Visit the Land Institute
Where We Are
Here is the Smoky Hill River watershed and rocks ranging from the Wellington Formation to the Dakota Formation.
Here is a grassland ecosystem, where diverse mixtures of perennial grasses and forbs co-evolved with humans and other animals through fire and grazing.
Here is land usurped from the Kaw, Pawnee, Osage, and other Indigenous peoples, whose ancestors farmed in the river bottomlands, who still exist and persist in dynamic relationships to their homelands, homelands which were also home to hundreds of thousands of bison, countless other mammals, reptiles, birds, invertebrates, all fed by the prairies that helped hold and build soils.
Here is grain agriculture and farming communities, including the city of Salina, Kansas, as a regional trading center, with Euro-American colonization and industrialization featuring widespread tillage into annual agricultural systems.
Here is The Land Institute, founded in 1976. Here we as agricultural researchers benefit from access to land, knowledge, and resources gained due to settler colonialism and other ongoing systems of oppression. Here we commit to responsibly repairing harm and building mutually beneficial relationships with members of the land community across the ecosphere.
Weekly Scientist-Led Tours
Fridays at 10:00am, March 7th-November 7th
Earth Week 2025 Community Events: Friday, April 25th
- The Land Institute Community Tours (10 am and 1 pm)—Join researchers and staff to discuss new developments in perennial grain agriculture while touring the grounds and facilities of our Salina headquarters. Attendance is free, but registration is required. Register for the Morning Tour from 10 am to 11:30 am or the Afternoon Tour from 1 pm to 2:30 pm below.
Register for earth week morning tour
register for earth week afternoon tour
- Spring Plant Identification Walk (3 pm)—Join Aubrey Streit Krug, Director of the Perennial Cultures Lab, for a guided walk exploring and identifying the prairie plants on the Wauhob Prairie remnant on The Land Institute campus. Attendance is free, but registration is required. Register for the Spring Plant ID Walk from 3 pm to 4 pm below,
What to expect: We offer weekly tours every Friday at 10:00 a.m.* The tour lasts approximately 60-90 minutes. Tours are led by a member of our research team and cover our seven research programs, history, and local and global impact. The guided walking tour meets at the main office before heading to the Wauhob Prairie Overlook of our research plots, then continuing through our campus to the research buildings and greenhouses.
Tours are free: to reserve a spot, please use the form above to let us know you’re coming so we can best accommodate your group. We are also happy to host large groups – our tour coordinator, Amanda Wagner, will contact you to ensure we can accommodate your group’s size and visit type appropriately.
Tour season: Our Friday tour series runs from March 7th through November 7th. *Please note: Tours are not available during major holidays.
Field Trips: Are you near Salina, KS, and looking for an exciting and educational experience for your students? The Land Institute is the perfect destination for your class this fall. With a field trip season from September 18th- October 31st, your students will have the opportunity to experience our research on perennial grains firsthand. For scheduling and details, contact Lydia Nicholson and Amanda Wagner at impact@landinstitute.org.
Marty Bender Nature Area
Located on the corner of S. Holmes Rd. and Brad Way: 3028 S. Holmes Rd, Salina, KS 67401
Beginning at Prairie Festival 2019, The Land Institute is pleased to officially welcome the public to visit our Marty Bender Nature Area. Located one mile north of The Land Institute’s main grounds, the 206-acre nature area features a three-mile-long trail through prairie and woods along the Smoky Hill River. The Land Institute also has several scientific research plots on the site. Additional features include art installations, plant and wildlife viewing, a tree swing and picnic area, scenic overlooks of the river and Salina region, and a community book share box.
With the generous support of private philanthropists, The Land Institute acquired the nature area property in 2002 from the trust of Oliver Haag. Farmers and ranchers used “Haag Place” in the past. In 2004, The Land Institute named the property in commemoration of Marty Bender, former energy scientist at The Land Institute, who was also a naturalist. In 2018, local volunteers and friends of The Land Institute designed and made the trail in collaboration with institute staff. In addition, they milled local Osage orange wood for benches and signage along the route. As a site for research, education, and community engagement, the nature area has since hosted events such as tours, community work days, and Ecosphere Studies workshops.
We post nature guidelines at the entrance. To share ideas, or to ask questions, contact info@landinstitute.org.
See a virtual tour of Marty Bender Nature Area