Fwd: Strategies for Stewards: from woods to prairies

[Kathy Cummings]

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Date: Fri, Jul 15, 2022 at 8:35 AM
Subject: Strategies for Stewards: from woods to prairies
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Strategies for Stewards: from woods to prairies
<http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/>
------------------------------

- Counting Slender and Seaside Arrow-grass at Kish Fen
<#m_-4830688678267227895_1>
- Natural Ways to Kill a Tree <#m_-4830688678267227895_2>
- Wisconsin Discovery May Raise Standards for Oak Woodland Conservation
<#m_-4830688678267227895_3>
- Hypoxis Experiment Succeeds – in the Ecosystem
<#m_-4830688678267227895_4>
- May 14, 2022 - Shaw Woods - What We Did And What We Saw
<#m_-4830688678267227895_5>
- Garlic Mustard - five years later <#m_-4830688678267227895_6>
- Mud Is Bad <#m_-4830688678267227895_7>
- In the Heat of Battle <#m_-4830688678267227895_8>
- Burn at Shaw Prairie - March 21, 2022 <#m_-4830688678267227895_9>
- Why Fire Is Needed <#m_-4830688678267227895_10>
- Controlled Burn at Kishwaukee Fen: March 17, 2022
<#m_-4830688678267227895_11>
- The Mighty Middle <#m_-4830688678267227895_12>

Counting Slender and Seaside Arrow-grass at Kish Fen
<http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/07/counting-slender-and-seaside-bog-arrow.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 11 Jul 2022 02:43 PM PDT
The excitement is palpable, as people say.

Awe and grandeur emerge from the numbers, if you understand and care. Fun
even.

Last week Pete Jackson and Lyn Campbell counted the arrow-grass plants
of Kishwaukee
Fen
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2021/09/introducing-fen-in-need.html>
Nature Preserve. Two species. Both listed as Threatened with extinction in
Illinois. These populations have never been monitored before. Kish Fen had
been “an orphan” - infested with brush and weeds, but now a great bunch of
Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves stewards are doing great work there.
In a few years, we can monitor again and have insight into how these rare
plants are doing.



I looked up arrow-grasses in many books, to decide what common names to
use. Every book used different names. They’re just not common. They’re also
not grasses. Primitive flowering plants related to bur-reeds and water
plantains.



*Troglochin maritima *- seaside arrow-grass, common bog arrow grass
(common? really?), goose grass, saltmarsh arrowgrass



*Troglochin palustris *– slender arrow-grass, bog arrow grass, marsh
arrowgrass



Arrow-grasses grow around the world but seem to be Rare or Endangered in
most places. They thrive in harsh environments: salty, limy, or acid – and
yet not in most such places. In the tallgrass region they live mostly in
fens – but not most fen areas.



<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0cCcOh-o1M5Ur3rBxSl8KjD1EH7NsbdkXi-VEp5kW6wMu6AEoD-Gew7U5iU_Mttjvn4APuOUT9qI-rpPibjEoe5PxLKB9HgANfsgV0Vj322SDQBfWXS8KzMd-oWeRM6TtTw91AagYRLB71ngOetCRePKfcfRayz88v4f8bGB83u1iT1KuZqPfgtgCyg/s489/Screen%20Shot%202022-07-10%20at%207.04.35%20AM.png>

Seaside arrow-grass in glorious full bloom



The monitoring results that Pete and Lyn filed with Plants of Concern
<https://plantsofconcern.org/> (Chicago Botanic Garden) have given us much
to think about. Some books report that the two arrow-grass species usually
grow together. At Kishwaukee fen, both species occur, but they appear to
shun each other. They were found in three of the four separate fens:



Hanging Fen

- 0 Triglochin maritima

- 37 Triglochin palustris



Marl Pools Fen

- 463 Triglochin maritima

- 1 Triglochin palustris



Large Raised Fen

- 69 Triglochin maritima

- 0 Triglochin palustris


Pete, who has studied these species at other rare fen sites, has no
explanation as to why seaside arrow-grass was the only abundant arrow grass
at two of the fens while slender arrow-grass was the only one found in the
hanging fen. In addition, at the first two sites investigated, the
arrow-grasses grew mostly on the edges of "marl pools" - areas where the
seepage water is so limey that crystalline "tufa" rock
<https://www.google.com/search?q=tufa+definition&oq=tufa+&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0i512l9.12045j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8>
often
forms on the surface. But at the Large Raised Fen, they did not.


Pete and Lyn also found *Cladium mariscoides* - the rare twig rush. (It’s
not a rush, but more closely related the “saw-grass” of the Florida
Everglades, which, by the way, is not a grass.) He counted 293 blooming
stems - more than he'd ever seen. Rare. Obscure. Precious.



Friends of Kishwaukee Fen will watch and study these plants as we seek to
restore full health to the fen ecosystem.



*Five bonus photos*


<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKgvj1uxKgVQUCOYWecHvP-KGzyrFzi5KgnoI-_g__AeB1DOl-5lHHcWSkVYCTZNfHcsWqBPz19wtA-3NMW_MdD0Hek33Q3TnaLM9Mqw-PaZRxAzP2QxN9_DoT5VtBRJ0uksiFrK7Qr91Ies0sXI7qBcs5CxqkcdwCW_WFBHmKTZ65n6CtGfMazgoiLQ/s2821/Arrow%20grass_7335.jpeg>
Slender bog arrow-grass blooming in Kish Fen (with some sedge seeds
ripening, lower right)



<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIRmkbYPPnExutY6D0MI8zhg1szhn9i1hUtmvce-xIFnJaoLeJiLDUqlubRHguvw6oEX38cinZITKiNNfUH-ybT_llc9uxZLlrsZgTHvoDiVyebOd_1WaZ_PX68MzFw8hnAdwt8Nc2lmnKSizz3XuYoaCyyXZhzMqRameqc2pOcDvtVbvYm5KBkIPanw/s4032/IMG_8442.jpeg>
Stewards last fall - cutting and burning brush that had shaded and killed a
section of the hanging fen.
(We do this work in fall and winter. Much more is needed.)


<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO_83XU3faC8xJiLvjV_Xj3aww54qXXYZJU285A6v37wnpISet6r1viZszCv3QOiCrkDHF3K3tkNhmtSVvhpqsWNDDm3aF-VPTVuxuVaZRbEWWoTUNBDRjiZTV2nrNW5TDOFNgjIkms-NYYv1zMMR7Zeoanc3PnPkG8qOTyOreQ6qxWFsRzl5yKsNDvw/s4032/Reb%20gestures.jpeg>

Rebeccah Hartz makes a point during a stewardship
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/03/controlled-burn-at-kishwaukee-fen-march.html>
planning session.

(The Fen needs experts, brain, brawn, new people. We need all.)



<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRK8tcbj9f573ef6gyomwJQFqozCr_bZZvGBaNd4-R28r0m0yTtSpC748BewqSa23WlYZnUc8PgExhQD55Ec8K0RJPupgQP60LatEJzzA1j_ufetdNauky2QcHKtZcq6QHsuMCYcEMBjbdNoiV9GpymuouBUC0-sBPjrR9gg0018yeKD7N-3HtsOl4DA/s4032/Allagash%20tending_8896.jpeg>
Youth steward, Allagash Rosulek, tending the fire. Friends work all year
long.



<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSqOquyRtoZB2OBwq4JRvigFuIR6bQ_YYM8WI4coBMQkqgQlOiASybg4JpDNWmygMp-zDM2VDiZYZP9wSSG9qXkYkM1zcprjocYEKvBmAQqe1Ox_tN8U7Tc-pffmLU0crBFGSNt-yCJFIZg39lOB5e6nnolNd_5F5HoMO1ib-0HpIuEYWu4Rd_ST7B3A/s1948/er%20Lob%20kal_8279.jpeg>
Kalm’s lobelia. Another rare fen species. There are so many. All lovable.



*Acknowledgements*



Technical expert *Pete Jackson* led the monitoring of the arrow-grasses.
Above and beyond being a professional, Pete has long contributed as a
volunteer steward and citizen scientist.



Pete’s arrow-grass monitoring colleague is *Carolyn “Lyn” Campbell*, who
has been on the McHenry County Conservation District board and currently
serves as a member of the McHenry County Board.



Credit for supervising care of Kishwaukee Fen Nature Preserve goes to
the Village
of Lakewood <https://www.village.lakewood.il.us/> and the Illinois Nature
Preserves Commission <https://www2.illinois.gov/dnr/INPC/Pages/default.aspx>
.



Heroes of on-the-ground stewardship are the wholehearted local volunteers
of Friends of Kishwaukee Fen
<https://www.facebook.com/KishFenFriends/> alongside
the generous statewide volunteers of Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves
<https://friendsofillinoisnaturepreserves.org/>.



The close-up arrow-grass photo is courtesy of Picfair
<https://www.picfair.com>.


Thanks to *Pete Jackson* and *Rebeccah Hartz* for helpful edits.

Natural Ways to Kill a Tree
<http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/06/natural-ways-to-kill-tree.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 01 Jul 2022 05:44 AM PDT

*Girdling and Fire *

Stewards and managers of oak ecosystems know their biggest problem is the
dark. Too many shrubs and trees. Our oaks and their thousands of
interdependent animal and plant species represent more than 5 million years
of evolution. These fire-dependent ecosystems comprise our richest wooded
lands. But they’re losing species – dying a death of shade.



Knee-jerk environmentalism deplores killing any tree. Many well-meaning
folks initially resist thinning. Other people argue that cutting trees is
indeed natural. Certainly beavers do it. But in this post we’ll focus on
two ways biodiversity stewards achieve standing dead trees – girdling and
fire.



*A Very Short Case Study*:

One of the finest oak woodlands in northern Illinois was acquired at great
expense by a conservation agency. Three decades later a study showed it to
have ten times more trees - mostly not oaks. Plant and animal species,
starved of light, were dropping out. The preserve was degrading. Occasional
mild burns had not been enough for sustainability. Too late now, to solve
the problem by fire alone. Time to cut or girdle.



*Part the First: Girdling*



The basic principle behind girdling is simple: remove the phloem and leave
the xylem. If you’re like me, you once knew the meaning of those words, but
then forgot. The inside of a tree is the wood, the *xylem*, the stuff a
xylophone is made of. Wood is important to a tree, but dead. The *phloem*
is not the bark. It is a half-inch or so of living tissue that surrounds
the xylem, and it has a crucial purpose. It brings the products of
photosynthesis down from the leaves to nourish the roots.



Most trees, if you cut them down, will put up lots of shoots, from what’s
stored in the roots. (The roots send water and minerals up to the branches
and leaves through the sapwood, the outer wood, just inside the cambium.)
In time, those shoots will grow into new trunks. But if you girdle most
trees, the roots will sense that the top is still doing fine and doesn’t
need more shoots. Yet the roots will starve. Is starve too harsh a word?
The roots will age peacefully, go through the stages of life, and give up
the ghost in tranquility. No one will hear the tree fall, because it will
stand for many years as a bounty for woodpeckers, other hole nesters,
beetles, and mushrooms. A smooth transition from living to
life-giving – how beautiful is that!



<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioDl6QtlDxmliEEhhq0jaL0glt-xCoGH6U2jset6zD2EDZ2rJEmfc-YkCVm9AjgdqRUW31ysS4rO0hBlqR_ds72JSq1YuMi_WzEFjt73CebOZomjxAu2RgXNti7w6vSNVsQ7SYEf2Mq7kuZBoiInO5ZEBMSIi1U0vZHnNkHn4mkdb2KhQbl65pFMgNfA/s3339/monica%20et%20al_9422.jpeg>

Few understand either “the why” or “the how” of girdling. But some are
learning. Shown here are stewards Monica Gajdel and Charlotte Ahern at Shaw
Prairie
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/03/burn-at-shaw-prairie-march-21-2022.html>
in
Lake County.



Th next photo shows the heart of Shaw Prairie, about 100 feet west. The
major problem here is encroachment by aspen. With lack of fire, this one
tree species can destroy a rare high-quality
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/02/floristic-quality-assessment-and-plant.html>
prairie as the network of tree roots launches an army of thousands of new
trunks. Great effort for years had gone into driving the them back, but the
roots of the large aspens around the periphery sent reinforcement energy to
the dastardly invaders, and they continued to advance.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAqKtzi5OCRw_JPVUInthQxkUZRmJeUD300bMnV3O-vwRVYVLLGkTcYGLZ4qbPSHRVFwM6UVvL9iVL16YIv9BCw9unCvJdZ24IDRyJMFJV7UTW7Y7qvM771TktSMwDPhian4aHGh3pV166xsNgDPcFxZJZ2AntGQGbwvymU5E0nadyyNkdZpzjCDx9Dw/s4032/Deg%20closing%20in_8071.jpeg>

When cut and herbicided, these death-dealing little aspens have survived
thanks in part to resupply through root connections with the big aspens
behind them.


This post will focus mostly on four sites where Friends of Illinois Nature
Preserves girdle for the good. No need for herbicide, quick and easy, safer
for the stewards, good for wildlife, good for the ecosystem – girdling is
often a best approach.



We stewards and staff spend much of our winters cutting trees down and
burning them in bonfires. This too is important and good. But look at the
photo below and compute how much work was saved by girdling. Biodiversity
loss is a crisis for the planet. Do we have time to waste?

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFz5qLfrHtv0UKYXDHnx7nf9WTjCxdz-4WfV2AWPgFJUYXxPQ9y2DHx-RgOgqaOuZ0vLoYKVWfuahSc8PdioirCXeLH-frb0u0tjUdWlOe_cEyzw2a68UlAH_bQTwUqWYMyRRm6uHXzTePFHSK6DRPgJ-jTY79gTEUptLxD9z9OSbahKQ6gJu7T1xJoQ/s4032/Langham%20dead%20oakIMG_9587.jpeg>
The photo shows a piece of Langham Island Nature Preserve
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2019/10/degradation-and-redemption-at-langham.html>
in
Kankakee County. This unique island has long been known for incredibly rare
plants. Native Americans likely burned it regularly for their own purposes,
and a rare ecosystem remnant came along for the ride. Conservationists
started to cut and burn in the 1980s. But they didn’t burn enough, and
trees and brush grew so dense that most of what was special about the
island faded out … or barely hung on. When Friends of Langham Island
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2014/10/myth-or-miracle-unexpected-news-of.html>
came on the scene in 2014, their biggest challenge was too much wood. They
cut enough in a few key places to demonstrate that rare nature here could
recover. So far so good. But, decades after restoration had begun, more
than half the island still lay the gloom of unnatural shade.

Belatedly, we girdled. I count thirty trees girdled in the photo. Compare
that number to three trees we saved (bur and white oaks, marked with blue
and white flagging). A shocking slaughter? But an oak savanna thrives best
with fewer, scattered trees. The rare plants and animals here needed more
light. Reproduction of the oaks requires more light. (In other parts of the
island we left more shade – or cut all trees to restore prairie. There
are many considerations, and variation itself is part of nature.)


One more dramatic fact about the photo above. We had marked those few young
oaks years ago. By the time our work reached here, the one in the
foreground was already dead. Shade kills. Let there be light.



Let’s review in more detail why girdling may be a good approach:


- Herbiciding may be needed for many purposes, but we prefer to minimize
it in the natural ecosystem. Girdling uses the trees' natural processes to
replace herbicide.
- Especially when there are thousands of invading stems close together,
there is a risk that enough herbicide to kill the invaders will kill many
of the surrounding grasses and wildflowers also. We worry about that risk
most in the finest, rarest areas.
- In many preserves, old standing dead trees are missing. They're an
important part of a natural ecosystem. To thrive for wildlife, woodlands
and savannas often need more standing dead trees than they have today.
- There is urgency. Most nature preserves don’t have either the budget
or staff that they need. They never will. The needs are too great. Bigger
budgets, more staff, and more volunteers are needed – and more efficient
methods. It’s not good enough to argue that “we’ll just keep plugging
away.” More and more priceless biodiversity is being lost day after day,
year after year, decade after decade. Girdling speeds the recovery.
- It’s safer. You girdle and leave before the limbs and trees fall. In
most cases, the tree never does fall. Instead it disassembles: little
branches drop first, then fungus rots, and finally, dried out, standing or
fallen trunks burn up during a controlled fire.

While “the old snag” is standing, the ecosystem appreciates the diversity
of fungi, bacteria, lichens, grubs that eat wood, and woodpeckers drilling
holes. Animals that raise families in those holes include flying squirrels,
great crested flycatchers, eastern bluebirds, wood ducks, screech owls,
chickadees, titmice, wrens, white-footed mice, all the woodpeckers of
course, and much more.



*How to*



It is by far easiest and most successful to girdle during the “period of
bark slip” – late spring and early summer. At this time, the cambium is
growing fastest, the phloem will pop off with a little help. (The cambium
is the thin, weak, creative layer that divides the xylem from the phloem –
and which generates both.)



With a saw or axe, make two cuts around the trunk about six inches apart.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Iy6nnioCytlGF4H7640zkfWjCwCabMlyZEq3LpdXudTcsmiN8b6XftMy32f8KNc3EBkmy-pjycbQ1Dx6WFwJBah_-hR4lkOY6CqdN-x1XYqtmIQdMLOFY57h4p2wIg0ZNiQ_uOmsC4tOMdM3VqciQG8Q9PgacRlqirkVehc0oba5gnqhhZFYVFWgSQ/s714/Nelson%20drawing%20two%20trees.jpg>
Then with a hammer or the back of an axe, knock out the phloem, which may
even pop off in one piece if the bark is “slippy” enough. Do not try to
shave off the phloem, even though it might seem easier, because it’s then
difficult not to leave strips of connecting phloem or cambium, in which
case the trunk will recover, and you’ll have wasted your time.



*Special cases*



*Aspen* is an especially good tree for girdling because any other approach
is likely to result in monstrous re-sprouting from far-flung roots, no
matter how much herbicide you apply. In my experience, isolated stands of
large aspens were entirely killed with no re-sprouting by simple
girdling. If the aspen already have a lot of root sprouts, this approach
does not kill them. But it does prevent the large trees from over-riding
the herbicide. Someone might also ask: “Why kill aspen at all? It’s a
beautiful and native tree.” That’s true. In large preserves it may play an
important role in the fire dynamic. But for some remnant savannas and
prairies it has become a lethal invader and needs control.



*Black locust,* *silver poplar*, and *tree-of-heaven* don’t respond well to
girdling. Unlike most trees, for unknown reasons, they put up massive
root-sprouts. These species can be better controlled by regular cutting and
stump treating, or by frilling, in which you make deep cuts into the tree
and apply herbicide. Even then, you may get lots of resprouts, which then
will be best controlled by foliar spray.



*Buckthorn* can be successfully girdled, but it’s rarely worth it. Girdled
buckthorns often put up a circle of sprouts under the girdle, which can be
knocked off easily, and then the tree dies. But buckthorns are often so
dense that all the dead and falling trees make such a mess that it’s hard
to facilitate ecosystem recovery, so we cut and burn them.



*Follow up*



In years following the girdling, sometimes no follow up is needed. The tree
dies; the limbs gradually fall off; the trunk bit by bit flakes and
crumbles; and the remains are just nature. In other cases, the dead tree
catches fire during a controlled burn, and it goes out in a blaze of glory.



But dead trees can need clean-up. All trees die, sooner or later, and may
become a problem. If a girdled tree presents a danger to a trail or other
heavily used area, most managers would cut it before it starts to weaken,
as with any dead tree.



If a great many trees girdled at the same time fall and make a colossal
mess at the same time, as sometimes happens, at least two approaches are
possible. *One approach* is to cut them all up and burn then in bonfires,
as we might have done in the first place. This takes time, but there are
still advantages. The dry wood is lighter and burns faster and cleaner.
Herbicide expense and damage were avoided. And the woodpeckers and their
friends had a great time for a while. *Another approach* is to just let
them rot or burn and, in the meantime, explain to horrified people what’s
going on.



*Part the Last: Kill by Fire*



This part will be short, not because it’s simple or obvious, but because I
didn’t think people would read or do much with this part of the post.
Killing big trees with fire takes a hotter burn than most sites get. It’s
easy to manage a fire that will top-kill saplings. It’s more difficult to
manage a fire powerful enough to kill large trees. Many burn bosses
successfully do it. Over the millions of years that prairie and oak
woodland biodiversity evolved, the fires that spread and raged most
extensively over the landscape occurred on days too hot, dry, and windy for
most fires today. That why we sometimes have to cut and girdle.



*Bonus photos and details*

Below, a former landscape of prairie, fen, and sedge meadow had been over
time invaded by clumps of box elders, buckthorns, cherries, and the likes:
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv73ShE6Y8ov2dg7sW3BnTT-fl7RjSxVxDgPzVXj3kGx5RJtchKb4keasgKyFXp5I692EY9UpYfxCSYfNZy4TvgxwRh1f3kyMHiATj2A5Zv9ZGN4i2dg5FdfyLBc1r-dC797cDFrglALLfFSntmLp-RK97ennckEcqRFavrdjWRxUlKZyYgZYpNV1jpw/s4032/dark%20as%20a%20dungeon_8376.jpeg>

Friends of Kishwakkee Fen
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/03/controlled-burn-at-kishwaukee-fen-march.html>
nature preserve first made a plan,

then cut the buckthorns out of the way last winter.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHMigE3z5IpzP_UiLKIuqlyM72l-tcOwZx8BQEJTJPy6AALG_WCmHQb4Dpy3OzYMAU-e-BViHjnCA6OCogZVWwGQHUUgW58MV-hVGMvTZCgslaY24WrE8s49stN7Fu06gR9wwk4z4Bont7mHicO0MNG9RwQ9ESVzih_pmHjdz8pp8hTF20OQOvLVyvkg/s1450/Kish_6271.JPG>
For the bigger trees, this summer Ben Davies (right) saws parallel cuts
through the phloem.
Next, like Tom Ziomek (left) he'll use a hammer to knock out the sawed
strip.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip9nQgw--yv0PV0YgG53xChSN2Wcon8_KUOMjD_9MYCzoDrs5B5v0gLr_eUBOPerDzswQ6RW6uQ8UmRzTaUZA-hrfqRJbPTyBKq2IV9wCWTkn7QlFbrpYpbV3XWX2zN8S6Nd28IukmG3Xw7RSUcBsboR7KHHRR0PnLF4umqxSgpLEtmeudPPCJeFvuAg/s4032/girdles_9456.jpeg>

After quickly girdling the bigger trees in June, the stewards went on to
other priorities. During this summer, they are herbiciding the understory
buckthorn seedlings and other invasives. This fall, they’ll re-plant the
prairie that once grew here, which is expected to start off well in 2023
under a “nurse crop” of thinning trees. When the trees are dead and dried,
they'll be burned on some cold winter day. Standing dead trees in a prairie
are not a plus.



Notice above that some girdles are bright, and some are dark. The fresh
girdles stand out shockingly (or “beautifully,” according to some). Trees
girdled a week earlier have turned darker.


<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWS88oSnwLYg4iUJgiWfxsai5wZoBZxHBfIppj9DXn1qlsU2W31OydoRrq3DxWtDDpEtTAPl1gCuIxN1M5lqtplF2Ix44CJ-1tqFB5RxpTYJKrqQLz-PKA3SJk32P2aO0tubNiZgutrpAzy7L8D61LxNj43_XkoTSEkA2TWqXGAGHe7YyEIXuA6wgTsQ/s4032/Molly%20and%20sis_9582.jpeg>

At least five elements stand out in the above bonus photo from Langham.
1)To the left rear, you can see how dense the honeysuckle and other brush
had been. 2) To the right rear, you can see the one old oak that grew in an
open habitat. 3) All the others are “pole trees” which will never make a
natural ecosystem here. If you blow up this photo, you can see four small
bur or white oaks marked with blue-and-white flagging; they’re much smaller
than the pole trees and would have died soon without help from stewards.
Some oaks flagged a few years earlier died before cutting or girdling
liberated them. The surviving oaks are unnaturally tall, thin, and weak.
Opening up this area by girdling gives them a better chance to grow
stronger trunks and broader limbs, as such oaks normally would. But if they
start to break or fall over, we may cut the tops (above deer-browse level)
and let them fill out as would be more natural for an oak. 4) Some
understory grasses and wildflowers have begun to recover; mostly they are
woodland plants that have invaded during the time of shade; other species
are being seeded in from more open parts of the island; a few species are
recovering from the fire-liberated seed bank (but they won't survive if
it's too dark). This more gradual process may lessen the chance that
aggressive species like tall goldenrod will take over. 5) Stewards Molly
Bilderback-Ulrich and her sister Ally can do this powerful work efficiently
… while others pull invasive weeds and gather seeds. They found that 3
people could girdle 23 trees in 2 hours.



<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7dtJjE4S00Kad3ttap26s6pOIGjXI7D2Kine8t8iFUygaoHc_o8Dg5PlOnPCF_WTAQWMj9jboQuIbNUlJasVqn6WZNU2CUD0nnVgA4dkP-LUpEXxi5BZl7KYFQop-PCwxWIgLiPp1XEm3xpL_1RCEAFMMqutK40pOjH_sFIYVw6772IATNopHr3BbFA/s3264/girdled%20maples.jpg>

On a great 2018 tour of Braidwood Savanna
<http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2018/06/braidwood-sands.html>, Will
County Forest Preserves’ land manager Floyd Catchpole showed us the above
sedge meadow. It had been degrading in the shade of invading silver maples.
Staff not only girdled the maples shown above but also many over-dense oaks
in the sand savanna visible behind the meadow.


<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBsf7RSNw-9kQ1PuB1_dlcOJlBL1rfC7NvUBarBNnJMU0sQ1pqfcH9QupEvx_ays20jMftbpmjirOefB3ek9zXIbnAxidCQV8Smki6NtEluE7mpme9PBGgX2odWSzeJT1plOI5olC2sAXK2JwKTIdxWGTXJMb7b4pfE-tPJHQF3Cu3sXEZYd_dT6VXvw/s3264/girdle%20oak%20woodland_6018.jpeg>

Pole sugar maples girdled among bur and white oaks in Somme Woods
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2018/02/principles-of-somme-woods-conservation.html>.
Note the almost complete lack of grasses and wildflowers.


<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2nX3WhgFL4QacATeATRmnWAkkxM0lh_hoWULMzip4gFQ8boAeQgN01eb-Yjnh89BbnZhsAQ2O0DEsWCKaEIbXtxRC8jLknAboEt7WrUj-ZOpb2h189XAsBK6c5cFBEJTYphvzj6r8eBaoWkaVsdIulwwmBrfWjOCJ29A6In1-ShdJATsgg8-IDmpzvg/s3264/July%2027-2018.jpg>

Young but big cottonwoods around a pond that had been in an open savanna
landscape in a 1938 aerial Somme Woods photo. These were girdled by staff
with chainsaws.



The options and decisions can get complicated. Consider this Somme Prairie
Grove
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-somme-prairie-grove-experiment.html>
photo:
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Jzx243cfraFNQ4Hu_PX210Wuz_BW_lTeXWaumfLc1SPgBWRQyXTrvqy4UQqPsKn88vU5obLHqaI4M3ujVTm1eHilKA6H9DGDhtUmSb8CYMa39AGSQs9HQceFDEyKWiFZwiFJ4kReypjA9dvyGq9g3bgOlpYWJZcBxlEONriQChWDRTp29nEeaAbWfA/s4032/bonus%20old%20burs%20in%20back.jpeg>

Should this beautiful shagbark hickory have been “a keeper” or “a girdler”?
Trees are far apart here, and shagbark is a natural part of an oak
woodland. It would not be unreasonable to retain this tree and let the
fires decide if it should go. In high fuel areas, hot controlled burns
often kill hickories. But this area is receiving intensive restoration.
Sadly, the original vegetation at this spot was killed utterly by dense
shade, cleared years before. Restoration depends on painstakingly gathered
rare seed. We don’t want to waste it. The 1839 Public Land Survey shows
this area to be on the line between prairie to the west and savanna to the
east. Thus, any conservative surviving fungi, invertebrates, bacteria etc.
would be adapted to prairie or savanna - not woodland.



The above photo looks east. The girdled hickory and the bigger red oak next
to it are relatively young trees here. The two trees in the background tell
the real story. They have huge horizontal limbs reaching west. They stood
at the western edge of trees here; the hickory stands in former prairie.
The next photo will show our same hickory, but looking west.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUCO7olprCMK3OlXQBpcNr1xUaRbnk0I1JDuqI7YzKad291UlGB11meDRzE345oDGj-RDmHDC0CvtpY3daxscX1G0Niwc9c5Boy2KnOXBK1zEB8SWfpEQkdbP7YlRHl1tAWGO38VYhwwujaiAmMs7AjkxrRu2HuOjrqTCG8Cg9dW61xEWabNSQ7EuwIg/s4032/looking%20northwest_9609.jpeg>
In this direction, all was prairie. Those tall, thin trees grew that way
among others in the absence of fire (most since cleared by stewards). They
are not adapted to the biodiversity restoration under way here. They've
been left in place for now because there were higher priorities. Perhaps
over the years and decades they’ll remain and develop an okay relationship
with the gradually improving prairie and savanna around them. Perhaps not.
We don’t have extra time to think and plan for them at the moment. But this
foreground tree was adjacent to an area of recovering high quality. Fuller
light was needed. As it dies, we will scythe the dense woodland sunflower
and tall goldenrod around it, to save many semi-smothered species that are
struggling to gain a toehold. (They include wide-leaved panic grass, yellow
pimpernel, baneberry, and rue anemone to the savanna east – and Leiberg’s
panic grass, cowbane, Canada milkvetch, and Culver’s root of the
savanna-edge prairie to the west.)

As stewards watch results and adjust the plan (as the ongoing process here
is beyond detailed predictions), we may work to facilitate prairie in this
spot (no shade) or savanna (some shade). The decision may depend in part on
whether especially significant species here seem to need more of one
habitat or the other. As the world turns. But we’ll be inspired to do our
best by the success of older restoration on the back side of the low
glacial hill you see on the right. There, young bur oaks thrive among very
high-quality herb vegetation. Thus, two last photos, the first taken on the
other side of that low hill, in an area of restored high quality, looking
west:



<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgApXSteXFKlUd1nD7d4uffyOiiuXBFe61-DZRV847ih-P2o0Py1T1ZNpYY794rumySfyP4LClZMmKGA2Vdpj4ZLUhFaKWeML9MTq7F8YNrKBeJzux5VmGs-XsnWBwsdrc0k95kvMU2do9OjAHoqyktYNFsm24Ww7GEEmVbqUVMTSOuz6bl-5gkaaOEWA/s4032/looking%20northwest_9685.jpeg>

Second, a photo taken on this side of that hill, on the edge of the bur oak
woodland:

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0dGCE2_-wjcC8hdDp6hJbdR30eO-3RprQBg6ck_VO2ca3drA004H_dYbwSIMGP86tePLJxcMCmUJkGjkRRlHEkeuLPiNTrTeZ3vOJvQd_Z8RpTJJX2pQanjtMBKeA_pgvFHwfHOeP700768J2ephk6SzNHAcuyBCLBeOV6LRBKso8Hw-oJ6oqilE3Dw/s3264/Summer%20Flora%20under%20burIMG_7501.jpeg>
This was all bare ground under buckthorn. The herb flora restoration
started "from scratch." All that was here were the old oaks, the soil
biota, and some invertebrates.

None of the herb species identifiable in in the above two photos were in
this area when the restoration began. Such recovery of ecosystem health is
what inspires us stewards.



*Bonus eight-second video*


Okay, it's goofy, but fun, and what we managed to record. Emma Leavens asks
a significant question: Instead of whacking off the phloem, she tries
pulling it off, and she asks Molly if that's okay.


Molly assures her that it is. Technically, it's "shaving" the phloem off
tends not to work. That leaves filaments through which the phloem can grow
back; a year later you'll have a whole new phloem, and the problem tree
will be fine. What you want is a clean break at the weak cambium layer.
That's why it's generally best to wack it during the period of bark slip
... and then knock it off or peel.


*Bonus diagrams and a sort of a cartoon *

old drawings by S. Packard

from a 1991 Nature Conservancy stewards handbook

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZu5gBIVGjfpzRS_-23LyIuSiD49kYSnX-SGrLVqsjCSPO4qMpZAEwXIPqRjGUldmlmKuSpRiR7dHIi2RCNLxmW8m4FojnNE7AkBOmAQX6lP9y8uJrP3-n8cdKSPiXD_RKQjG5HWpapFQQ5IvaFu8hNhWD0X6lSVtmdO3jk37fND-wWoGzaoABTKekUw/s2193/girdling%20TNC%20handbook%20diagram.jpg>



*Additional info on the sites*


*Kishwaukee Fen Nature Preserve:*

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2021/09/introducing-fen-in-need.html

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2021/10/kish-fen-kick-off-sunday-oct-17.html

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/03/controlled-burn-at-kishwaukee-fen-march.html


*Langham Island (Kankakee River Nature Preserve):*

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2014/08/survivor-langham-island.html

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2014/10/myth-or-miracle-unexpected-news-of.html

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2019/10/degradation-and-redemption-at-langham.html

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2020/08/langham-island-rebirth-of-rebirth.html

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2020/09/september-12th-langham-island-update.html

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2020/11/langham-island-update-and-plans-nov-5.html


*Shaw Woods and Prairie (Skokie River Nature Preserve):*

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-diversity-and-promise-of-shaw-woods.html

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2021/11/anatomy-of-new-community.html

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/03/burn-at-shaw-prairie-march-21-2022.html

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/05/may-14-2022-shaw-woods-what-we-did-and.html


*The Somme Preserves:*


Somme Prairie Grove

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2017/07/july-9-2017-restoration-tour-of-somme.html

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-somme-prairie-grove-experiment.html

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2020/10/a-celebration-of-vestal-grove-study.html



Somme Woods

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-unexpected-discovery-of-somme-woods.html

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2018/02/principles-of-somme-woods-conservation.html

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2018/04/breeding-bird-revival-after-habitat.html


*Acknowledgements*


Fundamental credit goes to the *stewards* and *staff* and *interested
supporting constituents* of the land-owning and conservation agencies:


All sites - Illinois Nature Preserves Commission
<https://www2.illinois.gov/dnr/INPC/Pages/default.aspx>

All sites - Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves
<https://friendsofillinoisnaturepreserves.org/>

Braidwood Dunes - Will County Forest Preserves
<https://www.reconnectwithnature.org/>

Kishwaukee Fen - Village of Lakewood <https://www.village.lakewood.il.us/>

Langham Island - Illinois Department of Natural Resources
<https://www2.illinois.gov/dnr/conservation/Pages/default.aspx>

Shaw Woods and Prairie - Lake Forest Open Lands Association
<https://www.lfola.org/>

Somme Preserves - Cook County Forest Preserves <https://fpdcc.com/>


Girdling diagram by Paul Nelson from the *Tallgrass Restoration
Handbook* (Packard
and Mutel, eds.)

Credit for proofing and editing go to Rebeccah Hartz, Jess Sladek, Andrew
Rosulek and Molly Bilderback-Ulrich.

Wisconsin Discovery May Raise Standards for Oak Woodland Conservation
<http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/06/wisconsin-discovery-may-raise-standards.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 21 Jun 2022 07:35 AM PDT

The site was richer than any of us had seen. Do we need to revise our
understanding of the potential natural biodiversity of white oak woodlands?
Almost all sites we conserve and protect may be badly degraded. Our goals
for management and recovery may be much too low.

The Wisconsin site, Army Lake Woodland, was recognized by botanist Dan
Carter <https://prairiebotanist.com/2020/11/24/army-lake-oak-woodland/> to
have a substantially more diverse and conservative herbaceous community
than he found anywhere else in southeastern Wisconsin, perhaps in Wisconsin
as a whole. Rare conservative and other uncommon species are dense and
diverse under an oak canopy that ranges from perhaps 60 to 80%. This site
is now being used by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR)
and others to develop new oak woodland assessment tools.

The site is only about 1.6 acres and was formerly a semi-island. If this
find is as important as it seems, a likely reason is that a tamarack swamp
separated it from adjacent uplands, and for that reason it escaped the
heavy grazing that degraded the biodiversity of most woodlands. The
intervening marsh is narrow enough and flammable enough that prehistoric
fires could well have spread across or jumped it. But the site has not been
known to burn in recent years. The dense diversity may have been sufficient
to slow the invasion by brush. But it’s small. And .3 acres of it are now a
boat launch. More than half of the remainder is now brushy with a mix of
invasive and possibly naturally occurring young trees and shrubs. An
anticipated program of restoration management may yield additional species,
knowledge, and insights. (*See Endnote 1 for the full species list, as it
stands.)

Most woodlands today, if they have any quality at all, impress people who
care about biodiversity by their dense displays of *spring* *ephemeral* flora.
In contrast, Army Lake Woodland has a dense, diverse spring, summer, and
fall flora that is principally *not ephemeral*. In May, the dominant
vegetation includes Penn sedge, yellow stargrass, robin’s-plantain, running
savanna sedge, wood betony, blue-eyed grass, low false bindweed, sky-blue
aster, and wood rush. (See Endnote 2 for scientific names of species
mentioned here.)
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbF78DMMAfb96PSyOcvSCYSTZDiPLQLDq_hl2y_SSoEcq6yAso_FGWKt7rtbUa4P3D6Q3Rg5-TYzh3APTlHjF2j2SkPwtpaP_B9egxrtD_8Mj1vxkZPDsGGBvuLnKYvKEZ6X4jjCziXRZ8fxrXc7K9AFE9IavK_AqbWV0w89VtJXO5AIqkVAaIDH7Wcg/s631/Army%20Lake%20white%20oak%20woodland.jpg>

Most of the diversity on the island survives where the growth of brush has
been limited, perhaps by the intense competition of diverse grasses and
wildflowers.


<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKr2RhkEo1ova-t9E6xndrxXOm7ELgJPefWhGvMI8IkA73PYrG2urlSiMImx9EZKQKDyyViSlHSBV7LMcggj7X-C04gn8M7hXm9ZvxPHg0ju3dvoLmz4uR6CrGJXUj7EGtNgAc_vGqex5_3Og44SO9Y2U_RCIa9v5cekbmeif43SxIhnxgHT5c780X6Q/s635/Army%20Lake%20Island%20healthy%20oak%20woodlandsavanna%20ground%20layer.jpg>

An unexpected density and diversity of non-ephemeral spring, summer, and
fall flora suggests the likely survival of rare invertebrates, fungi,
microbes, and other biota. In this mid-May photo, the woodland floor is a
solid carpet of yellow stargrass, robin’s-plantain, forked aster, wood
betony, low false bindweed, sky-blue aster, wood rush, Penn sedge, running
savanna sedge, and blue-eyed grass. (2016 photo by Dan Carter)


Though this important site is owned by WDNR, it was partly bulldozed in
2019 for a boat launch. An environmental assessment had focused on the
presence of forked aster, a Threatened species in Wisconsin. The assessment
by Dan Carter for the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission
also emphasized the unique very-high-quality and rarity of the oak woodland
community. Perhaps there was a communication failure, or perhaps the
significance of such a woodland was under-appreciated.

Looking toward the future, DNR staff and others recently visited this and
other sites as they considered revising the standards by which woodlands
are evaluated and prioritized for biodiversity conservation. For the draft
evaluation form they worked on, see Endnote 3. There was a consensus that
this was an important woods, deserving brush control and prescribed fire.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHLT6lrVfaWKw8b07sYlZ4S9KdfBa3zQwMgxwyFQ5zCTgaSoMnLToaWUhw34FM8sEWxTSV5qcN-kxGhgqSpLHdVyVxNg2Us0gkaU305HQDqhevXx5M5_iixntnMMfoKziSiYzS-x95lIvnFvd8DyWpIz8Z7Z756-0YClf6GnUmerWwBNIlCrKCxp6H3g/s4032/discussion_9603.jpeg>
Braving a light rain, participants in the re-evaluation included, clockwise
from the foreground (back view, in red) Ryan O’Conner (Inventory
Coordinator, DNR), Dan Carter (The Prairie Enthusiasts), Brian Miner
(Southeast Wisconsin Land Steward, The Nature Conservancy), Matt Zine
(Habitat and Management Specialist, DNR), and Pete Duerkop (District
Ecologist, DNR).

If you’re tempted to take a look at this site, I don’t blame you. But
please don’t trample this tiny, vulnerable, precious remnant. You can
pretty well see what’s important through the fence that was erected to
protect it from boat launch and beach traffic. Half the island is unfenced,
worth looking at, of lesser quality, and is a similar and very restorable
remnant. If you have a serious reason to study the flora and can’t restrain
yourself from slipping through the fence, a little fishermen’s trail runs
from the fence to the east side of the island. Perhaps some people could
walk carefully on that?

Considering what many perceive to be the importance of the site, this blog
hopes to cover the impact of anticipated upcoming brush control, burning,
and other conservation efforts.

Other views of the rich flora of Army Lake Woodland are below.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1sRaUKoqgQZU1sZCn6kwVaIRzEWhft7D1ZDNHFYsWb_vqaCioe23KXpZz-lIgyYL03ILIMhqnvE2BhSWAlsDzom23neuxfOrpJGui-jR-Jj5ApwqGUfe_PLVLS0XeQNm90S-ehBDO3scN8rzZHBTbiKvjF_mc50VT-Kqje8UuVX20gVxhtVimQ72okQ/s4032/wood%20pea.SS.betony.geranium_9544.jpeg>Blooming
in the center of this photo is the formerly common wood pea with its
cream-colored blossoms. Also in bloom here are wood betony (yellow),
shooting star (white), and wild geranium (pink).

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhg4XEbCmLrkmySdtD4ejVXDHsxQMi6y8LSnDu-HsFogMMv-HceMMdZc12OFYaabSe0tj9fkyt0ypwDP5DeMVdmO-tgpCjrregenoFSFqpxxK__W_26QKTIthnFM9xQ2isyTRQmNgykL8Q7PnHMpIs0suwYfMEjuWEW75PJGLhCO285ThCKxNwA4vNcA/s1375/Vic%20car.Sis%20alb.%20Luz%20mul.%20Kri%20bif.JPEG>
In bloom, Carolina vetch, blue-eyed grass, and wood rush. In bud:
two-flowered Cynthia. Prominent foliage: shooting star, bastard toadflax,
and wood betony.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIb2nCO2SIMsAWNmRdx8fqjPDvuqB6IuGEeofkwSdndSk-tmVntEHnstHeOFF1VqobXiar_Fz6FjK1cH8NXTO-xs0jnl-BB_tkYnpgT0T6hwV4V9DX_sYK5dyEZXOE2l8qz0I7-iN3kOwFktdZqcwSmZgob7cX3RUdZMYCCHEiD13cu9EFrts5zkX-xQ/s4032/bracken_9537.jpeg>
Blooming: yellow star-grass and robin’s-plantain. In bud upper right:
Maryland sanicle. Identifiable by their foliage: bastard toadflax, woodland
milkweed, NewJersey tea, northern hawkweed, showy goldenrod, white lettuce,
false Solomon’s-seal, sedges, a white oak seedling, and bracken fern.

Note on bracken and soils: Many ecologists these days expect bracken on
sandy soils, but Army Lake Woodland soil, where exposed by bulldozing, is
not sandy. Sand savannas and woodland remnants are much more common than on
rich soils, perhaps because invasives take over more slowly there. Soils
exposed by the bulldozing at Army Lake are not sandy. The biodiversity of
rich soils survived here for other reasons.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZY03Wq6pPCdIUynEnQExYEjnByiCdrpDm9WGHu25P8Yj8TRZWSZWfDAbxyTHtYUX6-ZhK3RPbY9tiiMaAQG7Qkli0KdJy7SFobV7-EDfaYDSNQPa28uhF_xeK-S3-rjtO6wZvgyF8R5diVZ123H7nnepYnHiZUGPlL-N5SYBqzqU4I6mRwZxmsZJuPA/s4032/VIEW%20THROUGH%20THE%20FENCE_9543.jpeg>
Viewed through the fence that now somewhat protects the woods are alumroot,
shooting star, blue-eyed grass, wild geranium, and pale vetchling. In seed
on right is a formerly-blooming dandelion; it's here because the site gets
random trampling stress; it would be great to see that minimized.

*More references, if you're interested*

A fine presentation on savannas and woodlands by Dan Carter
<https://twitter.com/dryspikesedge>

In that presentation, Dan offers the summary below from Veldman et al
<https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1890/140270>. It
summarizes characteristics of ancient grassland ecosystems from a paper
that focuses principally on the tropics. But it offers principles that may
apply to our less-well-studied remnants as well.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgavDSDU69bLY0tN1yGUnOJe2t-4byl6g3mwAbhOktsZDqSLJiQ2QqkP0AKnQ0GT1AslYkUnUXACTyMucy_Faf6HEJJ8q7WEXLtgkR2uaBgLRYcEiJ07OTV3CUawiKUJWWe0Ew3DJX4HmKIE4PHJQfGnO9x12WLnDli35FcZCg24Wzi9s5bvDX_8bw6uw/s1472/Screen%20Shot%202022-06-19%20at%2011.20.49%20AM.png>

Three of the many posts on this blog that explore similar questions in
Illinois remnants and restoration:
https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/06/hypoxis-experiment-succeeds-in-ecosystem.html
https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2020/10/a-celebration-of-vestal-grove-study.html
https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-somme-prairie-grove-experiment.html

*Endnote*

A longer, more nuanced, and less objective account of the story of Army
Lake Woods
<https://vestalgrove.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-unexpected-discovery-of-real-oak.html>
is on the companion Vestal Grove blog. That account also includes a Plant
<https://vestalgrove.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-unexpected-discovery-of-real-oak.html>Species
List
<https://vestalgrove.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-unexpected-discovery-of-real-oak.html>
as Endnote 5.


*Acknowledgements*

This post was written by Stephen Packard (this blog's editor) and by Dan
Carter of The Prairie Enthusiasts <https://www.theprairieenthusiasts.org>,
a highly-respected organization that acquires land, provides stewardship,
and advocates for the biodiversity.




Hypoxis Experiment Succeeds – in the Ecosystem
<http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/06/hypoxis-experiment-succeeds-in-ecosystem.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 14 Jul 2022 05:49 AM PDT

Yellow stargrass (Hypoxis hirsuta) is a conservative
<#m_-4830688678267227895_> prairie and savanna species. Once ubiquitous, it
is now largely limited to remnant ecosystems. When we planted over 150
mature, dormant roots (corms) in Somme Prairie Grove in 2013, our
expectations were modest. Experience taught us that small, conservative
species like Hypoxis often fail to thrive in restoration.

There is reason to believe that some little, obscure species may have
outsize influence on overall ecosystem function (see Endnote 1). If so,
Hypoxis may be one of those key species.

Our original hypotheses included the hope that, if our transplants of this
"high quality" species could survive in a degraded restoration area, in
time they would self-seed into their surroundings. For seven years, this
hypothesis seemed not to have been borne out.

In 2022, we have learned of Hypoxis:


- It matured to flowering from seed after 8 growing seasons.
- It reproduced best among diverse, not-rank, conservative associates.
- Reproduction often occurred many feet away from the original plant,
indicating it happened by seed, not from corm division.
- In rank vegetation, many planted corms survived and flowered but did
not reproduce.
- Individual Hypoxis plants can thrive for at least 15 years.

We will briefly discuss below why some of these lessons *in the ecosystem*,
side-by-side with others, could add up to something “big.” We will also
argue that this sort of “messy” approach to ecosystem research can
sometimes be more useful to day-to-day conservation than more "hard
scientific” efforts.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR-teB5zxqJmSWhikL2GkM8AzJ7HVTn7tkog9w2ag-b3oI7FTHW0M5oJ6Oe5_GhgCG2RWUzO_83T_iXGIOSXeyWAhYiNy1J3jY8rvRZ6rtCU7axuObrfOzyBoos13MINO-dmP4E6IaJS8AN_6OPCauR3N3U0m12JeDIMfQH_BoI-5SYg9wlf0aUkAB_g/s4032/transect_9437.jpeg>

A higher-quality portion of “Transect L” in 2022. Yellow flags mark where
Hypoxis had been planted on each side of the path - and this year the centers
of the fifteen plots that we searched for new plants.

But first, the sweet facts.


- 2013: we inoculated much of Somme Prairie Grove with mature corms of
Hypoxis. For more details on the beginning of this experiment, click
here.
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2019/06/yellow-star-grass-hypoxis-hirsuta.html>

- 2019: we located 148 of those plants, where we planted them, in
transects, many along footpaths, ten meters apart. But we found no evidence
of reproduction, either vegetative or from seed.
- 2020: we rechecked 10 plots and found five additional original plants
in bloom, but still with no reproduction.
- 2022: we re-sampled those 10 plus another 5 plots and found that 13 of
them now "all at once" showed blooming reproduction, with from 1 to 15 new
plants each.

Since seed is being dispersed from these plants every year, we therefore
have reasons to expect that this formerly-ubiquitous, conservative prairie
and savanna species (see Endnote 2) will reproduce massively, in years and
decades ahead. It’s another step in understanding ecosystem recovery.

Perhaps these “discoveries” shouldn’t have been a surprise. But they feel
glorious. It’s so good to know new details … with numbers … and to consider
the implications.

Below are the 2019 and 2020 results of our first monitoring.

Table 1.

Survival and Reproduction among Planted Hypoxis Corms -

Six and Seven Years After Planting

A portion of Transect L – 10 plots. (In 2020, we only seem to have bothered
to monitor ten plots; for more plots monitored later, see Table 2, below.)

Plot

2019

orig

2019 repro

2020

orig

2020 repro

1

1

0

2

0

2

0

0

2

0

3

1

0

2

0

4

2

0

2

0

5

2

0

2

0

6

1

0

1

0

7

2

0

1

0

8

1

0

1

0

9

0

0

1

0

10

2

0

2

0

T

12

0

16

0

In four plots, there were one or two more Hypoxis in 2020 than in 2019. At
Plot 7, there was one fewer. It’s clear that some plants survived that had
not been found in 2019 (probably not flowering) when we conducted our first
follow-up survey.

A minor lesson here seems to be that not every plant blooms every year (or
perhaps just not when we're sampling). For our monitoring, we only recorded
blooming plants. It’s not easy to find a little grass-like plant among all
the others when it’s not blooming. Some of us wasted time trying. Not worth
it. We have stuff to do.

We monitored again this year, 2022. Why bother? It happened that, while
walking the trails, looking for other things, I got the impression that I
was seeing more Hypoxis than previously. We then monitored Transect L (the
only transect for which I could quickly find the prior data). Of the 15
plots we quickly located, we only bothered to have monitored 10 in 2020.
Does this all seem sloppy? Yes, it does. But we actually believe it most
productive for us to work in this sometimes-sloppy way – to be discussed in
more detail in a later post, “Is This Science?”

If Table 1 was the set-up, Table 2 is the punch line. “Suddenly” – nine
years after the corms were planted – reproduction was up from 0 to 63.
These “new” plants have likely been slowly growing to maturity over the
years, without wanting to use what resources they’d amassed in their
growing corms for flowers and seeds. The fact that so many plants were now
flowering for the first time suggests that there were no other nearby
plants spreading seeds here. That is, these new plants came from first
seeds produced by the originals that were planted in 2013.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR2VMD-cwbF7UFn-QgzgWmnJZag_7eehtYiQMVnnFo0VzsFn40ej57SZ0a_J8dI_TU3s5EHpFQ7-JSqrhl1Bqj1TzJGG26SPdwD4i5DrzvGKXkdcoeou5k3b2GA7rQPvOBp2XMTLHKSETEcY_5S4G6mm9_TSinF_sbZUcZKLKkmHrPXrUa0aef4yc6-g/s4032/new%20Hypoxis_9506.jpeg>
New Hypoxis in bloom along the transect

Below, for the full 15 plots of Transect L, are the 2019 results compared
to 2022. For more details about the plantings, transects, and plots, see
Endnote 4.


Table 2. Survival and Reproduction among Planted Hypoxis Corms -

Nine Years Later

Transect L – 15 plots

2019 and 2022 Reproduction and Structure

Plot

2019

orig

2019

repro

2022

orig

2022

repro

Structure

1

1

0

1

0

Rank

2

0

0

2

2

Rank

3

1

0

2

1

Mostly Rank

4

2

0

1

1

Mostly Rank

5

2

0

1

3

Diverse

6

1

0

2

6

Diverse

7

2

0

1

12

Diverse, short, sparce

8

1

0

2

5

Mixed

9

0

0

2

2

Rank

10

2

0

2

15

Diverse, low

11

0

0

2

0

Rank

12

1

0

2

2

Mixed

13

0

0

1

1

Rank

14

1

0

2

4

Mixed

15

-

-

2

9

Diverse

T

14

0

25

63





Lessons from Table 2:


- The numbers of surviving original transplants, located by their
flowers, continues to increase.
- Most reproduction occurred in five plots (6, 7, 8, 10, and 15). That
is, 47 out of 63 new plants were in those five plots. Or 74% of the
reproduction was in 33% of the plots.
- The plots showing most reproduction were the more diverse and
characterized by shorter and more conservative plants.
- One possible implication of this study is that, if we have Hypoxis
seed to sow, we might not want to waste it in rank new restoration areas.

The plots in which we counted the new plants were ten meters long and eight
meters wide. That is, these plots were centered on the original transplants
and extended five meters in both directions for approximately four meters
on either side of the path – a distance in which we could easily see those
bright little yellow flowers. Thus each plot was 80 meters square.

We first tried to assess the habitat quality in the 15 plots by various
objective means, none of which seemed practical. Thus the assessments above
are a matter of judgment. The following photos and captions may provide a
sense of how I made the judgements. The captions list conservatives
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/02/floristic-quality-assessment-and-plant.html>
present
as well as the diversity that includes somewhat-conservative species.


Transplant surviving in a Rank and Non-diverse plot shown below:
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjORl4oEsqN9B5yWhR0UktsD8v-eQJSRTGvrmOsKGOuwhY5Mivxtgyf_T0TrRPDtuCF_YnksytR90YJToFj2h_UGIhqMvMfT1LfZQijLv8heFqkT6FKwVwMm3W-X7jepyI6RAdwHPHK1QplFWA24dyXcI4yAM2fUFvCxWuto_eXi1OTz6PcgpGI6SKkSg/s4032/MM%20and%20BBS_9433.jpeg>

Rank. A solid stand of mountain mint is also heavily dominated by dense big
bluestem grass. (Notice the short lengths of stems, sectioned by voles last
summer, that cover the ground in this spring photo). By mid-summer, such
areas may be too dark for Hypoxis to do well. Over time, with burning, such
areas may become diverse as a result of broadcast seed ... or just seed
that blows in from nearby diverse areas.

New plant in diverse plot:
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVdxHhgTz1HEkeXH3iueJTPVCBaQRWVTH7yrMNTdOS1geWqeTS4xOsmnq-8Ey5wB9RzZGerLBHL-Ec36l7I2LS8g8TgIFAdnAAzuyHqr7klvAKasN57zGr_gbi3mza-GM5m3P-jCtX7cvPEMfhnBIcuZ1D30l753yecvjGp9jglpM2HXXNRdQ8oGuw0w/s4032/diverse_9452.jpeg>

Here the young Hypoxis grows among conservative prairie violet, leadplant,
and wild quinine along with rattlesnake master, compass plant, Culver’s
root, hairy green sedge (*Cx hirsutella*), big bluestem, and others.

New plants in diverse plot:
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo_LcQEYsR8O9IOP0LmrO2vsfIGzG5BrWUgauqyEynk87wwbvNZ-hDRxzEAH2csh1m3Vx-eEoXZrcveihx2HlV_NhGKozh1d8VvoUD8ZiNLsIFszi1ZeCeSYBGAq-VfZI_m3GPd4AMIal5_nMhtJPK3cy4khRzUikh4NyW-bc0y2y2UgzSSW50hTTomA/s4032/IMG_9492.jpeg>

Hypoxis reproducing among conservative violet wood sorrel, small skullcap,
and Leiberg’s panic grass along with rattlesnake master, woodland
sunflower, gray dogwood, heath aster, and others.

New plants, in a diverse area, broader view:

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpB2mVY5cvzgoyYRFiGhxC7EqYV3Gxr8fvNXuiSYBcpxf_3ltGMq63TbJESG3o8T7Hovtf6Z5PfrZt-WZihbp9k0oAb7vrkCsAwNvmI-KoZu5Tbpu8xnMsYv0XDH6Dxj4DN7ttmgwhyDV6hxeuc86Ue_lVC_CmzmA3pmx1YmgcUtkfSeTD5HcqqFJqEA/s4032/14%20repro_9488.jpeg>

At least 14 Hypoxis recruits blooming among diverse shooting star, prairie
dropseed, rattlesnake master, woodland sunflower, Carolina rose, tall
coreopsis, and others.


We were also interested in whether reproduction was vegetative or by seed,
and if by seed, how far the seeds would be effectively spread. The table
below shows distances of new plants from the original planted corms.

Table 3. Distances of new plants from original transplants

#

2022

repro

Distances of new plants from original transplants

1

0



2

1

4”

3

2

4’, 6’

4

1

8’

5

3

2’, 7’, 7’

6

6

2”, 8”, 2’, 3’, 5’, 10’

7

5

2’, 2’, 3’, 4’, 4’

8

5

4’, 5’, 10’, 10’, 11’

9

2

3’, 6’

10

0



11

15

3”, 4,”, 5”, 10”, 1’, 1’, 2’, 2’, 2’, 3’, 3’, 4’, 5’, 5’, 6’, 9’, 10’

12

0



13

1

6”

14

4

7”, 9”, 10”, 4’

15

9

6”, 4’, 4’, 5’, 6’, 6’, 7’, 8’, 8’

Of 63 plants, only 11 are less than one foot from the originals. 52 were 2
to 10 feet away. (The seeds of this species clearly have ways to get
around. It is known that the seeds of some plant species have special
features that motivate ants to disperse them. No doubt others have other
'creative' ways.)

Plots 2 through 10 are in prairie-like, very open savanna. Other transects
in former (and now-under-restoration) prairie areas seem to be doing
similarly. Plots 13 through 15 are in shadier, but still open savanna.
Corms planted in woodland area have apparently not survived. For notes
about prairie, savanna, and woodland results, see Endnote 2. For cautions
about the data, see Endnote 3.


*Discussion and Possible Implications*

Let’s stipulate that the biodiversity of the tallgrass region may be
important. Much of the world’s food is grown here. Much good science talent
is here. The genetic alleles most significant for heading off “crop
pandemics” or to improve nutrition or to combat climate change may lie
among the biota of our nature preserves.


The critical gene pools are not just of plants but also of bacteria, fungi,
invertebrates, and much other biota. Despite the valiant efforts of
preserve staff and volunteer stewards, even some of our best and most
important nature preserves are losing plant species and other biota.
Insufficient resources are focused on biodiversity, and even if many times
the current amount can be obtained, the need will still vastly outstrip our
funding and abilities. We need to become more expert and effective.


Many of our best areas are too small. Species will not survive vicissitudes
and adapt to climate and other changes unless their numbers and acreages
increase. As Dr. Ron Panzer has shown for invertebrates, it is likely that
for breadth of gene pools of the biota generally – that larger and more
diverse preserves would contribute much that doesn’t survive in the
smallest, highest-quality areas. For that, we need wise restoration or
recovery efforts. Such work will be much facilitated as our expertise in
ecosystem first-aid improves. Practitioners should keep records and write
up results.


*Endnotes*

*Endnote 1: Small *

Ecosystem “restorations” are typically pathetically inferior to
millenia-old original “remnants.” In comparison, the restorations tend to
look “rank” and “wrong.” “Prairie restorations” usually lack most of the
plant species of original prairies. If those species are seeded in, they
typically don’t survive. For example, most prairie and savanna restorations
have few if any of the little species: small skullcap, prairie violet,
Mead’s sedge, violet wood sorrel, and Hypoxis. Of course, many classic big
species are also typically absent: prairie lily, heart-leaved Alexanders,
prairie parsley, prairie white-fringed orchid, prairie gentian, etc. etc.
It could be that many of the species missing are those that reproduce best
in the matrix that includes the smalls. (Of course, all the conservative
species may benefit in various ways from all the others.) This study of
Hypoxis looks into just one little species, but it suggests implications.



*Endnote 2:* *Prairie, Savanna, and Woodland*.

As we use the terms in this post, *very open savanna* (or “Prairie” – as it
is named in our seed mixes) has no tree shade and includes all prairie
plant species.


*Open savanna *(as it is named in our seed mixes) has tree shade for one or
a few hours a day and most prairie species, but also a substantial part of
the vegetation consists of such shade-associated species as carrion flower,
pale Indian plantain, meadow parsnip (*Thaspium*), veiny wild pea, and
spreading dogbane. In these areas there tends to be a greater than normal
preponderance of such prairie-and-savanna species as Culver’s root, big
bluestem, wild quinine, and early goldenrod.


*Closed savanna *(as it is named in our seed mixes) has much dappled shade.
Here the warm-season “prairie” grasses, though present, are less the
principal fuel than are oak leaves and various sedges. Characteristic
species may include rue anemone, wood pea (*Lathyrus ochroleucus*),
broad-leaved panic grass, violet bush clover, and wild columbine.


*Woodland* is an important community that has not to date been well
considered for its significance to biodiversity conservation. Preliminarily
I’d be tempted to propose that in this region, characteristic species may
include Carolina vetch, upright bindweed, Hypoxis, robin's plantain, wood
rush, and wood pea. *Another lesson of this experiment so far* is that
planted Hypoxis corms did not survive in our woodland plots. It’s likely
that the problem was that these plots were in woodland restoration areas
too new and rank and too dark. Hypoxis does survive in some remnant
woodlands; indeed it is a major plant in the highest-quality woodland we
have ever seen – the subject of a dramatic upcoming post.



*Endnote 3: Caution about the data*

Let’s separate what we know from what we reasonably suspect. For example, we*
do not know *as a general principle that Hypoxis reproduces flowering new
adult plants after eight growing seasons. We know that this method of
monitoring picked up the mature new plants in the nineth year, in these
soils, among these associated species, under this burn regime, in this
period of weather and climate, at this latitude and longitude. Results
might be somewhat or highly different elsewhere. But we know that these
results are promising for restoration of this conservative plant and
provide suggestive data.


*Endnote 4: Details about the transects and plots**, if you're interested*

Most transects, including this one, were set up by pacing off intervals and
placing a flag in the ground at every ten meters. We measured by pacing
instead of a meter tape because it's quicker. Some transects followed
existing paths (also for convenience), but some crossed areas without
paths, starting at one easy-to-locate tree and ending at another. At each
flag, the crew would plant one corm about a half-meter to the right and one
to the left. Actually, they'd kneel down at the flag and dig a hole for the
corm a convenient bending distance (about 0.5 meters) to the right and the
left.

We defined the plots in which we looked for reproduction as extending from
a given planting point half way to the next. Thus the plots were ten meters
long, centered on the planted corms. The plots extended about 4 meters to
each side of the transect, as that was the distance over which we could see
and count the blooming plants. We had not been confident that the transects
would be easily re-located. But it did turn out to be easy, as we found no
Hypoxis along these transects in 2019 and 2020 except for the lonely pair
or single blooming plant at the ten meter intervals.


A subsequent post will raise other cautions, concerns, and possibilities.



*Two Final Photos*

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-wq9IsXcEZR0x1VM5vnGOwIFwSYcY7bgz47eY7O3yNRQctSaOZvknxTXpKLhV3nD4K_4mpdzeVj6U4Uh3EAOjUJt-npGc0f1cMa7KfpQEWVLpovtpxV187w6_Harlc2LJUb3dLms_uqJ2y0OuAVsp4KVS7aeAp3TCbJ46FH296mtQq0QM11HccHeeQQ/s4032/among%20pussytoes_9435.jpeg>
Here a lone Hypoxis has emerged among the pussytoes. Low, conservative
plant species (some of them hemi-parasites) will likely help maintain the
diversity of the recovering prairie and savanna here. These species include
Hypoxis, bastard toadflax, Penn sedge, Mead’s sedge, small skullcap, and
pussytoes.


<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjagC0LP4dCYkqaXg1UUpbdM0Xto_nUx6HP0lFnIAQ_wI_dIoo2lZVMbaslS9D-fDrgV2D60uSdEA-RvTaXLRjia8osGd1gFcr-z-JX2mICWGaseJ1ZWo0GleL-EE3MFywCa2qZk_TzpFfm_WYTtbzKSTvmkPWi_kudtGQhmYCRXpJxWzhDezErx3p9gA/s3264/hundreds.jpg>
In this area, Hypoxis was apparently planted by seed
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2019/06/yellow-star-grass-hypoxis-hirsuta.html>
four decades ago. It is now so thick that it could be said to be the matrix
that other conservative species are best seeded into for successful
reproduction. This density may be more than would be seen flowering in a
very high-quality prairie. More discussion on this in subsequent post.

*References*

Many more details about this experiment are given in this earlier post
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2019/06/yellow-star-grass-hypoxis-hirsuta.html>
.

An example of dense Hypoxis in high-quality white oak woodland can be found
in a fine post by Dan Carter
<https://prairiebotanist.com/2020/11/24/army-lake-oak-woodland/>. The site
he reports on will be the subject of a future post here.



*Acknowledgements*

*Hundreds of people* deserve thanks for their contributions to this work.
Volunteer stewards and Cook County Forest Preserve staff have nurtured and
restored Somme Prairie Grove since 1980. *Sai Ramakrishna, Jeanne Dunning, *and
others planted the original 148 plus corms. *Eriko Kojima* helped find and
monitor the transects in 2019 and 2022. *Christos Economou, Adam Rux, **Kathy
Garness and Eriko Kojima* contributed proofing and edits. When the word “I”
is used in this post, the narrative reflects the experiences or judgements
of Stephen Packard.



May 14, 2022 - Shaw Woods - What We Did And What We Saw
<http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/05/may-14-2022-shaw-woods-what-we-did-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 20 May 2022 06:15 AM PDT

Below, we pull some metal fenceposts ... and some garlic mustard.

But after months of prairie burns and brush bonfires, today richness
explodes into magic.

It's a time for learning - and re-thinking.

We start with the photo below, what does it make you think? What does it
mean?
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSYK3eOkzVJHKEP6HJySo0uor52aNwozwKasb_rk32QPkL7h7NZEQLalHC1Olk0ew1DmlDcwf4RDlnqblj6mXzFThaM3iyGZxsugefuPxZ9-qD04Zg934sFAkVviEpgj_g58a-9rzrHym8glt5HxTO0GkLTl0mC5mF76tnW0DMPykpaLtH9HAe87uwrg/s2894/Trill%20and%20butter_cropped.jpg>
We're thrilled by the holy beauty of spring unfolding. And yet this photo
also indicates trouble. A diminution of diversity. More about that later.

Next we are stuck by the large number of conservative species
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/02/floristic-quality-assessment-and-plant.html>
in
little Shaw Woods. For example:
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtxCu_Oa2RNXQRy8X8t4SyGGwccAeVi7FaVbqalbSCl0AQg_hDh7lFHMbSs7iaIdfuAGQz5vY2W5I5Xxrdxdmre364a-yudhLmVxzdZJbJ4UsNY7K5yJ-_EdT0iI0wssLZynVwcaKXXlv-aFB7j_rzW1GwIE9dSWlJ9YKzrakuhncx9ZY9pB7Hrg7Fag/s4032/Trill%20and%20sap_9313.jpeg>
This treasure could escape your notice at first. Check out those big leaves
at the top - and the spherical flower clusters rising from the base -
formerly common, a rare plant these days - sarsaparilla (*Aralia nudicaulis*).
People made root-beer from it ... and for that purpose its name was
shortened to "sasparilla."

To find a high-quality woods next to high-quality prairie and savanna
remnants is rare. This woods is packed with doll's-eyes, long-beaked
sedge (*Cx.
sprengelii*), long-awned woodgrass, and a long list of classy species (more
of which you'll see below).

As for the Friends, we make space for the reproduction of such species with
the winter cut-and-burn work and, today:
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFJImxp15pPQlsJJgJBwNZSOleMkMI23QCmkjt3uDwof_cYwN3RyN6HxE8fKy3lRVFXGMeXkiamAIfXeQQBnm3Vn2w1bWo29_mxue33DDCt24Wpyxermr8JYC4QqqnOIh2ZlOUfGaGegjSV_FSknaO7cHah8nCDY2RHAe-fJTb-lqssMnhy0HKIsCZQ/s4032/GM_9305.jpeg>
... making the most of a once-a-year expanded Garlic-Mustard-Pullers team.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKV0NjmNVJo9LlSJzLnNaE7JyKZYYACqhJbIATTXOiN8zief_S0NDXtwQf89NppDuVisrlGAWn5xnmb02YlTXE4B2ur4CgIIyMkDLnBHRNF97rd2nv6XYJCksGRN9-7gw9-1Len2NOCYpnuimKnPFJ9T4bkkZWDdtldG9mvbsiUe5kPsIVQ71BmsgbMQ/s4032/fencepost_9292.jpeg>
We happily employ brawn to pull fenceposts - the last stage in removing a
rusting metal fence that has long been a useless eyesore in this part of
the preserve.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmKzF-d2nolU-TqGokIiN5gDlI-x9qNHvxbdqtwlmBPHJPXyrLVTMqoj-R9QfNWqg3jicALLRhsThBPos1bBLZKJdElNJMi1WMPDK82JY3Y49EYIE5E3amLu2Y3qH8YaraSBUX1Xe0lTff4dFACadIBg7zIzQPRP4znqjMQMrNFuioZHD88dAlpjEHsw/s4032/break_9342.jpeg>
At break time, we eat treats, relax, teach, and discuss.

It's increasingly obvious to all that this is not just any old wild place.
Richness survives here.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnPAbKqU0_UWrVWHLohT-14ljXoO0CC-GYxC3jXU5z6Po1qVWg4-5QAr1jAHOND8JMae5fMu4K7jUaejQjq6fT7ZFk5BFAaTITozVPRIGnUL2IUs1YQ9PCbPBmZ_kaltvWArO-3p6qCxueuIry-Px-crBWKiSB-BMmFrJqpOOK3f_d_eQgvegaasEzQQ/s4032/Acq%20Ane%20Tri%20Pod%20Cx_9352.jpeg>
The diversity in this photo is that of a fine woodland. Rue anemone (lower
left, seven petal flower, in this case; they vary) and trillium (three
petals) bloom now. Soon the wild columbine (see rue-like leaves towering
above the anemone's) will be attracting humming birds with its pink
flowers. The yellow mayapple fruits (forming under the big, divided leaves,
top right) will attract hungry mammals of many kinds, including us. Penn
sedge (grass-like) holds the turf together.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy42yNfQc5nELWuKfKdVDfSksqj7P6ZCBrG2QXiCSXZ3dRUDvcurUploahlwwDH_pg-IYk6_U7C1huOaJpfG6PYuwjbXnt7UVjyyWg0a3tWz4QzEXVpbMSjoAFgJdznATDIA7pCj5NNbbrrdyDAWwRGGOG1s-eaYIen1RCYsJsPVOmlKF5EyQNoY_Kfg/s4032/cohosh_9311.jpeg>
Here the white trillium is joined by the pale foliage and yellow flowers of
the blue cohosh. Those yellow flowers don't stand out, but the deep blue
fruits will make their statements from summer through fall. Also in this
photo are the developing leaves of later-to-bloom wild geranium, Chicago
leek, and false Solomon's-seal, all indicators of woodland health. But here
- the narrative goes dark. (Sound of eery music, please.) Dead wood is
heaped in many places in this preserve, snuffing out quality plants and the
animals that depend on their leaves and fruits. Yet more insidiously (eery
music now swells). The bad plant in this photo (trust us, if you can't tell
it by its leaves) is the rank tall goldenrod, a killer species. It and its
ilk now dominate some areas where buckthorn was removed, years ago. Why?

Other areas have nothing left. The next two photos below tell that story:
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyeBcfwWSaiYiFEJCme-UCOGVaXKvo5gkdIAwF2KMdfa1CfvyeOMRnEiuCjK3Ut7xdeNvzorRWC_vJjkrXZj38etMsoLN9SGoWbxsyruCZMaY42-R4yHo4oQVHZZyzS1Wijb4zKm0MM2DIFeZKW1aSlwKRv33bpDlAN6OQ5CvsHZf39RTSFAvhjT9phg/s4032/death%20from%20former%20brush_9356.jpeg>
In the foreground is bare dirt, all that's left in one of the areas where
we cut brush last winter. The invasives had killed all. To the top right,
the dark brush remains - to be cut next winter.

Friends, Lake Forest Open Lands, volunteers, staff, and contractors have
launched a major restoration initiative
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-diversity-and-promise-of-shaw-woods.html>
at Shaw, including the woods, savanna, wetland, and prairie. The blighted
result visible below was revealed by Open Lands' contractor work with
mighty machines:
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS6iFQNaoJslQ6o1VGmuz3QSmBTxh5eHP8NS8vNycgG7h5DWQe2_7VR-yNTqmY9ABkH-RgDLeD_ljW0QvUcxt_JkT61trJ4_ev2LS7G9Uq81Aud4jdK4sclVzjnf43bInzMTO_tpd-A6wNyc-Yg5Heh7e1K2E5YXBfbGI7Msg09aNnNmIyfC3vbIDDlQ/s4032/contractor%20work_9332.jpeg>
This large piece in the center of the Nature Preserve (between Shaw Woods
and Shaw Prairie) had its brush cut last winter. Long ago, this was
prairie, marsh, and savanna. Ditching and brush had eliminated the natural
ecosystem nearly entirely. To use medical metaphor, this was major surgery.
Our challenge now is to prevent this land from falling to the invasives. A
battle awaits.

In the areas below, brush was removed many years ago, but today it's
essentially "all weeds." We try to avoid this by sowing the right seed to
facilitate recovery of biodiversity:
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiutKSoebxVQnxVM_LtKV4TP0f0DDSKlfjupVgNgR1_CXjGw0AFbRSm_A-nvU4mycSstRBMgdK2no2vY0efiVYirNWVylpN-E9yH1mJra4gT6lPc8whwQ46bGFrGTIDOPQIUTP8sm9BFbj6j20lN-auMduNq4RtU8BBHrtnhTEn6crFRhcCY-wlyQYaqw/s4032/all%20weeds_9303.jpeg>
Indeed, so that today's volunteer team could get in here, the week before
(not seen here) the regular ever-so-dedicated Friends volunteers cut out
great quantities of prickly briars. We pulled the scattered garlic mustard,
especially from the highest-quality and most sensitive-to-trampling areas.
Today is for big concentrations. Next week we'll do more detail and
"quality control."

About those briars: Are they natural? Emphatically yes and no.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3qIgRrKmTppN7W7m7NncT0KePW5Mun8NPHzi134tZxPUhnBBjSb-BfmZiCth0NLxUHfADApC1w1fFRiuI9mPK0xU3ecvkd5fEfAbRoaIV4qPTKrbm6rV9L89cmCNGxSJc-mQ00AkIrNOsIPJni0tLQpKggg92gZ53-toWKEU_BLngBCH4e5ZOUNwdAg/s4032/briars%20and%20trilliums_9330.jpeg>
The word briars applies to native and alien species of dewberries,
raspberries, blackberries, and other prickly, shrubby fruits. They taste
good and play important roles in shrubland ecosystems. But the ones that
tend to fill recently cleared area are impediments to recovery of classic
open woods or open prairie.

From the perspective of biodiversity conservation, the vast beds of
trillium-and-little-else are also ambiguous at best. In the seminal
Vegetation of Wisconsin, John T. Curtis describes concentrations of these
great white trilliums as a near-terminal stage of what happens to an oak
woods as it becomes too dark for most of its flora. (And, though the
botanist Curtis didn't say so, the darkening also gradually wipes out the
associated invertebrates, other animals, fungi, etc.). Our strategies seek
to maintain large numbers of trilliums as the richness of other species
returns as well.

In the photo below, another wrinkle. Notice all those stems that stand
alone:
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN_D8-2EmjLhv40m30ree21w_qj_KLGi3fHF1FXAD_CrGT98tq_TCx-9IJyoiciPNbjtSsFRt43UvcQC2AC8XIMkBITwWewRVHtCHaXa_mWCnFFCOpWE1nQ3B1fQ3ckpZJE6-qwmdUb6_6Iy6j-uflk0e2QaOCJ39C18Tpc9QCpav4hG0GbNFd9EzusQ/s4032/empty%20tril%20stems_9298.jpeg>
At least seven stems have been chewed off by the deer. In some woods, the
trilliums have been wiped out by too many mouths. The existing programs to
control deer numbers are good and deserve to be supported.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn-ttoiy784WVlfAOlP2a7Sr6kbm98OU9pNCYl7bnV9bYe-rixu4mh8HYaleddo_tpooEybebh7R_mXVEYpdt7DMTwGCA6mLBcA2FvWuQdjq-ELwpu7em5IerZ-oEnauShAkY8cGGeMRRQt3fuFrXI-3W8SYifErR-rwnaFdtXHJ1P1JRVJLSa10BQVw/s4032/deer%20cage_9296.jpeg>
Here a deer exclusion cage will protect the trilliums inside. We'll be able
to compare inside and outside from year to year.

As we stewards head into very different summer work, as we often do, we
take a bit of time to study what today's ecosystem tells us about needs for
next fall and winter.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihiAo0_Qs_klTr1h5o67_9CH34s-G2mUqLte0uOWFyAjaDJlDNDaN_lO4_ooTcdFOww9TrHu0tu2VUqatn1yexECuYHSyNe7OINZ5XdDNtxRmKYvc5rwRP4QasmTvyZtirjtC2jEsU1FFFmKfxmWzf7FGEMoyqTBnrntFb0xlERkzus4zxHfsM75PIOQ/s4032/tril%20death%20line_9345.jpeg>
Here the trilliums gradually fade out, and the brush shade deepens, and no
quality plants survive.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTlqqGqZgi5KuPzSL2ZL-KYN4gTIs_BH-3Ve8SoUEJx-3cPnU1lGM1rSKF0VgOnRlFK_iyVSuUQN5R1ah8THBmrooKhVAS82kW577GF4PKfWRIgNFmF1vdP1mY_1iptI_BfcqqlBPyCziHq5hyLXYHpem3ztN9x6N7Klh-qtoaJkuJg71T_a5gUwMO6Q/s4032/brush%20and%20logs_9316.jpeg>
Here, even right next to the trail, a rich turf stops abruptly, as brush
and piled logs take over. There will be plenty of accomplishment begging
for our attention when the cold returns.

Here some of us are getting ready to pose - twenty-one of the great souls
who did today's work.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8c7YdXVYC8xOHOKjgOSqsHaJxS3yv7QoCEwG_SXPGUIUE6kLDhh_vPB8UpwuIgA7uYmEsHh_6Q3Nw3x4R-K08wyBwbadag11vXdNBHzwVJE4uKaF8M7XB3wP4MvXJRLlHlcQjXvVOMA4z7Fl0oguyR3B8lbjOll7-J3nAarRg3dVHUYvqwt42aqt6QQ/s3687/getting%20ready_9287.jpeg>

Here, some of us are posing. We have great will and intention, to change
the world, for the better in this case.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4LYooxqZTVCOpw9PZWjJwqaAC6x2NqyjiE7xNdvXUsfbFvR0vQS_zXyfomIjBqWcyOdo9LjLifdXkqZ5F6tcWntargO0XPb7jZIo_nBirI0wMyN2FzUyxHZwWB9zyAG46sp0YKakLpmDPVvUYS6MebN82t3sLU5Pe4d6qQ91cXsp71YX94ArAAud0NQ/s3687/posing_9289.jpeg>
Everyone is invited to join in this great work (and quickly learn to be a
leader, if you'd like, as more leaders are what the ecosystem needs most.)
After love, that is.










Garlic Mustard - five years later
<http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/05/garlic-mustard-five-years-later.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 12 May 2022 05:10 AM PDT

In 2017, many of us noticed that a major invasive, garlic mustard (*Alliaria
petiolata*), seemed to be drastically declining or gone - as discussed in a
2017 post
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-end-of-garlic-mustard.html>
.

Here's an update for 2022. In some areas garlic mustard is still gone. In
others this bad plant still rages.

It seems unlikely that a disease was the principal control, though it would
be good to read any studies or observations that suggested otherwise.

In the map below, a "0" indicates a place where garlic mustard is now gone
from an area of Somme Prairie Grove (SPG) where for years there was masses
of it - thigh-high and solid. There were acres of such ecosystem misery. At
other nearby sites, this invasive seems still to be a major problem.

We compiled the map below while doing other work. (If infestations were
minor, we pulled when we mapped them.) The numbers show how many garlic
mustard plants were found at the points indicated. A "0" indicates a point
where we remember finding garlic mustard in the past but where we found
none in 2022. We found only 22 plants, most of them very small, in the
southern half of the site, where there had been thousands every year for
many years. There are still more than 1,000 plants along the northern edge
of the site.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGazqUSo2Q1iZ9mhEX3rJwrNTQFrkroulSWDr0GuKfwKxBdeZ2OfQZ1yUQTJUYPCzeViLCpT-HLoMHfHhRTQo5wlXu7cT6_h8tbgS-V3MNfu9hBq2tcZiX9HJwUnpcCAnVwuwXcaagmSHHvMg9ajojmvD8zYg5o4mq1E7W7KCs2gtfCu7c0ZW1GyVgPg/s2200/maps.jpg>

So, indeed, at SPG there are still small areas where it's dense. But those
areas all have one thing in common. They had their brush recently cleared;
they're in the rough early stages of restoration; and *there is not yet a
dense conservative turf* to compete with the invasive mustard.

Over the years, we have carefully pulled every garlic mustard we could find
in the better-quality areas, as we are doing this year. But it seems
impossible that we find them all, especially the very little ones that
still can make a few dozen nasty seeds. Thus it seems that, if we pull the
big ones from higher quality areas, we can largely eliminate it there.

To emphasize this point, the map below shows the same 2022 data but with
heavy infestations from previous years shown in yellow. Note that, in some
areas with former heavy infestations, we could fine no garlic mustard
plants this year.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwMQ6p1RpsLkUI6PbZjEmpKiSekzLmedFqU16o0ZTqwU91QvcNShG7dHidVmnOU72-8uwA1dtLA251utC1_GSLyAg-r9g2M9Ot68x1ZbTewRKJJ4OZ9HrYJfTHD8tMBqjWnnXj4WCwBqxY7pfNWoR1Xs-P3iMW9PtlmkybKfi_A88pBAwg5coIjM52bw/s2200/2022%20map%20showing%20former.jpg>
The yellow areas are just from memory. (See Endnote 1 for comments on the
science.)

Some of the areas that have dense concentrations now also had it dense for
years, so it seems unlikely that disease build-up is what's conquering it.

Tentatively, there are two likely explanations for this positive report:

1. We switched from a strategy of "get as many people to pull as many
plants as possible" to a strategy of "*herding invasives*." We focused most
of our attention on areas where there is the least. Thus we remove the
outliers and drive the edges back until we can pull the last ones.

(In the past we often had large numbers of people pulling, and our group
trampled many and left many broken off stems to re-sprout and produce a few
seeds each. It doesn't take many surviving plants to maintain a dense
population. These days, more expert weed-pullers follow up on the big
groups.)

2. Perhaps equally important, we have planted *full-spectrum seed
mixes:* common
plants and conservatives ... spring, summer, and fall species. All the
large garlic mustard populations are now in areas where the restoration is
young and new. It seems likely that in the more mature areas, after we
pulled all the big ones, *competition eliminated* the others.

People with additional garlic mustard observations are invited to comment
below or send comments to in...@sommepreserve.org or here
<in...@sommepreserve.org>.

*Endnotes*

*Endnote 1. On the science.*

The rough maps above are our contributions to science on this. The numbers
are hard data, in a sense. For the small populations, they are not samples
or estimates, they are numbers of counted plants. On the other hand, many
small plants were probably missed. In the case of the large populations, we
counted some sample areas and then multiplied by the number of such areas
in the patch. Those numbers are thus estimates.

In the past, thinking that good science was needed and that good science
required the scientific method and statistical significance, we on occasion
took data in some of those dense mustard concentrations. We imagined that
we'd later go back and resample. That's now obviously not remotely worth
the effort, unless perhaps by someone working toward a degree or for an
academic publication. For us to do the work of re-sampling just to say that
an area once had 100% mustard cover and now has 0% seems like a waste. We
are learning what we want at SPG without the numbers.

It seems likely that garlic mustard is as widespread a problem as it is
because our woodlands generally are degrading, losing diversity, because of
lack of fire. The garlic mustard could be seen as more of a symptom than
the problem.

But more data from more varied sites and management regimes is needed to
draw more general conclusions.

*Acknowledgements*

Thanks to Eriko Kojima for proofing and edits.





Mud Is Bad
<http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/04/mud-is-bad.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 28 Apr 2022 09:16 AM PDT

The poet was wrong about nature when he wrote:

Spring

when the world is mud-luscious

and

puddle-wonderful

Mud is death. It is not a normal part of the ecosystem.

In nature, soil is clothed with diverse plants. Slightly underneath is a
dense network of rootlets and other soil biota, tangled and supportive. It
holds us up just fine when we walk. (See Endnote 1 for minor exceptions.)

Even a herd of people or animals passing over a bit of ground doesn't
normally make the* wound* that we experience as* mud*. All those feet may
loosen the turf, and soil may be visible here and there, but nature quickly
heals, ready for the next herd of us.

What makes mud is *too many* feet trampling wet ground *too often. *The
resulting open wound is troubling and ugly to a wise eye. Species die in
the area of this injury. Not just their tops, the roots die. On slopes,
erosion may even form a gulley, removing the soil too, sometimes many feet
deep.

Especially in a Nature Preserve, mud is a defeat. We restrict visitation or
harden trails to save biota, including living soil. The photo below, from
Harms Woods Nature Preserve, shows what we don't want:

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY343Iabm2ap3HdCLiDzqActd1WteAjp32BL0sgDQ83f0Fd1TwNAZh6UCdf1u5-YaSPW4lMC7AuZquhCIMzqyIplZlgxvLOrgQdtM3JE-j-0Bgay_97vRB7Ut4wwplpIeAyERquL7ThuiNTB2S1DPhgz0XcQ6IivVVVNoWH80JkhW-KI4rDQ/s4032/widened%20trail_5561.jpeg>

Here the path has gotten wider and wider as people trample further and
further to the side.

Some people say, “Oh, don’t worry. I have boots that will handle mud just
fine.” But that’s not the point. We don’t design trails for the sake of
people's footwear. We do it for the ecosystem.

The photo below shows one solution, an imperfect one:

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja9wm5Q2VS2XirXXU_NCRStIe20945Vfd24K4mDJyY1WU09mBjLEMxdeLY3RtxLqs-TYSAiDNnfNLes4soQBYS1s4xokCCaNOf23UXkxG6NllkaphlkIadjlAORJHdCilTjg1SmLkEcBf5VtVvVD2AibJtigMsEJ5gnPBv_FUK-Wv2uq2IfQ/s3016/cylinder%20pavers_5529%20cropped.jpg>

This example is from Somme Prairie Grove, which is visited mostly by people
who come to appreciate its wild plants and animals. These folks tend to be
careful, respectful, even reverent to some degree.

But in the above photo, the tree-trunk “pavers” are easily visible and not
entirely comfortable to walk on. They are either too thick, too far apart,
or perhaps just not yet as settled in as they will be after a year or two
of foot traffic. Some of our trails, once channels of mud, were outfitted
with buckthorn pavers which are now invisible under a restored path turf.

For a primer in how to install pavers, click here and go to Endnote 2
<https://vestalgrove.blogspot.com/2022/04/mud-feet-and-ecosystem.html>.

We reinforce trails when mud starts to form. A more successful trail in
spring is shown below:

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGSs6U1ETPJxlZni-HYqaQNisI2ulbjG9xAu7heKBhBetWhUKC2k3kjVtQmkYI2tNKAJwg1qwV_YmS7_2fzcqDI_5YFCtWvIOHzAaKlSGwE42w9q_scj0FTX_G37q55XUuOkZRb5ECZOlyIvBzxdmW30LoL1AsrgbfmU2lYKiET9uozJi5fg/s4032/path%20rush%20spring_5546.jpg>

The savanna turf here (with its many rare and endangered plant species) is
untrampled outside the footpath. The trail surface itself is carpeted with
a plant called Path Rush – which in fact grows only in animal-created
(including human-created) paths. There are pavers here too. But they are
narrower, appropriate to this less-wet area. And those narrower pavers have
sunk below the path-rush-and-soil surface. No one notices that this trail
has a crafted structure. Preferably, footpath composition should be
invisible when possible, with path rush growing between the pavers, and not
bumpy to walk on.

You can help maintain these trails just by walking. Here are some basic
principles for Somme:


1. On wet days, if the path-rush-surface is breaking down, it’s too wet
to walk that path. One (best?) option: Turn around, and come back another
day. Another option at Somme: Walk on the edge of the trail. Natural
footpaths here are about ten inches wide. If you walk ten inches to the
right or left of the existing path *while it's vegetated*, that area too
may succeed to path rush. Such a path, being twice as wide, could handle
twice the foot traffic as the original. Note: I'm not suggesting here that
people walk to the side if the side too is getting muddy. Don't do that.
Turn around. Go back.
2. For people to pass each other, the slower walker should step just off
the trail and let the other(s) pass. This courtesy should have a minor
impact on the ecosystem, especially if that conservationist's feet try to
avoid the most special plants there, as many of us try to do.

*Other opinions and principles*

One conservation source writes:

"Don’t destroy the beauty by walking off trail. …The trails will sometimes
get muddy. Stay on the trail anyway. Don’t widen the trail by walking to
the side to try to avoid the mud. Dress for the mud. Relish walking in the
mud."

The U.S.Forest Service (white Mountain National Forest website) says:

“Good boots are designed to get muddy! Walk through the mud and stick to
the center of the path … To prevent damaging the environment, turn around
when the trail is extremely muddy. Soon it will dry out and you’ll be able
to enjoy the hike. Whatever you do, don’t widen the trail or damage
vegetation by walking around the muddy areas.”

The New England Mountain Bike Association writes
<https://www.nemba.org/news/just-say-no-mud>:

“HOOVES, FEET, AND TIRES SHOULD STAY OFF THE TRAILS DURING MUD SEASON.

If we ride (on mud), the damage to the trail could be permanent. The
mineral soils will be churned up, and rain and gravity will wash these
soils away, leaving a mess of exposed roots and rocks. If the trail is
really soft, our wheels leave sunken tracks which could channel into ruts
and carry the soils away. If we hike, our heels and boots will dig deep
into the trails and help push the soils downhill. Either way, it's the
trail that loses, so please show some respect and patience."

On many spring days, the Chicago Area Mountain Bike Association
<https://www.cambr.org/trails_and_conditions.php>shows all trails closed:
"too soft or wet to ride."

The Forest Preserve District of Cook County website has a section on Trails
Rules and Etiquette that flatly states: “Trail usage is prohibited in muddy
conditions.”

How do you know if a trail is too muddy?

In the photo below, the path was too soft:

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaoOmbh8HDgTIde3WfjGZPyfikaZJFgpI0f5Jfm4bDRvgdSJvybHwsjxuNu0brbVC8z4qwCWTyCxOhrIH_HRJqsaF1F8x_174BNbNItQI5onPctZCv3XJNVhcXUZeBztSmyXe0dX_-FXC1YsFJOB-YjlIMQGERSBF_QatmqAULOu07Vg2Wc8VBZMDzNQ/s4032/mud%20footprint%20too%20wet_5548%20(1).jpg>
More walking by more people (especially those those who step vigorously
with cleated soles) will kill the remaining scattered path rush. Indeed,
previous walking in too-soft conditions has already killed most of the path
rush that once comprised the turf on this trail.


On the Harms Woods trail below, the impacts of varied walkers tells a tale:

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqSu56BZ3PNrl9pwoqAC9bYQcYmjkgyZubisXtMtG3ejZ_awI7GRXCX864Q5QBka1QLyBdY5hxbwWY8yeFsWjg6aud-VMys2iLlb6l4WxV4rBgo2jAO_hpAjC_NLpxKBB7rmSft8Fp13pYzNngmKB149dcsNMDzv0LsauxaX-4pCg2_YcuTcPJX9QrPQ/s4032/path%20rush%20tries_5563.jpg>
Some people walk directly through the mud. Others have gone well to the
side, killing the vegetation there too. I suppose if I were walking this
trail I'd walk on the path rush that has survived in the green strip
between the two denuded strips. Is there a better solution here? Would the
wide diversity of people who come here just for a hike read trail
suggestions on a sign or online?

In the photo below, a Harms footpath crosses a ravine:
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrJwp2k14b2cZZ4BTfYP1S_BsAL93GSci747AnZdYV-ha_xnhjunKs7BKv6UdYAm1pAZh42yNbyB5UybD9vSziYfNA6dGfpG7IYEjQyUlQXm6xV-O6dsiSQpLZ4Wscc-Kk7x5tnVwZIhVsipXJRrmuQ33EPxyZEioOK97US23EpPa80GpWXQRoEI0v6A/s4032/trail%20crosses%20ravine_5559.jpg>
Stewards have tried various approaches to challenges like this. Perhaps the
best choice would be to move the trail so that it traverses slopes rather
than going straight up and down? But that choice would destroy a lot of
high quality rare vegetation.

The photo below from Somme Woods shows a bridge over a stream that is a
rushing torrent after heavy rains. A bridge of rot-resistant black locust
logs is held in place by stakes driven into the muck. Passers-by who don't
quite understand how this works best have added miscellaneous wood. That
seems to be a fact of nature, in this case human nature. If the additions
work okay, we leave them.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqztU8aQiXezwhpcNrSIG9-wYSxcUNDtwxrTgjlTP1sC6CCFWQV1WYELxAZ_zKlyTbhuuTCtN25D6aURDshEIrM7nw508HdcUGbiYfmqC0tHLUgjV7ChBWqRehYZuIOXGNGSH83A8A3Hesh4KmuI4Ca6ebJdc0gjHZU9zsNxyEszKeNavZHg/s4032/bridge_9172.jpeg>


<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOlWIbZVqSQAgtnuYc-uw8QBj_7POKPmhRosZ16epkbRfU9FqsMTEKQ7Et_yPZ2W_FAhPPAFp3-7wV5MuNOz5uuoEnU3Poo4uGdYEl7CEG5W7VU002dPkKVnw1rPK2rSiJJIDHmCs2OoolBm6mqL4OWeWiV6KaHuECSpEYL-aoxluqzVnMcQ/s3264/IMG_9688.jpg>
The above approach is sometimes used to cross wider wet areas. In this
case, the "coin pavers" came from a large oak that fell across the trail
and needed to be cleaned up.

By mid-summer the less-heavily-used Somme Prairie Grove paths often have
natural vegetation hanging over the sides. These path rush paths are easy
to follow when you're there - but often nearly invisible in photos.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj6pn_pB3B26FVIP0e8jxixjMIWDl_GKXGeeFzqDMwzpVqCb31Juh-pHh7Dl3NhuourPN8I0oZm64-cjLkS6reSn2we1oF_SyjD81n4Ch9ICOsjNGkQz4I4QaxNvhFwsCjRPZFd9HpIx0aeTkebqN0Ozj5YIJ2P-ptrmPNmvrxvXqy8yzUQA/s4032/IMG_5798.jpg>


Visitors don't think about the trail. They are immersed in the ecosystem -
and happy to inhabit it.

*
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEZ0kF-ubyNQox9AJlZZcwc8QkneCRTd1LNkFtX_lpSeCag1BD2ToyCimD7bqW1gWzIXHV_Lh1Ux9RApY-Kt2KTwl4c9pcjvl5UkykOwYAsBj46W88f8JWzhsEkaEcz9bhicuM0uCXcCBKIIRzdWzrVQGSbVfvXJPtlJHGUvvxG3eK-s40niEmcMaWnQ/s4032/footpath%20in%20July_5802.jpg>*



*Endnotes*

*Endnote 1. Minor exceptions.*

Is mud natural? Buffalos and elephants make sometimes muddy wallows. They
cover very limited part of their landscapes and are not features we need to
concern ourselves with in 21st Century tallgrass region biodiversity
conservation. Drying ephemeral ponds can become muddy when deer troop down
to drink. Let's not quibble about such details. In our precious tallgrass
woods and prairie preserves, we want to make best use of every inch of this
rare land, for both aesthetic inspiration and biodiversity conservation.
Mud sucks.

*Endnote 2 "Trail Design"*

There are many good trail-design references. They all agree that one of the
most basic principles is for trails to "traverse" slopes obliquely, so that
water crosses the trail - rather than running down it and turning the path
into an eroding stream. In other words, trails should not go directly up or
down slopes. There's a lot more to trail design, for people who want to
learn. Just as some conservationists focus on legal protections, others on
rare species, or fire, or invasives control methods - there are many
sub-specialities worth paying attention to. No one has to master every
detail. But some of us would be wise to focus on making nature accessible
and appreciated sustainably - to people with feet.

It makes a difference whether trail use is light or heavy, hilly or flat,
dry or wet. Worst impacts come from horses and vehicles. Next worst are
runners and bikes (in the wrong weather, especially on poorly designed
trails). Slow walking (while observing, studying, and appreciating) has
little impact under most conditions.

Some nature preserve trails in some areas are mowed a few feet wide. This
approach makes sense in some areas, especially where foot traffic is fairly
heavy. One size does not fit all.
*Acknowledgements*

Thanks to Eriko Kojima, Christos Economou, Rebeccah Hartz, and Cathy
Garness for proofing and edits.

*Facebook Comments*

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFNAjsNy7YA47sCCtgWVKg_th8j6iaKyr-LvIfdX28nPlRTVT_aRuSN0VBjF6ckhfT8cMHb1AjT4btLhmOCWeWZfVqg5Gr7y-HVcONQGzJ4kueAtptXcorjus2K5Su4oCERnI1g9lgb9IHlyxPKStU6J6GgOlALkMJRmi4VkZ_sJGlu1g-VmAdP4FUHQ/s662/Facebook%20comments%201.jpg>
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*Andrew Zwick asks*:
Is there an ecological reason, Steve, that Somme doesn’t have a good trail
system like Harms and other reserves?

*S. Packard responds*:
My understanding of your question, Andrew, is that the "good" trails at
Harms Woods are the wide, vehicle-accessible, gravel-surface trails used by
horses and bicycles as well as hikers. Many people appreciate them. But
even at Harms, most people who go there for nature use the narrower
footpaths.

Somme Prairie and Somme Prairie Grove are legally protected Illinois Nature
Preserves. They are part of the less than 1/10th of 1% of "The Prairie
State" that retains highest-quality natural ecosystems. To make wide trails
there would destroy too much of that nature. It would also, in the minds of
many, dilute the nature experience that many seek in going to such places.

Ten-inch-wide footpaths destroy little nature. That fact makes is
reasonable to design such trails to make a good deal more of the preserve
accessible than would be tolerable using the wide vehicle-accessible
trails. More importantly, such trails allow people to be "in nature."
Grasses and flowers brush our legs when we walk. Butterflies, snakes, tiger
beetles, and all manner of nature (including ticks sometimes, of course,
unfortunately) are right with us.

It's a different kind of experience. The Forest Preserves, wisely, provide
both kinds.

*More Facebook Comments*

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglZbujUE7my7u2Ma0_UTLGx-stT-M33h3jM_VbijwSFXuyAOikAb2zT2KCeXcXSX97rYr8ysAZ1b4sUvJ_0Qrz5Dfth9ov20UO5m9pNaTV3_hIIPP8uEaC6FTy6Vuhs_LoShS9VViZL9z-bNk1PbULtW2Sy4CQT1nzk4YnqAPSqYPcNq5WdswzfqUtlw/s633/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-25%20at%2011.04.21%20AM.png>

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeJLvNkWq3uy9OIWYAmTE8ZD4yhiFKj2dUpWuQNs722e0NT3Tc5Ekbr-0t56DGJMzpF2nvBA5pK43a7UcLnrpPpQfdBO3-6i0iSWh93IwUR_YPydEs8oGegtXH-6uBQ1HldMyUO6Bxior54WGPvaQ5lqLsZRX1OIFIJ9h_2cqGAMrpSCGyULTZvTPjmg/s598/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-25%20at%2011.05.03%20AM.png>

*S. Packard responds*:
When Bill Koenig was the staff Volunteer Coordinator for the Cook County
Forest Preserves, he proved himself exceptionally wise, thoughtful, and
creative as he sought solutions for the constantly changing challenges of
the preserves. Thanks in part to Bill, Kelly Trease, and Ralph Thornton,
volunteer stewardship grew as a culture that empowered competent volunteers
to take on major responsibilities, including their leadership work with
staff to design and maintain trails.

Conservation landowners have often had "one size fits all" trails policies.
A variety of creative solutions to trails needs and challenges would make
sense, considering how varied the preserves are: small vs. large,
surrounded by housing vs. surrounded by farms and other open land, flat vs.
hilly, wet soils vs. dry, filled with endangered species and communities
vs. former farmland, etc. But it's difficult to follow up on such
potentials given how few are the qualified staff who have the
responsibilities for ecosystem health, public safety, and such basic needs.
Bit by bit, progress is made and better solutions emerge as staff and
volunteers collaborate to build this region's rich culture of
conservation.

In the Heat of Battle
<http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/04/in-heat-of-battle.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 08 Apr 2022 06:49 AM PDT

*Bell Bowl Prairie – a report from the front*

April 2022

*Our Goal - Make Peace and Keep It - Before the Bulldozers Arrive*

Much depends on our Governor and Senators. They’ve said it's important to
save Bell Bowl Prairie, but so far their help has been temporary.

Even some conservation officials said the prairie would surely be bulldozed
last fall “unless there’s a miracle.” It's still under threat. Any minute.

When public demand was raised to a high level, Governor Pritzker and both
Senators spoke out, influentially. (See links, below.) Why not close the
deal? What are they waiting for?



Governor Pritzker controls sufficient funding (and politics). He could make
permanent protection happen. The Greater Rockport Airport Authority needs
Illinois state funds.

Senators Durbin and Duckworth both have recognized that the conservation of
this irreplaceable treasure is in the public interest. The U.S. Fish &
Wildlife Service and Federal Aviation Administration play important roles
here. They’re the principal reason that the destruction of our finest
gravel prairie remnant wasn’t bulldozed already.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTsCDo0s34uN6Qu7O3lW-pC4Q18JTbJ2A1PodRkPPLIRECwb0WjIRiXthi5nxdb8G_KJPGTo1_Jhy7G1hMXpJFymL8KA6LTqUdZGpceCVXz3_W-2vMOO0KaEHhfRABVKsPMunSRFt0LW1DobAqz43lYp6jqRENsfdAGlv9tQS8mxhG4IQ1s6O9PXb24g/s548/Penstemon%20grandiflorus.jpg>
This prairie is an irreplaceable ecosystem with hundreds of rare plant and
animal species that deserve to survive.

Where’s action needed now, to resolve the stalemate?

… Individuals are writing “letters to the editor” and “op-eds” as well as
individual letters to local, state, and national politicians. As a result,
many newspapers, radio stations, and TV reporters cover Bell Bowl Prairie.
Now National Geographic has joined in.

… People are showing up at Airport board meetings, letting airport official
and local mayors know that win/win solutions (for jobs, the economy, and
the ecosystem) are at hand and needed.

… An inspired and creative team of educators and students are working on a
postcard campaign.

… Local Rockford people are developing a “guerrilla art” campaign, through
which people post Save Bell Bowl Prairie messages on street signs, light
polls, etc.

On April 15th
<https://www.savebellbowlprairie.org/events/bumblebee-homecoming-and-prairie-watch-party>
, the “forces of solidarity with the environment” are celebrating the
emergence of the queens! Rusty-patch bumblebees have been resting, waiting
all winter long. Now they start to hum through the air once again, power up
on nectar and pollen, and start to build their 2022 colonies. This has
happened every year for time immemorial. We don’t want this year to be the
last. A part of its assault, the Airport Authority has barred the stewards
and the public from entering the prairie, whether for appreciation or to
give it the care it needs. So for our April 15th “watch party” - we will
stand on the side of a public road, with binoculars and cameras with long
lenses. We will learn, enjoy, and make a point.

Save Bell Bowl Prairie will also celebrate Earth Day on April 23rd
<https://www.savebellbowlprairie.org/events/pollinator-palooza> with giant
bumblebee puppets, a post card campaign, and kids’ events at Severson Dells
Nature Center’s Pollinator Palooza festival. Related events are
planned at Northwestern
University and under the leadership of Rising Tide Chicago.

Plans are under way for a demonstration on May 1st at Governor Pritzker’s
office or mansion in Chicago. He’s our friend. But he needs more public
support to get this job done. Check later for details here
<https://www.savebellbowlprairie.org/>.

Please write to Pritzker, Durbin, and Duckworth,

show up at events near you,

and lend a hand.

*Who’s Leading the Charge?*

Congratulations to every person and group who’s leading the charge.
Jennifer Kuroda and Sinnissippi Audubon got it started. Friends of Illinois
Nature Preserves and Illinois Native Plant Society (especially cassi saari
and Katie Kucera who launched the public action phase and the website that
still supports it). Natural Land Institute for long-term care and principal
funding for the lawsuit which, if nothing else, is a powerful impediment to
destruction for now (but also limits their actions). Illinois Environmental
Council led petition and writing campaigns. Liz Anna Kozik donated a ton of
great ourtreach artwork. Amy Doll, Jillian Neece, and Robb Telfer of
Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves are supporting events and initiatives
as the campaign proceeds. And most of the impact comes from hundreds of
public-spirited conservationists (including you?).

*How About the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR)?*

Some of Illinois conservation staff have been good leaders on this. Our
taxes pay their salaries to defend natural resources. But politics have
limited their abilities and DNR and Nature Preserve staff have not been
able to take a leadership role in this effort. Perhaps this is
unavoidable. Some powers depend on “The People” (us).

Unfortunately, some staff have proposed trivial “face-saving”
measures. In *Sympathy
for the Devil*, Mick Jaeger sings of Pilot “washing his hands and sealing
his fate.” There’s a parallel here. Some have proposed apparently
justifying the destruction by digging up a few plants and moving them
somewhere … or planting some “bumblebee habitat.” It’s good to plant
habitat. But it is not good for conservation officials to appear to be
publicly making excuses for egregious destruction of an irreplaceable
high-quality ecosystem remnant. Bulldozing Bell Bowl Prairie would be the
worst destruction by a public agency at least since the Illinois Natural
Areas Inventory made the stakes clear. We need to be supporting all
officials who can help.

*What Can I Do?!?*

Don't just read about this! Take action!

95,000 people have already signed a nation-wide and international petition
<https://www.thepetitionsite.com/143/455/045/this-8000-year-old-prairie-is-about-to-be-destroyed-spelling-death-for-birds/>
.

Also sign the Civic Shout-out Petition
<https://civicshout.com/p/save-one-of-illinois-last-original-prairies>.

If you can rally your organization, add to the 125 groups that have joined
forces
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/19TnCYLJShDkb4znT7ewziIJxcil-GpVGc8o2sF0Enww/edit>
.

Add your voice to the campaign by the Illinois Environmental Council
<https://ilenviro.salsalabs.org/SaveBellBowlPrairie/index.html>.

Tweet your State Reps
<https://ilenviro.salsalabs.org/savebellbowlprairietw/index.html> about
this state-wide treasure.

Donate to the legal fund.
<https://www.gofundme.com/f/kt3ne-save-bell-bowl-prairie>

Click here for a full list of actions and handy drafts
<https://www.savebellbowlprairie.org/home/#what-can-i-do>. But don't spend
all your time studying. Reach out! Act!

Always, for the latest, see the Save Bell Bowl Prairie
<https://www.savebellbowlprairie.org> website.
The prairie is on the slope in this photo.
Bulldozers are poised.

Most experts believe that the bulldozer destruction and fragmenting this
small prairie in two would be the beginning of the end.
<https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-igCC9ggyR8k/YZfZ3Difk-I/AAAAAAAAF8o/a9anPqzoGFg1gTe5Qj0D2SSwa2WtWp-ygCLcBGAsYHQ/s796/graphic.jpg>
It's ridiculous. As this poster shows, all they need to do re-direct the
road to where it's been.
Then they can go ahead with airport improvements.
Graphic by Liz Anna Kozik

<https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P72tjoDuO0E/YV3NylA3pXI/AAAAAAAAF4g/cLGwObylnhQ9w6clK6XgkGWUzKolO-2GACLcBGAsYHQ/s631/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-10-06%2Bat%2B11.23.32%2BAM.png>
The Rusty-patched Bumblebee
<https://www.xerces.org/press/rusty-patched-bumble-bee-protected-as-endangered-species#:~:text=Rusty%20Patched%20Bumble%20Bee%20Protected%20as%20an%20Endangered%20Species,-First%20bee%20in&text=The%20decision%20will%20be%20published,cause%20it%20to%20go%20extinct.>
- on the Federal Endangered list - is one of hundreds of plant and animals
species your actions could help.
For more facts and photos, see two previous posts, here
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/201378124228558245/6234992519187884590>
and here
<https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/201378124228558245/5083800884565244416>.
But don't just read! Please act!

*Acknowledgements*

Thanks to Robb Telfer, Amy Doll, and Eriko Kojima for helpful proofing and
edits. Your comments would be appreciated too!

Burn at Shaw Prairie - March 21, 2022
<http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/03/burn-at-shaw-prairie-march-21-2022.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 25 Mar 2022 09:10 AM PDT

It starts with a match - and some fuel - at 1:35 pm.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ0b1qgZfyrVD22nc6HpGkPG8JK6ziTq9wKMAm6AcelLEFZxD6gRckFw13jMKf_U_ple6pMTnl7Opvlgy2tFe8Mcczri3GqRvjTOOt4cUX32F182AkHnXs7gFe5mOoA-_YHmsCu7Fp4sgU0jpTvo-ERGVYTGcFpcH3n9kQl-QrvoY_33Lc_rQdEUi1ng/s4032/light%20match_9070.jpeg>
Initial cast of characters:
Three stewards - trained in prescribed fire.
Christos Economou - left - holding drip torch.
Monica Gajdel - center - also holding second drip torch.
Heather Decker - right - holding flapper.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpE0O3or-eGD_tYwYOD5R7m4K7X8T4Zzt5v3wKVHHeweBQlwCKHIg4YkCc6u7kzZlP-3geNthgvTv8LHA-WbhcJcjWeCEZSYFigMvGwvTrgejZMLNPEpt6liSBM328Fpu7jG5nCXpSz_7vPT9k4-oS3TqVAQ6AIqfnySmbA7cIa1CJMUyHFt9yKLXVPw/s4032/assign%20crew_9073.jpeg>
Heather (in yellow) is today's burn boss. It's a hard job that requires
knowledge, experience, and good coordination and people skills. She's got
'em - along with a crew of six additional trained fire managers. We start
in an area of brushy, recovering savanna. To control the fire, we start at
the downwind tip and send two crews to backfire (see Endnote 1) in opposite
directions, to assure that the fire stays contained in the planned area.
Todays burn will restore health
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/03/why-fire-is-needed.html> and
quality to two key areas of Shaw Prairie.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5vtxAixehaWw1lBikZENiB0GqmNMuTUwmODE-JpemFYApusSOtkU4Hyr0P8jxluR42h9vOiUPOFN0EciJqVCtNTZVv7yaDMPqSmkCuW9FG75oNnxucXX6pOLGfhPdAO2sptYK2HlxIZcXhhYSDpGBIz1Eh15z14yBU4IgUK9EzyAd3DpQW2jLcYp-0Q/s4032/IMG_9075.jpeg>
This is an easy burn, so Heather does a lot of training and rotation of
jobs. We need more people who have this experience and ability. (Would you
like to help with this important work? If so, come and volunteer and
learn.) Now Eriko Kojima has the drip torch and is spreading the fire along
a brushy edge. Mostly the flames just go out when they reach the end of
fine fuels (especially grasses) at the edge of the brush. It would take a
much drier, hotter, windier day for those thickets to explode with fire.
But fire could creep out of the burn unit under oak trees, where the crispy
oak leaves could carry a low fire, so the crew makes sure these backfires
are all out before Eriko and her drip torch moves ahead.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFgE3_U8u_w_NofOmx8GtJmBovSZz9Es9K_xhlWn1hfIBCZXgjaksY7HUetPsZLZ-e-IKodCcjPJLi9NsB2q-bT42ZgIe5W3HaflfY4zM5Yira0B9La_ggceXMca1T4RzG5Joh3Z1UcxbnBBvOAYMGBt0y8EYN3JxEs_kGDajtvxcbuscUP_f0Q9RudQ/s4032/large%20backfire_9078.jpeg>

We started at the north end, with a south and southwest wind. Now the fire
along the brushy edge is extinguished, and the main backfire moves into the
wind, toward the larger prairie.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1ROW1M2S5TMSkC1kRNFA3bd8picAgomraoiN3M9g25BgssGfy7KRc2bB82zNikcjkZH8gBpkbqyuWtle7bdR2IdEiDnOmjWpHMBdV9AWufe-nCE2p2t78Uncj99bLn1Up1PLYUbY1wbrztVdqeTzjuEwWaNH3ZkdgZRw9B5x5v56VrfyLTw-4BNmq2w/s4032/middle_9079.jpeg>
At this point, with the backfire widening our no-fuel, burned-out strip in
this direction (see smoke in distance), we can light up the middle of this
precious remnant prairie.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7sbWQqrWvI4MK0A8Lqa0puSbb6rr_kZ4Xn3rvbGcJuovAZrwsUyCV7HlthglrlZ7qAmvH3boRvkq-lVL-o1rUIbvojq6cFj3gjSet9S4YLy4G9VKiWipQ5JvvJsXNSS8wHjX2kSoxk2rOdt1eEmcKUIP1TmMXaFBpPjU64r9MwYdwuUea2Kd3jwWDMA/s4032/middle%20strip.jpeg>
Now with the drip torch, Molly Marz drops fire through the middle of the
main area. It's now 4:34 in the afternoon. We have waited for the warmest,
driest, windiest weather of the day. That's partly so the smoke will rise
best and least inconvenience the neighbors. But it's also because this
hotter fire will best combat the brush and facilitate best prairie growth
(did you see that link to "why burn?")
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/03/why-fire-is-needed.html>.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjltr_HZ9Qugw-ZDt-dBAi_TIeAwHuII3xiTMCOhddWMeugv52FmyhTqdhVWrNONBAwmwwwQ9y92x9IMafjVl6gb4BK6PqtYyiYmF79QmqotRLT2_ELUHcBHh9ObnSqSqEEi-7dmBHmu_cXqPiPUyF37I_eu7rmoomX1P0KF6YVxqps33TwWGrTgMYssA/s4032/big%20prairie%20burn_9083.jpeg>
4:35. And now I, the photographer, for your viewing pleasure and my own,
stay put for a while. The next few photos show what happens, a few minutes
apart.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWJ-FFhFzdsJ5SLkNKlerBibm-ZmgBLPYgOeHqlbl5ZwF_M-yXtQmwneaE5pcHyZdoloOFEB68j-VCHPG2pSEFJutzmuv18X-ZeKn9wE4DLa7_L83Nn37_wGMGhPJgDQDFPToKnn141YL-4FmLG0GeTg4vpycVKyDucKUA3J_5AQeBUyJf6-_OQmlpQ/s4032/spread_9085.jpeg>
4:36. The fire spreads downwind rapidly. The flames in this very high
quality prairie are not high on this day of modest fire conditions. The
poorer quality areas with taller grass mixed with brush had bigger fires.
But in this high-quality area, the results will be most beautiful and
important.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-s_cPlABdQFBnlp3lAEOHh-v3HKM7LLGEolx6K45zie-zbR_oD7pBI2YmtY3Yf_G3hz0pzJ80bST170sUHLLcR93a0uXbgO9R_WGJN1tI2Wa7oyloALeGz4LyplP0gi5Agu1YzdZ5qN0fxMKdSoptUzR772IchrWqIMfP_uTdJIbp1AtsHxGpJ0WTUw/s4032/smoke_9091.jpeg>
4:37. Now the fire is mostly smoke. But the flames don't have far to go.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1BWSMy4oOBQ3JXL7WEI4lUFHWUgcyunR8Y58n9mHACkRM-4tHJtimz7UEbOSLEExZF3rbDyK6J1OcQO2hk1WEozIoa6RytntgcTU5IiNQKOvQNedcu8ShgRGjIGdTpura20RhrpQs0ukX80UJuvvmqo0qg2J6MacWVCpuAa2sZqnB_nVvJ3exr_5YLg/s4032/smoke%20cleared_9097.jpeg>
4:38 Within a minute, the main fire is out, most of the smoke has risen
into the atmosphere, and the prairie ecosystem breathes a sigh of relief.
This will be a good year for the heart of Shaw Prairie.

In those five minutes, the most important work of the day was done. The
very-high-quality heart of this preserve is ready to face the 2022 growing
season. But there's much left to do before this blessed day is complete.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg51xRUmAWaDiFWQ4OT1AXZFq2P08oRNAl7rmufxU-64vj-0qjBLKP-YeL7sGbXIr5WP4BxhsMtEtpBM9BaF_7s8SMB0HPcmkIQ9EWFc4qlIcGXy45NbElRWhHUCDdOdVgtSOTWvPJUJKM7W1rGbPxU1lNmE4ennU-BLjvSE_jOQTQOD_06pDPOPcXHww/s4032/light%20along%20path_9101.jpeg>
Here, we light along the footpath at the south end of today's burn.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigGftF4Qe52S4CZYBU_Q0V13bAzu6CyA6Uip2RUJhHxF9iNG-mqtDOgwEJ3T6fV04ZEEj3dIW8JS4GgY0nU9KcqymCGUi2O__kHuj8mnzxUdpXWvxcezgFNM4xnnpIJbvueuNafUg2liUPX8J3Aoi0tnXt7ZRfeKDZZx5S9e8pHmYHIjND8pMoDgsJhw/s4032/too%20hot_9098.jpeg>
Sometimes ... this marshy section is too wet, and Christos steps into the
vegetation a few feet to find dry sedges. Sometimes ... the flames spring
up a bit fast and he winces his face a few more inches away from the heat.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG80Cf01HF4NTG5vfEavGDzA7zWqBrMFTGk9SVO-Lp4b1nfA8EwgJaZDOiSrKCQMMPNiEBk_SdyZVF_HRj6DFd8ReOW8vH29PUWQWU5uRcpQvhuVU6IlAoYl0tQuk0yn37NP5bZbDSgq7bXDR_09K8e2nEVZy9TmC4xyoTGNxej0CLHZyeUOsJiNvACg/s4032/briars_9104.jpeg>
At 4:45:29 PM, these edge flames start to consume a tangle of brush, mostly
briars and dogwood shrubs.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrAEKvKNI60FKsqIF6hkJoEyPDZOIzC5MXqYBlbCVkH9B-ckCHSuXoFKmymBjKTMpXqx96EqPqIu-hidcPZZsGg4PMINwsB3dZ7vJfkG2592kn3SkFYMsZWa8hNs404xkyv4KNtYDMsD0xMaJt6d5bBwqF6WypnKHWuylHFgh9JvnBL0Eo8la98H66RA/s4032/briars2_9106.jpeg>
The flames are very hot and could build fast, but a backfire has already
crept through the downwind fuel, so by 4:45:36 - seven seconds later
according to the camera - it's about over.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAb_G2vZSncuk0qI9qQZDOlaJNI6e7dRb8SVqsVj_xpZSw5sjlkfekir3uxf2WQlu_de4bFT6L5gzEmMaP0hbUATDPm7JV8XKs--192d1-p-RpPAuOZfBjCgMibAlbZ_QRC6X-dFe9nlSEQB8V_-zLVHwmv6CDGneyEMmHzBMtgvwcJH7Btod02TqhrQ/s4032/briar%20smoke_9108.jpeg>
4:46. Just smoke left.

At 5:00, three and a half hours after we started, the fire was essentially
out and all but a few wisps of smoke cleared. Little flames from brush
stumps, here and there, burn down and out. The crew extinguishes any that
look like they'd make passers-by uncomfortable.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxS_Y30zS3SmTMAfVDJQ7AVLHS2kwcfB5Au1QAp-nTstmjjJkUMBslNWpE0Hp0i3yrhHt0g9t5HJwyBBBoIZIRS3-CPjsNCYEM5yzQCW5nnF6JDSyTUALPtodzrGhwrCRfAtjrQwIzel9QzPkdXK28kXw-FwLGB5mu3dsM_uURfFazOxqZO0CZcRmq9g/s4032/end_9096.jpeg>
Today was an inspiring day for the heart of Shaw Prairie. It had not burned
in many years. In the photo above, the area to the right mostly did not
burn because over the years it had grown so dense with brush that no fuel
of dried grasses and flowers remained. We have sowed locally gathered seed
to restore those areas. This fine prairie will produce vastly more seed
this year, as that's what prairies do in response to fire. More needy areas
of this fine preserve will benefit from all that seed. We stewards feel
psyched about this whole next growing season. Yes!

For more detail on why we burn and how we control fire, click here
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/03/why-fire-is-needed.html>.
(Once again I'm plugging that new burn post. Many readers of this blog know
it already. But most people don't. Feel free to send it to people you think
could use the info.)

*Acknowledgements*

Thanks to Ryan London (Vice President of Conservation) and the whole team
from Lake Forest Open Lands for fine leadership in this new collaboration
with Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves.

This burn brought to you by:
Heather Decker - senior restoration ecologist
Christos Economou - steward
Monica Gajdel - steward
Eriko Kojima - steward
Kevin Kerrigan - restoration ecologist
Molly Marz - restoration technician

*Interested in Burning and Stewardship?*

We volunteer stewards always welcome new colleagues. Find out more details
on Shaw, burns, and what you might help with at:
https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-diversity-and-promise-of-shaw-woods.html

https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2021/11/anatomy-of-new-community.html
https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/03/controlled-burn-at-kishwaukee-fen-march.html

https://www.lfola.org
https://friendsofillinoisnaturepreserves.org

For the Shaw volunteer schedule, check out:
https://friendsofillinoisnaturepreserves.org/events/

Why Fire Is Needed
<http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/03/why-fire-is-needed.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 07 May 2022 05:42 AM PDT

*for the Survival of the Animals and Plants **of Tallgrass Prairie,
Savanna, Woodland, and Wetland*

To put it simply, we will certainly lose an important part of the genetic
heritage of planet Earth if we don’t give needed fire and other good care
to our remnant natural ecosystems. Currently, we are losing them.

The quickest answer to the question “Why do they need fire?” is that
thousands of species and ecosystems have been adapted to burning for
millions of years.

Many people ask for details to help understand, and scientists are
gradually discovering them, so, here are some examples:


- A burned prairie produces twice the biomass and many times the weight
of flowers and seeds in a year after a burn compared to any other year.


- Fire recycles nutrients and invigorates many important species of
bacteria, algae, fungi and other less visible but crucial components of the
ecosystem.


- Because the thatch of unburned vegetation insulates the ground from
warming sunlight in no-burn years, the growing season during those years is
two or three weeks shorter.


- Many species of plants only or mostly flower and set seed after a
burn. Many species of animals depend on the rich diversity of plants
(leaves, flowers, or seed) that survive and flourish only in regularly
burned areas.


- Many species of problem brush and weeds are controlled by fire.
Burning helps diverse nature and eliminates or reduces most invasives.

One way to convey the difference is to show some before and after photos,
like those below:

The first photo shows dense buckthorn brush that grew up where a
high-quality prairie was left unburned for decades:

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6LpInuo5OJnS2JUZ_aYzsS4P8uCNx3y104GCdO5iXJMqND3tsq6Tz8lJTKDDxQYWLaEoWri-pV5WLYRQUl0qu91I0TisF9QjWbSsHJf-F0QgTT3uWC8ENtyHaqJjnjoTKqYnu8MqWHqHmrVNBQ0Wwu7GYmWrlzq44ENtdLS-VNUZeHKm1IvOQ8w3iJQ/s3507/Shelford%20brush.jpg>

That prairie is lost and gone, choked out by these invaders, but below is a
similar one that was restored by fire and seed:

<https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xP8co8hLTnE/XneKE06868I/AAAAAAAAEtw/wk9LtzBUYbsDbw_k8QGYDsUPp2SgUgJuQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/compass%2Bmax%2Baf.jpeg>

After a burn (left) - and what then emerges in a savanna (right):
<https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kZyLTeaj89c/XodlwPUfufI/AAAAAAAAEvc/YrRm_l36N90rQ93mmWW0TkvZ9irFlVOjQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMG_9485%2Bbefore.jpg>
<https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YcOrm8fXvkc/Xodln8GdavI/AAAAAAAAEvY/8coBi1LjffY5WZVqgbg1RdKI4AftY4nIwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMG_9485.jpg>
Fire maintains health in both the grassland and woodland components of the
savanna. Without it shrubs and trees (including "native" to the region
species like box elder, maple, and basswood) gradually shade out and kill
off the thousands of species of animals and plants of the savanna.

For diagrams that show how fire is controlled, see Endnote 1.

Below are some comments from some of the Midwest's best authoritative
sources. Experts know fire is needed. Most people don't. We need more and
better education.

*Doug Ladd*, director of science and stewardship for The Nature Conservancy
of Missouri, wrote about fire and the conservation of prairies and
woodland.

Here flourish long-lived, deep-rooted perennial plants annealed by the
frequent Native American fires, searing summer droughts, frigid winters,
episodes of intensive grazing and trampling, and rapid, recurrent
freeze-thaw cycles that exemplify the Midwest. These plants in all their
varied magnificence in turn support myriad animals ranging from minute
prairie leafhoppers that spend their entire lives in a few square meters to
wide-ranging mammals and birds that travel hundreds or even thousands of
miles in a season.

And of the woodlands Ladd wrote:

Our original Ozark timberlands, also shaped by fire, climate, and water,
have much of their flora directly descended from the grassland biome.

*Gerould Wilhelm*, at the top of the list with the most respected Illinois
conservation botanists and author of *Plants of the Chicago Region* and *Flora
of the Chicago Region*, wrote in the latter of a savanna habitat:

These natural areas cannot sustain without regular implementation of fire.
In a savanna system, the sun is the most important criterion for the plants
to grow and reproduce and hence for the insects to sustain and reproduce.
When observing an intact savanna, one only has to squint his eyes and
observe a wash of yellow from the blooms of the Amaryllidaceae, Asteraceae,
and Orobanchaceae (in June when Hypoxis and Krigia bloom and in August when
the Aureolaria, Helianthus, and Solidago bloom) that fill nearly every
space. This is a savanna! The insect community that depends upon this
habitat is spectacular, and we have only just begun to understand it. (in
his discussion of *Hieraceum gronovii*)

About a now-rare species of the oak woods, he wrote:

Now uncommon and extirpated from many stations where it once was frequent,
this species occurs in rich wet to mesic woodlands, including seeps. It
thrives in regularly burned mesic savannas and open woodlands that consist
primarily of Quercus alba. (*Trillium flexipes*)

And about another:

For years we had a hard time determining the native habitat of this plant,
but with the burning of our woodlands in recent years, it has become
apparent that this species is conservative to oak savannas. Such habitats
had all but disappeared by the 1970s and 1980s, so where we found it most
often was at the edges of paths and clearings in remnant, albeit degraded,
woodlands. (*Cirsium altissimum*)

Rich Henderson, a highly-respected conservation researcher at the Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources, wrote in the context of a report on a
20-year study of the regal fritillary butterfly:

Tallgrass prairie, arguably the most fire-dependent system in North
America, is a Biome that has been essentially eliminated and is now
exceedingly rare. … Regal fritillary butterflies (Speyeria idalia)
exemplify this problem, with sharp population declines in recent decades …
Habitat quality was one of the most important factors explaining
populations and was positively associated with prescribed fire. Burning
every 3-5 years maximized regal fritillary abundance, but even annual
burning was more beneficial to regal populations than no burning at all.
Unburned refugia are important in maintaining populations, but creating and
maintaining high quality habitat with abundant violets (*Viola* spp) and
varied nectar sources, may be the most impactful management and
conservation tool.


For references to and details about the above statements, see Endnote 2.


*More local details on ecosystem fire in northern Illinois **can be found
in these blog posts: *

*A horrifying, shameful* (but ultimately a *good news* story) about what
happens if you leave one of Illinois’ most important biodiversity preserves
unburned for ten years:
https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2014/08/survivor-langham-island.html

And one *uplifting story* about grassroots *folks coming to the rescue of a
very long and narrow prairie*:
https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2020/12/cameo-old-plank-road-prairies.html

How *fire is needed for* the biodiversity of *animals* as well as plants:
https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2017/02/campaigns-to-save-oak-animals.html


*Endnotes*

*Endnote 1: How exactly do you do this?*
To burn, legally and safely, you need expertise, equipment, a crew, and
permits.

But if you'd like to understand the principle of how fire is controlled,
the diagrams below may help. They illustrate a small burn with minimal
equipment and a small crew.

In drawing a, the crew lights the fire at the downwind edge. Note wind
direction indicated by arrow. Then the burn boss sends two teams to draw
fire along the upwind side of the fire break. In this case the firebreak
along the top and left sides of the diagram are footpaths. On the bottom,
the break is a road. On the right, it's a line mowed to make the needed
break.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh57Q_5lhSGwqoug-MgmijYCKCw-l_iurXxZVecqy1lX8qXwmmIb0ZOPn2exVvCIQviq4Jo2Kg_Ynfzoz37uo-aEg_qZGuofLSCtcb2G9QxdyVZDrTtLEEF5iPEXRWoHvKmL0L0LI5RT0HTFEB2o7J8kF9nYuG2YOKyI3fTlgbBFf5IMncsXD4_KB7eVA/s921/Ring%20Fire%20diagram%20copy%201%20and%202.jpg>
In drawing b the crew (perhaps in each case one person with a drip torch,
one person with a water backpack pump, and one to four people with
"flappers" have completed a "backburn" on the upwind edge and are starting
"flank fires" or "side fires".

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsZCCLC5f0E-8m2_6RAB61YE9rMD8AflW6MiU1BdmGt_JlIL2mqcvIEBLxIW6aKGU27Dg6t6LfNicvQcs0yLGxvGDgmUg-4zxsrWM9_Vm1SiJnofBTCtDghYdL9gXThRFXn2nqivQf1ih2KtiXKnNNRhgU_wqj9VBKj7863keg1AfOJm9x0qAAwRSIcg/s914/Ring%20Fire%20diagram%203%20and%204.jpg>

In drawing c, the flank fires are nearly complete, the burned-out areas are
widening, most of the crew stays close to the drip torch, because that's
where the most attention is needed, because the burning grass is closest to
the area that you don't want to burn. The main job of the person with the
drip torch is to keep any eye on all the crew and all possible concerns, to
go slow enough to assure safety and fast enough to get the work done
efficiently, and to re-direct the crew if some concern arrises. Note that
one or more people keep an eye on the downwind edge as long as needed.

In drawing d, the short flames of the back and side fires have coompleted
wide breaks along the three edges of concern, and the "headfire" is started
along the bottom edge.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpXYueqg0Kj0oJxz_2MecnmjdnILcPm5b32Z1nELLfi-4-EPGki-aH_pumzlDiQPkSI91Q0W98JD2yX5LpStk6GfonV0MTnC0NU3vNhc5pZXB6yQLmoAMgsE8BonCch8mbC9KOfiAG0M6uWrf90tQuCW_vgH9H0E6NBbR-J-mnDYH8p0KMHkL8FtLVkg/s911/Ring%20Fire%20diagram%20e%20and%20f.jpg>

In drawings e and f, the headfire is completed and its larger flames
rapidly move with the wind. Most work is now done, but the crew stays
alert. This is especially true in a woodland fire, where a dead tree may
ignite and threaten to fall across the firebreak. The crew looks for
potential problems and deals with them.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb1s3vv-66CuR3bKwokvgvuwDbSO6zocIWl8SiNhgaUmx5gYnFXtVQ0xwWhLFzX0XqnBb7-NGGI-xGL2gIt3XdxZrgUaGaZJzPnM5p-Jtb0EX5ts5nduHo6jb9PpCX-cacoN_pfF1nKsrlSXiw48um_vgym5UjIQjcmjaoQLQOFJT6RnuLBfgmpF0w1Q/s907/Ring%20Fire%20diagram%20g%20and%20h.jpg>

As was planned, in drawing g, the backfire and headfire come together and
extinguish. After the fire, the crew re-checks the edges, stows all the
gear, and discusses how we all did and what we could learn. Some folks talk
with any interested observers during this "teachable moment" - to assure
there's good understanding of what may have looked like a very dramatic
event.

Larger burns would have larger crews and possibly an ATV or two with a
large-capacity water sprayer and long hose.


*Endnote 2. Expert Citations and Links*

*Doug Ladd'*s important essay on natural areas values and needs can be
found on page 4 and 5 here
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QIpnQTRPVxCzcjKZ0PSUvayRQgdgRdIK/view> and
in another context here
<https://prairieecologist.com/2012/04/04/why-prairie-matters-a-guest-essay/#more-3694>
.

*Gerould Wilhelm*'s comments refer to hairy hawkweed, declined trillium,
and tall thistle. His books are:
Swink, Floyd and Gerald Wilhelm, Flora of the Chicago Region. The Morton
Arboretum. 1994

and

Wilhelm, Gerould and Laura Rericha, Flora of the Chicago Region. Indiana
Academy of Science. 2017.


*Rich Henderson*'s study of the regal fritillary butterfly can he found here
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322069637_Disentangling_effects_of_fire_habitat_and_climate_on_an_endangered_prairie-specialist_butterfly>
or at:

"Disentangling effects of fire, habitat, and climate on an endangered
prairie-specialist butterfly"
- February 2018
- in Biological Conservation 218(12):41-48.
- DOI:
- 10.1016/j.biocon.2017.10.034
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2017.10.034>
-

*Acknowledgements*

Fire diagrams courtesy of the Tallgrass Restoration Handbook, edited by
Stephen Packard and Cornelia Mutel, Island Press, 1977.

Thanks for proofing, edits, and suggestions to Rebeccah Hartz, Eriko
Kojima, and Christos Economou.

Controlled Burn at Kishwaukee Fen: March 17, 2022
<http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/03/controlled-burn-at-kishwaukee-fen-march.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 30 Mar 2022 07:28 AM PDT

The rare plants and animals of the *rare ecosystem* at this Illinois Nature
Preserve depend for their health and ultimately their survival on frequent
fire. If you want to know why, click here
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/03/why-fire-is-needed.html>. The
photos below tell today's story and strategy.

But this video
<https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=search&v=928009181125249&external_log_id=6715e83e-1bef-4e14-b0e6-39bdbb4072e4&q=Kishwaukee%20Fen>
conveys
the drama. Two lines of flames are visible. The relatively low backfire
flames are retreating slowly away from the photographer. The ten- to
twenty-foot flames of the roaring headfire, in the distance, rapidly
approach the backfire. Toward the end of the video, one person walks out
into the middle, between the backfire and headfire - with a fire-dropping
"drip torch," to light more and reinforce the backfire along the Kishwaukee
stream.

At that point the fire was almost over. Here's how we got to there:
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjaLG4QMOoOT3Ih_h9n4ZxXpl8qLEyqfGk5Zby9CSQ7rgI9SPa8Ri1rtFZwg6gN0JcEasL8X0kkjbldbJEr8nTt73ir_RwvlEZESHiLkVF15kNfcDwtXTc-J5lmjLtvtGIf8fIjJeQlFHqEjnnMg53l94RR05GUxEy4MpDcOt9SrgDknzfUlOMM_DcrEw=s4032>
At 1:45 PM, volunteers Christos Economou and Eriko Kojima are waiting for
the rest of the crew to arrive. Volunteer Stephen Packard, taking this
photo, has just changed into a fireproof Nomex jumpsuit, and his street
clothes are lying in a heap on the adjacent golf course lawn. To the right
of the lawn is the down-wind corner of the tall grass ecosystem that will
be burned today. Further right is a mowed firebreak.

As a "spoiler" here, to make the strategy clearer, the next photo is after
the burn is completed - from the same spot as the photo above. Below you
see, again, the golf course on the left and the mowed firebreak on the
right. But now the grassland has been burned.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu1p5eqki7QxG8llHLgeHSQ-yooiV4y6khuSFnb6JLsPTJrxAoU4EDEDltHsDRDV_GefGRk49_oVMo5NnMq5Af62rutKmU3WB7X8PL4PLM_d-vx_zGqB1JnKDXHG2DzJpc-qJ04rONt9uqK0-zCRBrzsPzhfqfF8vyLRiiuKRcF_1xuM9CWGEtMnJJeA/s4032/point%20burned_9031.jpeg>
The burn started about 2 PM and ended about 4 PM. Below is the "play by
play."

When Nature Preserves Commission staffer John Nelson and colleague Brad
Semel arrive with two pumper vehicles, the team is complete. Two upland
fire breaks (east and west sides of the area to be burned) had been
previously mowed ahead of time. We're ready to go.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgX5W3xBUCR1cLMIXWZPsQCoFqoD2nVUf41KN7Vfkm1tKtRcJXO8RIZwPEXURi3dIzHww5moTUjK3DAK11cHcQJSRhCsaV8hirYcrfan2SaYjlOCV1hxc1eZW3MWeLpYh2FZ5EiSKoSNKoyxu7mLTfG-wVxbQ43-ytM4C2UjkBndm9pI5ZvKD2MCTyytw=s4032>
As we safely start the backfire, one person uses a drip torch to light
short strips of fire along the edge of the mowed break. Two people hold
flappers to smother the fire if it heads with the wind into the mowed
break. The fourth person holds a hose from the pumper ATV which we'll use
if we want to spray out fire quicker. But mostly, we keep the water in
reserve. One person (from this crew of five) takes photos when they're not
needed on the line, so we can explain this important work to you.

Step one of a controlled burn is a slow-moving, low-flame backfire on the
downwind edge. When that's secure, we head upwind along both sides, so
there will be no-remaining-fuel fire breaks on three sides before the
fast-moving, high-flame headfire is lit. The backfires started with that
mowed strip. The sidefires are lit along the golf course lawn to the south
and the along Kishwaukee stream on the north.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEmhQiR7MOBzDsEUOxfy1Guyg2oxpfZJVy0dgrErgb8BrGuWrP0_BjSGM4HUTEcRwXw_n3UNAw7uny2p3lCAtvE3up-fsp8lZC6gVWOYCbn1obq-Lpp1B2uuotyYMDaqYDA-J1dUiJaPl7fg1YG_FGfjiQcUv4QneZI6dPA-bbDwfBWmx5YCitPfEqBA/s4032/unburned%20stream_9009.jpeg>
A narrow stream, with dense fuel on both sides, is not much of a firebreak.
But it's sufficient if a backfire is lit along its edge - and the crew
watches it to make sure a spark doesn't cross the stream, until the fire
has burned well back from the edge.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm34e7cUuj9lD0901yKC7eJS7OuDXmtRciln3NXzAzrA1yrZowtsJ68HZIqXpyBCyjUXSTYMlWmL6PUOhXZ3NQgBDzKnYWaAEzQtYuSFIAX9Q5opShsem5DhtYF5XSRu6-QHikbkMh1KqCN8NYbi0hnG74YAtOtBZbo0fWaQHcljN_Vna0OC-Zmk26fA/s4032/stream%20and%20fire_9019.jpeg>

On the south edge, when the flames reach the golf course lawn, they just go
out.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5iEEQyq4JE7S0n_NoQ9EUDulkeUe5i3781oTeIw_KdtGvWJ_ALy7k0uBCAnKSc_wVl0gl_UArulNekcy5GQXDXNIBhthnCz7pqYD6X10qxLX1hgCXQCx4rNS1D8r72AvhoajBWJMV1jO2NNeVrvBicG1g3tvmCxkL3rsg69rKW6hhHF6snFzf-QMT5w/s4032/flames%20reach%20golf_9015.jpeg>

Once the back- and side-fires make wide-enough brakes, it's time for the
headfire.
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Here, at the upwind edge, across the wetland, we have only a narrow break,
raked that morning. But with plenty of water from the pumper ATV, once the
fire starts moving away from the break, it's easy to control. Here, once
Christos sprays out the short, narrow strip of backfire, John with the drip
torch will light the next strip, and bit by manageable bit, we'll light the
thatch all the way to the stream (most of the way to the brush, visible at
the top of this photo).

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVgWue_uKGaxHI9JUAg_F2hUrAJlo1mpQREHddB_2QMpz8o-PiOkJeSSAE1rLs9GbkqwppNfumcL83ig4tbq5bczhyXDWLsE3VyPUMZE4MEnvLe8EGXn8tn99X8VWup7a-LGI36KSO_1m1sYkcJWq5gqUR-VD1ghaZOImdgbCZiHfFnCQnFmQWusbATQ/s4032/long%20hose_8991.jpeg>

Now, at a key time, the hose from the ATV breaks. And as John put it, "So
we lost our pumper water resource. It's a good lesson, in having back-up
hand tools and a team that adjusts quickly to unexpected surprises or
conditions." Indeed it was.

So, for the last stretch to reach the stream, we use "flappers" and water
backpacks for "easy but not quite so lazy" control - until the entire burn
is contained, 360 degrees around.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5FhBQp43w-MFLz-lRbNiQIq4ImrX9q_hAT8c0V9Al_iZXwY5X-31XKwFA09WBd0TP254fvkt_VF7swW0S4FoX6G2nfa65BFHvynlfG6pKfKnLIJO0rpFVLJt_aiTF8jQgKjjwlS_mYCf0lNC15UXOCxAVAfB4N7ZdOyBCJCb0P7HlERKt4OODl999wA/s4032/backpack_8996.jpeg>

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtLdl6tEgMSLaluz7HZnNkcI1Qv4dKFBuBpm9xtPUDF9oO__FluWdkMCzioxoMceJ-x_SbgZVO32mpu2WV0GCPxMK9cZbg263c9dyALVeH-IK-fgkQc1nyrw6unJ1kOdjQnuH62lx-jho64aizj4LBXAx8IagyHiPRxrsaB8tHHm-TIdGZMAYDTbGPag/s3653/headfire%20to%20stream_9008.jpeg>
When the headfire reaches the stream, with all the breaks complete, the
fire can just burn and do its good for the ecosystem.

While Christos, John, Brad, and I are finishing up the headfire, Eriko, who
has been keeping an eye on the downwind breaks, snaps this photo of the
fire at its height:
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKFIi4GxSII1lyEHFF95eObJtTvufP1HuNtBhwV02J_Oe0Ij7F8LSjEeTTnSWe7SSQYxwosO0tAa8IXZWI6iWxtdx-QALI2gf6jCWMRSgMlui52Q7tAwqB6F_SxWvcaq5uxxBo1wXU1J2Ua2SZzchKJ5lNaD2IHLfNBSOmUhD_ajDo10umG_ZrJnBCiA/s4032/big%20fire_2077.jpg>
Soon, all the fast-burning grassland fire is out. The photo below shows ...
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtfT_jyviSVpdioYkx5aGS6A_ntDtlTFWZXBI1CwOJKZWLzcnsSD79typ3XSGfjKeLykBeeIHciFaFHz3B9c11XfVmFKtw2dCG27VVPz4Uw6bm2o3BtESPJC3foefH5Mnwx52BcnzqRSKGGJcsuuRggsb3AKMgi6qvZbGqUFMBcO-UE0dlmv9q8fq9CQ/s4032/out_9017.jpeg>
... most of the burned Fen as well as an unburned patch, which tells
another important part of the story. That's where dense brush had blotted
out the original prairie and fen grassland. Within a few years it will be
restored, and then will burn with the rest of the preserve.

Now, all that's left is the mop-up.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFmeU62urmy6pp4tbUmvOLjzVNVckD9FwMHBsoJC9WgLYJrR4USQxkBRdqaAaFIYWODl13VoYNuIqfVloyMl8UodBtTsP22wgQX2VLGg7vDAeida5knaQVRlGsX-Gz2TOJxSBNj4aAVg0ImabgxsnuOREbX4BG5JL7B8sb9JmAEhxD_fxNKxkHYrg_Zg/s4032/dead%20tree_9026.jpeg>
Long after the grassland fire is out, dead trees will continue to burn.
This cottonwood (two trunks, one on the ground, the other partly standing)
was burning merrily until John started spraying all sides of it with water.
If there were no public relations concerns, the best strategy is to just
let it burn up. It's utterly safe, with all fuel around it long burned up.
If we put it out, we'll have to do the same every time we burn here. But
many people are concerned if they see a tree on fire, so John tries to
spray it out.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY2LKAxYKzr2Mqyy3Ipx3QzX0-oFNSIRXw0p48R_EjmDU_jpP-pY3NFIpeu94TtrOrA_zGgwBkdP8t63Vt6dizTkJxmyH_GH7_fRR-HrzacqEn9-6N3pPqd-gV9gEws63Ct03Tr2Huk9PBJSRdUH9IDVs5quLWkxIcFFeVR-8IRjRiq8Ohdw_Kc6lQXw/s4032/spray%20snag9024.jpeg>
He sprays huge amounts of water on the smoldering parts, but every time he
stops, the fire which is now burning well inside the wood starts smoking
again.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1kxc1jYVMKHAIUK87CTWbeEQJTT8gpyOwdXkUYGM_4e3pHyVj81flyilYYM9VRYYIuBckMEHdKb0hSjtYUQ6hSowG6B_mzDPmJOQOjsDAk8w_XvYZULkU1UzIG9_sKupDbrzpyoBbTlsFUae-3gD9zZYHPyrBLRL9Il9nwK2aSuNTxedPOP_elhf23w/s4032/two%20days%20later_9027.jpeg>
Two days later, when the volunteer stewards return, what's left of the tree
is still smoldering. The standing part is entirely gone.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSo04jCimWTWEbH19d3x2OlOdD_e6Mtft7Luhpd3bk8Gl6c_GfIb7YrmsFOp9_xu4aBEeWlD_BcBsbXJGbss_5aKpkZSssXTm-1ZsCEknNXzmS5iUu4pMTzOZykZLWh_L7_et1adRYnXqbvYzbbGqtC7JeX9EMPMO1GKk6z6rWo-kpuEa_vZn-ISWCXQ/s4032/five%20of%20seven_9039.jpeg>
We are here to continue our campaign against another of the remaining
patches of invasive brush. After a while, as the seven of us look at the
burned fen, we notice a pair of sandhill cranes busily finding food in the
burned area.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyXv4kfoPLm2QnKD6Z7i8Nfyi8ypGFh6Ut9LVidxLee--szBh4_VIjnzyxoOEmMQF-VBx9PaalWezDbnj1Res0cBAkPKInI7ZjmAlN7M702CTq6iVQmJgV3JavXT5Z-9VGP1lLCFgWNP8N8sU5kd-10ckjNYAJLEbhJXWDBeZiQscOgdKpXWATRxFZ3w/s4032/cranes_9043.jpeg>
We couldn't get great photos with our cellphones. But as they wandered
around, finding food, these handsome creatures reminded us that out plant
and animal neighbors at Kishwaukee Fen Nature Preserve do appreciate out
efforts.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBcjH2fLdPYsSL54re7G95EK7RRGmZnWWJJshdLEraxb_rojIVSC0DL_6M2PscqxL3UlSsgO7VGSti_8IFXyqAm2j_jeCSiJvR6i1m45AlaP81tIbaETBH44TgoyYgQTbzOLESP-EDRf7TjCC88w-WT5o727NKVP7Wocaemm0VyFYff0Nzehp6lA_uRw/s554/cranes.jpg>
Thanks to the burn, this year will be a great one for the recovery of the
Fen's rare fire-dependent plants and animals. We look forward to more good
work and discoveries during the 2022 growing season. It's almost here.

*Acknowledgements*

Great credit goes to *John Nelson* and *Brad Semel* for leadership,
assembling the equipment, seeing to the notifications, permits, and all.
That's a lot of work. Bless their hearts, they had just a half-hour earlier
completed a burn at Moraine Hills State Park, so this was their second burn
that day. This effort was squeezed in because the weather prediction had
just changed, making conditions very right to burn the fen, at the last
minute. Filling out the crew were Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves
stewards Christos Economou, Eriko Kojima, and Stephen Packard. Might you
like to help next year?

Photos by Eriko Kojima and Stephen Packard. Internet close-up photo of
sandhill cranes thanks to Taylor County Big Year. Thanks for proofing and
edits by Eriko Kojima.

Restoration and stewardship of Kishwaukee Fen Nature Preserve thanks to the
Village of Lakewood, Illinois Nature Preserves Commission, Friends of
Illinois Nature Preserves, and, mostly, the generous and inspiring
volunteer stewards, the Friends of Kishwaukee Fen.



The Mighty Middle
<http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-mighty-middle.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 07 Mar 2022 10:18 AM PST

Alternate title:* The Essential and Difficult Intermediate*

Sometimes fine successes can blind us to lurking, festering flaws. Take for
example the two inspiring photos below:
Restored Somme savanna grassland: June 28, 2021

Twelve days later: July 10, 2021
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjKprNae8IqKYPn1Al-4XSL2ZzxlKz68i0zFwgrHg2zSZVE0CZCZ6z4TtVd4KKdGq93Vb7oV9NqKJiZkkPhkidxcYT0g-uOoVL0ovRAnZlO4RQFvoNsAnKtV7GQpMiIbkO6WiEA14anG9REaEgWu-aw94UMmGm0kqkVwwPDOsxgigd8U3xRmv7mkOCaBQ=s4032>

Prairie-like open savanna areas are the pride of Somme Prairie Grove. Their
diversity is such that every two weeks a new set of highly diverse conservative
species
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/02/floristic-quality-assessment-and-plant.html>
blooms
from spring through fall. Starting in 1980 as mostly alien old field
vegetation, the most open parts of the Somme savanna restorations, year
after year, have seemed to be more and more similar to the best remnant
prairies. That is, they now seem like high-quality, rare restored nature.
They feature such conservative species as cream false indigo, leadplant,
yellow star grass, hoary puccoon, bastard toadflax, Leiberg's panic grass,
and all those species with prairie in their names: prairie violet, lily,
coreopsis, alumroot, dropseed, gentian, and white and purple prairie
clovers. Oh, yes, they also include savanna specialist species, but we’ll
get to that later. (See Endnote 1: Evolving Seed Mixes.)


Parts of Somme’s bur oak woodland areas also thrive
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2020/10/a-celebration-of-vestal-grove-study.html>
with
year-by-year increasing quality. (For photos and details of the darker
parts of the savanna, see Endnote 2: Open Woods Flora.)


But … now we come to the “Mighty” or “Essential” or “Difficult”
confession. As we walk from grassy, bright open toward the woody shade, we
must pass through dismal failure.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg9pCtpryoU-Ml00FxGKMOTdtemZeduuKPvfTsqoOeWwfWVQgskPW6m6TV7EM6aexu9gh-fKl8nJ4h-W1iWXEF8ySQQb1Gf1MGzENFRiHgETu2CvHSpQM9RJM2axgkMdl3rZ5sFDpwah74iAK6R0BDgu864jjOmXAmhtiAKWKoHTt__lPSzONyZEZc1yw=s3264>
Heavy dominance by one species - tall goldenrod
Between the brightest and shadiest areas, bands of intermediate brightness,
as shown above, have little diversity or quality. Initially, following
buckthorn control and seed broadcast, they seemed to have good potential.
But after a few years they tended to become dominated by weedy native tall
goldenrod (*Solidago altissima*). Such areas are unstable. They don’t allow
the establishment of the grasses that are the base fuels for a good burn.
Every time grassy or "oak-leafy" areas burn, the diversity, conservatism,
and health of the ecosystem seems to increase. But, as the fires skip these
intermediate areas, that health doesn't improve, and many have reverted to
brush.


In other cases, we’ve controlled the invading woody species in hope that
conservative diversity would eventually emerge. Instead, after many years,
the stands of tall goldenrod have often been replaced by woodland sunflower
– which also impedes the development of enough grassy fuel for regular
burns.



<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjK9pljd9pv39nkUJa1r0mMqV9k-681tMHKMm_Loqcg9tXw2_Uu816FJNFPZ0TtNpsryVAJPu6p6TlOc0KYMiTvm85ZZgS_m6UWkM2ravcz_V780FENApqbZvTQVGmb_SPHcoioG-9L56qUjILrFafcyhsDfLJ6omtdqMNpaxdVFwCBSb4BQrXkC9bY2g=s4032>
Heavy dominance by woodland sunflower

It is perhaps positive but not remotely sufficient that the relatively
conservative woodland sunflower
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2018/08/are-woodland-sunflowers-thugs.html>
replaces
weedy tall goldenrod. When sunflowers (*Helianthus strumosus* or *hirsutus*
and hybrids) take over these areas – after a decade or two – Floristic
Quality
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/02/floristic-quality-assessment-and-plant.html>
calculations
typically go up, at least temporarily, because tall goldenrod rates a weedy
1 while woodland sunflower rates a mid-conservative 5. But is that “progress
” an illusion? As these areas continue not to burn - will brush take over?


Along with goldenrods and sunflowers, these Intermediate areas may be
covered with briars, saw-tooth sunflower, willow aster, and other
aggressive species. In some areas, these low-quality communities may
support some of the site's endangered species populations. Such areas can
be colorful at times (when their few species are in bloom).


But we study these areas closely and ask questions. Are the low-diversity
patches advancing “cancers” that will spread into and degrade the quality
areas around them? Or are they, once succeeded to sunflower, gradually
gaining sustainable conservative diversity? In the absence of fire, are
they stalled in their recovery and unsustainable in the long run? Whatever,
how to we decide what’s the best management for them?


In 2021 we began an ambitious new approach. (Are we overly hasty? See
Endnote 3: Too Impatient?)


*New Hypothesis*

Our new working hypothesis is that the recovering savanna at Somme now
consists of four parts – two successful, and two not, at least so far.
These parts differ in a) their response to fire, b) their community
structure, c) their health or success, and d) management needs. They can be
described as:


- Prairie-like savanna: There is enough sun to support tall grasses
sufficiently dense to burn regularly. Herb diversity and health improve
over time with our current stewardship.
- Intermediate "open savanna" – more shady than the above: Currently,
not burnable under moderate conditions. Diversity and health do not much
improve over time. May lose diversity to dense tall goldenrod, woodland
sunflower (esp. *H. hirsutus*), or brush.
- Intermediate "closed savanna" – less shady than woods-like savanna:
Currently, not burnable under moderate conditions. Diversity and health
do not much improve over time. May lose diversity to dense tall goldenrod,
woodland sunflower (esp. *H. strumosus*), or brush
- Woods-like savanna: The trees are sufficiently dense that a continuous
carpet of dried oak leaves regularly supports fire. Herb diversity and
health improve over time with our current stewardship. (See Endnote 4.)

Until now, our ongoing hypothesis
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-somme-prairie-grove-experiment.html>
(developed
with mentors Professor Robert Betz
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2021/04/what-kind-of-person-does-it-take.html>,
Forest Preserve staff
<https://vestalgrove.blogspot.com/2014/03/a-history-of-collaboration.html>,
and a long list of others) has been that if we cut brush, controlled
invasive weeds, planted diverse rare seed, and burned frequently … then
diverse quality vegetation will increasingly take over and become largely
self-sustaining. This overall hypothesis here seems to have been confirmed
over the decades – as the site’s number of native species has doubled and
per plot conservative diversity for most areas has doubled, tripled, or
quadrupled. This healing proceeds in both the sunniest and shadiest areas,
as we’ve seen. But, oops, not in the intermediate. Experts and new visitors
alike admire the beauty and complexity of many parts of Somme Prairie Grove
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2021/05/highest-legal-protection-for-formerly.html>.
But in the Intermediate, we mostly avert our eyes and move on.


Dr. Betz emphasized that even the best tallgrass “natural areas” have been
profoundly diminished in their biodiversity by a century and a half of
human disruption. Some types recover more readily than others. Perhaps
“Intermediate Savanna” recovery is just slower, or perhaps these areas need
restoration approaches that have not yet been developed.


*Three New Restoration Approaches.*

We rejoice in the splendid biodiversity gains of perhaps half of the site.
Maybe health (sustainable diversity) will gradually spread into the ailing,
dismal areas. But we stewards have poked away at the intermediate problem
indecisively for long enough. After 41 years of restoration, we stewards
have added a new focus to our work.


In the areas outlined in orange on the map below, we have adopted three new
strategies to wrestle with the challenge of the intermediate.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgZVN85VbL7lmd0NxUfqSyXpo66UKSY9Btj7EwMctw4VGyrn-FxcMSUSVg3DLcpbvU4hkRYwmYWmqd2cjNkD4z5L5JhBbw8ARjs3k0Dh68xEHzSikDVbNFf8ol3eXUCIh0DT0acB5cY9r_uuqVjnlYd1j_juI8QUwcRpkHp-FRRdfjTx8GlGhp1sgCqgw=s2200>



*Strategy 1: New seed mixes*


“Why so many seed mixes?” some people ask. “Why be so finicky? Why not just
throw all seeds everywhere and let the nature decide what wants to grow
where?”


The problem is that we don’t have large enough quantities of the rare seed
that’s required – especially for many conservative species. When a newly
sown turf <https://www.blogger.com/#>fails to achieve sufficient diversity
and strength to hold its own against the “aggressives", the diverse species
die. The rare seed was wasted. We try to enhance our seed effectiveness by
focusing it on the right places.


The new mixes shown in Endnote 1 were developed principally by Sai
Ramakrishna, Eriko Kojima, Christos Economou, and Katie Kucera – based on
literature review and observation. One of the main new approaches is to
give the intermediate areas more seed of the grasses, the warm- and
cool-season prairie, intermediate, and woodland grasses and sedges.

*Strategy 2: Facilitate restoration of widely-separated oaks in
higher-quality areas that border the ailing intermediate areas.*


For four decades we did wait for one element of nature to take its course.
Our hypothesis had been, “It’s best to let the fires decide” how savanna
oak density should be restored. Following previous timber harvest and
grazing and even plowing in some areas, the site faced two very different
challenges – no oak areas and too-dense oak areas.


At one end of the shade continuum, we decided to speed a return to widely
spaced oaks by thinning (especially in the artificial white oak
tree-plantation areas). Here we also use Strategies 1 and 3 to see if we
can avert establishment of pesky tall goldenrod or sunflower.


At the other end of the shade continuum, in some of the long-restored,
high-quality grassland areas, hundreds of young oaks seemed to be waiting
their turns. For decades, their tops have burned off every couple of years.
But the roots survived. After each fire, those roots had a chance to get
bigger and healthier and to put up larger, faster-growing young trunks. In
the 1800s, on original, prairie-like open savanna, these re-sprout oaks
were common and called “oak bushes” or “oak grubs” because farmers would
have to “grub them out” to prepare a field for plowing. Over the millennia,
chance variation in fire frequency would occasionally have given some such
oak bushes the opportunity to mature fire-resistant trunks. Our expectation
was that sooner or later, these shrubby oaks would be big enough to
withstand the fires. That’s perhaps true, but how long would we have to
wait?


Part of their problem these days was that these trees had an additional new
stress to deal with. In addition to fire, overabundant deer sought out the
vigorous new shoots in springs after a burn and consumed them repeatedly,
mercilessly. Over the decades we’d come to know well some of these little
trees, as we used them to mark the corners of some experimental plots. We
noticed that, as we checked on those experiments, the oaks that were one
foot tall in 1980 were still one foot tall in 1990 - and still in 2010. We
decided that, for this experiment, we had waited long enough. To give young
oaks more of a “head start,” we began to protect some from deer with cages.


We also began to protect these few oaks from fire with a two-step process.
Step 1: We raked fuel away from young trunks in years when we planned a
burn for their areas. We also needed another step, because however
laboriously we raked away the dense fuel, the trunks were killed anyway as
20-foot flames swept by. So, Step 2: On the day of the burn, we ignited
little backfires on the upwind edge of the raked areas shortly before the
main flame fronts (headfires) got to them.


When we choose trees to favor in this way, another hypothesis came into
play. Morton Arboretum scientists have expressed a belief that the genetics
of our sugar maples gradually changed once landscape burning stopped. The
old “pink-barked black maple” element had been swamped out by the faster
growing (in the absence of fire) eastern sugar maple. We noticed great
variety among our bur oaks and wondered if something similar was happening
to them. Some (slower growing?) young trees had very thick corky bark; some
(faster growing?) trees had smooth thin-looking bark. Hypothesizing that
the corky bark was related to fire tolerance, we tried especially to assist
young trees that had thicker bark.


For photos and more specifics, see Endnote 5 - Restoring Bur Oaks.


*Strategy 3: Scything the aggressive species*


To give conservative diversity an opportunity to out-compete aggressive
species, we have begun to scythe away these "aggressives" once or twice a
year. Typically we scythe tall goldenrod and woodland sunflower along with
smaller amounts of sawtooth sunflower (*H. grosseseratus*), willow
aster (*Aster
praealtus*) and sometimes briars, ironweed, tall coreopsis, tall boneset,
Joe Pye weed, and others. When there is some diversity mixed in, we
selectively avoid cutting the less aggressive species. Following scything,
the aggressive are likely to grow back, but perhaps the diverse other
species will increasingly establish a competitive turf that will limit their
aggressiveness and allow the establishment of the fire-fueling grasses or
sedges.


We will continue to scythe the rank vegetation for the next few years and
try to get these areas burned more often. In small experiments, in previous
years, we have found that repeated scything somewhat reduces tall goldenrod
and dramatically reduces woodland sunflower.


We can’t predict the results; this post just describes the current thinking
about a challenge and our strategy to meet it. To ascertain how well it
works on the ground may take years. We'll report back. If you’re doing this
kind of work, we’d appreciate hearing your results.


Our goal, of course, is an ecosystem with sufficient diversity that it's
self-sustainable with a minimum of our effort, beyond prescribed fire and
deer control, which seem needed for the foreseeable future if these
hundreds of plant species and thousands of animal species are to survive
and thrive here.


*Endnotes*


*Endnote 1: Evolving Savanna Seed Mixes.*

The seeds of our new savanna restoration seed mixes are divided by light
intensity into four parts and labeled:

1. "Prairie (Savanna)" for full sun areas of the savanna

2. “Open Savana” for areas with bright sun for about two-thirds of the day

3. “Closed Savanna” – full or “bright dappled” sun for about one-third of
the day

4. "Woodland (Savanna)" for areas of bright but mostly dappled light all day




These mixes are further divided into three wetness categories: mesic,
wet-mesic, and wet. (Somme has little dry-mesic and no dry ground.) The
term “mesic” means “medium wetness” – half way between “wet” and “dry.”




Our current list of mesic species and mixes is provided in Table 1. This
table omits wet-mesic and wet lists, to make it easier to compare what's
germane to the subject of this post, experiments in mesic savanna.




Note that the species of Somme's Open Savanna mix seem much like Prairie
list but with the addition of some savanna specialist species like Penn
sedge, hairy green sedge, purple milkweed, cream gentian, violet bush
clover, savanna blazing star, etc.

Also note that these mixes reflect *planting strategies *and *not community
composition lists*. For example: 1) We expect that big bluestem will be a
part of our prairie and open savanna flora. But we do not include it in our
prairie mixes, because it is likely to be too aggressive in early stages.
On the other hand, we include it in our Open and Closed Savanna mixes
because we're desperate for fuel there and because we notice that it's less
aggressive there. 2) Some species on these mesic lists are more
characteristic of wet-mesic areas, and we do put more seed of such species
in the wet-mesic mixes, but if these species are sometimes in mesic, and we
have enough seed gathered, we include them. 3) For many species, no one
knows likely historic roles in savanna communities, because examples to
study are slim to none. If our experience is that a species seems to
reproduce in recovering mesic savanna communities, then we include it in
that mix. If it becomes a part of the long-term community there, then we've
learned something. If it later is outcompeted in a given community, perhaps
its presence has in the meantime helped contribute niches and competition
that has fostered the recovery of conservative, sustainable diversity.

In the table below, C = Coefficient of Conservatism. MPS = the species
planted in the mesic-prairie-like, most-open parts of the savanna. MOS =
Mesic Open Savanna - the species planted in areas that receive full sun
about two-thirds of the day. MCS = Mesic closed Savanna - the species
planted in areas that receive full sun about one-third of the day. And MWS
= seed for areas darker, yet still sunny, dappled shade all day, what might
also be called open oak woodland.


Revised Mesic Savanna Seed Mixes


C

SCIENTIFIC NAME

COMMON NAME

MPS

MOS

MCS

MWS

7

Actaea pachypoda

White Baneberry







X

10

Actaea rubra

Red Baneberry







X

8

Agalinis auriculata

Eared False Foxglove



X





3

Agalinis tenuifolia

Slender False Foxglove



X





5

Agastache nepetoides

Yellow Giant Hyssop





X

X

5

Agastache scrophulariifolia

Purple Giant Hyssop





X

X

5

Agrostis perennans

Thin Grass





X

X

7

Allium burdickii

Chicago Leek





X

X

3

Allium canadense

Wild Garlic

X

X

X

7

Allium cernuum

Nodding Wild Onion

X

X





9

Allium tricoccum

Wild Leek







X

10

Amorpha canescens

Lead Plant

X

X





5

Andropogon gerardii

Big Bluestem



X

X



8

Anemone cylindrica

Thimbleweed

X

X





7

Anemone quinquefolia

Wood Anemone







X

5

Anemone virginiana

Tall Anemone



X

X



7

Anemonella thalictroides

Rue Anemone





X

X

3

Antennaria plantaginifolia

Pussy Toes

X

X

X



5

Apocynum androsaemifolium

Spreading Dogbane



X





4

Apocynum cannabinum

Indian Hemp

X

X

X



6

Aquilegia canadensis

Wild Columbine



X

X

X

6

Arisaema dracontium

Green Dragon







X

5

Arisaema triphyllum

Jack-In-The-Pulpit







X

8

Arnoglossum atriplicifolium

Pale Indian Plantain



X







Asclepias purpurascens

Purple Milkweed



X





8

Asclepias sullivantii

Prairie Milkweed

X







8

Asclepias tuberosa

Butterfly Weed

X

X





1

Asclepias verticillata

Whorled Milkweed

X

X





8

Astragalus canadensis

Canadian Milk Vetch

X

X





10

Aureolaria grandiflora var. pulchra

Yellow False Foxglove



X

X



8

Baptisia lactea

White Wild Indigo



X





10

Baptisia leucophaea

Cream Wild Indigo

X

X





5

Blephilia hirsuta

Wood Mint







X

9

Brachyelytrum erectum

Awned Wood Grass







X

10

Bromus kalmii

Prairie Brome

X

X





5

Bromus latiglumis

Ear-leaved Brome




X

X

5

Bromus nottowayanus

Glossy-leaved Brome





X

X

7

Camassia scilloides

Wild Hyacinth

X

X

X

4

Campanulastrum americanum

Tall Bellflower





X

X

5

Cardamine concatenata (Den lac)

Cut-leaved Toothwort







X

8

Carex albursina

Blunt-scaled Wood Sedge







X

8

Carex bicknellii

Prairie Oval Sedge

X

X





1

Carex blanda

Common Wood Sedge





X

X

5

Carex cephalophora

Oval-headed Sedge



X

X



4

Carex davisii

Awned Graceful Sedge





X



9

Carex festucacea

Fescue Oval Sedge



X





10

Carex formosa

Awnless Graceful Sedge





X

X

7

Carex gracillima

Graceful Sedge





X

X

3

Carex granularis

Pale Sedge



X

X



7

Carex grayi

Common Bur Sedge







X

3

Carex grisea

Wood Gray sedge







X

5

Carex hirsutella

Hairy Green Sedge



X

X



5

Carex hirtifolia

Hairy Wood Sedge





X

X

5

Carex jamesii

James’ Sedge





X

X

2

Carex molesta

Field Oval Sedge

X

X





5

Carex normalis

Spreading Oval Sedge





X

X

5

Carex pensylvanica

Penn Sedge



X

X

X

5

Carex rosea

Curly-styled Wood Sedge







X

6

Carex shortiana

Short’s Sedge





X



5

Carex sparganioides

Bur-reed Sedge





X

X

8

Carex sprengelii

Long-beaked Sedge





X

X

5

Carex swanii

Downy Green Sedge





X

X

7

Carex tribuloides

Awl-fruited Oval Sedge





X



10

Carex woodii

Wood’s Stiff Sedge







X

10

Castilleja coccinea

Scarlet Painted Cup

X

X





8

Caulophyllum thalictroides

Blue Cohosh







X

8

Ceanothus americanus

New Jersey Tea

X

X





4

Celastrus scandens

Climbing Bittersweet



X

X



4

Chenopodium simplex

Maple-leaved Goosefoot





X

X

5

Cinna arundinacea

Common Wood Reed





X

X

8

Cirsium altissimum

Tall Thistle





X

X

3

Cirsium discolor

Pasture Thistle

X

X





4

Claytonia virginica

Spring Beauty



X

X

4

Clematis virginiana

Virgin's Bower





X



9

Comandra umbellata

False Toadflax

X

X





10

Coreopsis palmata

Prairie Coreopsis

X

X





5

Coreopsis tripteris

Tall Coreopsis

X

X

X

4

Cryptotaenia canadensis

Honewort







X

7

Cuscuta glomerata

Rope Dodder


X





5

Cuscuta gronovii

Common Dodder



X





10

Dalea candida

White Prairie Clover

X

X





9

Dalea purpurea

Purple Prairie Clover

X

X





3

Danthonia spicata

Poverty Oat Grass



X

X



8

Dasistoma macrophylla

Mullein Foxglove



X

X

X

4

Desmodium canadense

Showy Tick Trefoil

X

X





10

Desmodium cuspidatum

Bracted Tick Trefoil



X

X

7
Desmodium glutinosum Pointed Tick Trefoil




X X

5
Desmodium perplexum Smooth Tick Trefoil

X

X



6
Desmodium paniculatum Panicled Tick Trefoil X X

4

Dichanthelium acuminatum (Pan imp)

Old-Field Panic Grass



X





8

Dichanthelium latifolium

Broad-Leaved Panic Grass





X

X

10

Dichanthelium leibergii

Prairie Panic Grass

X

X





5

Dioscorea villosa

Wild Yam







X

6

Dodecatheon meadia

Shooting Star

X

X

X

X

10

Drymocallis arguta

Prairie Cinquefoil

X

X





4

Elymus canadensis

Canada Wild Rye

X


8

(Elymus) Roegneria subsecunda

Bearded Wild Rye

X

X





7

Elymus villosus

Silky Wild Rye





X

X

3

Epilobium coloratum

Cinnamon Willow Herb







X

8

Erigeron pulchellus

Robin's Plantain




X



9

Eryngium yuccifolium

Rattlesnake Master

X

X

X



5

Erythronium albidum

Trout Lily







X

4

Euphorbia corollata

Flowering Spurge

X

X





10

Eurybia furcata

Forked Aster





X

X

9

Eurybia macrophylla

Big-leaf Aster







X

3

Eutrochium purpureum

Purple Joe Pye Weed





X

X

5

Festuca subverticillata

Nodding Fescue







X

5

Galium circaezans hypomalacum

Hairy Wild Licorice





X

X

2

Gaura longiflora

Common Gaura



X





9

Gentiana alba

Yellowish Gentian



X

X



10

Gentiana puberulenta

Prairie Gentian

X

X





8

Gentianella quinquefolia occidentalis

Stiff Gentian

X

X





4

Geranium bicknellii

Northern Cranesbill



X





1

Geranium carolinianum

Carolina Cranesbill



X





5

Geranium maculatum

Wild Geranium





X

X

4

Hedeoma pulegioides

American Pennyroyal







X

9

Helianthus pauciflorus

Prairie Sunflower

X

X





7

Heliopsis helianthoides

False Sunflower



X

X



5

Heracleum maximum

Cow Parsnip





X

X

8

Hesperostipa spartea

Porcupine Grass

X

X





10

Heuchera richardsonii

Prairie Alum Root

X

X

X

X

5

Hydrophyllum virginianum

Virginia Waterleaf







X

7

Hylodesmum glutinosum

Pointed Tick Trefoil





X

X

4

Hypericum punctatum

Spotted St. John’s Wwort



X

X



8

Hypoxis hirsuta

Yellow Stargrass

X

X





5

Hystrix patula

Bottlebrush Grass





X

X

8

Koeleria macrantha

June Grass

X
X





9

Krigia biflora

False Dandelion

X

X





1

Lactuca canadensis

Wild Lettuce







X

8

Lactuca floridana

Wood Lettuce




X

X

10

Lathyrus ochroleucus

Cream Vetchling





X

X

8

Lathyrus venosus

Veiny Pea



X

X



5

Leersia virginica

White Grass







X

4

Lespedeza capitata

Round-Headed Bush Clover

X

X





10

Lespedeza frutescens

Violet Bush Clover



X

X



8

Liatris aspera

Rough Blazing Star

X

X





9

Liatris scariosa var. nieuwlandii

Savanna Blazing Star



X

X



7

Liatris spicata

Marsh Gay Feather

X

X





10

Lilium philadelphicum var. andinum

Prairie Lily

X

X





6

Liparis liliifolia

Purple Twayblade





X



8

Lithospermum canescens

Hoary Puccoon

X

X





10

Lithospermum latifolium

American Gromwell







X

5

Lobelia inflata

Indian Tobacco




X

X

4

Lobelia spicata

Pale-spiked Lobelia

X

X





7

Lonicera reticulata (prolifera)

Yellow Honeysuckle



X

X



7

Luzula multiflora

Wood Rush




X

X

4

Monarda fistulosa

Wild Bergamot

X

X

X



8

Oenothera perennis

Small Sundrops



X

X



10

Oenothera pilosella

Prairie Sundrops

X

X





3

Oligoneuron rigidum

Stiff Goldenrod

X

X

X



4

Osmorhiza claytonii

Hairy Sweet Cicely







X

8

Oxalis violacea

Violet Wood Sorrel

X

X

X



8

Oxypolis rigidior

Cowbane





X

X

4

Packera paupercula

Balsam ragwort





X



8

Parthenium integrifolium

Wild Quinine

X

X

X



9

Pedicularis canadensis

Wood Betony

X

X

X

X

9

Pedicularis canadensis var. rubrum

Wood Betony (Red)







X

4

Penstemon digitalis

Foxglove Beardtongue





X

X

8

Perideridia americana

Thicket Parsley



X

X

X

5

Phlox divaricata

Woodland Phlox







X

9

Phlox glaberrima var. interior

Marsh Phlox

X

X





8

Phlox pilosa var. fulgida

Prairie Phlox

X

X





6

Phryma leptostachya

Lopseed







X

4

Physostegia praemorsa

Fall Obedient Plant

X

X





8

Polemonium reptans

Jacob’s Ladder





X

X

10

Polygala senega

Seneca Snakeroot

X

X





4

Polygonatum biflorum

Smooth Soloman's Seal



X

X

X

5

Prenanthes alba

White Lettuce





X

X

7

Prenanthes altissima

Tall White Lettuce







X

10

Prenanthes aspera

Rough Prairie Lettuce

X

X





10

Prenanthes racemosa

Smooth Prairie Lettuce

X

X





7

Pycnanthemum tenuifolium

Narrow-leaved Mountain Mint

X

X





1

Ranunculus abortivus

Kidney-leaf Buttercup







X

4

Ratibida pinnata

Yellow Coneflower

X

X





5

Rosa carolina

Pasture Rose

X

X





5

Rosa setigera

Illinois Rose



X

X



1

Rudbeckia hirta

Black-eyed Susan

X

X





8

Rudbeckia subtomentosa

Sweet Black-eyed Susan



X

X



1

Rudbeckia triloba

Brown-Eyed Susan



X

X

X

4

Sambucus canadensis

Elderberry





X



5

Sanguinaria canadensis

Bloodroot





X

X

5

Sanicula marilandica

Black Snakeroot



X





5

Schizachyrium scoparium

Little Bluestem

X

X

X



4

Scrophularia marilandica

Late Figwort





X

X

7

Scutellaria leonardii

Prairie Skullcap

X

X





9

Scutellaria ovata

Heart-leaved Skullcap







X

6

Silene stellata

Starry Campion





X

X

10

Silene virginica

Fire Pink






X

5

Silphium integrifolium var. deamii

Deam's Rosin Weed

X

X

X



5

Silphium laciniatum

Compass Plant

X

X



5

Silphium terebinthinaceum

Prairie Dock

X

X

X



6

Sisyrinchium albidum

White-eyed Grass

X

X





5

Sisyrinchium angustifolium

Stout Blue-Eyed Grass



X

X



5

Smilacina racemosa

Feathery False Solomon's Seal



X

X

X

5

Smilacina stellata

Starry False Solomon's Seal

X

X





5

Smilax ecirrhata

Upright Carrion Flower



X

X

5

Smilax lasioneura

Common Carrion Flower



X

X

X

8

Solidago caesia

Blue-Stemmed Goldenrod







X

7

Solidago flexicaulis

Zig-zag Goldenrod







X

3

Solidago juncea

Early Goldenrod

X

X

X



3

Solidago nemoralis

Old Field Goldenrod

X

X

X



8

Solidago speciosa

Showy Goldenrod



X

X

X

5

Solidago ulmifolia

Elm-Leaved Goldenrod





X

X

5

Sorghastrum nutans

Indian Grass

X

X

X



3

Sphenopholis intermedia

Slender Wedge Grass



X

X

X

8

Spiranthes magnicamporum

Great Plains Ladies Tresses

X







10

Sporobolus heterolepis

Prairie Dropseed

X

X

X



6

Symphyotrichum ericoides

Heath Aster

X

X





9

Symphyotrichum laeve

Smooth Blue Aster

X

X





8

Symphyotrichum oolentangiense

Sky-Blue Aster

X

X





7

Symphyotrichum shortii

Short's Aster







X

5

Symphyotrichum urophyllum

Arrow-leaved Aster







X

10

Taenidia integerrima

Yellow Pimpernel




X

X

7

Thalictrum dioicum

Early Meadow Rue







X

8

Thaspium trifoliatum

Meadow Parsnip



X

X



3

Tradescantia ohiensis

Common Spiderwort



X

X

X

9

Trillium grandiflorum

Large-Flowered Trillium







X

5

Trillium recurvatum

Prairie Trillium


X

X

5

Triosteum aurantiacum

Early Horse Gentian



X

X



4

Triosteum perfoliatum

Late Horse Gentian



X

X

X

1

Turritis glabra

Tower Mustard



X

X



7

Uvularia grandiflora

Bellwort







X

2

Verbena urticifolia

Hairy White Vervain



X

X



4

Vernonia missurica

Missouri Ironweed



X

X



8

Veronicastrum virginicum

Culver's Root

X

X

X



4

Vicia americana

American Vetch



X

X



5

Viola labradorica

Dog Violet





X

X

5

Viola pubescens

Downy Yellow Violet







X

10

Zizia aptera

Heart-Leaved Alexanders

X

X





5

Zizia aurea

Golden Alexanders

X

X

X

X

Seeds for additional specialized seeding experiments are not reflected
above. This list reflects the regular mesic seed mixes.



*Endnote 2: Open Woods Flora*

Some rich bur oak woodland areas increasingly thrive at Some Prairie Grove.
Not just spring flora – throughout the summer and fall uncommon,
conservative wildflowers, grasses, and sedges also rise and bloom.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjgrwCR-k09NbIYPMEqeO4EXDosx3Vkmqitn0YyTVRofwSQLdBLHo_Ppuaozu40wUtGaLX3G9weEN9DahZANvdkZ178u81wt-bs3df-m5v6RR_MPXaBcphA6Zgw4OcJLqlB2hwZhffoXXvgoKU8Pmvtr05U90icaKXKujDYfoif-FVIu6VsRZKwrfGsDg=s3264>
Following the typical early spring flora
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2019/05/how-to-restore-spring-flora-of-oak-woods.html>
including
trilliums, toothworts, wood betonies, and shooting stars, the later spring
woods (above) is thick with wild hyacinth, golden Alexanders, wild
geraniums and a long list that includes what had been thought of as
"typical" prairie and woodland species.


In close-up (below), notice the growing abundance of woodland sunflower
(large paired leaves). In some areas, that species comes to largely replace
all other vegetation.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuSxqOdH1R3Tyr-I1gMxGdFMRE7QLR3j9sBwoGQm79oluzDgfPIhdK3iiOYa_-8uuLX7Hz2DVQqOgPUCrKxMyyLmRn5kYYWhQZ265qHsmsb1FAWzZ9_uu17p3fiYOeQ1_5ZIluJdI44imiMBtYg-x0RbmqTtM9_yIamt9aOrUFJ8zMcFDanljUhl9BIA=s2429>



<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguibLMrZ8O_49NZ9aP55SaDJcMd8aVCpy_-HGLoQEiK0rZCW0kgxa2wp9T_sNHSIFxXnikm2KT5a6O8cDx0w-6UcS9YBJdpNIZkieaOxtpDyRyOG4eFDbtFXa_Eu5H62dc_QR0GHbTuAounnbFvyCx_AK0tmBuqvtKsYrHBx1TXiVxCLYUQU_ulzoScA=s3060>
In fall the bur oak woods are dense with zigzag and blue-stemmed goldenrods
(in flower) and woodland puccoon (in seed) as shown above. Other frequent
species include awned woodgrass (Brachyelytrum), big-leaf aster, and
Short's aster.


*Endnote 3: Too Impatient?*


Why not just wait and see if success comes in time? Perhaps that’s all it
takes, but two concerns convinced us to try new approaches.


First, we have apparently wasted much precious seed by broadcasting it into
areas where goldenrod or sunflower shade would doom it to fail. Either a)
we should save that precious conservative seed for a later stage in
succession/restoration, or b) we should use some improved management for
these areas so that the thugs don’t win out, or c) we should revise our
seed mixes for a solar-powered solution that depends on more-competitive,
diversity-promoting, early-stage species.


Second, we need to face the fact that true ecosystem recovery proceeds with
a grand slowness. Perhaps we would be showing more apt humility if we
showed more patience. Yet, our oak woods and savanna plants and animals are
rapidly dying – losing their extent, species populations, and, probably,
specialized genetic alleles. Thus, we are motivated to speed up our
learning. It’s easy to restore a mix of native plants that looks good for
the short term. But for how long?


Thus we struggle with the big questions. Darwin’s most important insights
may have centered around his appreciation of time: his recognition of how
long it took for earthworms to transform soils or, of course, for evolution
to function. To paraphrase Darwin, “There is a grandeur in this view of
restoration.” We biodiversity conservationists have rightly assumed that
the conservation or rare natural remnants should take first priority. We
have suspected that those areas are all we will ever have ... that larger
areas to high quality cannot be restored. But perhaps human facilitation
can restore natural ecosystem processes, and then nature will restore
itself.


*Endnote 4 -* Somme Prairie Grove's "Woodland" Areas

In groves outlined in green on the map below, judging from the 1839 Public
Land Survey, widely scattered bur oaks grew - in other words, savanna.
Groves outlined in orange are today mostly white oaks, planted by Forest
Preserve staff in the mid 1900s. Today these groves have a "woodland"
rather than savanna density. All the heavily wooded areas are "unnatural"
results of fire suppression and/or planting. The planted groves, when
restoration began, included birch, pine, black locust, honey locust,
basswood, silver poplar, and many oaks species (white, swamp white, post,
chinkapin, rock chestnut and hybrids). Over the years, cutting, fire, and
competition have removed most such trees except the white oaks.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6eSQ9Vlurdu3vvAdO7yM-d4vhLOhhoGAsfiHlNTnT6vnEumvf40lKX7W_ygr_SlNkHeyKvTV_h3eCOd1ARSyNeR2urdKPgyLKmIBtxi4mw1fZ2X9W1obBazp2M5Vhl6f8Zp3btRaAlKhTihPkQO6knwvVDwJRtTRzVRgxc1--TCc-hFvee0p8vZA6GQ=s2200>

Since fallen oak leaves facilitated fire and we planted woodland grass and
wildflower seed here, both the bur and white oak areas today have a fairly
diverse and conservative woodland flora. Since such areas were not problems
and gradually improving (unlike the "intermediate" areas), we’ve otherwise
paid them little attention, except to pull garlic mustard and more recently
as a seed source for woodland areas east of Waukegan Road. But the original
natural community and current conservation priority here is savanna. The
original oaks of this site are bur and Hill's. The Hill's (also called
scarlet) oaks were likely originally mostly shrubby re-sprouts. The
consensus biodiversity conservation goal at Somme Prairie Grove is to
expand savanna areas to take advantage of savanna soil biota and to expand
the populations of savanna-dependent species. (We restore original prairie
along the western edge.) Thus, in the savanna areas we thin white oaks,
plant bur oaks, burn, seed and scythe. Some former planted oak areas now
have sufficiently open tree canopies that they're mapped as savanna.


On the edge of groves here and there are diverse, healthy 'intermediate"
areas. An example is shown below:

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiSH9F5S5Gh9I1_gJ9isszNiPLKnf91DL2PAemJUqppvNN6pJOWexQL3TBv27SY0-AJToNAF3aKNZ5UfM7mI1LKHsBRy2lvQCgFHaGC9h6QTwSvHIviagk6iyMIXkB2rCLiwvAhX5RCAmrXQU3AXNw4lrNITJVmuJik4XqNP5yUo-_UhdYbq66fcQH3Nw=s4032>
Species in the photo include spreading dogbane (in bloom), early goldenrod
(about to bloom), big bluestem, woodland sunflower, Hill's oak, heath
aster, and wild quinine (leaf in bottom right corner). Although diverse
relative-stability seems to take a long time, we seem to be noticing that
in some areas of conservative diversity, the woodland sunflower becomes
just another species in that diversity.

Also in the photo above, notice Asian honeysuckle (brown leaves in top left
corner). Those dead leaves had been foliar-sprayed with herbicide last
spring by stewards led by the dedicated Eriko Kojima. Somme's regularly
burned areas included thousands of small, annually or biennially
re-sprouting buckthorns and honeysuckles. We'd hoped fire and competition would
eventually eliminate them. Here again, we decided that 40 years of patience
had been enough. Eriko and colleagues have now largely eliminated them from
large areas.

*Endnote 5 - Restoring Bur Oaks*

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgsiiTZPHOyNzVnIhwjUlKx9U_EuNGLpiLxxGsdzTYgyzeqZ6P3HJ9KWRTWwWCYntMea5zSai7xwV71y42i2HZa8PJ5DvswSjd4v3axug2VFvmBGJJxV2p3r-oaUJD5Jv2zulLcMWBsd09Kiyil9WqsReMA57RS4jjp-oMHdYxlSHxxQ3MDcYr8k4A93g=s4032>
In the high-quality open, grassy areas shown above, scores of young bur and
scarlet oaks thrive among open savanna vegetation. In "woodland or
"intermediate areas, we don't get bur oak reproduction. Apparently the the
shade of the existing trees or aggressive forbs ("wildflowers") is too
great for the sun-loving young oaks. The oaks reproduce in rich grassland,
but here they don't get any bigger than this. Yes, they thrive in the years
between fires. But their trunks burn back to the ground with every burn
(and then the deer diminish them further by eating off spring re-sprouts).

The photo below features one oak we have protected from fire (and deer) for
a few years:

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjFs51i3fURjtW0HWQfSVV_QScXoyWO3RwI4gCL7qmFHWAEHWmpS7-zz6_oHLySpImQefzrkBAPOncCtK2k1HfbXwTEvWgCoevWolxgfVp2GOuEarXiZoeE4jLwsMBBZBwHkYCNQipu8cNpLnoB9MBYgkHfDOMjqIpMrYbLwWJ34g7my2JCwpx2S72xPQ=s4032>

This heroic little oak (like scores of others in the "protection program")
may now be on its way to becoming a true savanna oak. So far, so good. But,
in the foreground, an expanding patch of woodland sunflower has blotted out
most other species, especially the grasses and sedges. As a result, the
foreground area does not burn when the grassland behind it does. We have
now begun to scythe the sunflowers of course. Restoring "the Intermediate"
seems to require different work. We're happy to be working to figuring it
out.


*Other Notes, Tidbits, and Questions*

*Old Pasture Plantings*

Here’s a *warning* - if you are initiating a remnant restoration effort in
an old pasture
<https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2018/11/broadcast-seeds-into-what.html>:
You'll need both late fire and seed. The normal component of Eurasian
grasses – timothy, bluegrass, redtop, smooth brome, orchard grass, etc. –
will burn well enough to initiate restoration. In late spring, such fires
will be hot enough to inhibit these grasses’ growth, reduce some weed
species, and promote establishment of seeded savanna species. In other
words, such a fire can promote establishment of warm season grasses and
other species crucial to the restoration. But that will happen *only** if
you provide enough seed*, preferably broadcast the fall before the fire.
With enough seed in early years, the natural ecosystem will win out.
Without it, the Eurasian cool-season grasses will die out and be replaced
by tall goldenrod and its ilk, and then it will no longer burn. Woody brush
may gradually take over, and you’ll have lost your chance for early success.


*Somme Burn Strategy*

We try to burn a bit more than half the site every year. All that is
readily flammable thus burns on average every second year. Of course, these
efforts are foiled in the Obstinate Intermediate, because on most years it
just won’t burn. (See maps below.) The fires burn merrily through the oak
leaves of the groves and roar through the tall “prairie grass” areas; then
they fizzle out on reaching the Depauperate Intermediate. Such problem
areas divide our two burnable types from each other. Burn crews typically
need to ignite oak leaf areas and "prairie grass" areas separately.


Three maps below show results when we attempted to burn the north half of
the preserve. In the first two maps, the unburned areas are sketched with
brown lines.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFXifExApj1_FzJy8N086MOLSlKir45VA5CAxmkrvE7WYdDUwx9TTRzC99fpQsiiNYu7luqXAZ0m_f5IPkuUjVDTNNWe9bq6N91MfkGmu7uoCpz322R0nP9ZcKpul1lqOsnlXOmwn7zxn6Oi2X250cKHwLntr5Hdu1DLlL-tyoO3fTGHd-kcUPcE6oww=s2200>
2001 fire map


<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgaP3mLQ7ld_nXCwhphnentWmnHRH3-3QipSBOvyh4cBA3Vs2tGGtHDtwPXpgglaefZjyDuFcXqjjBpj8aMnQebw8OoQ5jrHcSgBn4e6Jsr2JBJ54AmOsKnG4Ru58cFylAAWyI5p-UADgGKeXABXYsQzym3Nf-T5iWPjVJ6FamGN2iCaAqEQjmPsbAHQA=s2200>
2006 fire map


2008 fire map
Fire behavior may have played a major role in the development of our
"Intermediate" areas. (It seems likely that the more intense fires of
previous times would, in the long history of evolution, have produced
different results.) The overall quality map, below, seems to reflect the
fire patterns, recorded above.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiz0p1psje0QL6S56-mw4yMnAgrHMKepwrpUZG5QbDHoo8pLqg0bCjLXCLkfoz8b1WGlWM1i088Dfq06V9cstYZYsecmFFY0p4k9FdB9XAxFCJi_BxZZNw7jb7SXVjkTy9_yfcLBT01Rej2aGLIoTnhPzVkwwKNuPhxO17-0JsWtA4FqPxRJD83EZj_pg=s2200>


*The Meaningless and the Stochastic*

We note changes, but are they meaningful to us? Multiple changes from
multiple forces beset every little area. In the photo below, tall goldenrod
(not in bloom yet) seems to be giving way to (now blooming) saw-tooth
sunflower (upper left center), woodland sunflower (upper right), and
purple Joe Pye weed. Varied amounts of shade come from hawthorns (upper
left) and white oak (top), planted in early Forest Preserve days. An
ephemeral stream slices through (in the photo) the mid-right edge to
bottom-middle edge. Wet-mesic species along the stream blend into mesic a
few feet back. In various parts of this little area, shade is rapidly
decreasing from time to time (as we stewards cut trees) and elsewhere
increasing (as remaining trees grow). Fire frequency here is reduced by
stream and wet-mesic areas - but differently depending on wind direction
during each fire. If we observe changes in an area like this, we are
kidding ourselves if we think we can attribute them to one or a few causes.
For now, the best we think we can do is to measure changes and develop
management strategies based on less complex areas.

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgHWsHN6V5oDQc-70GAPhq9CuQSYNAEspVyFMhIJL8M3R0sg0royc05f-WO2m4Goma9qHe3wPUTkrdwGpTQevtL2af7679_qbxrjEM754Rxj8l1U4TTuqqzzg5qJ8NcgBRHriRwFbKH89gsRTzRvVV_FFSYT5MJD_UkSNfggZPwa5D2MJ5Q3dBCZb8r8g=s3264>


*A Wet-mesic Example*

The photo below is a close-up from among saw-tooth sunflower in this same
area: such conservatives as yellow star grass (*Hypoxis hirsuta*) and
violet wood sorrel (*Oxalis violacea*) thrive densely under that
aggressive. Will increasing diversity reduce the dominance by the
sunflower? Or will the shade of the sunflower kill off the conservatives? Does
the answer depend on management regimes? Time will tell, if we do the right
studies. Or, as an alternative, perhaps the site-wide random sampling we do
every four years will continue to show overall improvement. In that case,
we'll continue with our management strategy; we won't really know what's
causing what; but we'll have some confidence that preserve floristic
quality is on the rise.
<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh9kpb37xeVG9dyxE6xG7eUZZ-JWr4uo3MtSYz94FxDd4EZy68clWW0mJq4pSZUJtZGVUbQ15r7WCdx4kzwAD9gAoFF0MwUUopzHbDSzqydi5F9_fcSrh-a8KMg0_AeQM2t9aazpEsjJAEyYUP7blv0yypuO7rs_3iks9myG5t8jZb1IhpUTlDOwR8V2g=s3264>

*Control of Aggressive Species by Parasites *

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmVwAFZp8XigR2-Kq5kKDkCEBmDxnchRau-BozhSDKwZYk49bVq50LVVGtvLd-Gdr69fb67mLkSCs9jsUnvVI14ooYDK7kKuxq9LjmlwApjhDwfX0esJ5U15pDP805hAjkVc7w9HliP17c7auDD9Y6DOsvL9V6p9CIywTHikxqyNKQmy5o31N0IR-pKQ=s3264>
In the above photo, a parasitic morning glory called dodder is reducing the
dominance of mountain mint and tall goldenrod. We've spread the seed of
this native parasite (Cuscuta gronovii) in recent years, as this strategy
has seemed promising, but we have no data on it, only our impressions.

*Results of a Preliminary Scything Experiment*

<https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiUWsf4azGcqEEF9ahwC23qjOkrSmAQ9Lm9z2hozlc9B_62LamJgW15-0UYXXJt6P35njV6BuBzi8SzUM5YkoO3-V8Dv_368cJgPmhI-keN-ZfmQVDqOU6U23Ez4SZ2TH_Dvsak1AH4B7N0C7lDR9ZJWvA1bRUyLG4TnnGIu51dA_LIRQA2sWNSn3L_tg=s3264>

The photo above shows the corner of a rectangular patch in Vestal Grove
where woodland sunflower has been scythed once a year since 2017. The
scything was done when the sunflower was nearly full height. The photo was
taken when the sunflower outside the scythe area was in bloom. After the
first year, there were only a few short sunflower stems to scythe. The
remaining vegetation in the scythed area is not dramatically different from
the vegetation under the sunflower. Trees are gradually being thinned in
this heavily shaded area. We hope that ongoing monitoring of this and many
experimental areas will lead to helpful data and analysis in time.


*Acknowledgements*

Who did the on-the-ground work on which these results are based? For the
first 15 years, the answer was “almost entirely the volunteers of the North
Branch Prairie Project.” We got strategic advice from Dr. Betz, Forest
Preserve and Nature Conservancy professionals, and others. For the past two
decades, Forest preserve staff and contractors played an increasing role,
especially for prescribed burns and large tree removal. Thus, when this
post says, “We did X,” the implication is that “Some combination of
volunteers and professionals did X.”


Seed harvest in recent years has been led by Eriko Kojima (planning and
harvest) and Jim Hensel (seed prep). Seed mix revisions were led by Sai
Ramakrishna with input from Eriko Kojima, Christos Economou, and Katie
Kucera.


Monitoring is being done by Sai Ramakrishna, Eriko Kojima, Karen
Glennemeier, Lisa Musgrave, Matt Evans and many others.


Revised site map and computer coaching by Linda Masters is much
appreciated.


Editing and proofing credits for this post go to Christos Economou and
Eriko Kojima.



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