Thousands of hectares of retired farmland are planted with tallgrass prairie species each year. If the methods used and resulting characteristics of these prairies are recorded, compiled, and analyzed, they can provide a valuable resource for evaluating seed mixes, planting methods, and post-planting management. Toward this end, collaborators in the Prairie Reconstruction Initiative, funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, developed a database to make data such as these available to researchers and the public. To jump-start this effort, and to illustrate what can be learned by keeping good records of reconstructions, we gathered data from two refuges comprised of reconstructed prairies and evaluated the utility of retrospective information on planting methods, seed mix characteristics, and post-planting management in predicting reconstruction outcomes. Further, in collaboration with researchers at North Dakota State University, we have assessed the likelyhood of unsuccessful tallgrass prairie reconstructions. Information gained from this effort will be useful to tallgrass-prairie evaluation and monitoring efforts in the Northern Great Plains.
Below are publications associated with this project.
Prairie reconstruction unpredictability and complexity: What is the rate of reconstruction failures?
Developing a framework for evaluating tallgrass prairie reconstruction methods and management
- Overview
Thousands of hectares of retired farmland are planted with tallgrass prairie species each year. If the methods used and resulting characteristics of these prairies are recorded, compiled, and analyzed, they can provide a valuable resource for evaluating seed mixes, planting methods, and post-planting management. Toward this end, collaborators in the Prairie Reconstruction Initiative, funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, developed a database to make data such as these available to researchers and the public. To jump-start this effort, and to illustrate what can be learned by keeping good records of reconstructions, we gathered data from two refuges comprised of reconstructed prairies and evaluated the utility of retrospective information on planting methods, seed mix characteristics, and post-planting management in predicting reconstruction outcomes. Further, in collaboration with researchers at North Dakota State University, we have assessed the likelyhood of unsuccessful tallgrass prairie reconstructions. Information gained from this effort will be useful to tallgrass-prairie evaluation and monitoring efforts in the Northern Great Plains.
- Publications
Below are publications associated with this project.
Prairie reconstruction unpredictability and complexity: What is the rate of reconstruction failures?
The outcomes of prairie reconstructions are subject to both unpredictability and complexity. Prairie, tallgrass, and mixed grass reconstruction is defined as the planting of a native herbaceous seed mixture composed of multiple prairie species (10 or more) in an area where the land has been heavily cultivated or anthropogenically disturbed. Because of the unpredictability and complexity inherent iDeveloping a framework for evaluating tallgrass prairie reconstruction methods and management
The thousands of hectares of prairie reconstructed each year in the tallgrass prairie biome can provide a valuable resource for evaluation of seed mixes, planting methods, and post-planting management if methods used and resulting characteristics of the prairies are recorded and compiled in a publicly accessible database. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of such data to understa