Kansas prairie

The tallgrass prairie is mostly confined to the Kansas Flint Hills in eastern Kansas. But earlier this year, some of that grass - up to 5 feet tall - started sprouting further west, out in the Smoky Hills of central Kansas. What's going on here? Commentator Rex Buchanan explains.

A new documentary profiles ranchers in Greenwood County, Kansas, including a young couple trying to make a go of it as ranchers and small business owners in rural Kansas.

The lesser prairie chicken was once a common sight in the southern Great Plains, but its numbers are dwindling. Even so, it lost federal protections earlier this year for a second time. Now states and landowners are overseeing conservation efforts

Virtual fencing uses GPS collars, sounds and electrical cues to move cattle across a landscape. Along with saving ranchers time, researchers say this new technology can help protect, and create, wildlife habitat.

Trees and shrubs are invading prairies, hurting the wildlife and making it harder to ranch. Yet it's hard to know the full extent of the problem, so Kansas State University found a way to map it out on the cheap.

The Flint Hills Trail travels through tallgrass prairie and along riverside bluffs. It also offers a chance to stop at historic sites, such as the Allegawaho Heritage Memorial Park near Council Grove.

The lesser prairie chicken is threatened in its northern range, which includes Kansas and Oklahoma, and endangered in its southern range. Kansas Republicans have introduced legislation over the years that would reverse protections for the species.

The Lesser Prairie-Chicken Landowner Alliance aims to earn money while preserving habitat for the endangered bird.

Ninety years this week, Oklahomans were met with a large wall of rolling black dust and sand, a day now known as "Black Sunday."

The Swedish painter shaped how the rest of the world viewed the hills and streams of Kansas, and the mountains of Colorado. The largest collection of his paintings, prints, and drawings is in the small central Kansas town where he immigrated, lived and worked.