Indian Creek Nature Center to name prairie after Cornell professor, prairie advocate

MOUNT VERNON — Indian Creek Nature Center will celebrate Earth Day weekend with the dedication of a seven-acre prairie Sunday, April 23, for Paul Christiansen, emeritus professor of biology at Cornell College who devoted his career to studying, managing, preserving and restoring the tall-grass prairie.

The dedication is from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Nature Center in Cedar Rapids, with a ceremony at 1:30 p.m. and a prairie planting from 2 to 4 p.m. Plants and shovels will be provided. There also will be light refreshments and live music.

The area to be known as the Paul Christiansen Prairie sits north of Otis Road and east of Bena Brook. The site will be marked with a large, engraved glacial boulder.

Christiansen, a Nature Center board member, retired in 1996 after 29 years at Cornell. He was born and raised on a farm in Iowa. He earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Iowa, doctorate at Iowa State University and taught at Humboldt (Iowa) High School before arriving at Cornell.

In the 1970s he launched a project to help more than half of Iowa’s counties re-introduce prairie along county roads. Iowa’s 19th-century landscape was abundant with prairie wildflowers and tall grasses. Aside from their natural beauty and link to Iowa’s past, prairies are critical as erosion control and a deterrent of noxious weeds – plus the native plants are easier to maintain than foliage being introduced 30 years ago along road easements. Christiansen also conducted numerous studies on state parks and prairies for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and consulted on the restoration of tall-grass prairies across the state for both public and private entities.

Cornell, the Iowa Nature Conservancy and the Department of Natural Resources join the Nature Center in hosting the prairie dedication. For directions and information about the Nature Center, go to www.indiancreeknaturecenter.org.