Central Grasslands Center Hosting Field Day, Symposium

North Dakota State University’s Central Grasslands Research Extension Center will hold its annual field tour June 26.

In addition, the center, which is near Streeter, will host a daylong symposium titled “Natural Resources of the Coteau: Past, Present and Future” the same day. The seminar will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Attendees will learn about the geology of North Dakota’s Missouri Coteau region, as well as its history, and cultural and economic development.

The Missouri Coteau region runs diagonally across the state from the northwestern corner through central North Dakota. It’s a highland of rock, gravel and other soil a receding glacier deposited about 10,000 years ago. Its rolling, grassy hills are dotted with potholes and lakes. While many acres have been converted to cropland, much of the land is highly erodible, making it best suited to producing perennial forages.

“The Coteau is often referred to as the ‘Red River Valley of beef production’ and has been ranked in the top 10 birding destinations by a national birding magazine,” says center director Paul Nyren. “This symposium will explore the past natural and human history and the current importance of the region to the ag industry and natural resource tourism.”

The field tour will start at 6 p.m. with a welcome from Nyren. The event will include a farm energy audit demonstration and updates on livestock and biofuels research at the center. NDSU researchers also will report on a study of creep grazing turnips, foxtail millet and an annual species mix.

A community meal in the center’s conference room will wrap up the tour at 8:30 p.m.

The NDSU Extension Service’s Center for Community Vitality is co-sponsoring the symposium. Speakers, including faculty from NDSU, United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck and Minot State University-Bottineau, will provide insights into agriculture and archeology in the Coteau, the Coteau’s wildlife, the impact of invasive plant species on its mixed-grass prairie, tourism opportunities in the Coteau, the economic impact of its current and future activities and the future of natural resources in the region. The symposium will end with a tour of the native grasslands.

The center is four miles north of Streeter.

For more information on the field tour or the center, visit the center’s Web site at http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/streeter/ or contact Nyren at (701) 424-3606 or p.nyren@ndsu.edu. To learn more about the symposium, contact Kathleen Tweeten, director of the Center for Community Vitality, at (701) 328-9718 or kathleen.tweeten@ndsu.edu.

NDSU Agriculture Communication