Get outdoors for National Prairie Day and Free Fishing Weekend

Head to the great outdoors this weekend and hike through a prairie or go fishing!

Saturday, June 6 is National Prairie Day. The mission of National Prairie Day is to:

• Enhance public awareness of what prairie is, educate about its value, and motivate all who learn about prairie to be inspired to support prairie protection, conservation, restoration, enjoyment, and the ecological concepts found there.
• Create curiosity and celebrate and encourage a national dialogue around the common ground of the historic and current value of prairie.
• Recognize the vital importance of conserving the original prairie that remains, and the need to reconstruct native grasslands where appropriate.
• Celebrate what we can learn, and have yet to discover, from prairie.
• Discover how each of us benefits from this complex ecosystem.
• Bring together otherwise disparate entities, united on common ground, towards a common goal.

In western Iowa, specifically the Loess Hills, we are fortunate to have many public prairies. Golden Hills is involved with several prairie projects, including our Prairie Seed Harvest and Growing Native Plants initiatives. We also have information about prairies to visit in western Iowa. The Iowa Prairie Network website also has many great resources about prairies, including a list of public prairies throughout the state.

June 5-7 is also Free Fishing Weekend in Iowa. Iowa residents can try fishing without buying a license on June 5, 6 and 7 as part of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) free fishing weekend. All other regulations remain in place.

The WanderLoess website, coordinated by Golden Hills, includes a map of places to fish in Harrison, Mills, and Pottawattamie Counties. The DNR has a full listing of public fishing spots in Iowa on their website.