grassland restoration network

Moorhead State University Regional Science Center and Bluestem Prairie, Hawley, MN

Day 1: Tuesday, July 21
Lunch on your own
12:00 PM Arrive at MSUM Science Center; Welcome/Introductions- Matt Mecklenburg, Land Steward-TNC, Overview of GRNW- Chris Helzer-GRN/TNC
12:15 PM Bluestem Prairie Complex Overview and Afternoon Field Trip Logistics- Brian Winter, Program Director-TNC
12:30 PM Presentation-Prairie Restoration Research at North Dakota State University; Dr. Jack Norland, Associate Professor Department of Natural Resources
1:15 PM Field Trip: Leave for Bluestem Prairie reconstructions/Prairie Restoration Incorporated facilities
1:30 PM Stop 1 and 2: Native Prairie along 17th Ave.-Matt Mecklenburg, Bluestem Prairie reconstruction 7-Brian Winter
2:45 PM Stop 3: Bluestem Prairie reconstruction 4-Brian Winter and PRI Production fields at Siberia site-Jim Johansen-PRI
4:00 PM Stop 4: PRI Facilities: Facility Tour, Social Hour and Dinner-Jim Johansen, Ron Bowen and other PRI Staff; welcome and give a brief overview, tour facility and self-guided tour of production fields around the facility.
5:00 PM Full group discussion time (Facilitated by Local TNC and PRI Staff)
5:15 PM Social Hour (Beverages Provided)
6:15 PM Dinner (BBQ w/ Veg option), Keynote: Ron Bowen-PRI Owner
7:45 PM Leave PRI for Science Center
8:00 PM Arrive at Science Center and day one complete

Day 2: Wednesday, July 22
Breakfast on your own
7:45 AM Arrive at Science Center
8:00 AM Presentation-Jon Voz-BSWR: Prairie Restoration with Government Programs
8:45-Field Trip: Logistics-(Marissa-Talk about Phil, Brian-Talk about Jason, Travis-Talk about partners)
9:00-11:45 AM Travel to Glacial Ridge and stop at partner sites- Becky Esser USFWS, Jon Voz-BSWR. Note-three stops along HWY 32 corridor (45 min/stop); one for WRP and two for WPA. (Slininger and Meadowlark WPA’s)
11:50 AM Arrive at Glacial Ridge NWR Headquarters
12:00 PM Lunch (box lunches provided) and History of Glacial Ridge-Jason Eckstein-MN DNR, Brian Winter
12:30 PM Tour Glacial Ridge Restorations- Jason Eckstein, Phil Gerla-UND, Marissa Ahlering-TNC
Stops include: Dugdale WMA (Stops 1 &2), GR restoration east of HWY 32 (east ½ of section 35 Tilden twsp. Stop 2), High diversity seeding w/o fire and ditch meander northwest of the active gravel pit and High diversity seeding w/fire northwest of active gravel pit (stop 3).
Plan to split the two buses between four stops: 1 hour @ Dugdale WMA and Dugdale portion of NWR-speakers: Jason E and Ross H, 1 hour @ NW of active gravel pit-speakers: Jason E, Phil G and FWS Staffer, 1 hour @ section 35 Tilden twsp-speakers: Jason E and Phil G. Note that these times will allow for 15 min of drive time between the sites and bathroom breaks back at the Glacial Ridge office (between stops) as well as provide time at all of the sites for small group exploration/discussion as well as Q@A with the speakers.
3:45 PM Full Group Discussion Time (Facilitated by trip presenters and local TNC Staff)
4:00 PM Leave for Science Center
5:30 PM Arrive at Science Center
5:45 PM Workshop Wrap-Up-Matt Mecklenburg
Dinner on your own- If staying the night attendees are encouraged to meet at local restaurants by the hotels

Day 3: Thursday, July 23
Note that if anyone is interested in a Thursday morning field trip please indicate on your registration.
8:00 AM-11:00 Optional/informal field trips-Meet at the Science Center @ 8:00 am.
Possible trips:
Science Center Trails/Hike into Buffalo River State Park
Other Bluestem Prairie Complex Reconstructions

GRN REGISTRATION FORM
The GRN is an informal network of people working to improve the conservation effectiveness of grassland restoration. Through annual meetings and other communication pathways, GRN participants share information on such topics as restoration techniques, objectives, challenges, measures of success, and more. The ultimate goal is to conserve native grasslands by using restoration to defragment and enhance existing habitats.

We are limited on space in this workshop, and we want to host a particular audience, and our invite may get bounced around the internet to lots of folks.
The target audience we are aiming for are land stewards responsible for creating grassland habitat, their supervisors, and ecologists who study grasslands.
The target audience is typically not under-graduates, seasonal employees, citizens who want to learn about grasslands (noble as that is), friends of the project (who know us too well anyway).

Please fill out the registration information below. Do not send payment yet. The cost will be set low at $50. Please respond by June 5th so we will know what space we have. We will then send an email requesting a payment by check or credit card.
We have blocks of hotel rooms set aside at two area hotels (cost not included in registration). There are 15 rooms in the AmericInn in Hawley, MN; 10 Double Queens and 5 Kings. Prices with tax are $125/night or $112/night government rate. Please register under GRNW and do so by June 21st. There are also 10 rooms reserved at the Travelodge in Moorhead, MN; 4 Double Queen, 3 King and 3 Suites. Base discounted rate for a reserved block is $90/night. Please register under
Grassland Restoration and do so by July 6th.
Name:
Email:
Phone:
Affiliation:
What is your job title?
What do you do?

Thursday morning field trip: Y/N
Please email this registration to mmecklenburg@tnc.org

Adding seed to a failed planting feels like spending good money after bad. Better to add seed to restorations that are doing well and make them great.

Example by volunteer stewards Jennifer and Chris Hauser

Back in 2004, Jennifer and Chris Hauser adopted a mature, 14 year old, planting that looked like a keeper.  An hour walk through this 15 acre planting gave us 84 species, with a dozen of those being weeds.  Way back in 1993 the planting had a horrific amount of white sweet clover which we reduced over the years with timed mowings at full flower, and then careful spot treatments annually after.  There is still sweetclover there but manageable.  The Hausers are standing in this planting and it looks nice, a keeper.

So Jennifer and Chris harvested an additional mass of seed from various species they decided should be there and were not.  They picked another 8 pounds per acre of bulk weight of seed.  In the fall Chris roughed up the top few inches of soil with a harrow.  They then planted the seed on the top with a tractor mounted seed broadcaster, and then harrowed again.

From walking around the planting a number of times the following season we felt the harrowing did not harm the plants already established. There was a flush of black eyed susan recruitment (which was not over-seeded but there were 5 to 10 seedling per square foot), and pale purple coneflower (which was planted but it not as much as what we saw which was 1 to 2 seedlings per square foot).  So maybe other good things we wanted also germinated.  Important to us was that we also did not get a flush of white sweet clover.

The next year the Hausers had a local greenhouse produce 300 prairie coreopsis plugs and 760 northern dropseed plugs.  They plugged these plants in various pods spread out around the planting.  They had a wet spring and most of those plugs took and can be seen years later.

For several years after they  continued to add seed to the planting on a less intense scale.

Here and there you find a plant they likely over-seeded.  It is a subtle change.  We find over-seeding takes five to eight years to show up as flowering plants.

This was all a good amount of joyful work.   But would you do this on a low diversity planting that had unchecked invasive weed problems?  Again, the lesson learned is over-seed successful plantings with more success.

Chris and Jennifer Hauser were energetic volunteers with Nachusa for about eight years.  Chris did his master work in plant ecology at Nachusa.  They moved to Carmel California where Chris works for the Santa Lucia Conservancy.

Better to go slow enough to do the job well.  If you have enough seed to plant 15 acres you might be better to put that seed on 5.  Why?  Because planting too thin is a common cause of poor results. That five great acres can yield the seed to plant the next five and the next 50. Large prairie plantings thinly populated by native plants leads to weeds, work, and aggravation.

An example of well done: Volunteers Tom and Jenny Mitchell had 28 acres of former row crop ground to plant but did the job in four plantings of 7 acres each.  Below they stand in their very nice two year old prairie planting with 52 species planted at about 25 pounds per acre bulk weight. They restricted the species in the planting to those that occurred on the adjacent remnant prairie.  After two years they had 56 native plants, a native mean Conservatism of 4.4, and transect Floristic Quality Index of 26. If you don’t know what those values mean, the point is they got a lot of nice plants filling in what was a crop field.  The planting looks like a remnant prairie.   Now, after a decade has passed this planting is still looking very good.

It takes a lot of seeds per acre to make sure an area fills in with native plants, not weeds.

In the photo, around 3,000 pounds of hand collected seed is being mixed on the floor.   There is over 125 species in this dry-mesic seed mix.  Some of the barrels have just one species of seed. In a new planting that was a former row crop field, we are planting 40 to 60 pounds per acre.  We don’t clean our seed so perhaps 40% of that bulk weight is chaff.  The bottom line is this is a lot of seed per acre.

Further west of Nachusa, Chris Helzer in dry Nebraska is getting solid results using much less seed per acre on sandy soils.

When we look back on our past plantings we feel confident that poor plantings often resulted from “spreading our seed too thin”, the metaphor made real.

This prairie planting created by volunteer steward, Bernie Buchholz and friends,  is very diverse with over 165 species of plants showing up after several years from 175 species planted.  Yes, there is an eye popping amount of pale purple coneflower and a storm front to capture the drama. 

Over the next several posts I will share lessons learned on prairie restoration.  The first lessons is to decide whether you want high or low diversity results. 

High diversity takes extra time and resources to produce. If your habitat restoration goal is short term like with a Conservation Reserve Program ten year contract, then simply plant some grasses and maybe a few forbs.  

If you want habitat for birds then you may not need a plethora of plant species.  But, if you want to mimic the diversity of remnant prairie on the assumption that good things will result, or to provide habitat for all sorts of insects, or you want to connect remnant prairies with restored prairies in between….then you are talking about high diversity, and my lessons learned are for you.