Morris Wetland Management District is part of a unique natural ecosystem and an equally unique legacy of human partnership. The ecosystem is known as the tallgrass prairie ecosystem, and its combination of prairie grasslands and small wetlands made it among the most biologically diverse and intricate landscapes in the world. When European settlers arrived and discovered the land's tremendous productivity, the tallgrass prairie ecosystem became one of the most altered ecosystems on earth. The landscape changed rapidly, and little of the original prairie was saved. Today only fragments exist in small, isolated blocks.