Kansas Farmland Protection Program (FRPP) Plan

All Kansas counties are eligible for FRPP. There are three groups of counties designated for achieving national, state, and regional conservation goals and objective.

Native Prairie Counties

This area is predominantly rangeland (Flint Hills and Smoky Hills).  These undisturbed native, virgin tall grass prairie lands have exceptional value for grazing livestock and provide critical habitat for wildlife species listed as endangered or threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  A sizeable portion of the Flint Hills and Smoky Hills could become fragmented and degraded, if not protected, because of the pressures of urban-to-rural migration, housing encroachment, fragmentation into small "ranchette" parcels and lack of proper vegetative management.  There are 24 counties in this area: Anderson, Chase, Chautauqua, Clay, Cowley, Dickinson, Ellsworth, Elk, Geary, Greenwood, Lincoln, Lyon, Marion, Marshall, Montgomery, Morris, Ottawa, Pottawatomie, Russell, Saline, Wabaunsee, Washington, Wilson, and Woodson.

Urban Counties

Generally shows the counties with the largest amounts of urbanization (urban growth) as taken from the National Resources Inventory (NRI) information from 1982 through 1997.  There are 8 counties in this area: Douglas, Franklin, Johnson, Leavenworth, Miami, Sedgwick, Shawnee, and Wyandotte.

Urban and Native Prairie Counties

These counties are identified in the state as being both "urban" and "native prairie" counties. There are 4 counties in this area: Butler, Coffey, Osage, and Riley.

Note--Information from the National Resources Inventory (NRI) was used to help establish the areas involved in both the "urban" and the "tall grass prairie" counties.