Since its launch in July 2021, the MiSTRIPS Program at the Kellogg Biological Station Long Term Ecological Research Program – KBS LTER – has established over 50 acres of prairie in agricultural lands across Michigan that have helped to improve water quality, increase wildlife diversity, and build soil health.
Research at the KBS LTER aims to inform farmers’ ability to increase food and energy production while maintaining ecosystem services and farm profitability. The main experiment at the LTER has been running for over 30 years and reflects conventional and aspirational practices at the time it was established.
In 2019, researchers added a new treatment – prairie strips – or areas of native vegetation within agricultural fields. This addition was strategically chosen with three objectives: (1) to study an innovative practice to increase biodiversity within agricultural landscapes, (2) to create novel research opportunities, and (3) to form new partnerships with farmers and organizations promoting biodiversity and land conservation.
In 2021, the MiSTRIPS program was officially launched as a way to actively engage local farmers with implementing prairie strips or native pollinator plants. The MiSTRIPS program was brought to Michigan as an extension of Iowa State University’s STRIPS program. The original goal was to increase the adoption of prairie strips in Michigan, while also building a community of innovative farmers who could inform agro-eco research and help identify questions that farmers would be likely to have when considering this practice.
In this regard, the program has accomplished much more than expected. After five years of collaboration, there are now 11 participating farmers with over 50 acres of prairie in agricultural lands across Michigan, and 10 additional farmers interested in prairie strips. Crucially, the program has created a network of partnerships that extends beyond farmers and researchers to include teachers, artists, and tribes. By aligning with the priorities of partners such as local Conservation Districts, MiSTRIPS has been able to extend its reach and participate in regional events such as Conservation on Tap + Cultivating Resilience with Ottawa County Conservation District (2025) and Underground Innovations with MiAA (2025).
MiSTRIPS has also been leveraged by LTER researchers to gain a better understanding of how and why the practice of prairie strips is more diverse in Michigan than it is in Iowa. Funding from the USDA SARE program, led by Dr. Christine Sprunger, is being used to assess how edge-of-field practices impact soil biological health. Funding from the USDA NIFA program, led by Dr. Nick Haddad, is being used to collaborate with Michigan DNR staff to determine how replacing under-yielding areas of croplands with native perennial plants can improve biodiversity and ecosystem services while having the lowest loss in agricultural production. Farmers participating in the MiSTRIPS program play a vital role in this research by providing testing sites.
“The MiSTRIPS program has accomplished so much more than what we initially set out to do,” said current MiSTRIPS Project Coordinator and LTER Education & Outreach Coordinator Elizabeth Schultheis. “We’ve been able to create an incredible regional network of people who are working together toward similar agriculture and conservation goals. These partnerships are the key to the success of the program, and we hope to support them long into the future.”