Water is a rare find on the Grasslands. This spot, “Snake Pond,” is a quiet place to go fishing on the Cimarron. USDA Forest Service photo by Nancy Brewer.​
​

By Michelle Putz
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Forest Service
Rocky Mountain Region

KANSAS/COLORADO — At first glance, a person looking out at the Comanche and Cimarron National Grasslands might notice areas of sparse grass, numerous fences and scattered cows. But on closer look and with a little more time, visitors might see a hidden flower blossom, find a relic from the last century or spot one of a surprising number of wildlife species. They also might discover the interesting history and draw of these unique, tranquil places.
​
With only three years of working on the Cimarron National Grassland, Sean Owens, rangeland management specialist, is a relative newcomer to these lands. Yet, he feels like the grassland has much to offer and that he has found his niche in the small town of Elkhart, Kan.
“The grassland is special; it has a very soothing effect on my being,” said Owens. “At first, I thought I would dislike rural life, but it has grown on me quite a lot. The quiet tranquility, seeing the land burst to life in green then recede to a golden crisp with each passing season, watching the migrations of the birds and the cattle — living in one of nature’s ‘newly remodeled’ cathedrals, I feel a sense of ease I could never find in a city.”
​
Nancy Brewer, Cimarron district ranger, has a similar but much longer-term connection to both the Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands. After 37 years of working on both grasslands, Brewer asked, “What is there not to love about the grasslands?” Brewer said the uniqueness and solitude of being on the prairie make the grasslands special.
​
“The land can be experiencing the worst drought ever and with a little bit of moisture it turns around to an oasis with lush vegetation — the land is very forgiving,” said Brewer.
​
Grasslands surprise people, with the first surprise being their great diversity — the vegetation is a lot more complex than “just grass.” Indeed, visitors may not realize that there are more wildlife species found on the grassland than in the mountains — with everything from enormous elk to tiny tarantulas, from lizards scrabbling along the ground to roughly 350 species of birds soaring through the air. Some of those birds migrate through, while others make the grasslands their permanent home.

Flower blossoms on the Cimarron National Grassland are not so hidden given the right time of year and right conditions. Wildflower season is a great time to visit the Grasslands. USDA Forest Service photo by Nancy Brewer).

Part Of Something Greater

The Comanche and Cimarron National Grasslands, managed as part of the Pike-San Isabel National Forest and Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands, are 500,000 acres of small and large land parcels that stretch from southwest Kansas to La Junta, Colo. The grasslands offer camping, hiking, history and pre-history, rangeland and oil and gas. The districts manage invasive species, have a robust prescribed fire program and provide many opportunities to locals and visitors alike.
For Owens, the human history of the Cimarron National Grassland holds particular interest.
​
“The history around the area also drew me in as this area was part of the epicenter of the Dust Bowl, part of the Santa Fe Trail, and even Coronado came up this far north and left a marker for future conquistadors,” said Owens.
​
Of course, these lands are part of the aboriginal homelands of American Indian tribes. Evidence of thousands of years of occupation and stewardship can be found throughout the grasslands. The connection of these first peoples with the land and their relationship with the natural world and its ecological processes hold valuable lessons for land managers today.

Importantly, the USDA Forest Service has a unique legal and fiduciary trust responsibility to serve tribal nations outlined in law, policy and regulations. This critical aspect of forest and grasslands management requires meeting with tribes on a government-to-government basis, acknowledging tribal sovereignty and the status of the ongoing federal to tribal relationships.

With the arrival of European settlers, though, came new agricultural practices. These methods were frequently destructive and set the stage for both one of the most infamous episodes of environmental catastrophe in this country’s history as well as the rise of the national grassland system, including the Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands. Brewer provided the following brief history of National Grassland creation.
​
The Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands are two of 20 National Grasslands located in the Great Plains, where productive vegetation and topsoil were stripped away by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Severe drought and aggressive farming practices that did not protect soils combined with relentless winds stripped away vegetation and create great clouds of dirt that buried farms and towns. Thousands of families were forced from their homesteads with the Dust Bowl basically ruining everything farmers and ranchers had worked to create. With no chance of making a living, farm families abandoned their homes and land.
​
To offset the economic ruin faced by many farm families, the federal government enacted a series of legislative bills to purchase bankrupt and foreclosed homesteads. Under authority of the National Industrial Act of 1933 and the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act of 1935, the National Grasslands, first known as Land Utilization Projects, were purchased.

First administered by the Resettlement Administration, later renamed the Farm Security Administration, the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act of 1937 finally gave custody of these lands to the Department of Agriculture. While in 1938, the Soil Conservation Service was given management of the Land Utilization Projects, ultimately the Forest Service was assigned management of these lands in 1954. On June 20, 1960, the National Grasslands came into being as 3.8 million acres of former Land Utilization Projects were reorganized under the management of the Forest Service.

Just like on national forests, national grasslands are managed for multiple uses. Here, recreation, livestock grazing and oil/gas development all come together along the Santa Fe Trail in the Cimarron National Grassland. USDA Forest Service photo by Nancy Brewer.

From Restoration To Conservation

Historically, as described in the preamble of the Bankhead-Jones Act of 1937, the grasslands were to be managed to demonstrate sound grassland agriculture and to ensure the health of the land and its ample resources. Today, the grasslands are managed using the multiple-use, sustained-yield principles of the Forest Service. Grassland management is conducted to maintain the viability of plant and animal species, many of which are found only in the grassland ecosystem.

Named after the Cimarron River that runs through the middle of the grassland and the Comanche Indians who lived in the area from 1749 to 1805, these two grasslands have much to offer to those who stop long enough to look, listen and learn. Brewer encourages people to take it all in, the wildlife, the tranquility, the views that can go on for miles, but especially the history.
​
“There is a lot of history that has taken place on the Grassland,” said Brewer. Evidence of the American Indian tribes that lived on these lands can be found throughout the grasslands. Rock art and evidence of past campsites are just some of the important archaeological sites on the Grasslands. “That history, along with the Dust Bowl and stories from the travelers of the Santa Fe Trail along the Cimarron Route or the Mountain Branch of the trail,” as Brewer puts it, “there is more than meets the eye, more than one realizes on the Grasslands.”
​
From the first peoples’ stewardship of the land to the contemporary experience, the land holds meaning that is lived by some, experienced by others and richly described in our literature. The quote from renowned author Willa Cather just about sums up Brewer’s beloved grasslands: “Anyone can love the mountains, but it takes soul to love the prairie.”

The quiet tranquility can change quickly as a storm comes to the Grasslands. USDA Forest Service photo by Tim Higgins.