Acre by acre, Iowans try to restore the state’s natural prairie

Before farmland covered more than 90 percent of the state, the vast majority of Iowa was prairie. But, the tall green fields dotted with wildflowers that once dominated the state began to vanish as settlers put it under the plow.<br /><br />Now, only a tiny sliver of Iowa prairie land – less than 0.1 percent – remains untouched by the agriculture and development that surrounds it.