” he said of the smoky strategy.
But if housing moves in next door, the new neighbors might, he said.
The residential areas already envisioned for development by 2040 south of Nine-Mile Prairie would be within the range of smoke from prescribed burns, according to the master plan.
Prairie proponents hope the comprehensive plan will help designate areas as green space or for connectivity to the city trail network and encourage lasting conservation partnerships in the area, they said in a letter to Cary.
Planners are continuing to work on the comprehensive plan and are expected to propose growth scenarios later this fall, Cary said. Once they receive public feedback on where the city should grow to, they’ll begin evaluating the best uses for those new city areas, he said.
“We’ll try to find the best outcome for the broader community, which is the purpose of the plan, but also these special interests in the northwest part of the city,” Cary said.
Nine-Mile Prairie doesn’t have the uninterrupted peace found in places like Spring Creek Prairie, Wedin said, with air traffic routinely flying overhead and daytime pops from the firing range occasionally breaking up the quiet.
“It’s not wilderness,” Wedin said, “but it’s nice.”
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