[PCA] NEWS: Helping to re-plant the prairie

[Marianne Edain]

	One of the biggest problems we have in restoration work is in 
defining the term "restoration." The first question, of course, is: 
"restore to what?" We talk about reference sites and reference native 
plant communities, and that restoration implies bringing a site back 
to what it once was. So first you need to know what it once was - 
which begs the question of when it was.

	Here in the Pacific Northwest, as in other parts of the 
country, when white folks arrived, they put a stop to the native 
practice of burning the prairies. The obvious result was that first 
shrubs and then trees took over areas which had been kept in prairie 
for thousands of years. Early in the 20th century our particular area 
was logged, leaving a very few patches of remnant old growth Douglas 
fir forest. Much of the historical Doug fir forest grew back. There 
is a distinctive difference between historical Douglas fir forest and 
forest which grew on prairie soils after burning was stopped. After 
the great clearing of the 1880s - 1920s, many former forests were 
converted to farm land, brush fields, or developed uses.

	So, when we talk about restoring a site with prairie soils 
which grew up in Doug fir forest but is now pretty solid weedy exotic 
grasses, to what are we restoring it? We could plant a few thousand 
Doug firs and create another tree farm, or we could slowly and 
laboriously deal with the soil seed bank of all those exotic grasses 
and bring back the native prairie bunch grasses and the spectacular 
camas fields.

	In fact, that's what we and some wonderful people are doing 
on a 150 acre parcel which is the last restorable piece of Northern 
Puget Trough Glacial Outwash Prairie. It is long, hard, slow, 
laborious work, and it doesn't pay - except in wild excitement at 
discovery of yet another small patch of Brodiea howellii, returning 
Festuca roemeri in areas where the shrubs have been burned (and 
occasionally herbicided) out, and the spectacular spring displays 
which grow year after year as more of the shrubs are removed and the 
natives find themselves more and more welcome.

	Even then, how can we be sure that what we are creating is 
similar to what was here before the plow? We may know generally what 
species were present, but can we know their relative abundance? We 
know, for instance, that the native people ate camas as a staple, and 
that death camas (Zygadenus venenosus) bulbs look very similar in 
mid-late summer after the stalks have dried, when the bulbs are dug. 
We also know that, in order to avoid poisoning, the native people 
systematically removed the death camas from areas where they 
harvested regularly. And yet our site has a good deal of death camas. 
Should we be removing it, as the native people did? To what extent 
did their harvesting, with digging sticks, break up the soil and 
provide the substrate for other prairie species? Should we be using 
digging sticks out there? Should we be harvesting some of the camas 
and other native food plants out there? How many of them?

	So many questions in restoration, and so little patience from 
the people who own the land and pay the bills. Its so easy to go to 
the Conservation District nursery and order  bundles of trees, and 
accept all that praise from people who mean well but do not 
understand the science.

	So how do we bring these questions of reference sites and 
target communities into public consciousness and public discussion?

					Marianne Edain


>I find this article relatively disheartening.  Of 130 acres he only planted
>19 in prairie and the rest with "prairie trees" of Red Oak, Walnut, and
>White Pine - that he hopes his grandkids will be able to harvest some day.
>Sounds more like a tree farm than prairie restoration, especially since
>these are certainly not Midwest prairie tree species!
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Emily Lubcke
>Greenspace & Lake Manager
>Galena Territory Association
>2000 Territory Drive
>Galena, IL 61036
>815/ 777-2000 x24
>815/ 777-9194 (Fax)
>www.thegalenaterritory.com

-- 
Marianne Edain
Frosty Hollow Ecological Restoration
Box 53    Langley, Wa    98260
360-579-2332
wean at whidbey.net
Helping Nature Heal