Category Archives: Land management

A Timberhill Tour: Hidden Prairie

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West 40 with Hidden Prairie

One of the pleasures of restoring Decatur County overstocked savannas is finding hidden treasure.  The Hidden Prairie is such a treasure.  Completely surrounded by woodland it had remnant populations of many conservative prairie plants such as purple prairie clover.  Bordered by our south property line, it covers a west facing hillside overlooking West Creek, part of a forty acre track we purchased in 2005. The property to the south is a mature overstocked savanna remnant, but there were no veteran oak trees on our portion of the land surrounding this prairie.  Only 75 year old shingle oaks. (It may have been logged off in the nineteenth century.)

At the time of purchase Rattlesnake master dominated the upper portion with more mesic plants such as bottle gentian at the lower end above the creek bottom. A stand of shingle oaks extended into the prairie dividing it into two parts.   We began managing it before we owned it.  Whenever we burned the West 40 unit we used West Creek as a fire break.  Since the Hidden Prairie is between the West 40 and West Creek it has been burned annually since 2002. After we purchased it we cut down the shingle oaks that divided the prairie and thinned a stand of shingle oaks between the prairie and the south fenceline.

The above photograph of the Hidden Prairie was taken before restoration. Since then it has doubled in size. The Rattlesnake master has declined. Prescribed burns have stimulated the warm season grasses and sedges.  Virtually all rainfall is now absorbed into the soil and the natural hydrology has been restored.  Even in dry weather plants have a consistent supply of water from the groundwater seeps.  The shingle oaks cannot tolerate these mesic conditions and are dying.  The Hidden Prairie is gradually extending its border uphill to the east.

Hidden Prairie in June

We have no idea how far it will go. There are two more prairie remnants along the south fence line, above (east)of  the Hidden Prairie.  All that separates them are shingle oaks.  As the shingle oaks die I assume the Hidden Prairie will become linked with the other remnants. A few young bur oaks are becoming established there as well.  Perhaps this prairie has a savanna in its future.  In any case it is fascinating to watch the transformation.

A Timberhill Tour: The Southeast Woodland

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The Southeast Woodland comprises approximately 20  acres in the southeast corner of Timberhill.  It borders a ridgetop meadow in the center of the property. From there the sharply dissected ridges drop steeply to Brush Creek, our east boundary.  Timber stand improvement, i.e., removing the midstory weed trees and thinning the pole timber was completed there in 1998.  Since this unit contained lot of red oak which species is highly susceptible to oak wilt we anticipated higher than normal mortality and left sixty trees per acre, more than in other units.

SE Woodland before prescribed burns

We didn’t burn this unit until 2000 because there was no firebreak.  Then we found an old trail just inside the south property line. It was a mess.  Several large trees blocked the trail.  Between that and the heavy brush it took a friend with a Bobcat, Bill with a clearing saw and chain saw to cut our way to down to Brush Creek. Then we recruited volunteers for the first prescribed burn in 2001.  This unit has been burned every year since.

SE Woodland after 10 prescribed burns

Recovery of the understory plants has been inconsistent.  After three prescribed burns yellow ladyslipper orchids appeared clinging to the side of seepy bluff overlooking the ravine at the north end. Pockets of other conservative plants such as false hellebore are scattered through the rest of the woodland, but much of the understory is still in early stages of recovery.    The canopy is denser here than in the East Savanna and ambient light is less than 10% of full sunlight.  That may be why it is taking so long.

False hellebore, Veratrum woodii

But  ectomycorrhizal fungi that have fruited here since we began managing this woodland have compensated for the lack of floristic quality.  (Ectomycorrhizal fungi have a symbiotic association with the roots of a vascular plant.  Mushrooms collected in the SE Woodland have all been associated with white oaks. ) After the first prescribed burn the woodland north of the trail/firebreak was filled with deadly destroying angel mushrooms.  After three burns these fungi were replaced by various species of brittlecap, milky cap and Amanita fungi.    In 2007 we were thrilled with a heavy fruiting of king bolete, a choice edible.  We also had several nice fruitings of golden chanterelles, another choice edible. The SE Woodland mycoflora has become more interesting since then.  Each year a new bolete species has fruited here.  (The underside of Bolete mushroom caps have pores instead of gills. Bolete spores are released from inside these pores.)  Several have been species new to Iowa records. The latest was Leccinum subglabripes, with bright yellow pores and stalk that stains red.

Leccinum subglabripes

A diverse population of fungi is essential to oak savanna quality.   In a woodland it is the fungi that bind all the other organisms together.  Mycelium, the threadlike vegetative structure of fungi, links plants together and regulates the flow of nutrients and water. Each species delivers specific benefits to its host plant.  The more diverse the ectomycorrhizal fungi in a woodland, the healthier the woodland.

Eastern Red Cedar: Before and After

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That Eastern red cedar is a noxious invasive of Midwest prairies and woodland is universally accepted.  It outcompetes other plants for water, consuming up to 30 gallons per day.  The thick, side branches block light from reaching the understory. It reduces soil microbial activity by robbing  the soil of nutrients.   Native plants cannot grow under these conditions. Here in Decatur County Eastern red cedar was first planted in cemeteries.  Seeds  dispersed by cedar waxwings, robins and woodpeckers soon spread aggressive invasive throughout the county and it soon covered unmanaged prairies and woodlands.   The sprouts are easily controlled by frequent fire, but mature trees must be cut and burned.

What is not universally accepted is that a cedar choked prairie can recover following tree removal and prescribed fire.   It is assumed that no native plants will  be left under stands of mature Eastern red cedar. That, once the trees have been removed, the only way to restore the habitat is to seed native plants.

Felled Eastern Red Cedar

At the time of purchase our West Creek unit had several dense stands of Eastern red cedar interspersed with prairie openings.  We initiated control with two annual prescribed fires.  Fire reduced the lower branches of the trees and  weakened the roots making them easier to remove.  We cut down the trees in winter, 2006.  The following midsummer the felled trees were surrounded by warm season grasses.  With so many highly combustible dead trees we chose to burn them in early August when the surrounding green plants would make the fire easy to control.

Burning Eastern Red Cedar

Although we did no seeding in just four years a diverse prairie has replaced the dense stands of eastern red cedar.  One site, a north facing hillside now has sixteen butterfly milkweeds growing under the eastern red cedar skeletons.  Mountain mint, blazing star and many other native prairie plants have also become well established.   Not only has the prairie been restored but the newly released plants provide plentiful nectar for the fritillaries, hairstreaks and  butterflies that are constant visitors to the restored prairie.

Butterfly Milkweed under Eastern red cedar skeleton

Timberhill Plants: Moehringia (Arenaria) lateriflora, (Grove Sandwort)

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Grove Sandwort, Moehringia lateriflora

I was walking through one of our prairie remnants when I first spotted the small white flowers of Grove sandwort.  Atop a slender peduncle that extends laterally from the main stem these easily overlooked flowers were barely 1/4 inch wide.  But it was spring before most of the other  forbs were in bloom. The tail end of the morel mushroom season, I was heading for a dying elm that had produced abundant fruiting that season.    I paused to take a closer look at this plant.  A small perennial forb,  Moehringia lateriflora (Grove sandwort)  is a member of the pink family.  The specific epithet lateriflora means “flowering on the side” referring to the habit of the flowers which bloom beside the main stem.  A many branched plant with  elliptically shaped one inch long leaves Grove sandwort seldom grows over 8 inches tall.  The Iowa Floristic Quality Database of coefficients of  conservatism assigns it a 10, indicating that it has very strong fidelity to a specific habitat.

Grove Sandwort blossom

In Iowa, according to Eilers and Roosa, Vascular Plants of Iowa, it occurs frequently in the Paleozoic Plateau and the Iowan surface of northeast Iowa. and is infrequent in southeast Iowa.  In Missouri it is known only from six northeastern counties.  According to Julian Steyermark’s  Flora of Missouri, it “occurs mostly in acid soil of upland woodland of dissected oak-hickory-clad hills, crest of ravines, rarely in low woods.” Although it has never been documented to occur in south central Iowa it is also abundant in the Timberhill  West 40 and West Creek units.  Other plants growing in the same remnant prairie  include Wild onion, Sweet scented bedstraw, Partridge pea, Tick trefoil, Big blue stem grass, Sedge, Showy goldenrod, Purple prairie clover, Canadian milk vetch, Mountain mint, Bastard toad flax, New Jersey tea, Wild strawberry, Spiderwort, Pale beard tongue, Pale spiked lobelia, and  Spring larkspur.

Prairie before restoration

When we purchased the  prairie remnant where Grove sandwort is now abundant the land  was completely overgrown with Eastern red cedar and elm trees.  Before that it had been heavily grazed by sheep and cattle.  Yet this very conservative plant survived the neglect and was restored after management by thinning and prescribed fire.  Whenever we find a conservative plant such as this, outside of its recorded range, we are thankful we didn’t introduce any seeds or plants.  One can be very pleasantly surprised by what shows up on its own.

Surprising morels

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Cluster of yellow morels in Hickory Grove

Our neighbor, Doyle, introduced Bill and me to the annual spring rite of hunting for morels.  He has been harvesting these delectable fungi since childhood and is a true expert.  Our first year at the farm we followed Doyle through the riparian woodland along Brush Creek. Instead of looking down at the ground, he looked up at the leaves of silver maple trees. They were just large enough that one could make out their distinct shape. Satisfied that the maple leaves indicated it was time, he walked slowly around the base of a silver maple looking for the first morels of the season.  Pushing aside the leaves with a stick he showed us the clusters of small gray morels. Thanks to Doyle,  Bill and I eventually learned to find these early morels and the later fruiting yellow ones ourselves.

In southern Iowa morels begin fruiting in mid to late April.  Depending on the weather the season lasts from two to four weeks.  Since they tend to fruit in the same locations each year we counted on harvesting them under the silver maple, elm and hackberry trees along Brush Creek every year.  However, one cold wet spring we couldn’t find a single specimen and had to search for them elsewhere.

That was the  year we learned that morels can be a delicious side benefit of timber stand improvement and annual prescribed fire. Our West 40 unit was heavily overstocked with elm and Eastern red cedar when we purchased it in 2001. After thinning and annual prescribed burns I was not surprised to find abundant fruiting of morels around some of the elm stumps.  Morels are often associated with elms for three years after the trees die. Some stumps produced over fifty morels the first year.   What has surprised me is that morels have continued to fruit in the West 40 every year since.  Our most reliable site is a prairie remnant where the earliest morels of the season fruit among the hoary puccoon and wood betony.  They aren’t as plentiful as they were seven years ago, but we usually harvest what Doyle calls, “a good mess”.

2011 was a particularly sparse morel season in south central Iowa.  Morel hunters complained that there was no fruiting in any of their usual spots.  They complained that morels could only be found in sites where they had never fruited before.  That was certainly true at Timberhill.  This year the most abundant fruiting was in the Hickory Grove where we’ve never found any morels. The only trees in this woodland are shagbark hickory and young oak sprouts yet we harvested five pounds of morels there this season. Even before thinning there were no elms in this woodland.   Heavy fruiting of black morels is common one  year after forest fires in the western states and one wonders if prescribed fire at Timberhill also stimulates fruiting of grey and yellow morels  in Iowa.