The U.S. Secretary of the Interior on Friday announced the implementation of a plan seeking to preserve more than a million acres of prairie in the Kansas Flint Hills.
Secretary Ken Salazar said that the program will purchase easements to save portions of the Tallgrass Prairie from development. Under the program, ranchers and other property owners will maintain ownership and control of the property. But they will be paid 30 percent of market value not to develop the land for housing or to destroy the prairie.
The aim is to protect the habitat of remaining prairie lands. Only 4 percent of original prairie remains, mostly in Kansas and Oklahoma
Read the full story and see photos at Kansas.com.