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!

Graze/Burn/Mow quick thoughts

I just finished reading a couple articles.  You ever get when you read these scientific articles that more often then not they’ll just contradict another article and leave you with no clear solution??  It’s like everyone’s always just thinking out loud.  

Obviously I kid, but it does get old.  How about instead of doing small sample sizes, you do large ones, and instead of short term studies, you make them all long term!!!  Go out and get that money!

Ok…

The first article was about installing prairie seed on an old grazing field that will continue to be grazed.  

Things I took away from this:

- When grazing is implemented, drill seeding came out better than broadcast seeding. 

- if the object of a land manager is truly to get the land back to what it used to be, grazing is one of the methods needed on a prairie restoration (Bison).  

The second article spoke about how there was little to no effect of mowing or burning on a prairie within the soil.  They did say that this may be due to a short sample size.

- Out of PH, water content and organic matter within the soil, moisture was the most significant change.  Reasoning behind this is a simple one.  With the litter burned off, sunlight directly hits the soil, which increases evaporation.  The top layer of the soil profile is less dry than the lower. 

Photos!

 Dickcissel

 King Bird and Mallards

 Bobolink

Plains Garter

A little more on cool season grasses!??

The previous post I mentioned it's important to control cool season grasses on a prairie.  It made me think of an article I read previously called, “Field based effects of allelopathy in invaded tallgrass prairie.”  Allelopathic phytochemicals are released by a plant to halt other plants from growing within proximity of the plant.  This benefits the allelopathic plant by reducing its competition and ensuring the plant gets enough of the nutrients and water in the soil for itself.  This article I read studied fine fescue, and what it's effect could be within a tallgrass prairie.  Specifically looking at the phytochemical m-tyrosine which the fine fescue's roots puts out.

The authors use invigorating language when describing allelopathic ways by using such phrases as “Novel weapons,” or “Invasion front” as if these were the foot soldiers coming through before the cavalry.  When I fall asleep, I sincerely do not dream of plants air raiding other plants to gain a strategical position to eventually take over their space.  However I have seen Fantasia, soo….

Not to take anything away from the authors, these allelopathic advantages are huge.  These invasives come over from a foreign place, and the native plants have no understanding of how to co-exist with these invaders.  The natives have no evolutionary game plan to survive against them.  

A similar example of invasion, and perhaps easier understood, is with the alien lionfish to the Atlantic Ocean.  The lionfish preys on smaller fish.  These smaller fish have no idea the lionfish will eat them.  So the smaller fish hang out right beside their killer!!!  It really is bizarre when you think about it.  The learning curve is just too big/long for the preyed fish to learn to hide from the lionfish.  Consequently the lionfish are now thriving all too well within the Atlantic, and the smaller fish are being depleted.  

All the action with the phytochemicals happens within the soil.  So don’t forget to think about all the factors involving the soil.  Soil microbes may or may not hinder these these chemicals as their released.  Soil type and saturation conditions are important as well.  

The study concluded reinforcing what is known and somewhat inconclusive pertaining to whether or not fine fescue can take over a tallgrass prairie via phytochemicals.  M-tyrosine was not a stand alone determinant of invasion within the tallgrass prairie.  “Seed density, rapid and high seedling emergence and fast growth rates,” determined more of the invasion rather than m-tyrosine.  The study brought up the fact that once dominance is established, perhaps then m-tyrosine plays more of a role for keeping out other plants.  

Jess Harnden, Andrew S. MacDougall, Benjamin A. Sikes.  "Field Based Effects of Allelopathy in Invaded Tallgrass Prairie."  Botany 2011 89(4): 235-242, 10.1139/b11-010.

Spring comes to an end

The end for spring plants seems to be here.  Everything is flowering, and will soon set seed.  All plants seem to be around 2-3 weeks early due to a warmer than usual spring.

As a prairie manager I'm worried about specific invasive plants on site such as Reed Canary Grass, Pastinaca, and soon Birdsfoot trefoil.  

Below is an example of similar flowers between the native golden alexander, and the invasive pastinaca.  Look at the last photo and see how aggressive pastinaca can be!!  

Golden Alexander

Pastinaca sativa

A large patch of Pastinaca

Taking control of cool season grasses such as fescue and brome are important as well right now.  Although not considered invasive, they are still aggressive, and have the ability to choke out the native plants trying to become established.  Mowing at a height of 6-8 inches is a technique used on a 2nd year prairie.  This avoids clipping the natives, and takes out the higher grasses.  Give the natives a chance, and let them breath!!  

Monarch with nothing else but this red clover around.... 

Moved in to a new place a month ago, and still don't have internet.  Not sure how much longer I can go, but it certainly affects my blogging!  I have plenty of pics to put up.  I'll have to find time after work to use the internet connection out there. 

Stay tuned!!

Grasslands Steward Presentation

I was asked to give a small presentation last week to the community stewards that do volunteer work on the site.  They asked for an introduction to myself, as this was my first time with them, and a talk about upcoming goals.  I figured a 15 min. talk, with a 30 min Q & A would suffice.  It's always refreshing to see the passion these volunteers carry with them.

Prairie Chat:
Where does my interest in the prairie come from?

When you immerse yourself in a prairie you can feel so consumed, and yet so relaxed.  That's what I love about it.  There are absolutely tons of interactions going on.  I find so much peace with that.  It's like clockwork.

Within the soil we've got billions and billions of microbes doing unseen work that nourishes and stabilizes the soil structure.  Above ground we've got everything photosynthesizing, crawling, hopping, flying, slithering, (plants, animals, arthropods, birds, reptiles).  That bright thing in the sky is pretty important too.

All of these work in a lock and key sort of way.  And I view us in the same way.  We have to fit.  We have to fit perfectly.

If we do nothing (and not restore what we've already turned into an ag field...), invasives would continue to thrive and block out our native prairie plants that gave us the best soil in the world (roots/climate).
Putting it another way, all species that were here living freely before we showed up, were already adapted to our specific biome.  Then we came and shook things up quite a bit.  That change we've created was/is very fast according to a plant species that's been around for centuries.  They are not allowed enough time to adapt to us.  Therefore, we need to embrace that, and be good stewards to the earth.


The other side of the spectrum is doing too much.  If we don't keep the integrity of the land, we falter.  If we're not precise with our invasive control treatments, we may harm everything we're trying to let thrive.  Creating disturbance of any sort will result in favorable conditions for invasives.

If we have the knowledge, patience, identification skills, and passion, then I believe we fit perfectly.

Then I went into our Invasive schedule for the year, and an interesting Q&A session of which I'll detail both later on.

Birdsfoot trefoil and why this deserves its own post

Birdsfoot is a legume, and mostly planted as a forage crop for cattle.  Used widely due to the plants ability not to bloat the animal.  Happy cow!!  This is labeled as an invasive plant:

http://www.invasive.org/weedcd/species/5949.htm

This plant doesn't die.
Why:
Germinates twice: 
- Once in the early spring, and another early fall.  Twice!!  How stubborn and resilient can you be!
Adventitious root system:
- Deep tap root good for storing energy, spreads through rhizomes and stolons
- This plant creates a matted structure that makes it difficult for chemical coverage (finding the source).

http://www.anbg.gov.au/glossary/webpubl/glossss.htm

Chemically tolerant:
- It can withstand 2,4-D, which is one of more, if not the most common broadleaf herbicide.
- Clopyralid is a chemical that specifically targets legumes.  However this has been researched that roots do not uptake clopyralid as well as other chemicals will.  Therefore you'll get a top kill (the leaves) and yet the plant will remain alive and continue to produce, because the roots were not affected.
This is what we've been seeing on our site.  With the birdsfoot elaborate root system, you can understand why.
See:  http://www.larimer.org/weeds/herbicide.pdf

Hard to find:
- Small leaves and grows/spreads close to the ground

Shade tolerant:
Although this plant prefers a lot of sunlight, it will still thrive if taller plants block it from sunlight.

Most effective mode of action?
Apply a pre-emergent herbicide that will sit in the soil for at least a year, and then seed with your plants the following growing season (even this has been proven difficult).  If you have good plants in the soil already, you cannot add a pre-emergent.  In which case you can have fun scratching your head at this AMAZING invasive plant.

Ethiopian Watershed Trip

I picked up an edition of the Ecological Restoration publication from back in March 2010.  There was an article that caught my eye:  Yitbarek T.W., Satishkumar Belliethathan, and Masresha Fetene:  "A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Watershed Rehabilitation:  A Case Study in Farta Woreda, South Gondar, Ethiopia."

The article is based in the northern region of Ethiopia.  The study (as noted in the title) wanted to look for the benefits and costs of a watershed rehabilitation.  Surrounding the study was the idea of ripping out grasses and trees to make way for agriculture, leads to all sorts of ecological (economic) impacts.  Some of these are as follows:  Increased of siltation of downstream rivers, carbon sequestration, water/soil conservation, biodiversity, aesthetics, and ecotourism.  It's a great article showing interest in land that may often be overlooked.

I was fortunate enough to travel to Ethiopia while in school.  We traveled there to study the watershed of Ethiopia, and understand the importance of water.  We visited different NGOs in the capital Addis to learn how they dealt with sanitation and running clean water.  We then traveled outside Addis around the southern territories and stayed with different tribes.  When you travel outside of the capital, communication gets very tricky.  Even with people from Ethiopia, because of all of the different tribes/languages, communicating gets lost in translation.  There's also a lot of old standards tribes believe in whole heartedly.  A simple act as washing your hands to fight off germs is very foreign to them.  We visited a school that received a well for the first time, and they very much appreciated this.

On a personal note, I absolutely love kids.  When I was a kid, I remember how much fun recess was.  When I was younger, I moved away to a new school.  The first question that was asked during recess was how far could I throw a football.  I don't know why this is the way it is, but I had friends on the spot after I threw the football a good distance down the field.  
This time I was throwing a ball as high as I could straight up in the air.  The kids would run around in circles with their heads jerked to the sky, and their arms straight out fending off anyone around them trying to catch the ball.  They were having a blast!
After a while, my arm was going to fall off, so I crouched down to the ground.  That's when I noticed there were probably 50 kids surrounding me very close.  An idea popped in my head.  I decided (I don't know why) to become a monster!  While the kids waited eagerly for me to get back up and throw the ball, I stood up and made a giant roar sound.  Then I began chasing them all around while they were screaming and laughing.  Honest to God, it was one of the most fun times I've ever had in my life.  My group was taking lunch at the time.  I thought there is no way I'm just going to sit here while these kids are having recess, and I'm so thankful I went out in the field with them.  

The trip was an absolute wonderful experience.  What made me even think of writing on the blog was a a man I met.  I don't have my notes with me now, but I'll add his name and organization once I get to them.  His organization takes kids off the street, and puts them in school.  They pay for everything, including books, clothes, and food.  His organization also has a "soup kitchen" in which my group worked at 3 days out of the 7 while we were in Addis.  He carried himself as just a regular man, even though he was the head of this successful organization; he was very humble.  Below I have a picture with him, and I try to live by his demeanor every day.

Nachusa Grasslands Visit

This is a prairie restoration at its finest.

There are test plots all over their almost 5,000 acres of land.  From annual burn sites, to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year seedings right next to each other!  You can literally see how long it takes native prairie plants to emerge.
*The first year you won't have that many natives coming up from your seeding.  In fact, you'll have aggressive weeds trying to make their way in.  No wonder you need patience when you plant a prairie!  Those prairie plants you haven't seen yet, have spent the last 2 years establishing their root systems.  Now in year 3, they'll be ready to flower!

It's a great place to have your many restoration questions answered:
Does a specific chemical work on a particular plant?
When is the correct time to treat this plant?
Should you seed the more conservative plants right away, or wait until the quicker sprouting plants establish the soil while you fight back the weeds with treatment control, and then do you interseed the conservatives?
When do you decide to burn?  Spring/late summer/fall??

These guys have been at it for 25 years.  A lot of the stewards have been with the site easily over a decade.  They contain a lot of knowledge on restorations.  Nachusa has grown slowly in acres throughout the years.  That's why it's great to see the 1st year seedings, all the way to the established prairies, and everything in-between.

If you'd ever like to feel consumed, yet strangely relaxed, and randomly think (or make up) a Ralph Waldo saying in your head, give them a visit!
Nachusa Grasslands

Pics:

Prickly Pear

Pussy Toes

Prairie Smoke

A nice oak savanna

Standing on a remnant with the green area in the background being burned last fall

Wood Betony

Silky Aster near the bottom

Swale Time

Here are some pics while working today through the Swale.  It's really a great area.  The swale meanders through the site.  It's in the middle of two hills where runoff can flow right into it.  Typically the spring rains will create heavy flowing.  It ponds up in the middle of the site in an area called Phlox Bottoms that contains a lot of great plants.  It flows east, ponds to the north, continues east, and then flows south along the eastern edge.

The difficulty working in the swale is keeping an eye out for the good plants while spraying herbicide.  It requires a good eye and patience.  You can tell by the pictures why we need to use herbicide.  Cattails and reed canary grass choke out the good plants and are very aggressive when they seed out.

Amber waves of Reed Canary!! (BAAAAD)

Cattails (Bad)

Great Bulrush (Good)

Polygonum and Carix (Both Good)

River Bulrush (Good)

When Invasives are susceptible

Let's think about how plants grow in general terms:

While in the soil, the roots store energy and keep the plant alive through winter.  Then it starts off slowly, coming up from the soil when it warms.  Then it grows at a steady pace, assuming conditions are not extreme (drought/excessive rain, temps not dramatically cold/hot).
Then the plant begins to produce flowers, and eventually goes on to produce seeds.  This part of the plants life is pretty dramatic.  It takes a lot of energy to complete this.  The root system for this plant is also very structured and strong.

Before I ask the inevitable question of when is the correct time to apply herbicide, let me tell you this:  If the plant is close to seeding out (full mature plant/seeds are almost viable) some plants have the ability to force their seeds out under pressure.  So most of the time, the best time to apply herbicide is when the plant is young and beginning to develop.

Here's an example of the other side of the spectrum:

Specific biennial plants produce a base the first year of roots, stems, and leaves.  The second year this plant flowers and seeds out.  

The mechanical treatment approach to this gets down to the nitty gritty.  In order for a successful kill, you wait until the plant is just about to seed out before you mow/brushcut/weed-whack it down.  You want to take advantage of the expending energy of the plant.  But the timing of this is very crucial.  

If you cut too early, the plant will reemerge smaller, and still produce seeds only a week after you cut it!  This is especially true with white sweet clover.  One mature white sweet clover can produce up to 350,000 seeds!!  So you can imagine what even a tiny plant could still produce.  

Below is an example...

Randy Quaid - Independence Day

Let me explain:

If Randy Quaid flies up to the laser a little too early before the ship gathers up all of its energy to deliver the blow, there wouldn't be much of an explosion, and the ship threat is still there (cut too early, and the plant will reemerge).  

Likewise, and a little more obvious, had he been a little bit late, the laser would have been sent off (350,000 seeds are dropped) and the movie doesn't end on a good note. 

Good thing the timing was perfect!!!!!