Cowley County Conservation District’s 11th annual wildflower tour is set for June 12.
The tour begins at 8 a.m at Winfield High School, where participants will board a bus to the Snyder Ranch near Cambridge. Reservations can be made by contacting the conservation district at 221-1850, ext. 3, before June 8.
A $5 fee will cover the cost of lunch and transportation for the day.
The privately-owned Snyder Ranch has a 70-acre watershed lake and Otter Creek running through approximately 9000 acres.
Wildflowers grow in the pastures where herds of yearling cattle and cow-calf pairs are allowed to graze. The ranch features undisturbed tallgrass prairie, with some small areas where former crop ground has been returned to native grass and plants.
An old road through the ranch leads to Cambridge.
House foundations and walls where homesteaders settled decades ago are still visible.
The stone ranch house at the headquarters was built around 1850. It was built into the side of the hill, and has stone walls more than one foot thick. The hill and stone naturally keep the house cool in the summer.
The kitchen has a side room built entirely of stone where food was stored. Tornadoes have altered the original house and barns, but renovations have been made to restore it.
The horse pasture behind the barn is where an abundance of wildflowers will be found with easy walking to view them. A wide variety of wildflowers including Echinacea, Butterfly milkweed, dotted gayfeather, and native grasses such as Big Bluestem, Indiangrass and Sideoats Grama will be flagged for participants to photograph and enjoy.
Tour guides will be available for plant identification, native grassland interpretations and natural history. Discussion of the tallgrass prairie functions and values will be featured, as well as resources for the preservation of the diminishing eco-type.
