Prairie strips are a conservation practice that strategically places native prairie plantings into crops fields with the goal of increasing farm profitability, biodiversity, water quality, and soil health.

Much of the U.S. Midwest’s native prairie has been converted to farmland, leaving these once widespread grasslands rare and scattered across the region. Research from the KBS LTER shows that planting prairie strips, which are narrow areas of native prairie plants within crop fields, can help bring back some of the benefits these habitats once provided. Prairie strips help prevent soil erosion, reduce runoff, improve water quality, and offer wildlife habitat. They are home to beneficial microbes and insects, whose populations spill out into neighboring crop lands.

Through the MiSTRIPS program at the LTER, farmers are using this approach to support nature while keeping their farms productive. Since its launch in 2021, the MiSTRIPS program has established over 50 acres of native prairie in agricultural lands across Michigan. By providing hands-on guidance, resources, and ongoing support, MiSTRIPS is helping agricultural professionals adopt this innovative conservation practice and make Michigan’s farmland more resilient for the future.

“For us, prairie strips provided the best opportunity to meet our goal of enhancing our farms’ ecosystem impact while improving farm profitability at the same time,” – Marc Hasenick, of Hasenick Brothers Farm in Springport, Michigan.

What is MiSTRIPS?

MiSTRIPS is the Michigan arm of a multi-state effort led by Iowa State University to increase the adoption of prairie strips on agricultural landscapes across the Midwest. The goal of MiSTRIPS is to expand and formalize a regional partnership that delivers programming and facilitates networking to help establish prairie strips as a conservation practice on commercial farms. MiSTRIPS is led by the Long-Term Ecological Research program at Michigan State University’s Kellogg Biological Station.

The MiSTRIPS program coordinates with individual farmers to customize prairie strip installation and connect them to regional partners. When a new farm is considering joining MiSTRIPS, LTER researchers and other experts visit a site to identify farmer goals, choose a location, and discuss seed mix and planting strategies. Seeds are sourced from Native Connections, a local seed supplier based in Kalamazoo, MI, and customized based on the farmer’s soil type and goals. Farmers agree to allow on-farm research and collaborate with scientists, provide testimonials, and host future field days. MiSTRIPS pays for the seed and collaborates with Conservation Districts to pay for other costs such as site preparation and renting planting machinery. Prairie strips are now an eligible practice (CP-43) under the Conservation Reserve Program, and an MSU partial budget analysis helps farmers determine when it is economically beneficial to take agricultural land out of production and convert into prairie.

“The sustainability of our agricultural systems impacts us all, but sustainability will be hard to achieve if we are not working toward a unified goal and on a larger scale. MiSTRIPS gives us an opportunity to coordinate with multiple stakeholders to increase conservation practices at the landscape level.” – Fahimeh Baziari, former MiSTRIPS Project Coordinator.

What has MiSTRIPS accomplished so far?

MiSTRIPS has established over 50 acres of prairie in agricultural lands across Michigan.
As of 2025, 11 farmers have joined the MiSTRIPS program, with an additional 10 farmers interested in prairie strip implementation.
Participants include row-crop farmers (corn, soy, wheat), blueberry farms, orchards, hay, vegetables, and a wide diversity of farm types (ex. organic, no-till, regenerative).
Farmer motivations are wide-ranging but complementary, including increased insects for pollination, improved soil health, enhanced erosion control, better aesthetics for ecotourism, and wildlife conservation.
MiSTRIPS has hosted 3 annual farm field days at participating farms and collaborated on numerous local events, including Conservation on Tap + Cultivating Resilience with Ottawa County Conservation District (2025) and Underground Innovations with MiAA (2025).
MiSTRIPS farms serve as sites for on-farm research by LTER scientists who collaborate with farmers to test ideas about plant community assembly, soil health, and best restoration practices.
The program’s impact now reaches far beyond original expectations, creating a regional collaborative network of farmers, conservation districts, MSU Extension educators, teachers, artists, and local Tribes.

If you are interested in learning more about the MiSTRIPS project, future MiSTRIPS events, or have questions about prairie strips please contact the program coordinator, Elizabeth Schultheis at schulth5@msu.edu.

Partial budget analysis

To help navigate the costs, savings, and payments associated with prairie strips, a collaborative team of scientists, economists, outreach specialists, and Extension educators at Michigan State University has come together to develop a new partial budget tool. The tool predicts that prairie strips could save farmers money if planted in areas where crops yield below 50% of the statewide average. These areas, often field borders, low-lying areas, or cumbersome extensions of fields, may cost more to put into production than to restore to prairie. Additionally, if enrolling in the CRP-43 prairie strip program or other incentive programs, the cost-savings of prairie conversion increase.

Participants in MiSTRIPS

Prairie strips at the KBS LTER

MiSTRIPS farmer panel at Cultivating Resilience 2025

Support for the MiSTRIPS program comes from the Kellogg Biological Station Long Term Ecological Research and the following grants: BIA-ECHO Foundation and Iowa State University, Doug and Maria Bayer Initiative (PD 63262), and Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Research and Education Grant (LNC23-494).