The Ecology and Management of Prairies in the Central United States

Conclusion

169 Despite the seemingly mysterious and wonderful workings of prairies, they are not magical. Rather, prairies are incredibly complex and fascinating ecological systems that we don’t completely understand. In that way they are similar to the human body. Interestingly, many of the same management concepts apply to both. Your cardiovascular system and all of the various muscle groups need to be alternately stressed and rested to achieve peak physical fitness. Likewise, a prairie has a diversity of species and communities with important roles to play in the function of the ecosystem. The fitness of the prairie depends on regularly exercising all of those parts. Like effective physical fitness training, prairie management should vary in intensity and be nonrepetitive and adaptive. There is a wide array of tools available to manage prairies. Some, like grazing and fire, are historical disturbances that prairies have adapted to over thousands of years, but other, newer tools like herbicides and sickle-bar mowers can also be very useful. Having a variety of tools is important, but the real key is to use them in a purposeful, thoughtful way, responding to the needs of the prairie community. The fragmented landscapes most prairies exist in today make management even more important. The grassland that existed before European settlement was like an expansive ocean in which plant and animal species alike could Conclusion 171 conclusion float freely, allowing them to survive changing climate and other conditions. Today’s small prairies are more like islands, and their species must rely only on the resources they can reach within their small range. The future of fragmented prairies depends on their connectivity to other prairies. In some cases, restoration of the landscape between and around existing remnant prairies is the only real hope. But for many prairies, there are other grasslands and natural communities nearby to interact with. Looking across the fences and managing your prairie in the context of its surroundings are very important. If your prairie can provide missing habitat or resources for those other communities, the viability of the entire system increases. The biggest threat to prairies, fragmented or not, is from invasive species. Small prairies are at greater risk because of their proportionally larger exposure to edges where invasions tend to start. But no prairie is large enough to be safe from an ever-growing array of plant and animal invaders. The greatest danger comes from those species that can completely alter the composition and function of a prairie. A sufficient density of trees, for example, can prevent grassland birds from nesting, shade out plant species, restrict the movement of wind-carried pollen, and even reduce the amount of grass fuel available for fires that might control the further expansion of the trees. Thoughtful and vigilant management is critical to help repel potential invaders , but even the best-managed prairies are vulnerable. The key to successful invasive-species control is to identify the threat early and suppress it before it becomes unmanageable. Prairie management can be complicated and requires careful planning, but there is actually little risk of destroying your prairie by experimenting with new ideas. Prairies exist because of their resilience, and they can survive almost anything you throw at them. In fact, constant experimentation by prairie managers is critically important to the whole prairie conservation movement. The history of prairie conservation is still relatively brief, and even “experts” have much to learn about how to maintain the biological diversity of grasslands. You can contribute significantly to our collective wisdom by trying new things and documenting the results. Most important, be sure Rainbow over loess hills prairie in Iowa at The Nature Conservancy’s Broken Kettle Grasslands. 172 conclusion to step back periodically to admire your work and appreciate the beauty and complexity of your prairie. Take time to smell the wild roses, and take pride in your contribution to the conservation of one of the most fascinating natural communities in the world. ...