Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) by earlycj5
Most of Kansas was once covered in prairie. Only 4% of North America’s original prairie remains today, with 80% of that in Kansas (1). But what of the costs of prairie restoration? How is prairie brought back, assuming we want to? Let’s look at an example of Kansas prairie restoration.
In Johnson County Kansas you can visit the botanic gem called Overland Park Arboretum. While many botanic gardens and arboretums focus their efforts on collecting and displaying exotic plants, Overland Park Arboretum is full of native plants and the insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals they support.
The recently opened 70-acre prairie restoration area at Overland Park Arboretum has been 7 years in the making. Back in July of 2002, when the prairie work was begun, the 70 acres was covered in trees, brush, and non-native grasses. Maybe you’re wondering why they chose a tree-covered area for the prairie restoration. Wherever there is rain in Kansas, trees and bushes will grow – they soon take over by shading out grasses and flowers.
While prairie restoration sounds noble, it mostly consists of hard work, with some necessary wisdom, chemicals, seeds, and patience thrown in. To produce just 70 acres of prairie took “50 volunteers trimming, whacking, burning and hauling.” (2) For two years volunteers worked by hand summer and winter, six people at a time. Herbicides were used to get rid of non-native grasses and to prevent trees and bushes from re-sprouting. Seeds for native grasses and forbs took upto three years to germinate. Total monetary cost for the project was $25,000, which is roughly $357 per acre.
Now, don’t imagine for a moment that this restored prairie, costing $357 per acre and hundreds of hours of labor, in any way resembles original prairie. Only three types of grasses and 10 types of wildflowers were planted. Contrast that with a remnant prairie of similar size where you might expect to find 150 plant species (3). And the labor isn’t over yet – controlled burns and grazing or mowing are needed to maintain prairie. It’s a labor of love and it doesn’t come for free. The good news is that prairie restoration is better understood than ever before.
Costs of prairie restoration are significant, but prairie habitat benefits both wildlife and people. Perennial native prairie flowers and grasses lock up carbon in their root systems. Prairie stands are also reflective of sunlight and are believed to be overall more effective at combating global warming than forest on the same acreage. And prairies and their plants and animals are fascinating places to visit and enjoy. The restored prairie area at Overland Park Arboretum is surely a welcome addition.
Have you ever visited a prairie? Would you like to? Do you have a favorite prairie spot?
(1) Some Prairie Statistics, Tallgrass Legacy Alliance
(2) Arboretum Keeps Sprouting, The Johnson County Sun, Sept 23, 2009
(3) 60 Acre Unplowed Faville Prairie
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WOW! Great article, I just learned so much. I thought prairie restoration was just buying up land and letting it naturally grow back. I didn’t even think about non-native plants, etc. Thank you for the lesson!
Alison:
Great article! Yes, restoration is expensive, but definitely better than a field of invasive plants with no wildlife value. Our wildlife is disappearing because we keep destroying, fragmenting, and poisoning their habitats.
Congratulations to all the volunteers and staff who worked so hard to create this fabulous ecosystem!
Wendy, we might wish land could just be left to recover. Sadly, it takes more than that.
Alison: I’m linking to this article in tomorrow’s weekly “Best of the Web”
Thanks Carole. Wow! I appreciate you choosing this article for “Best of the Web”.
[...] a thought provoking article about the cost of restoring habitat after we’ve destroyed it in Prairie Restoration, Is it worth it?. What do you think? Is the cost of restoration, of giving a little back to wildlife, worth [...]
I feel cost can never be put into question when it comes to restoring natural habitat. We have takes so much, that we must return to nature. What I am in two mind about is the use of toxic chemicals and burning to achieve it. It is a dilemma when invasive plants have to be removed, but wonder if there are perhaps organic methods of doing it. Still, I welcome restoration work.
“What I am in two minds about is the use of toxic chemicals and burning to achieve it.”
I agree with you on the pesticide aspect. Actually I was a little surprised that the Overland Park Arboretum used chemicals. But I’ve read a fair bit about best practices in prairie restoration. Some invasives can be controlled by techniques such as digging, mowing and burning. Other invasives get worse with mowing, grazing, or burning. Organic control methods tend to be very time critical and labor intensive. Either they didn’t have the labor available, or they didn’t consider it worth the extra work to do non-chemical control.
There are all kinds of rules about using equipment in fields that contain invasives too, for instance all equipment brought in needs to be thoroughly cleaned so that seeds of invasives don’t spread to the next place that piece of equipment is used. It can make mowing as a control method challenging.
Burning may sound pretty drastic, but actually it’s a natural part of the prairie life-cyle. Burning favors prairie plants and grasses, which emerge later in spring than annuals and many of the invasives. Also some of the prairie seeds actually require the heat of burning before they will germinate. Field burning is considered a best practice in prairie restoration. Over a number of years it helps to restore the prairie, though some invasives take more than a decade to control through burning. Again, timing is very critical. With just a small window of 10 days or so each spring to take care of burning there may only be a couple of days with the right conditions. It’s tricky to have people, wind speed and direction, temperature, and humidity all coincide before a field becomes too green to burn successfully.
I’m of two minds also. I cringe every year when the local national wildlife refuges drop tons of herbicide from airplanes to control the phragmites. Recent research has shown that this is negatively impacting frogs, toads, and other amphibians.
I have less of a problem with burning, especially in prairie situations because fire was an integral part of maintaining the prairie in that state instead of going through the normal process of succession to shrubland then woodland.
Sometimes we have to choose the method that causes the least amount of damage instead of having a best method. The work of restoration is extremely hard and very expensive, but in my mind it is absolutely necessary.
Dropping herbicides from airplanes scares me! Herbicide use in prairie restoration is spot-treatment using test-proven herbicides (different ones for different invasives) with hand-held equipment. These herbicides are expensive – it would make no sense to spray a whole field, never mind to spray from an airplane.
I had to go off and read about phragmites. Sounds like that is a whole other scale of problem compared to invasives in prairies. We really have made a mess of our environment in even more ways than I realized. I’ve got to be with you Carole in your campaign to raise awareness of the negative effects of invasive plants.
Thanks for clarifying about the burning. I guess, it makes sense, and fire is natural anyway, and as you say, sometimes a necessity for some plants to thrive. Certainly a necessity in some forests, as dramatic as it may seem. I suspect that ashes also help to balance the pH of the soil.
The toxic chemicals, on the other hand, make me cringe, and I don’t think I could ever condone them, unless perhaps there was a natural, biodegradable type, as permethrin is for insects – toxic in the short term but ultimately it will degrade.
Judy, you’ve given me an idea. I’m pretty sure that at least some people who grab for pesticides probably never read about alternatives. I’m going to consider writing some articles about this.