October 2021 • Nebraskaland 33
lowouts are wind-excavated, bare sand depressions in
Sandhills dune prairie and the sole habitat in our state
for the endangered blowout penstemon (Penstemon
haydenii). Since settlement, blowouts have become
extremely rare, resulting in the penstemon's decline. In 2017,
Turner Enterprises, Inc., undertook a project to restore this rare
plant in a pasture on their Spikebox Ranch located in Cherry
County. Breaking Sandhills grazing tradition, they intensively
grazed bison to create blowouts in which they, along with
state and federal partners, planted blowout penstemon.
The project has been challenging to say the least. More
than once during the planning phase, the partners stood
gathered atop a high grassy dune, hands in pockets, boot
heels worriedly scratching the sand, pondering how they
could push bison grazing to the point where the sod-binding
grasses lost their tight grip on the sandy soils, allowing
the wind to set them to blowing. Also troubling was the
thought of how neighboring ranchers would respond to their
intentionally creating blowouts.
Despite the obstacles, the project appears to be on the road to
success: This past summer, blowout penstemon fl owered in the
pasture, possibly for the fi rst time in more than a century.
The Endangered Blowout
Penstemon
Blowout penstemon grows in the Ferris Dunes in Carbon
County, Wyoming, and the Sandhills of north-central
B
A blowout penstemon
fl owers on the leeward
side of a recently
created blowout in
the Hunt Pasture on
Turner Enterprises'
Spikebox Ranch.
GERRY STEINAUER, NEBRASKALAND
