Chris will talk about The Nature Conservancy’s high-diversity prairie restoration efforts in central Nebraska.  The primary objective of their work is to enlarge and reconnect isolated prairie fragments by restoring adjacent lands.  The conservancy has harvested and planted seed mixes of 150-220 plant species and have sites that have sustained high plant diversity for more than 20 years.  More importantly, the Conservancy has seen positive results from animals using those restored areas as habitat, providing evidence that the restoration projects are serving their intended purpose.  Chris will discuss how this kind of restoration work might be most effectively used for strategic conservation purposes at scale and why those efforts provide him with optimism about the future.