The Ecology and Management of Prairies in the Central United States

6. The Adaptive Management Process

69 the adaptive management process Changing your strategy as conditions change is the most important component of a good prairie management regime. Adaptive management consists of 4 basic steps: setting objectives, taking action, measuring progress, and adjusting your objectives and strategies based on what you learn. Following an adaptive management process helps ensure that you will learn from your experiences and improve your prairie management over time. Setting Objectives The most critical part of the process is setting good objectives, because you can’t measure progress if you don’t know where you want to go. It might be helpful to start by developing a broad vision for what you want to accomplish on your property. Then devise 4 or 5 specific objectives that will move you in that direction. As you go along, your vision will probably not change much, but your objectives should change regularly as you make progress or as conditions change. One vision or objective you should avoid is that of creating a “natural” or “historical” prairie. There are a couple of good reasons not to try to manage a prairie to fit some historical mold. First, prairies have been evolving for thousands of years, and choosing a snapshot in time to manage for would be like trying to keep your own appearance just as it was when you were 15. Second, prairie management 6. The Adaptive Management Process 70 prairie management 70 71 the adaptive management process 71 the adaptive management process conditions have changed dramatically, even during the last 100 years. Aside from huge climate variations that have included long dry and wet periods, the increasing human development of prairie landscapes has brought a whole new set of variables, particularly habitat fragmentation and invasive species, that influence the look and function of prairies. A wise manager will learn about the historical conditions that drove the evolution of prairie species and their survival strategies, but that information must now be only a part of what drives management decisions. Before setting your objectives, be sure to talk to local prairie experts and other prairie managers. Get a feel for what kinds of species diversity you might expect on your property, given the soil types, topography, size, and other factors. Are there rare plant or animal species that might use your site? If so, are there management options available to encourage them? What are the major invasive species in the area, and should you be setting objectives to eradicate them from your site, or is it more reasonable to attempt to keep them at some low level of abundance? Setting objectives for the plant community will be your most important job, because the quality of the plant community influences all of the other biological diversity of the prairie. Think about both the total number of plant species across the site and the diversity of plants on a small scale. Generally speaking, a high-quality prairie can have a total of between 150 and 300 plant species. Higher numbers are usually found in larger prairies, prairies on richer soils, and prairies with more variety in topography and plant community types. However, remember that species diversity takes into account both the number of species and the frequency with which those species are found in the prairie. In other words, just because you can find 150 different plant species that show up at least once on your site doesn’t necessarily mean that the prairie is in great shape—but it’s a good start. Looking at the density of species in your prairie is another good way to evaluate quality. In addition to having a plant species count across the whole site, a good prairie should also have a diverse mix of species on the scale of a square meter or so. This is a measure that many ecologists use for evaluating This prescribed fire was conducted well into the spring season when invasive cool-season grasses were growing strongly. Noting the conditions that allowed the fire to burn well and revisiting the site to see whether or not the objectives were met are both components of good adaptive management. 72 prairie management prairies, so it’s likely that there will be comparable information available from nearby prairies. An average count of between 15 and 20 species per square meter is very good in many prairies. However, in drier or more western prairies, that might be too...