If not for the efforts of The Nature Conservancy and the Minnesota Prairie Chicken Society, there might not be prairie chickens left in the state. Their numbers dwindled to a concerning level by the mid-1980s, their habitat ruined by the plow. They are now confined to remnant and restored grasslands in a few counties. One of those is Clay County, close enough to Fargo-Moorhead that before the sun rises over the prairie the lights of the metro glow brightly in the west.
