Kestrels nesting?

We have been delighted to see that kestrels are using "both" our kestrel nest boxes. We installed these boxes two winters ago. Susan first spotted the birds this spring and we spent one warm lunch hour watching a bird fly from the box across the marsh to a large black willow by the creek. After a rest, back across the marsh to the box. They are flycatchers, and during their flight they swoop and flutter in a very characteristic manner.

Later, we saw the same behavior at the other box. Since these boxes are located quite a distance from each other, we assume that a different bird is using each box.

The American kestrel is a colorful bird, as can be verified by looking at its image on the one cent US postal stamp (see photo at right).

According to the Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Wisconsin (Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, 2006), kestrels are usually associated with savannas and grasslands, but can be found in almost any open habitat. Pleasant Valley Conservancy is thus an ideal area, since our vegetation grades from savanna through dry open prairie into wet prairie and marsh. Our nest boxes are positioned at the edge of the wet prairie.

Starlings frequently evict kestrels from their nesting cavities, but their predations can be reduced by siting nest boxes high in the open, orienting to maximize light entering the cavity. Thus, our boxes situated on high poles are ideal.

Getting seeds down

Last fall we collected lots of seeds from both prairie and savanna habitats, and they have been hanging in the barn waiting for spring burns. Our great south-slope burn yesterday opened up a large area for planting, and we did not waste any time getting started. Susan, Chris, and I made the final savanna mix (68 species of forbs plus Indian grass), added sawdust as a carrier, and spent the day planting.

We started in one of the steepest areas, a fine savanna spanning Units 6 and 9. The planting procedure was simple. We walked three abreast in lines parallel to the ridge line, tossing seeds as we went, back and forth until we covered the area. Since this was a steep rocky hill, with a ravine in the middle, the footing was tricky, but there were no problems. After lunch we planted savanna areas of Units 3, 5, and 9, using the same procedure. Refer to the map for locations of the units.

By the end of the day we had gotten down about 45 pounds of the forbs/Indian grass mix. During the night there was a gentle rain, so the seeds should be happy!

For the next several weeks our planting work should be alternating with controlled burns. As soon as a burn opens up another area, we'll be working to get seeds down.

It is satisfying to see all those seeds that we worked so hard collecting finally getting on the ground.

First controlled burn of the year!

At 7 AM this morning, Todd Shumate called with a surprise: the weather promised to be very good for a controlled burn of the prairie-savanna remnants on our south-facing slope. Further, the weather for the rest of the week was going to be unfavorable. Finally, the crew was available today. For the past 8 years, my policy has been: if the weather is right and the crew is available, don't wait, BURN! Fortunately, our trio of interns was also scheduled to work today, giving them a chance to participate in the burn.

For the first three hours, we did the final polishing to our fire breaks, and raked around standing dead trees and fire-sensitive trees that we wanted to save.

Although the humidity was a little high early in the day, it promised to drop and the temperature was to increase. By 11:00 AM, the temperature was in the upper 70s and the relative humidity about 50%. With the sun shining, and with good fuel on the south slope, all systems were go. We ate an early lunch and started lighting at 12 noon.

The plan was to make a black line next to the upper fire break, then flank fires to the middle, and light along the middle from one end to the other. The purpose was to have a head fire of the areas where fuel was less flamable, and a back fire on the areas (mainly the lower prairie slope), where the fuel was hot and flashy. A closeup of the backing fire is shown in the photo on the right. Not very dramatic, but slow and steady. I measured the rate of the moving front with a ruler and stop watch; average about 45 seconds a foot. Everything worked like a charm, and we finished the whole burn (10 acres) in less than two hours.

The first photo below shows the fire front creeping slowly downhill through the savanna. By keeping the flames low, we avoided any chance of low-hanging branches catching on fire. The second photo shows the savanna after the burn. Coverage was close to 100%. Since brush had recently been cut and treated on this whole slope, we are expecting good things this growing season!

First sign of spring in the savanna

Today was the first really warm day since the snow left, and we were greeted with a nice show of catkins from the hazelnut (Corylus americana) shrubs that are scattered here and there in our savanna. Hazel has two kinds of flowers, male and female. The male flowers are easy to spot in fall and winter as brown catkins hanging down from stems. In the first few warm days of spring, the brown catkins turn to green as the flowers open, as seen in the photo to the right.

The fruit of the hazel is a nut with a characteristic covering. Hazelnuts are edible and delicious, but we almost never are able to pick them, because the squirrels get them first. Fortunately, the commercial variety, called filbert, is inexpensive and widely available. We prefer to get our hazelnuts in the grocery store and leave the native ones for the animals.

Many of the areas where we have been brush cutting this winter have had hazel shrubs, and this is about the only shrub that we don't cut. The person operating the cutter must have a good eye to avoid the hazel shrubs, because the cut stems are hard to tell from some of the "bad" shrubs. As all our shrubs, hazel is fire-sensitive and is top-killed during a savanna burn. However, it readily resprouts. We have lots of multiple-stemmed hazel shrubs that have been formed as a result of annual fires.

Hundreds of small buckthorns

We're getting near the end of our winter brush cutting. Fortunately, we still had time to attack an area which was heavily infested with small buckthorn plants. On our management map, this was an area at the east end of Unit 19. This area is at the brink of the ridge on the north side and gets less sun than the south ridge. It had been full of large buckthorns which were removed in 2001, along with removal of weedy trees.

Buckthorns returned in force in 2004-2005. These were not resprouts from cut stems, but new growth from the seed bank. Although the unit was burned, all this did was top-kill the new shoots. Our brush cutting today revealed lots of plants with 3-6 shoots. With a sharp saw blade, they cut easily and were readily treated with glyphosate using the Karow paint stick technique. (This technique is indispensable in an area such as this. Without it, I doubt we would have even tackled this job.)

It took four of us a good solid day to get through this patch; one brush-cutter and three treaters. The treaters had to walk the area carefully, because the cut stems were hard to see, just poking up above the leaf litter. Susan and I concluded that we were treating 90-95% of the cut stems, which hopefully will be enough.

The unanswered question is whether the buckthorn seed bank is exhausted, or whether we will have to deal with this area again in a few years. We'll see.

Of course, it wasn't "all" buckthorn. There were brambles (mainly blackberry), prickly ash, the occasional honeysuckle, and a bit of gray dogwood. Also a few good shrubs, such as small yellow-bud hickory (Carya cordiformis), and the occasional hazelnut. (Yellow bud hickory, also called bitternut or pignut, is easy to recognize because of its long, yellow terminal buds.)

Why are there so many honeysuckles?

We just spent four weeks cutting brush on our south-facing slope. The upper part of this slope was riven with honeysuckles, now all cut and treated. They were especially bad in Unit 5, near the top of the hill. The photo at right shows the cut stems from a single plant. I count 10 stems, but in some plants there were as many as 30 stems.

This is especially impressive when we realize that this slope was cleared of honeysuckles in 1999 (seven years ago), and again in 2004. Further, it had been burned every year except last year, when we intentionally did not burn because we wanted to give any plants a chance to get big enough so that they would be easier to find.

These are not resprouts from poorly treated stems, but new growth from the seed bank. Since honeysuckles had been growing on this hillside for many years, it is not surprising that there was a seed bank.

Burns top kill honeysuckles (as well as any other brush) but do not eliminate them. Instead, top-killing stimulates dormant buds to grow. Many of the honeysuckles on the hill had a combination of dead and living stems. The dead stems were holdovers from previous years, killed by burns, and the living ones represented fresh growth.

Questions: How long will the seed bank last? We have now cleared this slope three times; how many more times will we have to do it?

The upside is that in most parts of the slope there are patches of good grasses such as Indian grass and little blue stem, as well as scattered forbs. None of these herbaceous plants were present when we first cleared the slope. They have become established from seeds we have planted. (We have planted this slope at least three times with a dry-mesic prairie mix, and we will plant it again this year.) Perhaps this year's burn will be a winner, and the prairie plants will finally win out?

Sandhill Cranes

Our greatest harbinger of spring, the sandhill crane, is back! Once the snow melted, we were seeing them close in, foraging around in the wetland, calling, staking out nesting sites. It is really great, when we are working high on the south slope, to look down and see a pair flying low over the marsh. We feel so lucky having wetland, prairie, savanna, and woods all in view at the same time.

Our work is progressing better now that the snow is gone. We have finished our brush control on the whole south slope, a major task that was our highest priority for this winter. Until burn season (a couple of weeks away!), we will continue brush clearing in several potentially high quality savanna areas.

The Prairie Enthusiasts Annual Banquet

This weekend Kathie and I traveled to northwestern Wisconsin to attend the annual banquet of The Prairie Enthusiasts. The meeting was well attended and we heard numerous interesting talks on prairie restoration. At the banquet, we had a surprise: we received the 2007 Prairie Enthusiasts of the Year Award! We are grateful for the support of so many friends and colleagues in recognizing the work we have been doing in restoration ecology.

One of the exciting aspects of the meeting was the large number of members from Minnesota attending. Minnesota has lots of prairie people, and one of the more active chapters of TPE is in the Rochester, Minn. area. Although TPE began as a Wisconsin organization, it has been multi-state for some years, with chapters in Illinois and Minnesota as well as Wisconsin. Kathie and I were pleased to have lunch with several "gophers", and to learn of their problems and successes in prairie restoration.

There is no reason why The Prairie Enthusiasts could not spread out to include chapters in all of the midwestern states, from Ohio to Kansas.

The Weatherman is Not Cooperating

I realize you don't blame the messenger for the message, but we did not get the warmer weather we had been promised, so our snow continues to hang on. Fortunately, we have had a few sunny days, which has reduced the snow pack on the south slope. There is still some snow there, and the crust is almost hard enough to walk on, but we toughed it out and trudged up to the top of the south slope. Five of us spent the morning cutting honeysuckles, brambles, buckthorn, and odds and ends.

At lunch time, we all agreed that we had had enough of that icy slope for the day. After an abortive attempt at a shadier site where the snow was too deep, we quit for the day at 2:30 PM. Not good, but what can you do?

Getting a Little Sick of Snow!

Don't get me wrong. I love snow, but the latest round is really setting back our brush cutting work. We had hoped to have the south slope cleared of brush (cut and treated) by the end of February, and here it is March and we have at least four days work left. We can't work on the south slope when the snow is as deep as it is now. (About one foot on the ground, and drifts up to four feet!) A lot of the brush we want to cut is buried and would be missed. Also, footing is treacherous on the very steep hill where we have to work.

As a substitute, we have been working on Unit 7, which is less steep and is quite near Pleasant Valley Road, so we can reach it easily. This unit also needed to be cut, but was of lower priority. We managed to finish it in four working days. There were a lot of walnut resprouts (the third time we have cut walnut resprouts in this unit), but hopefully spraying the cut stumps with Garlon 4 in oil will finally do the trick.

The weather forecast is for sunny weather by Wednesday and the rest of the week. Good, because we need sun to melt the snow off the south slope. Hopefully, we will finally have it finished by the middle of March.

Just in time for burn season!

The Beaver's Are Back!

During our work gathering baseline data, we discovered that beavers have returned to Pleasant Valley Conservancy. We found a number of trees along East Blue Mounds Creek that had been gnawed to the ground. The photo here shows a couple of box elders that the beavers have chewed on. Another tree near by had all its bark removed.

We have had beavers before but when they have eaten all the trees they can easily obtain they move on to greener pastures. They do make quite an impact on the wetland, however, changing the hydrology considerably. The last time we had them was bout 8 years ago. Through their activities, the channel of Pleasant Valley Creek was completely altered, with the water flowing in a new channel.

Now they are back. We haven't had time to find their dam or house yet, but there is certainly one somewhere in our creek/wetland complex.

Gathering Baseline Data for the Easement

As discussed elsewhere on this web site, Kathie and I donated a conservation easement to the Prairie Enthusiasts (TPE) for Pleasant Valley Conservancy. As part of the easement process, TPE gathers baseline data of the Conservancy and then monitors the property yearly to ensure that the conditions of the easement are being followed. This is an important part of the easement process.

Today a team from TPE visited the property to obtain baseline data, which will be on file and used for comparison with future years. The key part of the baseline was to locate all corners on the property and make a photographic record of the condition. Also, photos were taken at various places along the property boundary. GPS coordinates were recorded at the site of each photo, permitting accurate location in future years.

The photo here shows the team in action at the SW corner. This corner, at the edge of the wetland, and is adjacent to East Blue Mounds Creek (in the near background), a 2nd order trout stream.

Back on the South Slope

The frigid weather has finally abated, and the great sun has melted most of the snow on the south slope. This is our area of highest priority for brush control, and we are now able to work on it again. (The south slope is so steep that it was difficult to work on when there was a lot of snow.)

The interns and I spent the day cutting brush. It had been a month since we had been able to work there, but we were able to pick up right where we left off. We could easily see the cut stems at the edge of our last work zone. In fact, some of the red dye on those old cut stems was even still visible, having persisted under a foot or so of snow.

It was good to be working on the south slope again. Although we still have a lot to do there, I can see now that we might get our critical brush cutting finished before the start of burn season (which is about a month away!).

Effect of Fire on Grass Growth

It might seem a little odd to discuss growth of prairie grass in the middle of the winter, but the photo below, just taken today, shows an interesting phenomenon. We were brush cutting near by and I couldn't resist a short hike on such a sunny day. (The temperature was around 10 F!)

The contrast between the right side of the prairie (burned in April 2006) and the unburned side is striking. On the burned side the Indian grass grew very well, and even now is so dense that it hides the snow. On the unburned side, Indian grass also grew, but not nearly as densely, and the snow shows through.

The prairie sod has a thick thatch, which keeps sunlight from reaching the soil surface in the early part of the growing season. With less sun, the soil does not warm up as much, slowing the growth of the prairie grass. In the burned side, the thatch is removed and the grass shoots start to grow much earlier. This early start carries through the whole growing season.

Even in the dead of winter, one can find interesting phenomena in a prairie!

Cold but Nice

Today it started out at -1 F and never got above 11 but working was very pleasant. How can that be? Sun! It was very sunny and five of us worked cutting brush in the lower part of Unit 11. This is a bowel-shaped area nicely protected from the wind, and is on a hill facing south. We dressed warmly, and made good use of our foam sticks for herbicide application on lots of small cut stems.

There was lots of gray dogwood, a clone former that is readily top-killed by burns but makes lots of resprouts. We plan to leave a gray dogwood thicket here and there for the birds (it makes nice berries), but we don't need it everywhere. The thickets it forms shade out all the forbs and grass understory.

We plan to keep working all week even though the weather predictions are for bitter cold. If today was an example of what the weather bureau calls bitter cold, let's have more of it!

Back in Action

The very cold weather has finally abated, and now we are having just regular cold weather. Even though we had three inches of snow early this morning, we were able to get back to work. Three students and I spent the day cutting some remaining brush in the White Oak Savanna (Unit 12A). We had cut most of this brush last winter, but one area did not get cut. So we did this today.

This was an interesting area, because almost all the brush we cut was dead, having been top-killed by burns. (We have been burning this area annually since 2002.) However, even though most of the brush was dead, there were always a few living shoots coming up among the dead ones. These were very small, so finding them to treat with herbicide was a challenge. The stems from living plants can usually be recognized because the cut surface is green. But with these small stems, it is difficult to spot the green ones. We erred on the side of caution, treating some cut stems that were probably dead. The new snow made it possible for us to follow the brush-cutter fairly well.

Maybe we could control this brush simply by annual burns, but I'm not confident of this. Also, we would like eventually to reach the state where we don't need to burn annually, but perhaps every three years. As long as the roots of invasive shrubs remain alive, we need to keep our eradication efforts going!

While waiting to gas up for another round, Glenda and I enjoyed looking at one of our mature open-grown white oaks. This one probably approaches 200 years old. Although I had looked at it before, not from the angle I was seeing it today. It is an amazing tree, with lots of large low branches, just what you would expect from a mature savanna oak. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera, but I will definitely take a picture at the first opportunity.

This oak is interesting because it shows up clearly on the 1937 air photo that Soil Conservation Service took. It is one of dozens of mature white oaks that can be seen on that photo, and almost all of them can still be seen today. There is a band of large savanna white oaks in the basin surrounding the Pocket Prairie. This band is at the 900 foot elevation, which is where a 20-foot layer of dolomite separates two sandstone layers. We know that certain wetland plants can be found along this same elevation, and I assume that the white oaks do well here because of the increased availability of moisture.

It is really great to be able to stop work from time to time and look at the trees!

State-listed Species at Pleasant Valley Conservancy

I am just as interested in some of the more common plant species, but the rarer species have a special fascination. For some background research, I accessed the State web site and copied out all the plant species that are maintaining populations at Pleasant Valley Conservancy. See the list below.

Note that I saw "maintaining populations", which means that they are making it without any current help from us. Some of the species on this list were already present when we started restoration, whereas a few we introduced from local seed sources. I am fairly confident that all of the species on this list are established. There are a few others not on this list that have been seen at Pleasant Valley but I can't state that they are maintaining populations.

Note that just because they are maintaining populations doesn't mean they are out of danger. We spend a huge amount of time weeding in areas where these species are present. Who knows what would happen if we let up our guard? Maybe they could fight off the competition from nonnative invaders, but I wouldn't count on it. There must be some reason these species are rare in Wisconsin, and I suspect the impact of exotics is a major factor.

Too Cold to Work!

We generally prefer cold weather for our brush cutting. With most of the vegetation died back, it is a lot easier to cut things, and there are no leaves to worry about. The herbicide works fine.

However, this week we had a serious cold spell, and it was much too cold to work. It has been below zero F every morning, and the high for the day has been no more than 10F. What a contrast to last year, when we had quite comfortable weather most of the winter. A few days in January and February 2006 we were even in shirt sleeves!

We're committed to making up for the work we are missing, which means we will probably be working weekends for a while once it warms up.

I haven't been idle, however. I've been spending the days at my computer, recording in an Excel spreadsheet all the plant species data from my 2006 field data books. These data are the source of all of the species check lists you find on this web site. 2006 will make the fifth year for which I have data. I am now able to look for trends and the appearance of new species. Since I have location data for each species, I can also see when they move into newly restored areas. The accumulated data provide a great aid for management activities.

Bringing Back a Degraded Oak Savanna

As it happens, there are lots of degraded oak savannas, especially in the hill country of southwestern Wisconsin. Most of these savannas were grazed but were never plowed. Often many of the original open-grown bur oak trees are still present, usually on the ridge tops, but sometimes in the draws or on the south-facing slopes. If the savanna was fairly far from the barn, they may not even have been heavily grazed.

If there are no bur oaks left, restoration is impossible. This is because it takes 100-150 years to get the oaks back.

But if open-grown oaks are present, the savanna can be restored! This is because it only takes a dozen years or so to bring back the savanna understory.

Here are some principles for restoring a degraded savanna:

What To Do On Snow Days?

I like snow (I grew up in the Cleveland, Ohio east-side snow belt), but it does present problems for the kind of field work we are doing this winter. Brush cutting on our steep slopes is difficult with snow underfoot. However, we have reserved some less steep areas for snow periods so we won't lose any work days. There are two reasons we don't want to lose work days: 1) There is lots of brush waiting to be cut and we need all the days we can get if we are going to finish this winter; 2) Our employees don't get paid if they don't work and we are committed to providing as much employment as possible.

This past week, with about 4 inches of snow on the ground, we worked on Unit 20, which is not only less steep but is near Pleasant Valley Road so access is good. With the 8 inches of snow we now have, we will probably be able to finish Unit 20, and then move to the adjacent Unit 21, whose lower areas are even less steep.

The brush cutter works fine in the snow, and herbicide treatment is no problem provided the brush is cut high enough. An advantage of snow is that we can see where the brush cutter has been, which saves time.

Last year we had one period when there was more than a foot of snow on the ground. This was too much, so we worked on the wetland, cutting a big clone of willow that was starting to move into the Barn Prairie. We still have plenty of other areas with willow if snow continues to pile up.

One upside of snow: cross-country skiing is great!

Work Party at Schluckebier Sand Prairie

Today Kathie and I participated in a Prairie Enthusiast's work party at Schluckebier Sand Prairie in Sauk County, Wisconsin. This preserve is managed for The Nature Conservancy (TNC) by The Prairie Enthusiasts (TPE) and TNC is working to transfer title to TPE. This site has a wide variety of dry-site prairie species, including the State Endangered prairie bush clover, Lespedeza leptostachya.

Although snow was threatening, the turnout was quite good. The principal activity was control of invading brush and trees at the edges of the prairie. In one area a large patch of very big honeysuckles was present. With two chain saws working, and about 10 people stacking the cut material into large piles, the patch was soon gone. My job was to treat all the cut stumps with herbicide. Kathie worked to cut and treat the brambles that had grown up within and among the honeysuckles.

Lespedeza leptostachya is a characteristic species of dry sand prairies but is quite uncommon in Wisconsin. In addition to its Endangered status at the state level, it is listed as Threatened at the Federal level. It is one of our few Midwest endemics, restricted to prairies in northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, northern Iowa, and southern Minnesota. Its rarity is due to the extensive loss of habitat due to agriculture.

Afterwards, many of the volunteers ate lunch at the Eagle Inn in Prairie du Sac. This village, on the Wisconsin River, is renowned for its large population of wintering bald eagles.

Progress in Brush Control

A strict work schedule is making possible good progress on our brush control work which is sponsored, in part, by a Landowner Incentive Program from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Over the past month we have cleared a large area of savanna/prairie remnant on the south slope. Before 1998/1999 this area had been heavily invested with buckthorn. Removal, seeding, and controlled burns had made major improvements. However, there was, of course, an extensive seed bank and buckthorn and other invasive shrubs returned. Although burns kept the shrubs small, they were not eradicated, and it was clear that they would never be eradicated by burning alone.

Since early December our crews, including volunteers and paid workers, have been clearing the area within and on both sides of the gully that separates Units 6 and 9. By the end of the first week in January we had cleared about 2 acres that was predominantly bur oak savanna. The photo below shows what this area now looks like. It has lots of savanna and prairie forbs and grasses, which should respond greatly to the controlled burn planned for this spring!

New Intern Group

We are starting the year with a new group of interns. For the forseeable future they will be involved in our major brush-clearing work, but later they will work with our controlled burn program and other activities.

In the photo below they are making great use of the Dale and Kim Karow wand technique for herbiciding cut stems of buckthorn, brambles, etc.