Grinnell Youth Conservation Corps Program (GYCC) The Grinnell Youth Conservation Corps program is a summer employment opportunity for local high school students to work on conservation projects at Arbor Lake Park, an 80-acre natural area park in Grinnell. The program is a collaboration of the Grinnell College Center for Prairie Studies and the City of Grinnell, with support from Imagine Grinnell.
Local Food System The Grinnell Area Local Foods Alliance is a multifaceted effort to promote better understanding of our current food system and local food-based alternatives to it.
Outreach - Local Schools The Center continually seeks ways of connecting people of all ages to the natural landscape of this region. One such way is through partnerships with local schools that create opportunities for kids to learn about prairie and other native habitats.
Pioneer Cemeteries The Center for Prairie Studies has worked with the Poweshiek County Pioneer Cemetery Commission in planning prairie restoration and maintenance at a pioneer cemetery near Victor. Pioneer cemeteries are some of the best places to look for prairie remnants, prairies that have never been plowed. A pioneer cemetery is a cemetery that has had fewer than 6 burials in the last 50 years. Center staff, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, students with the Grinnell College Environmental Action Group, members of the Poweshiek County Pioneer Cemetery Commission, and Township trustees worked together to restore prairie to the Old Victor Pioneer Cemetery in Poweshiek County.
Poweshiek Skipper Project The Poweshiek skipper, Oarisma poweshiek, is a small butterfly that was discovered in 1870 in Grinnell, Iowa, by Professor Henry W. Parker and named after the county in which it was found. The Center for Prairie Studies collaborated with butterfly enthusiast Harlan Ratcliff to study the present day distribution of the Poweshiek skipper and explore the possibility of reintroducing the butterfly to Poweshiek County.
Iowa River Corridor In 2005, the Center for Prairie Studies collaborated with the Iowa Valley Resource Conservation & Development office, Free River Press, and author and publisher Robert Wolf to create The Iowa River Corridor Book: A Subregional Profile from the Amanas to Tama and Toledo. The publication, based on the premise that economic and cultural regionalism offer an alternative to globalization, explores the Iowa River corridor through short essays (many written by Grinnell College students and faculty), photographs (most of them taken by high school students from corridor communities), and an assessment of community assets and needs.
