>> Let's spend a little time in the Great Plains.

Kansas may be called the "Sunflower State", they do grow sunflowers, but Kansas is the number one wheat producing state in the nation.

It was the rich soil and wide open spaces that made it possible for Kansas farmers to produce exceptional yields.

The history of the soil itself involves the tall prairie grass that once covered the heartland.

Let's look back at a story from our Jason Shoultz on efforts to save this timeless landscape.

♪♪ >> In a world that never seems to slow down, where time is not measured in days, or even hours, but seconds.

A place where time has stood still for hundreds of years, might feel a million miles away.

It's not.

>> It's a place unlike anywhere else in the world.

>> The wind whispers through natural grasses here in the rolling hills of Kansas.

The same hills where Native Americans hunted roaming herds of bison, where pioneers journeyed to discover new homes.

>> There's not a lot of tall grass prairie left in the country.

>> Before Europeans arrived in North America, tall grass prairie stretched across the vast American Midwest.

Once it was measured in millions of acres, now just tens of thousands.

>>And that's what we are trying to do is protect it.

Not only for this generation, but for future generations to come.

>> Surveying the Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve is park ranger Heather Brown.

The preserve is part of an effort to save 11,000 acres of prairie grasses.

>> And it really takes you back in time.

>> It really does.

People understand, maybe what the pioneers felt when they were coming here and crossing this sea of grass.

>> Pioneers crossing the plains originally thought the prairie was worthless.

It was even called the "Great American Desert" by settlers who were used to the heavily forested lands east of the Mississippi River.

And the vast, open lands that today inspire calm, inspired something else in those early settlers.

>> In diaries that people would often feel very scared, lonely, often go mad, because the incessant winds constantly blowing, and being out in this open area.

>> But when those pioneers discovered that the natural grasses sprouted from soil rich in nutrients, they began farming this land.

Blue stem, switch and Indian grasses were replaced with crops like corn and wheat.

>> And so this became the breadbasket for the United States and actually for the world, because of this natural resource.

>> This area was originally settled in 1878 by a wealthy Colorado cattleman named Stephen Jones.

He brought his family here to Kansas, used the limestone from these hills to build a house and barn that today is used as a visitors' center.

>> They didn't get electricity here until 1943.

>> As guests tour the cattle barn, they learn that the flint hills may not be suitable farm ground, but generations have found success raising cattle here.

The reason, this soil is rich with organic nutrients, but it's also full of something else, rocks.

Planting crops here would be nearly impossible.

In fact, the area is known as the Flint Hills.

>> There's actually a couple of pieces right here.

>> This is flint?

>> This is flint.

It's interesting because flint is actually inside the limestone.

>> And what this prairie offers is more than quiet moments and majestic views.

Researchers from nearby Kansas State University are looking to the grasses and the soils for valuable insight.

It turns out, there's a lot to learn from an ecosystem that has survived 10,000 years.

>> The first decades that this area was put into agriculture they mined out nutrients that had been stored up for many thousands of years that had been in the prairie.

But as we have lost those nutrients over time, we've had to replace those nutrients with fertilizer.

>> Professor Charles Rice says they have discovered that through a natural process, the tall grass sustains itself, growing roots as much as ten feet deep, and enriching the soil with organic matter.

>> Researchers have also discovered the importance of fire on the prairie.

Annual controlled burns now actually help this habitat, not hurt it.

>> It turns out when you burn prairie, one of the main findings is that you have better quality grass.

It's good for the prairie.

But it also produces better grass or forage for the cattle.

>> And from an ecosystem thousands of years old, change is occurring in modern day agricultural practices.

>> Scientists have learned natural ways to return nutrients to the soil, using less fertilizer.

That means lower costs for the farmer, and potentially less harm to the environment.

And there may be environmental benefits that reach far beyond the Flint Hills.

These grasses absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the air, and transfer it to the soil.

>>That will slow down the speed of global warming.

>> Just as settlers that crossed the great American plains discovered new frontiers here in these tall grass prairies.

Centuries later, other types of frontiers are being discovered.

>> Scientific frontiers that could shape our future, while restoring the link to a vital part of America's past.

>> It's just an amazing place.

>> It's very important, because once it's gone, it's gone.

You'll never get it back.

>> More than a half million square miles of prairie grass once extended over America's mid-section from the Canadian border to central Texas.

Dozens of tall, and short, grass varieties created rich, deep topsoil that extended, sometimes, several feet below the surface.