ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
Now a quick journey into the tallgrass prairie of central Kansas. NPR's Brian Mann went for a trail run through birdsong and past a distant bison herd, and he sent this audio postcard.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Just before dawn, I let myself in through one of the cattle gates in the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve north of Wichita.
(SOUNDBITE OF GATE CREAKING)
MANN: These fences, maintained by the National Park Service, actually keep a bison herd from roaming outside the preserve's 11,000 acres. I can't see any of the big animals from here, but as I lace up my sneakers to run, I realize the fields around me are flush with birds.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS SINGING)
MANN: I set off running west on the gravel trail, climbing toward an enormous full moon that hangs just above the horizon.
It is like a sea of grass around me. There's great waves of hills rising up, and the dawn light is just coming over the horizon. The birds - I mean, it's just crazy.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS SINGING)
MANN: At this hour, I'm the only human here. But up ahead, I see the herd of 50 or so bison, shaggy, big-shouldered beasts. They've gathered across the path, blocking it. I want to keep my distance, so I turn and wade into the waist-high grass. Then on a ridge ahead of me, maybe a football field away, a massive bull lumbers into view. Dancing around him are these calves, like, sprinting around through the grass, going in mad little playful dashes. I back away, turning down into a valley along a muddy creek, past a grove of cottonwood trees.
(SOUNDBITE OF CRICKETS CHIRPING)
MANN: There are wildflowers, just wildflowers everywhere. And, you know, I think of this as being kind of a rough, arid country, sort of cowboy country. But the wildflowers are just as delicate as you can imagine.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS SINGING)
MANN: Before running back to the gate, I stop and just look. Prairie like this used to cover 170 million acres of North America, most of it gone now.
(SOUNDBITE OF CRICKETS CHIRPING)
MANN: But standing here, I can see no human footprint. There are bison and swales of sweetgrass all the way to the horizon and a vast blue sky, all completely wild.
Brian Mann, NPR News, in the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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