| The Sandhill Crane Wet Prairie is the only one of
the planted prairies that was not an agricultural field. Thus, it
is not part of our Conservation Reserve Program grant.
The area that is now the Crane Prairie is a long narrow strip of
land, about 3 acres, between Pleasant Valley Road and the wetland.
It begins on the east near the privy and extends all the way to
County Highway F. It shows as cropland in the first available air
photo of 1937, and continued to be cropped through the 1955 photo.
It appears fallow in the 1962 air photo. By the time we purchased
the property in 1980, some areas were still open but there were
scattered trees. Also, there were numerous honeysuckle bushes, some
rather large. When we began restoration work on the south-facing
slope across Pleasant Valley Road, the area had become completely
wooded and it was impossible to see the wetland from the road. In
fact, in some of our early brush removal work a wood chipper was
used to eliminate cut brush and the effluent of the chipper was
blown into what is now the Crane Prairie.
This area had always been an eyesore to us, especially since it
was so close to our barn and field station. Every time we looked
down the hill from the top of the ridge we saw all the exotica.
The brush was predominantly honeysuckle and the trees were box elder,
slippery elm, black walnut, and black cherry. In addition to the
undesirable vegetation, this strip was being used by locals as a
dumping ground for bottles, cans, and sundry trash. Also, every
winter a new load of horse manure from some unknown source appeared,
usually after a snowfall. Strangely, mixed in with this trash was
a very fine stand of showy orchis (Galearis spectabilis).
Clearing the Marsh Edge. We originally called
this the Marsh Edge. Some winter clearing had been done when the
snows were too heavy for work on the south slope, but serious clearing
did not begin until January 2005. It took the Michler/Brown crew
all of January and part of February on this job. A large number
of trees were cut, and we ended up with 75 burn piles, all of which
were burned while there was still snow on the ground.
Originally the trees were cut about 3-4 feet off the ground. In
early spring, when the snow was almost gone, the crew returned and
recut these stumps as flush to the ground as possible. The goal
here was to make it possible to drive tractors and sprayers across
the area so that it could be prepped for planting.
Getting rid of all the large logs was a tricky task. Fortunately,
early February was cold and snowy, making it possible for a neighbor
with a Bobcat (small front-end loader) to reach the area. It took
many trips from Pleasant Valley Road to the Marsh Edge to remove
the trees. Because of the very cold weather, there was little damage
to the soil.
Unfortunately, about mid-February we had a thaw and
further removal of trees ceased. The neighbor was able to move all
the downed trees to the east end of the site before the thaw, where
they could be reached by tractor in the summer. Most of the remaining
logs were removed the summer of 2005, but a few still remain, even
today, right near the privy. These are now being left to provide
wildlife habitat.
Preparing the Marsh Edge to plant.
The site is quite variable in character. The area near the marsh
is fairly wet and had quite a few good plants. The area toward Pleasant
Valley Road is drier and had virtually nothing good. Also, the road
cut, which we have to treat as part of the unit, had almost nothing
good. An access road running through the middle of the unit effectively
divided the site into two areas. Originally, we planned to keep
this road, but once we began site preparation we realized that it
was undesirable to have a road running through the middle of such
a narrow strip of land. We decided to eliminate this road and create
an access lane/fire break right next to the wetland sedge meadow.
(We already had a lane such as this which worked well in the Valley
Prairie in a similar location.)
In early summer the whole site above the original
lane was sprayed with glyphosate, except for a few areas where "good"
plants were visible. Closer to County F, there was a a large patch
of wild parsnip which extended right up to the sedge meadow, so
this was also sprayed. Spraying was done by Paul Michler using a
hand-held boom sprayer working from the back of his pickup truck.
(I drove the truck.) Walking with the boom, Paul walked vertically
between the lane and Pleasant Valley Road, getting good coverage
throughout.
Later in the summer, the area was sprayed again, this
time using a Fimco sprayer installed in our Kawasaki Mule. Since
the herbaceous vegetation was fairly sparse, there was insufficient
fuel to carry out a burn. Mostly, the site was open with lots of
bare ground, suitable for hand planting.
Planting the Marsh Edge (Crane Prairie).
In December 2005 the prairie was planted. Since we knew we were
going to plant a wet to wet-mesic prairie in the winter, we made
sure during our seed collecting that we had plenty of appropriate
species. Seeds were collected from the sedge meadow, wet areas in
the Valley, Pocket, and Barn Prairies, and along Pleasant Valley
Creek. All the seeds were cleaned and dried in our regular manner.
The seed mixes had over 100 species, including substantial amounts
of Indian grass. They were then mixed with sawdust and placed in
buckets (see photos).
I had measured off the area using a hand-held GPS,
and had marked equal area sectors. Planting was done by a group
of volunteers; each was assigned a sector. A light snow had fallen
and was continuing a bit while we were planting. With the snow it
was easy to see what areas had been planted and how well the seeds
were distributed.
The photo below is a view of the east end of what
will become the Crane Prairie. The single cherry tree was left but
will probably eventually be cut or will die on its own from burns.
The lane visible here was later removed and a new lane/fire break
created along the edge of the sedge meadow (the area with heavier
vegetation in the background).
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