DNR Grasslands - Phase XI
We restored and enhanced 48,341 acres with 521 projects on Wildlife Management Areas, Scientific and Natural Areas, and Native Prairie Bank Easements.
We select projects using a number of criteria and reviews to make sure the DNR were spending these funds in the best and most productive ways. We can summarize our results in the following table.
Brush removal 3
Interseeding 1,786
Invasives control 437
Prescribed fire 33,876
Prescribed browsing (goats) 137
Woody removal 10,296
Grassland restoration 1,690
TOTAL ACRES 48,431
Originally, this appropriation covered the northwest Roving Crew and added a new, fifth, Roving Crew in west-central Minnesota. The language also included two years of funding for the USFWS's Prescribed Fire program. This was our largest grassland request to date and also the appropriation most affected by Covid. We were unable to hire the west-central Roving Crew in a timely fashion due to state hiring freezes. At the same time, the USFWS received IRA funding and returned their second year of funding. While the DNR was able to put most of these dollars to good use, the acre to dollar ratio for fire is usually much higher compared to hiring contractors for tree removal or similar other enhancements. To use up some of the unspent Roving Crew funds, we moved southeast and southwest Roving Crews to this appropriation for one year. While all of this was happening, we were also trying to transition all the Roving Crews to the stand-alone appropriations.
Given those issues, we did not reach our anticipated acreage accomplishment. That said, we still managed to enhance 48,431 acres of grassland. Put another way, that's 75.7 square miles of grassland enhancement, or a strip of habitat 0.3 miles wide stretching from Moorhead to St Paul.
The Roving Crews allow the DNR to be very flexible. While they have a list of projects to work on, they can also respond fairly quickly if there's an enhancement opportunity shows up. The DNR and partners continue to host field days each summer to learn about management practices such as prescribed fire, conservation grazing, etc. Finally we were also able to continue experimenting with goat browsing in the SE to control buckthorn. SNA staff will monitor these sites over the coming years. This may provide a way to reduce chemical use and integrate some new and emerging agricultural practices, goats, into habitat management for the benefit of wildlife and the agricultural economy.
The DNR has traditionally focused on game species. However, there is increasing interest in pollinators and biodiversity. Fortunately, just about every study out there shows that management and restoration for pollinators and songbirds often creates the best habitat for game species. These projects can also increase the amount of carbon absorbed and stored by the plants and soils on these sites. All of these projects, directly or indirectly, fit within the state's Climate Action Framework and other climate related activities.
In our budget table, we prorated our budget for individual projects by the acres accomplished.
$8,861,000 the first year is to the commissioner of natural resources to accelerate restoration and enhancement of prairies, grasslands, and savannas in wildlife management areas, in scientific and natural areas, in aquatic management areas, on lands in the native prairie bank, in bluff prairies on state forest land in southeastern Minnesota, and in waterfowl production areas and refuge lands of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. A list of proposed land restorations and enhancements must be provided as part of the required accomplishment plan.
Prairie habitats once covered one-third of the state but presently less than 2% remain. Native prairie, other grasslands that provides habitat for wildlife, and wetlands are key components of functional prairie landscapes that have the capacity to adapt to changing environmental conditions. None of this work was targeted at a specific species of wildlife. We used that approach that diverse productive habitats benefit a wide variety of both game and non-game wildlife species as well as any threatened or endangered species. In our restorations, we use very diverse seed mixes. This is obviously beneficial for pollinators. However, all those insects also create a food base for a large number of wildlife species. The structural diversity all those plant species create in the habitat allow every species to find an ideal niche in the grass as well as accommodates different life history stages of wildlife.