Sandhill Crane Wet Prairie

Clearing the Crane Prairie in January 2005. Seventy five separate brush piles were created and burned on the snow. Clearing occurred up to the boundary with the wetland itself, which is visible in the background.

Getting rid of all the large logs was a tricky task. Fortunately, early February was cold and snowy, making it possible for a neighbor with a Bobcat (small front-end loader) to reach the area. It took many trips from Pleasant Valley Road to the Marsh Edge to remove the trees. Because of the very cold weather, there was little damage to the soil.

Because of the good cold weather, we were able to use heavy equipment to remove sawed logs during our marsh edge clearing. A neighbor was happy to take all the firewood we could give him.

Unfortunately, about mid-February we had a thaw and further removal of trees ceased. The neighbor was able to move all the downed trees to the east end of the site before the thaw, where they could be reached by tractor in the summer. Most of the remaining logs were removed the summer of 2005, but a few still remain, even today, right near the privy. These are now being left to provide wildlife habitat.

Preparing the Marsh Edge to plant. The site is quite variable in character. The area near the marsh is fairly wet and had quite a few good plants. The area toward Pleasant Valley Road is drier and had virtually nothing good. Also, the road cut, which we have to treat as part of the unit, had almost nothing good. An access road running through the middle of the unit effectively divided the site into two areas. Originally, we planned to keep this road, but once we began site preparation we realized that it was undesirable to have a road running through the middle of such a narrow strip of land. We decided to eliminate this road and create an access lane/fire break right next to the wetland sedge meadow. (We already had a lane such as this which worked well in the Valley Prairie in a similar location.)

In early summer the whole site above the original lane was sprayed with glyphosate, except for a few areas where "good" plants were visible. Closer to County F, there was a a large patch of wild parsnip which extended right up to the sedge meadow, so this was also sprayed. Spraying was done by Paul Michler using a hand-held boom sprayer working from the back of his pickup truck. (I drove the truck.) Walking with the boom, Paul walked vertically between the lane and Pleasant Valley Road, getting good coverage throughout.

Later in the summer, the area was sprayed again, this time using a Fimco sprayer installed in our Kawasaki Mule. Since the herbaceous vegetation was fairly sparse, there was insufficient fuel to carry out a burn. Mostly, the site was open with lots of bare ground, suitable for hand planting.

Planting the Marsh Edge (Crane Prairie). In December 2005 the prairie was planted. Since we knew we were going to plant a wet to wet-mesic prairie in the winter, we made sure during our seed collecting that we had plenty of appropriate species. Seeds were collected from the sedge meadow, wet areas in the Valley, Pocket, and Barn Prairies, and along Pleasant Valley Creek. All the seeds were cleaned and dried in our regular manner. The seed mixes had over 100 species, including substantial amounts of Indian grass. They were then mixed with sawdust and placed in buckets (see photos).

I had measured off the area using a hand-held GPS, and had marked equal area sectors. Planting was done by a group of volunteers; each was assigned a sector. A light snow had fallen and was continuing a bit while we were planting. With the snow it was easy to see what areas had been planted and how well the seeds were distributed.

Management after planting. The summer of 2006, the first growing season, the Crane Prairie was mostly a weed patch. Lots of annual weeds had taken over. However, we could also see small prairie plants, including some relatively easy to recognize such as prairie dock, compass plant, wild indigo, black-eyed Susan, etc.

In order to keep the annual weeds from setting seed, the whole prairie was mowed twice, using a "bush hog" that operates from the three-point hitch of our Kubota tractor. The height of the mower was set high so that the tiny prairie plants were not cut.

In spring/summer of 2007, the second growing season, the prairie was not mowed, but allowed to develop. Walks through the prairie in mid-May revealed lots of "good" plants, and by mid-summer we had substantial amounts of many prairie species. However, there were still lots of weeds, not the relatively unimportant annuals, but the more persistent biannuals and perennials. Weeds that had to be dealt with included white sweet clove, mullein,wild parsnip, hedge parsley, and several bad thistles. These were all hand pulled or dug with shovels. Passes through the prairie were made at weekly intervals up until the middle of August.

We also had a rather extensive development of fleabanes. Daisy fleabane (Erigeron strigosus) is a very weedy annual that is relatively innocuous. Another fleabane, Erigeron philadelphicus, a biennial, is also not persistent. For some reason, these fleabanes mostly developed at the north end of the site.

We did see many "good" species in flower, including pale purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan, bergamot, horsemint, yellow coneflower, rosin weed, and cup plant.

The good rains of August probably played an important role in helping some of the late-flowering species. Those that really flourished included gaura, pasture thistle, swamp thistle, New England aster, and brown-eyed Susan. Grasses that grew well included Kalm's brome, Virginia wild rye, and Indian grass. Although still in their early development stages, compass plant and prairie dock were seen throughout.

In our ten years of restoration work, we had previously planted five prairies. Each has developed in a different way, but none has been as good in its second growing season as the Crane Prairie. Perhaps we are getting better at managing these restorations, but another possibility is that the conditions here in this predominantly wet mesic habitat are very suitable for prairie species to thrive.

The Sandhill Crane Prairie has been well named (see Chris Noll photo below). We have seen sandhill cranes frequently on this prairie all summer. Because it is so close to the sedge meadow/cattail area where the cranes nest, it is obviously an attractive area to them.

Cool Season Grass Control

Although the Crane Prairie had a lot of "good" species in its second growing season, it also had a lot of exotic grasses such as smooth brome and bluegrass. These are called "cool season" because they develop early in the season, in contrast to the "warm season" prairie grasses. Although burning and overplanting may eventually reduce the presence of these grasses, this may take many years.

In order to speed up this process, we employed the early spring glyphosate treatment technique that we had used successfully in the Barn Prairie and Valley Prairie. Spraying was done in early spring, after the exotic grasses were up but before any prairie plants were visible. Although a few species of forbs may get set back by this technique, they are not eliminated and will develop normally in subsequent years.

The photo below shows the spray rig in action. Note all the green (cool season) grass, especially in the area near the wetland. Within two weeks after spraying this grass was all dead, whereas the warm season grasses were just showing above ground.