As you hike along the Paluxy River Nature Trail, watch how the grasses in the fields move like waves on an ocean in the breeze.

You are looking at one of this nation's most threatened and fragile ecosystems; our native grasslands. Once stretching across North America like a vast ocean, most of our native prairies have been plowed under for cropland or lost to urban development. Today, only four percent of our native prairies are still in existence.

Native grass species in the park include big, little, and silver bluestem, eastern gamagrass, sideoats grama, plains lovegrass and many others. Invasive grass species such as Johnson grass compete with these native grasses for space and are overabundant in many of the park's open fields.

Anchored by a vast and tangled root system, these native grasslands help stabilize soils, prevent erosion and provide food and shelter for many kinds of wildlife such as gray fox and white-tailed deer.