Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge

Prairie City, IA U.S.A.

Refuge managers are restoring more than 5,200 acres of native tallgrass prairie and oak savanna at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge (formerly the Walnut Creek refuge).

More than 99.9 percent of Iowa's original tallgrass prairie have disappeared in the past 150 years.

Hundreds of species of native plants are being re-introduced to provide habitat for tallgrass prairie, birds, mammals, insects, reptiles and amphibians.

The refuge also is home to the federally endangered Indiana Bat. Bison and elk herds have been reintroduced within a 740-acre enclosure.

The Prairie Learning Center offers multimedia programs, exhibits, naturalist programs and access to nature trails and auto tour routes. Upland game birds, white-tailed deer, and small game hunting is permitted in portions of the refuge, but special regulations apply. Contact the refuge headquarters for information.

A monarch butterfly.

A barn swallow chick.

A gray tree frog.