The Ecology and Management of Prairies in the Central United States (review)

Chris Helzer has accomplished exactly what he set out to do: write a book "to educate prairie owners and managers about grassland ecology and to provide them with guidance on making sound decisions about managing their prairies" (p. vii). The goal of prairie management as presented by Helzer is to "sustain diverse communities of plants and animals" (p. vii). This is a fine, logically organized and well-written book that provides basic information about how prairies function and guidance on developing a management philosophy and plan. It is not intended to be a recipe book but rather suggests ideas to "mix and match management techniques in ways that will keep prairies vigorous and viable" (p. vii). Although the stated audience is managers and private landowners (including farmers and ranchers), the book has much wider appeal and applicability (say, agencies and universities) and should be of interest to anyone engaged in conservation, management, and restoration.

This book, however, is not a restoration manual in that it does not discuss the kinds of actions and interventions (soil amendments, hydrologic modifications, or hunting and trapping of pest animals, for example) that might be required to move a degraded plant community or ecosystem to where periodic management interventions are all that is needed to keep the ecosystem within the desired range of trajectories. Nor does the book talk about the demands and implications, constraints and opportunities of the social and cultural settings in which management must take place—in other words, human impacts and working with people. Something every restoration team must be good at is working with people—people on staff, people in the community, local, state, and federal agencies. In chapter 5, "Landscape Context," the book does look outward beyond the site boundaries, and there is some discussion about edges within and around the prairie and how they impact, for example, habitat for nesting grassland birds. But this book is not a discussion of the context at a larger regional scale, which might include, for example, residential and commercial development beyond the borders. I envy managers who have situations where these cross-boundary, abiotic, social, and cultural forces are not a management concern. But these topics were beyond the scope of the book.

The book is divided into two large sections: prairie ecology and prairie management. The prairie ecology section has chapters on plant communities, the role of disturbance (especially fire), animal communities, the importance of diversity and heterogeneity, and landscape context. The second section, on prairie management, includes chapters on the adaptive management process, guiding principles for designing management strategies, examples of management systems, managing for wildlife with particular requirements, invasive species, and restoration, which, from a restoration perspective is accurate but a little slim, focusing only on issues of seed sources, harvesting, and planting.

The book ends with a conclusion and a note on climate change. There are eight appendices that provide resources for further information on topics like grazing, prescribed fire, invasive species, bibliographic notes, literature cited, contacts with expertise in prairie management, additional sources of general information on prairies, and scientific names for plant species named in the text.

The book has a nice conversational tone, is full of clear explanations, and offers homespun, common-sense wisdom, such as the author's caution against managing for a historical or natural-appearing prairie based on a mental image of the past. He reminds us: "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" (p. 69). The prairie ecology section of the book provides, in science-based but nontechnical terms, the basic knowledge required to understand the complexity and uncertainty of trying to manage a prairie.

In the section on prairie management, Helzer's book provides a sound foundation for developing a viable approach to...