A group of activists from Colombia has visited Oklahoma to learn about steps the state has taken to protect the tallgrass prairie.
They hope to take the knowledge back to their native country so that a similar ecosystem there can be protected.
The Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, near Pawhuska, is the world's largest remaining tract of tallgrass prairie. Since 1989, the Oklahoma chapter of the Nature Conservancy, one of the world's leading conservation organizations, has maintained the 39,000-acre protected area, encouraging a return to its natural state.
The Conservancy hopes to similarly protect an area known as the Orinoco River Valley in Colombia.
"Grasslands are the least-protected ecosystem in the world," said Mike Fuhr, state director of the Nature Conservancy for Oklahoma. Because they are well-suited to agriculture and human settlement, these fragile regions have been exploited rather than protected, he says.
With years of fire suppression, fragmentation of the landscape with roads and fences, introduction of invasive plant species and near extinction of the bison, the prairie has been converted into farms, ranches and suburban subdivisions.
"The tallgrass prairie is a really important part of our heritage here in Oklahoma it's what brought people west," Fuhr said.
The group from Colombia was in Oklahoma this month to talk about land protection.
"We must conserve to produce, and produce to conserve," said Lourdes Pañuela, leader of a nongovernmental organization that builds bridges between conservation and private enterprise.
"The idea is that production and conservation can become the same thing," she said through an interpreter.
Pañuela said she felt at times she was looking at her own country.
"Well, we don't have bison," she said.
The herd at the Oklahoma preserve numbers more than 2,600 and is one of the largest in the world.
Harvey Payne, who has been involved with the preserve since its inception, encouraged the Colombian group to act now to protect their remaining grasslands:
"Today it's as easy as it's going to get."
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Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
