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Intermediate wheatgrass as a dual use crop for grain and grazing
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We offer weekly tours every Friday at 9:00 am from March through October. The guided walking tour lasts approximately 90 minutes and covers our research programs, history, and local and global impact. For scheduling, use the form below.
The Land Institute welcomes class trips for all ages during the fall, spring, and summer semesters. Your students will have the opportunity to experience our research on perennial grains firsthand. For scheduling and details, indicate your interest in a field trip and preferred dates using the form below.
We would love to host your group for a visit – our tour coordinator will contact you after filling out the tour form below to discuss details.
Tours are free! However, donations are always welcome. To reserve a spot, please use the form below to sign up.
The Land Institute welcomes the public to visit the 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.
Mark your calendars for the next Prairie Festival in September 2026, the “intellectual hootenanny” you won’t want to miss!
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, which were also home to hundreds of thousands of bison, countless other mammals, reptiles, birds, and 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.
In 2019, The Land Institute welcomed the public to the official opening of the Marty Bender Nature Area during Prairie Festival. The site features nature trails, plant and wildlife viewing, a tree swing and picnic area, scenic river and Salina region overlooks, art installations, scientific research plots, and more. The Land Institute and community partners often host tours, community work days, and workshops on the site.
The Land Institute acquired the nature area property from the Oliver Haag Trust in 2002 with generous private philanthropist support. We later renamed the area to commemorate former Land Institute energy scientist and naturalist Marty Bender. Local volunteers and friends of The Land Institute designed and made the nature trails in collaboration with our staff, milling local Osage orange wood for benches and signage along the route.
Our campus is located at 2440 E Water Well Rd, Salina, Kansas 67401.
Please park in the gravel lot north of the main office, where staff will greet you. Call us at our main office at (785) 823-5376 if you need assistance.
Salina, Kansas, offers a variety of lodging options to make your stay comfortable and convenient. A listing of Salina’s available accommodations in the link.
