The Living Prairie Museum is a tall grass prairiepreserve located between Daisy Road and Harcourt Street, east of Ness Ave. in the St. James-Assiniboia suburb in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was discovered in 1968 when two botanists from a local sub-committee of the International Biological Program surveyed Manitoba for native prairie plant communities. Of more than 60 sites that were researched, only four were found uncultivated. One of the largest undisturbed sites was discovered in a residential area of Winnipeg. Today a vestige of this original prairie community has been set aside as a City of Winnipeg Nature Park, called the Living Prairie Museum. The Living Prairie Museum is home to over 160 species of prairie grasses and wildflowers, as well as a great array of prairie wildlife. In Manitoba only 1/20th of 1% of original tall grass prairie remains. The Living Prairie Museum is one of the few preserves of this once vast ecosystem. This museum is defined by the historical interpretation of the Tall Grass Prairie of the Winnipeg Region. The museum has an interpretative centre with displays on prairie history and ecology as well as an interactive art installation titled lost_landscape by Winnipeg artist Collin Zipp.
History
The City of St. James-Assiniboia set aside set aside of virgin land untouched by urban development in Assiniboia, Manitoba, a suburb of Winnipeg to create the Living Prairie Museum in 1970. Preserving the land, it was projected to cost $90,000 over the 1970-1980/82 time period to maintain the space. The Report to St. James-Assiniboia Council at the time said:
The importance of the St. James prairie as a sample of original vegetation can hardly be over-emphasized. More than 125 plant species have already been found on the site, and it is probable that others occur. Many of these are endangered species in Manitoba, for each year many natural areas disappear through agriculture and urbanization. It is, however, a living community a complex inter-relationship of plants and other organisms with the environment that this site has particular significance. Because of its location within the city this area offers an unusual for young and old to enjoy a natural remnant of our heritage.
In 1973 an interpretive centre was approved by Winnipeg Council, who agreed to pay $50,000 of the and would be counted as a Centennial project. A sod turning ceremony, attended by new Governor General Jules Leger took place in late April 1974. The Interpretive Centre was opened on June 23, 1976. A year later, a group of residents lobbied to have an additional, at the time zoned as Industrial, be added to the Living Prairie Museum. In the 1960s Metro planned for the Western Fwy. along Silver Ave. which would have cut through the Living Prairie Museum. The residents suggested the Freeway be built further north. However this plan was cancelled.
