LITTLEROCK, Wash. -- Not only are the Mima Mounds one of the state's last geologic mysteries, they are one of the last large tracts of open prairie in Western Washington.
"Historically, we estimate there were about 125,000 acres of prairie roughly between Tacoma and Centralia and there's only about three percent of that remaining now," explained Ecologist David Wilderman of the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
Wednesday, the DNR will hold a public hearing on a plan to expand the Mima Mounds Protected Area by another 120 acres.
Wilderman said there is a willing landowner who will allow the mounded property to be absorbed into the protection area now and paid for later during better economic times.
Several rare plants, insects and wildlife live only in prairie like areas and biologists say preserving what's left of those lands is the best way to protect the species that live there.
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