I was having a conversation with the director of the Audubon Society, Chicago region, and we were just talking about restoration in general.
An interesting note about my prairie restoration site is that audubon is quite involved. In fact, our seed mix is geared towards grassland birds who don't like tall grasses. That means we have no big bluestem out there! It's not the end of the world, but I do miss the great qualities that come with big blue. The matrix these grasses create out in the prairie helps suppress invasives. The question then becomes, is this an artificial prairie (not self-sustaining)?
I tell the director that what we do as restorationalists is take what farmers want to do, and we do the opposite. In case you didn't know, farming is a cash cow........Thus there is a ton of information on the subject.
Sometimes the info goes both ways. Both the farmer and restorationalist want to combat invasive species to protect their crops/natives (teasel, thistle, purple loosestrife, garlic mustard). Other times, farmers will want to plant an aggressive invasive for forage for their cattle to feed on (Birdsfoot trefoil, white sweet clover, fescue, brome). Aaaand restorationalists what nothing to do with these forage crops.
Farmers like them so much because they're aggressive and self sustaining. Once the forage seed is established, the rancher will only have to worry about over grazing and certain diseases. The early years in a prairie, restoration managers even have to watch out for their own natives, goldenrod especially, to make sure they don't crowd out other higher quality plants.
That brings up another point. Conservation value (C-value) determines how important (valuable) a plant is. The highest a C-value can get is 10. A C-10 plant will be very rare, and will only grow within a high quality, well established prairie. This is how you determine how healthy a prairie is. These C-value plants act as indicator species.
Although there isn't a lot of material on how to get rid of these money making aggressive invasives, there are tons of articles for how to manage them to thrive. When an article says, "Do not mow at a certain time to allow the plant to restore its energy back to its roots for the winter," you bet your ass we're going to mow during that time!
An interesting note about my prairie restoration site is that audubon is quite involved. In fact, our seed mix is geared towards grassland birds who don't like tall grasses. That means we have no big bluestem out there! It's not the end of the world, but I do miss the great qualities that come with big blue. The matrix these grasses create out in the prairie helps suppress invasives. The question then becomes, is this an artificial prairie (not self-sustaining)?
I tell the director that what we do as restorationalists is take what farmers want to do, and we do the opposite. In case you didn't know, farming is a cash cow........Thus there is a ton of information on the subject.
Sometimes the info goes both ways. Both the farmer and restorationalist want to combat invasive species to protect their crops/natives (teasel, thistle, purple loosestrife, garlic mustard). Other times, farmers will want to plant an aggressive invasive for forage for their cattle to feed on (Birdsfoot trefoil, white sweet clover, fescue, brome). Aaaand restorationalists what nothing to do with these forage crops.
Farmers like them so much because they're aggressive and self sustaining. Once the forage seed is established, the rancher will only have to worry about over grazing and certain diseases. The early years in a prairie, restoration managers even have to watch out for their own natives, goldenrod especially, to make sure they don't crowd out other higher quality plants.
That brings up another point. Conservation value (C-value) determines how important (valuable) a plant is. The highest a C-value can get is 10. A C-10 plant will be very rare, and will only grow within a high quality, well established prairie. This is how you determine how healthy a prairie is. These C-value plants act as indicator species.
Although there isn't a lot of material on how to get rid of these money making aggressive invasives, there are tons of articles for how to manage them to thrive. When an article says, "Do not mow at a certain time to allow the plant to restore its energy back to its roots for the winter," you bet your ass we're going to mow during that time!
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