Fort Whyte Centre – a combination of natural history museum and natural area – sprawls on the southwest edge of Winnipeg. As you drive up to the centre, note the three dozen or so bison in the 70-acre Bison Prairie.

Inside the interpretive centre you can learn more about bison and the tallgrass prairie they once roamed. One display, for example, shows a soil profile of the prairie, so you can see that half the mass of most prairie plants lies below ground, out of harm’s way.

A related exhibit tells the tale of how large-scale industrial agriculture has caused the low of about half of he prairie’s topsoil and the degradation of much of the soil that remains. Outside, a maze of paths and boardwalk leads through stands of aspen and willow and past wetlands home to squawking ducks and geese.