For prairies in Washington, the future is bleak. Over the past few hundred years, the state lost nearly all of its prairies, and University of Washington‘s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS) scientists are conducting a study that aims to save them.

The study was featured in a recent story on King 5 News. SEFS professor Jon Bakker, who studies prairies and plants that grow in grasslands, is working with a team that is working to restore these native grasslands to Whidbey Island.

“Each of these (plants) can have a couple of hundred little seeds in it. It’s a special plant because of its rarity. It only occurs in a few areas,” Bakker told King 5.

Read the full story here.