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KAW MISSION COUNCILS 2008 Our Fabulous Flint Hills:The Flint Hills are Alive!The second program in the Kaw Mission Councils 2008 educational program series, Our Fabulous Flint Hills: The Hills Are Alive! features Dr. Craig C. Freeman presenting Simple Sublime Statistics: The Flora And Vegetation Of The Flint Hills. The program will be presented at 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 15, 2008, at the Kaw Mission State Historic Site in Council Grove, Kansas. All Kaw Mission Councils 2008 programs are free and open to the public. Grasslands – one of four major natural vegetations types on Earth – cover 24% of the planet’s terrestrial surface. Historically, they were among the dominant vegetation type in North America, covering more than 30% of the U.S. American poet and essayist, Walt Whitman, called the prairies and plains “America’s characteristic landscape”. The Flint Hills region of Kansas and Oklahoma is one of the largest, intact remnants of native grassland in the U.S. Freeman will provide an overview of prairie as a vegetation type, its significance globally and regionally, and examine how geology, climate, and ecology have influenced vegetation patterns in the Great Plains and, more specifically, the Flint Hills. With photographs and facts, he will provide vignettes of some of the nearly 1,000 species of grasses, forbs, and woody plants that call the Flint Hills home. Craig Freeman grew up in Waverly, Iowa. He holds a B.A. from Wartburg College and a M.S. and Ph.D. from Kansas State University. He is a research scientist at the University of Kansas, joining the staff of the Kansas Biological Survey in 1988 and the staff of the R. L. McGregor Herbarium in 1992. He has more than 20 years of botanical field experience in the Great Plains, Midwest, and Rocky Mountains, conducting research and publishing on topics in plant systematics, floristics, and prairie conservation. He is a contributing author for the Flora Of North America, Flora Of The Great Plains and An Illustrated Guide To Endangered Or Threatened Species In Kansas, and senior author of Roadside Wildflowers Of The Southern Great Plains. Dr. Freeman serves on the Executive Committee of the Flora of North America Association and on the Boards of the Dyck Arboretum of the Plains, Grassland Heritage Foundation, and Kansas Native Plant Society. He is a lead editor, taxon editor, and regional review coordinator for the Flora of North America project. The Friends of Kaw Heritage, Inc. and Kansas Historical Society
sponsor the Kaw Mission Councils 2008 educational program series. Free
refreshments compliments of FKH. The
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