Carl Kurtz

Carl’s father bought around 180 acres outside St. Anthony during the Great Depression when land prices crashed and corn bottomed out to barely a dime per bushel. When Carl inherited the land, he tried conventional row cropping in strips for a few years before his deep investment in wildlife and ecology caused him to make a radical change.

For nearly 50 years, Carl has been fostering his family’s farm back to the native prairie. He still combines every year, harvesting prairie seed rather than grain, but there is no need for planting or any other inputs. Rather than restarting every year, the prairie’s diversity builds upon itself through Carl’s management of prescribed burns and the physical removal or spot spraying of invasive species.

In the near future, Carl will have donated all 172 acres of his land to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation to preserve it as a mature prairie. As one of the leading figures in tallgrass prairie restoration, Carl has written multiple books about prairie restoration and wildlife in Iowa.

Building a Culture of Conservation: 

“We have 180 species in some areas of our prairie. That’s more than almost any state preserve, but the truth is that “180 species” doesn’t mean anything to people until they walk through it. It’s not good enough to see it from the road. You have to be in the thick of its complexity and hear its silence. That peace is a gift, which is so needed by people these days.”

Contact Information

Carl Kurtz
1562 Binford Ave, St. Anthony, IA, 50239