The first spring after clearing the East Basin was an interesting experience. We had decided to wait to see what came up spontaneously before we started serious restoration work. The first thing that appeared was shooting star (Dodecatheon meadii), in several large areas. This fine prairie species is capable of remaining alive without flowering for many years beneath fairly heavy shade, and then when sunlight is brought in it immediately flowers. Data from the East Basin indicate that shooting star can remain alive but suppressed for at least 40 years.

In addition to good plants, there were many “bad” plants, including scattered brambles, honeysuckles, and a few small buckthorns. Past experience had shown that once an area had been opened up and sunlight was available, these invaders (and others!) thrive. Therefore, we decided to eradicate them now, while they were still small. For this purpose, we sprayed all of the undesirable resprouts or small plants with Garlon 3A. Our regular crew did this job, moving systematically across the East Basin and spraying every plant seen. In addition to the shrubs mentioned, the crew also sprayed any Canada goldenrod or Canada thistle, two invasive and very undesirable plants.

Several areas in the East Basin had substantial natural populations of shooting stars (Dodecatheon meadii). These areas were marked to ensure that these populations were protected. Also, special attention was given to these areas when the whole East Basin was planted to prairie.

The great amount of work clearing the East Basin was finally finished in early November 2009 and it was time to plant. Because part of our work was being funded by the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we had to follow their planting requirements as far as number of species and planting rate. Fortunately, these were minimum requirements and we far exceeded them.
For two years we had been archiving seeds in preparation for this work. Most of the seeds collected in 2008 had been stored and were pooled with the seeds collected in 2009. Five acres is a fairly small prairie, but it still required quite a lot of seed. In fact, the 5-acre East Basin was the largest prairie we had planted at Pleasant Valley Conservancy.

Planting the East Basin was not your ordinary prairie planting into former ag fields. This is hilly terrain with a rather complicated topography. Parts of the basin face east, parts south, and parts southwest. There is also an erosion gully in the middle, and an area at the bottom of the gully which is flat and has a wet mesic character.

We spent a lot of time working out the planting schedule. There were three separate seed mixes, dry-mesic, mesic, and wet-mesic. Each of the mixes had over 100 species of forbs. The dry mesic mix had lots of little bluestem and side oats, with smaller amounts of Indian grass. The mesic mix had more Indian grass plus other grasses that prefer wetter habitats, such as bluejoint grass.

On the day of the planting (November 14, 2009) the weather was fortunately relatively warm and partly sunny. The Pleasant Valley Conservancy crew arrived early and distributed the buckets of seeds to the various planting units. Each unit had 2 or 3 buckets. At 10 AM the 18 volunteers arrived and we transported them to the top of the hill with our pickup truck. Most of the volunteers had planted a prairie before and were able to work expeditiously. Planting started at about 10:15 AM and finished at 11:45 AM.

As expected, the first year the site was mostly annual weeds, which were mowed with a bush hog towed by a small Kubota tractor. With the steep hill, the residual rocks and stumps, and the scattered trees, the East Basin was tricky to mow. The whole job took several days (probably 6-8 hours total). There were some steep areas that could not be mowed with the Kubota and were mowed by hand with a Stihl brushcutter.

Although we originally thought of the East Basin as prairie, it may be better to think of it as an open savanna. Why?
•There are at least five large oaks that were left after clearing the East Basin. (See the photo below.)
•The crown cover in the East Basin is 13%, based on the number of trees per acre and the basal area per acre. This agrees with Curtis’ definition of savanna (greater than 1 tree per acre).
•At its south end, the East Basin borders a neighbors wooded property, and shading from this woods creates a savanna habitat along a wide swath of the site.
•There are scattered hazel shrubs, which are generally associated with savanna.
•There are some herbaceous species that are considered “indicators” such as Elymus riparius which grew prolifically as a “volunteer”.
•The NE corner of the East Basin already has savanna character.

What does managing for savanna mean? Burns, control of invasive species, and other management activities will be similar. The principal difference is that the remaining large trees in the East Basin will not be cut, and the smaller trees will be allowed to get larger.
The photo below is a typical view of the East Basin in mid summer of its second growing season. The large oak at the top of the ridge has typical open-grown character. It was for this reason that this tree (and the other large trees) were not cut.
The smaller oaks will also be allowed to remain, and to continue to grow as open-grown specimens.

Why were these smaller trees not cut when all the others were? Time and money probably are responsible. There were so many large undesirable trees that had to be removed, that even the smaller oaks were allowed to remain.