More than 40 years ago, one of the first nurseries to grow and sell native plants sprang to life on the rural fringes of Westfield, Wisconsin. Founded in 1972 by J. Robert Smith, a retired DNR employee, Prairie Nursery began as a garden on a half-acre plot. Inspired by the wildflowers and grasses growing around his farm, Robert Smith began experimenting with Lupine and Butterflyweed, teaching himself how to germinate, grow and transplant prairie plants. Meanwhile, at the height of the environmental movement in America, Neil Diboll was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (dubbed “Eco-U” because of its environmental focus), where be began studying prairie ecology. After graduating from UWGB Neil worked summers for the U.S. Park Service in Virginia, and later the U.S. Forest Service in Colorado, before returning to Green Bay to continue his own prairie research.