{"id":3254,"date":"2023-12-19T19:52:02","date_gmt":"2023-12-19T19:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mbgecologicalrestoration.wordpress.com\/?p=3254"},"modified":"2023-12-19T19:52:02","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T19:52:02","slug":"land-abandonment-succession-and-restoration-the-wolf-run-grassland-restoration-project-at-the-missouri-botanical-gardens-shaw-nature-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nher.blog\/index.php\/land-abandonment-succession-and-restoration-the-wolf-run-grassland-restoration-project-at-the-missouri-botanical-gardens-shaw-nature-reserve\/","title":{"rendered":"Land Abandonment, Succession, and Restoration: The Wolf Run Grassland Restoration Project at the Missouri Botanical Garden\u2019s Shaw Nature Reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Mike Saxton and Calvin Maginel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Saxton (mike.saxton@mobot.org<\/a>) is the Manager of Restoration and Land Stewardship, and Calvin Maginel (cmaginel@mobot.org<\/a>) is the Ecological Resource Scientist at Shaw Nature Reserve<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 1950, over 1-billon acres of agricultural land have been abandoned worldwide. In certain landscape contexts, unassisted spontaneous recovery of high levels of native biodiversity in abandoned fields is possible while in others, like the Midwest USA, fallow fields rarely develop into biologically rich habitats. To achieve the ambitious goals of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration<\/a>, land managers and ecologists need to better understand how to assist the regeneration and ecological restoration of these highly altered landscapes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1925, the Missouri Botanical Garden purchased 1,300 acres of battered farm ground in Gray Summit, MO \u2013 approximately 35 miles (56 km) west of St. Louis \u2013 to escape the deleterious impact urban air pollution was having on horticultural collections in St. Louis City. The intended uses of this acreage were to: (1) propagate and grow plants, trees, and shrubs for the main Garden\u2019s displays and (2) establish an arboretum focusing on woody plant collections. The site was officially named the Shaw Arboretum in 1933. After decades of development, many non-essential operations at the Arboretum were eliminated in 1958 and many fields were abandoned to allow spontaneous successional change. In 2000, the Shaw Arboretum was renamed Shaw Nature Reserve to reflect its contemporary mission to demonstrate, test, and inspire responsible stewardship practices through education, restoration, and protection of natural habitats and public enjoyment of the natural world. Today the Nature Reserve consists of 2,400 acres of varied habitat in various stages of restoration and revised management, including the use of prescribed fire.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to European settlement, the natural plant communities and ecosystems of the area were fire adapted, open oak-hickory woodlands and xeric glades with gallery forests along riparian corridors. Post-settlement, woodlands were clear-cut with some woodlots left to passively regenerate while others were converted to row crop agriculture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Run Grassland Restoration <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, Nature Reserve staff set an ambitious goal to bring all 2,400 acres of the site into active management to promote native biodiversity by the year 2030. This effort will include restoring open pastures and former row crop fields, a relatively simple process. A much more challenging effort will be reclaiming 120 acres of old fields with 60+ year successional development, which is our current Wolf Run Grassland Restoration project. The 120 acre project area was initially \u201cwasted farm ground\u201d that had erosion gullies \u201cwhere a freight train could pass without you seeing it\u201d, according to August Beilmann, former Arboretum Director from 1941 to 1956. The entire project area was re-sculpted and smoothed by a bulldozer in 1953 and then converted to bluegrass (Poa pratensis<\/em><\/a>). \u201cEvery piece of this land that looks so likely to be just right was laboriously rebuilt,\u201d said Beilmann in a 1974 interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Wolf Run Grassland Restoration project area in ca. 1945 showing open fields (light green) maintained through cattle grazing and mowing with trees occupying wet-weather streams and ditches (dark green). Photo: MBG Archives<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since 1958 when areas including the Wolf Run Grassland Restoration were removed from mowing and grazing, the site was encroached upon and became dominated by eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana<\/em><\/a>), the non-native invasive shrubs Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii<\/em><\/a>), and border privet (Ligustrum obtusifolium<\/em><\/a>), as well as slippery elm (Ulmus rubra<\/em><\/a>), shingle oak (Quercus imbricaria<\/em><\/a>) and ash (Fraxinus<\/em><\/a>) species, the latter of which which are in severe decline due to the emerald ash borer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These degraded woodlands had little native ground flora and were highly infested with non-native shrubs. Tree abundance and species composition had no historic analog. When setting ecological restoration goals for the area, staff determined that much of the site could not be managed as an open oak-hickory woodland, which would have existed at the site pre-settlement.  A new vision was needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goals for the Wolf Run Grassland Restoration project<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n