Ada Hayden:
Prairie Preservationist Pioneer

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This article first appeared in INHF's Winter 2007 magazine.

A lasting legacy

Joe McGovern/INHF

The 240-acre Hayden Prairie, pictured here, is considered one of the state’s highest-quality prairie remnants. It was acquired in 1945, the first prairie to be purchased by the state. Here a young visitor studies a shooting star (Dodecatheon meadia).

Hayden died from a long illness in 1950.  By that time, only two of the tracts she had targeted for protection had been saved. One of those two, located in Howard County, was soon named for her.

 More than 50 years later, Hayden’s legacy can be spotted throughout Iowa. Increased public enthusiasm for prairie preservation and the growing number of grassland tracts that have been publicly or privately protected both serve in part as living memorials to her life’s work.  For example, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has protected six of her identified sites as state preserves.

Meanwhile, many additional prairie remnants are now under the care of private individuals and other government agencies.  While not technically linked to Hayden’s work, those areas might not have been targeted if someone had not been inspired by Hayden’s writings.

Thanks to conservationists like Ada Hayden, Iowa has preserved many remnant prairies that “cannot be replaced at any cost.” And the work continues.

Teresa Beer Larson has worked as both a television reporter and a department manager for a public library. Now retired, she and her husband, Jami enjoy restoring a native prairie remnant behind their home in Ames.

Part I: Ada Hayden: Prairie Preservationist Pioneer

The Ada Hayden Herbarium

Ada Hayden Introduction Page

For more information, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, Director of Communications, or call (515) 288-1846.