’Voices of a Flyway’ Episode 6: The Tallgrass Prairie

Episode 6: In the songs and stories of our American heritage, the prairie was a folk hero in and of itself. Where deer and antelope played. The heart of what would become our beloved amber waves of grain. But how many of us have ever seen it for ourselves? This land of American lore? Nearly 100% of Iowa's prairies are gone. In their place, endless rows of corn and soy. We examine the forces at play that wiped this ecosystem off the map, and those that are trying to resurrect it. To learn more about the project, visit www.voicesofaflyway.com/explore to start exploring our 6 interactive story maps that feature more of the stories, photos, and videos of the project! Funded by an Explorer grant from National Geographic, our team - a soundscape recordist, an audio producer, and a wildlife photographer - traveled from the Louisiana coastline to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota with the 2019 spring songbird migration. We visited six at-risk ecosystems along the route to uncover: 1. Why each of these delicate ecosystems is so critical to bird migration. 2. The infinite ways that people living in these areas share connections to the natural world. 3. What stands to be lost as these ecosystems vanish?