When FMR helped Harry and Patti Benjamin install a native mesic prairie at their 5-acre brome field near Hastings, there was the usual nail-biting period of a few years, wondering if the natives were really there and going to thrive. But thrive they did, with the help of some diligent attention from the Benjamin's. Five years and two burns after installation the wildflowers are diverse and abundant and the big bluestem is BIG! At nearly eight feet tall it is reminiscent of the tallgrass prairie that once covered much of Minnesota. Seeing Patti nearly hidden in the grass it's easy to understand how some early European settlers, uncomfortable in this foreign landscape, sought to reduce it. With less than 0.5 percent of the original native prairie left in the state, such restorations as this are a wonderful contribution to the ecological and historic diversity of the landscape.