Growing a Prairie From Scratch in the North Dakota Badlands

A prairie doesn't come back overnight. On the mesa above the Little Missouri River, restoring the land to the plants that belonged here started with a problem: there's no commercial source for native seed from the North Dakota Badlands. So the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library set out to grow its own.

The Native Plant Project began with seed gathered by hand in the wild — slow, careful work across a living ecosystem. When the wild couldn't yield enough, the effort moved to nursery beds in North Dakota. Today those beds cover about three acres and have produced roughly 60,000 native plants, plus 150 pounds of seed harvested in a single season — more than the wild gave up in the entire first year.

The payoff is already visible. Plants set into the building's green roof in June are thriving, flowering, and filling in faster than anyone expected.

It's a fitting tribute to the man this place honors. Theodore Roosevelt's years in the Badlands shaped a lifelong commitment to conservation — and this seed source, built for the Library, is becoming a resource the whole region can draw on.

Plan your trip to Medora: trlibrary.com/visit
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