Grassland Summary
January 4-8, 2001 Farm Bill Network Listserv Discussion Summaries
Summarized by Amy Papenfuss and Wendy Dickie, umbsn@smumn.edu
In this discussion, participants exchanged ideas on the best criteria for entering prairie lands into a grassland protection program. Many suggested size was the best criteria, as long as it could be set on a regional basis since prairie remnant types and sizes differed so greatly from state to state. They discussed that some prairie remnants were as large as several hundred acres, but most were much smaller (less than 20-acre tracts). Some stated that small prairie remnants were extremely important to the recovery of the prairie. One participant expressed that size wasn’t the best criteria, but rather such environmental factors as the existence of rare and conservative species, plant diversity, and the absence of invasive species. Following are some of the highlights of the discussion:
Kirby Brown (on the need to consider grassland size on a state-to-state basis.)
· Small prairie remnants are extremely important to the recovery of the tall grass and coastal prairies of Texas.
· More important is the structure of a Farm Bill that encourages the conversion of prairie or other important habitats to marginal croplands through other programs (CRP).
· Size is an important criteria – as long as the size criteria can be set state by state. For example, Missouri was once 1/3 prairie (17 million acres or so). Less than 100,000 acres of native prairie remains (not even 1% of a state that once was 33% prairie).
· Some prairie remnants are as large as several hundred acres but most are much smaller with many 20 and 40-acre tracts (and many even smaller). These prairie remnants are left because, historically, they have not been economical to crop.
Size should be criteria for entry into a grassland protection program, but the exact acreage needs to be determined regionally or on a state-by-state basis. For example, a 40-acre parcel of native tall grass prairie may be valuable in achieving wildlife habitat objectives in Minnesota, but perhaps not in Kansas or Oklahoma.
· I propose that size should not be a criterion for grassland protection.
· Small remnant prairies as small as an acre may harbor important species of rare plants that can serve as local ecotype seed sources for prairie restoration. These small remnant prairies have proven extremely important to the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge and other restoration sites in Iowa where we put high priority to planting local ecotypes.
· Better criteria would be the existence of rare and conservative species, plant diversity, and the absence of invasive species (brome, Canada thistle, etc.).
· Another point is that even highly degraded prairie remnants can be restored with little management. Many of our woodlands that are overgrown with eastern red cedar, honey and black locust, European buckthorn, multiflora rose, etc., are, in fact, degraded prairies.
· A few years ago, a group of prairie enthusiasts in central Iowa mechanically removed (saws and loppers) a dense stand of eastern red cedar from a tract of land with steep eastern slope and then used prescribed burn. No seed was used and today it is a diverse prairie of grasses and forbs.
· I like the idea of not setting a nation-wide minimum acreage for the program. We are currently having a productive discussion in Kansas about the need for something like the Grassland Reserve Program.
· One of our very important resources is a small field of native grass haylands; these are like small reserves where little other native grass exists. Setting a minimum of 160 acres will basically leave these areas out of the program.
· In the Flint Hills of Kansas, they’re native faunas, which are being effected by changes in the prairie landscape, such as the greater prairie chicken. These effects are being generated by invasive species and are conversion to other uses. Urbanization is even being felt in the Flint Hills.
· One of our big concerns is the breaking up of large prairie landscape. I like the idea of allowing someone like the state technical committees or similar groups, to determine the priorities the program would address.
· Avoid the “geographical distribution of money” problem and produce results.
· I agree on the 5-acre minimum and no maximum.
· As you go east of the plains, land becomes very fragmented and most of our prairies are.
· We currently have a “prairie bank” program that works very well. Prairie Land Management, Inc. (PLM) is very interested in native prairie areas for seed production. We will explore seed production opportunities. First because it potentially pays the landowner better, allows us to manage the prairie more intensively because we want the crop to be the best each year. There are no limitations to harvest except that we want to make sure the plants come back each year as a renewable resource, and lastly, we need the seed.
· PLM has a primary goal to provide local ecotypes for conservation programs, especially and specifically conservation programs that are perpetual (RIM, CREP, etc.). If the land is going into a “forever” program, it is our objective to put the best stuff in there, to make sure that a well detailed plan is developed to take advantage of all wildlife enhancement opportunities and long-term management is considered (prescribed burning)!
· A concern that I have had with prairie easements are the limitations it puts on harvest of the seed that we need so bad to create better projects.
· I also have concern about conservation program plantings adjacent to native prairie. If the wrong ecotypes are planted for the conservation program, it will ruin the harvest potential for the remnant prairies.
· There is mostly corn soybean farming on 90%+ of the southwestern lands of Minnesota. Our remaining unplowed prairie exists in small chunks and as pastured areas along our creeks and streams.
· I am emphasizing saving these vestiges of prairie with the only program we have to offer. The Minnesota DNR Prairie Bank. Usually we are considering 5 acres and up. 160 acre prairie stands are nonexistent in this part of the original tall grass prairie.