Current and Past LIP Projects
Green County

2010: Enhancement of Green County Prairies and Savannas

Project Goal and Site Description:
The project goal is to enhance and restore native prairie and oak savanna and enhance the conditions for our endangered and rare birds as well as the diversity of native plants and animals.

The land is currently being managed for prairie and oak savanna type vegetation. This site features one outstanding remnant prairie, and another moderate quality to which we have added many seeds over the years. LIP work will focus on restoration in the remnant oak savanna areas. Funded activities include: Cut and treat invasive brush including honeysuckle, multiflora rose, prickly ash, and brambles such as raspberry bushes, controlling burdock, and selective spraying of garlic mustard, pulling and/or mowing sweet clover.

Landowner has been working on this restoration for 15-20 years, removing invasive and undesirable species, burning, and seeding, and working with USFWS and NRCS since 2003. They have been members for many years of The Prairie Enthusiasts and at least once they sent out a crew to do a large burn. Gathering Waters Conservancy and Blue Mounds Area Project have provided advice and counsel. Family and friends have helped out over the years immeasurably as we continued to make progress on our efforts in restoration and maintenance.

The farm was homesteaded in 1854, and maintains many early structures including the 1860's stone house and barn, and a 1850's cabin preserved from a nearby homestead. Two highland cattle and 2 mules graze the property.

2010: Prairie and oak savanna habitat restoration and invasive control

Project Goal and Site Description:
Increase quality of oak savanna habitat to improve habitat for birds by clearing invasive brush and seeding degraded understory with native grass/forb seeds.

This site has an oak savanna that was recently cleared of bitternut hickory and brush. One slope below the savanna the site also has a small south facing remnant prairie that has likely never been plowed. Project threats within the savanna are re-emergence of invasives including prickly ash, honeysuckle, yellow-bud and multi-flora rose.

Restoration of this property was initiated with support from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. A wetland restoration project was completed in the fall 2009. The project included creating a shallow scrape and breaking tiles. Landowner is applying to enroll this acreage in the Wetland Reserve Program.

2010: Four Oaks Remnant Prairie and Savanna Enhancement

Project Goal and Site Description:
Enhance and tie together the remnant prairie and savanna areas thereby providing more habitat for at-risk species. Re-connect the remnant areas with the grasslands (CRP prairie) currently fragmented by trees and brush to provide over 95 contiguous acres of diverse grassland habitat.

The 172-acre property is a retired farm now managed for wildlife, conservation, and recreation. 95 acres have been converted to CRP prairie, most of which is contiguous. Honeysuckle, buckthorn, multiflora rose, elm, cherry, box elder and other trees and shrubs have been cleared from approx 24 acres of overgrown oak savanna and remnant prairie, revealing previously unseen species. Invasive herbaceous species, such as Garlic Mustard, Hedge Parsley, thistle, Poison Hemlock, Sweet Clover and Burdock, are actively controlled. The project site is largely a moderately steep ridge of degraded oak savanna and remnant dry to dry-mesic prairie that snakes it way in all directions across the project area. A limited amount of clearing done by the landowner during 2008 resulted in a dramatic, positive native species response. Aerial photographs from 1956 show an open hillside with a few scattered trees that are presumably the bur and white oak trees still present today. The primary LIP goal is to reintroduce fire to the area. Fire followed by herbiciding resprouts will be used to reduce invasive brush in areas with fire fuel present. The landowners are committed to a long-term effort in terms of personal labor and expenditure of money in order to maintain and expand the gains that have been achieved so far. A portion of the project area is visible from the school and provides an excellent educational opportunity on ecological restoration.

A neighbor adjacent to the southwest corner of the property is actively controlling invasive species in his 5 acre oak woodland and frequently assists the applicant with invasive species control and Rx burns. The landowners regularly enlist neighbors and friends to help with these activities and have been rewarded with increased interest and positive, dramatic changes to the land.

2009: Remnant Oak Savanna and Prairie Enhancement (York Township, Green County)

Project Goal and Site Description:
This project will reduce invasive species and brush abundance to improve habitat quality for at-risk grassland and savanna birds and plants and to promote oak regeneration. A secondary goal is to provide public education on restoration and management methods and at risk flora and fauna.

The 21-acres are a mixture of remnant oak savanna (11 acres), remnant dry-mesic prairie (3 acres) and cool season grass pasture (4 acres) that has been idle for more than 30 years. An additional 3 acres are 30-year-old white pine plantings located along old erosion gullies. The cool season grasses are short and sparse because of the thin, dry soil, which has allowed numerous prairie species to survive. The conifers are 15 to 25 feet tall.

Invasive species control, brushing and limited burning, initiated in 2004, have revealed American gromwell (special concern), pasque flower, numerous shooting star, Illinois tick trefoil, the uncommon plains muhly grass (Muhlenbergia cuspidata) and many other native plant species. Unfortunately, invasive species, such as crown vetch, garlic mustard, hedge parsley, wild parsnip, and knapweed, and dense shrub cover (primarily prickly ash and honeysuckle) in some areas puts the native species at risk.

York Township

Project and Site Description:
The goal of this project is to reduce invasive species and brush abundance in 44 acres of grassland and oak savanna to improve habitat quality for at-risk grassland and savanna birds and plants.

The site has 2 threatened species, Henslow's sparrow and yellow giant hyssop, and 11 bird and 2 plant species that are Wisconsin special concern. The nearby presence of York Prairie State Natural Area significantly increases the ecological value of this property, and visa versa, because of the similarity of habitats. Oak savanna restoration has been ongoing since 2002, including removal of undesirable trees and shrubs, prescribed burns, invasive species control and overseeding. The gromwell and yellow giant hyssop spontaneously appeared in 2005 following brush clearing and burning. The prairie restoration has been very successful and is used by grassland birds, invertebrates, and other wildlife. The prairie remnant has pasque flower, prairie smoke, lead plant, prairie dropseed, flowering spurge, toadflax, spiderwort, and many other species, including the uncommon plains muhly grass and Wisconsin special concern lance-leaf tickseed. Five acres of crown vetch was planted 15 years ago to control soil erosion in the area that is now restored prairie. It eventually spread throughout the project area, to one degree or another. While much of it was eliminated during site preparation for the prairie planting and since then by annual spot spraying in the other areas of the site, it still occurs in scattered locations, threatening the site's ecological quality. The landowner has been funding restoration and management work out-of-pocket, except for some 2006 DNR funding for hedge parsley control. Award of this grant will facilitate additional work and help speed the restoration process. The landowner is exploring permanent easement options for the property so that it will remain in a natural state.

Windmill Ridge Prairie/Savanna Remnant Restoration

Project and Site Description:
This privately owned 59 acre parcel of farmland in the driftless area, zoned agricultural contains 23 acres of remnant dry-mesic prairie and 2+ acres of open wood/savanna. No farming activities in the shallow sloping soils of the prairie have been identified on historical FSA aerial maps. The prairie consisting largely of north, south, and west facing slopes (10-20 %) is extensively covered by prairie species (see attachment).

Woody invasives consisting largely of honeysuckle shrubs, hawthorn, red cedars, prickly ash, and apple trees are rapidly expanding in the prairie. This has created a discontinuous prairie especially due to the severe overgrowth of woody invasives in the 'waterways' present with little to absent ground vegetation. Scattered trees and shrubs in the open prairie are of sufficient size to limit shade intolerant native species. Hopefully, the native seed bank can help repopulate these areas once cleared. Such an area cleared this spring has been noted to have a new population of Hill thistle. Not only competitive loss of the native plants in small populations is at risk, but present habitat does not favor prairie animals biodiversity. Current funding is inadequate to address all of these issues of restoration (reseeding, prescribed burning, invasive/regrowth control and removal) in a timely manner. Work will follow up on brush removal & prescribed burns of open prairie facilitated by The Nature Conservancy and USFWS.