On November 12, 1996, legislation was passed creating Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Flint Hills or Central Region region of Kansas. A new superintendent was assigned to the site in February 1997, and planning activities for the preserve are now underway.
The preserve protects a nationally significant example of the once vast tallgrass ecosystem. Of the 400,000 square miles of tallgrass prairie that once covered the North American Continent, less than 1 percent remains, primarily in the Flint Hills.
The preserve is 10,894 acres, but most of that land will remain under the ownership of the National Park Trust, which purchased the land in 1994.
The lint Hills area is in both the Neosho River Drainage Basin and Lower Republican River Drainage Basin.