It took slightly more than a year, but seeds have been sown to bring back a segment of tallgrass prairie just west of Kalona Elementary School.

Students at the school sowed a mixture of some 30 different kinds of seed last week as the final step in giving ground to a prairie parcel of plants that once covered much of Iowa.

The project originated with teachers Susie Lehman, Jackie Bailey, Karen Fisher and Sarah Aldrich-Fisher and is unique to the area.

Lehman and Bailey got the idea after a week-long prairie seminar at the Neal Smith Nature Center at Prairie City.

The project covers some 1,000 square feet of ground that was prepared by killing all grass and tilling the soil. The Kalona Fire Department did a controlled burn on the parcel to kill any weeds or seeds that may have survived initial eradication.

Funds for the seed, obtained from Priarie Moon Nursery in Winona, Minnesota, were provided by the Kalona Rotary Club and last year’s 6th graders.

Bailey supervised last week’s planting that involved as many of the students as possible.

Bailey said that it “will take at least three years before we see any plants,” and that to fully establish a prairie takes about ten years.

For the school’s kindergartners, it means they will see the prairie well underway by the time they complete Middle School—just across the way from the project.