Native flora ....................................... 10
	Significant plants ................................. 11
	Vegetation sampling ................................ 13
	Exotic species ..................................... 16

	Denison Prairie .................................... 33
	Drovers Prairie	.................................... 38
	Friendly Prairie ................................... 44
	Gayfeather Prairie ................................. 48
	Golden Prairie ..................................... 54
	LaPetite Gemme Prairie ............................. 59
	Penn-Sylvania Prairie .............................. 64
	Schwartz Prairie ................................... 70
	Stilwell Prairie ................................... 76

SUMMARY

Floristic assessments and exotic weed inventories were conducted on all Missouri Prairie Foundation Lands in 1997 and 1998. These results were combined with preliminary vegetation sampling and data from various sources to compile general ecological profiles of MPF sites, with general management recommendations and evaluations of exotic species problems.

MPF prairies occur in an unusual pattern on the landscape, largely concentrated along the interface between the Osage Plains and Ozark ecoregions. These lands encompass a good representation of Missouri's unglaciated prairie diversity, ranging from deep soil chert prairies to rocky prairies on shallow soils over both carbonate and silicious bedrock. All MPF properties have sufficient native diversity and conservatism to be regarded as potential natural areas (in the ecological rather than administrative sense). Native floristic diversity ranges from 220 to 337 species per site, with floristic quality indices ranging from 54 to 73. Native diversity is not explicitly correlated with site size, but rather more closely linked with habitat diversity and previous land use history.

A total of 563 native plant taxa were documented from all MPF sites. This represents about 28% of the total native flora of Missouri. The physiognomic profile of the flora closely approximates that for prairie vegetation throughout the Midwestern tallgrass region, with nearly 80% of the flora consisting of perennial species. Eleven plant species of conservation concern occur on MPF lands, including five taxa discovered during this study.

Weeds are present on all MPF lands, with 92 exotic weeds documented during this study. Individual sites had as few as 35 exotic taxa (Gayfeather and Penn-Sylvania prairies) to as many as 57 exotics (Stilwell prairie). An analysis of the weed flora of MPF sites reveals that the vast majority of weeds pose little threat to the integrity of intact, properly managed prairies -- encroachment from native woody vegetation is far more of a threat to MPF prairies today. A small group of exotics, notably five highly aggressive species, is potentially problematic and could preempt restoration or rehabilitative management in degraded sites. These taxa should be the focus of MPF control measures. One of these species, Sericea Lespedeza, is highly aggressive and may have the potential to invade intact prairie vegetation.

Government Land Survey data document that, with the exception of Gayfeather Prairie, virtually all MPF lands were tallgrass prairies immediately prior to European settlement. These prairies were embedded in landscapes with varying degrees and patterns of timber. Gayfeather prairie was once a complex of intercalated timbers and prairies, and much of the present prairie land was probably an open timber. This relationship is reflected by the unique composition of the site vegetation today, including a number of woodland-associated species not found on other MPF lands.

Management recommendations are provided for each MPF site, along with a general discussion of conservation and management issues. Appendices provide detailed information on the flora, vegetation, and exotic species for each site.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Sincere thanks to the Missouri Prairie Foundation folks who facilitated our work, assisted us in the field, and shared their knowledge throughout this study. These include Amy and Rex Hamilton, Warren Lammert, George Nichols, Lowell Pugh and especially Stan Parrish and Richard Datema. Numerous other people helped with various aspects of this study, including Kristen Austin, Carol Davit, Susanne Greenlee, Blane Heumann, Tim Nigh, Ron Oesch, Mike Skinner, John Sommerhof, Catherine Werner, and George Yatskievych. Thanks also go to Roger Still, The Nature Conservancy's Missouri State Director, and his predecessor, Rob McKim, for realizing the importance of prairie conservation and the value of vegetational information in increasing our effectiveness in managing prairie systems.

INTRODUCTION

The Missouri Prairie Foundation (MPF) owns nine prairies totalling 1,570 acres. These prairies, ranging in size from 37 to 376 acres, are located in the southwestern quarter of Missouri. In order to develop ecological and management information related to site vegetation, in May 1997 the Foundation and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) initiated a project with these objectives:

1. Compile baseline floristic inventories for each MPF prairie, with discussions of any special vegetation elements and endangered plant species.

2. Develop floristic quality indices, physiognomic profiles, and diversity rankings for the vegetation of each site.

3. Document the exotic plants at each site, with evaluation of potential problems, management recommendations, and an overall assessment of exotic plants on MPF lands.

4. Provide general descriptive assessments of each site, with site design and management recommendations.

This report is the product of the MPF/TNC agreement, and reflects field work conducted during the 1997 and 1998 growing seasons. In addition to the above objectives, this report includes an evaluation of the presettlement vegetation and original landscape context of each MPF prairie, descriptions of the current condition of adjacent lands, and preliminary quantitative vegetation sampling data. There is a general synopsis of ecological and management issues, as well as detailed profiles and recommendations for each site. These results can be used to direct management planning and conservation strategies, target priority research and monitoring needs, and provide a baseline reference against which to assess future changes.

Synopsis of MPF prairies

To understand the context and significance of MPF lands, it is helpful to evaluate these prairies from an ecoregional perspective. Ecoregions are large areas within which are broad commonalities among the physical environments, process regimes, and biota. The Nature Conservancy (1997) classifies the United States into 63 ecoregions, of which portions of four occur within Missouri:

1. Central Tallgrass (glaciated plains of the northern half of Missouri)

2. Mississippi River Alluvial Plain (lowlands of extreme southeastern Missouri)

3. Ozarks (dissected upland region of southern Missouri)

4. Osage Plains/Flint Hills (unglaciated plains of southwestern Missouri)

In presettlement times tallgrass prairies occurred in Missouri in each of these ecoregions, but only the Osage Plains/Flint Hills and Central Tallgrass ecoregions were characterized by largely prairie landscapes. All MPF lands occur in the Osage Plains/Flint Hills or the Ozarks ecoregions.

Prairies owned by MPF are shown in Figure 1 and summarized in Figure 2. These prairies occur in an interesting configuration associated with the transition between two major North American ecoregions. The two northernmost prairies, Drovers Prairie and Friendly Prairie, occur in a complex of deep-soil chert prairies on the upper Osage Plains. Schwartz, Penn-Sylvania, and Golden prairies occur directly along the transition zone between the Ozarks and Osage Plains/Flint Hills ecoregions. These prairies are characterized by a preponderance of acidic soils derived from sandstones and shales, sometimes with impermeable claypans in the shallow subsurface. La Petite Gemme Prairie is located well within the Ozark ecoregion, and consists of a complex of calcareous soils derived from carbonate bedrock, and acidic soils with an impermeable claypan in the shallow subsurface.

The other three MPF prairies are located in the lower portion of the Osage Plains/Flint Hills ecoregion. Two of these, Gayfeather and Denison Prairies, are on shallow acidic soils over sandstones and shales. Stilwell Prairie, the westernmost of the properties, consists of a complex of acidic and limestone-derived alkaline soils, and has some floristic elements characteristic of more western prairies.

Overall, MPF lands encompass a rich diversity of landscape, ecoregional, substrate, and habitat contexts. They provide a microcosm of the spectrum of diversity encompassed by the original unglaciated prairies of Missouri. The most conspicuous major prairie vegetation component missing from MPF holdings is wet prairie, which was a significant feature associated with major rivers in the Osage Plains.

METHODS

Flora and Vegetation

Each MPF prairie was visited a minimum of four times during the 1997 and 1998 growing seasons, with at least one visit each during spring, summer, and fall. All vascular species observed were recorded, and notes were made documenting site condition and exotic species presence. A few undetermined or problematic taxa were collected; these vouchers are deposited in the Missouri Botanical Garden Herbarium (MO) in St. Louis. During the 1998 summer visit at each site, a series of ten 0.25 M² square quadrats were sampled at randomized intervals along a line transect subjectively located in representative high quality dry-mesic prairie vegetation. Within each quadrat, all species present were assigned a cover-abundance value ranging from one to five (Ladd & Heumann 1994). Based on these data, frequency, cover, and a relative importance value based on frequency and cover (RIV₂₀₀) were calculated for every species sampled along each transect.

Since a goal of MPF is sustainable conservation of the full array of native prairie biota at each site, sheer abundance or diversity is not sufficient to assess site significance or evaluate management effects. Emphasis must be placed upon conserving arrays of plants obligately restricted to intact prairie environments, i.e. those most likely to be lost as a consequence of habitat degradation. These species, termed conservative species, are those least represented in the modern landscape, and, once lost from a system, are the least likely to become reestablished. A complete account of this concept and its application to natural area assessment and ecological monitoring is provided by Taft et al. (1997), and the application of the system in conservation work in Missouri is shown in Ladd & Heumann (1994, 1995).

Based on their observed performance in the Missouri landscape, each native species in the Missouri flora has been assigned a number indicating its relative degree of conservatism. These conservatism rankings, or C values, range from 0 for plants with no degree of fidelity to natural vegetation (such as Common Ragweed - Ambrosia artemisiifolia) to 10 for plants obligately associated with high quality natural areas⁽¹⁾, such as Mead's Milkweed (Asclepias meadii) and Prairie Turnip (Psoralea esculenta). Within this conceptual spectrum is a range of degrees of conservatism, which can be expressed by assigning values between 0 and 10, again based on the ecological performance of each species. Introduced, or exotic, species are by definition incapable of being conservative and are not assigned coefficients. C values for all species documented from MPF lands are provided in Appendix 1.

An inventory of the flora of an area can be used to derive a Floristic Quality Index (Taft et al. 1997), providing a relative measure of that site's overall natural potential and recoverability from a restoration perspective, given a suitable management regime. The floristic quality index derived from plot-based vegetation sampling provides a measure of the current condition of a site. Taken together, these two metrics provide a valuable tool for site assessment and measuring management success⁽²⁾.

Mapping and Original Vegetation

Site observations were combined with soil data, aerial photographs, topographic maps, and available literature to develop GIS-based current land cover maps for each MPF site and adjacent lands. The resulting maps included in this report are intended to provide a conceptual background for site-design and management planning. Often, assigning a land cover class to non-prairie land was difficult. For instance, at what point does a pasture become sufficiently overgrown and brushy to classify as woody vegetation? Similarly, formerly plowed lands planted with warm season grasses quickly lose the ecological attributes of crop fields but are still not prairie. Because of problems like these, mapping conventions for adjacent lands should be regarded as provisional, particularly with regard to the distinctions between cropland and pasture, with long-fallow crop areas sometimes mapped as pasture.

Presettlement vegetation data was determined by an analysis of Government Land Survey maps for the townships containing MPF lands, augmented in a few cases by analysis of the original land survey notes compiled by the surveyors. These plat maps and survey notes are archived in the land survey repository of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Division of Geology and Land Survey in Rolla.

Presettlement vegetation data are essential to developing an understanding of the modern landscape, and for planning site management and restoration activities. It should not be a goal to attempt to recreate a static condition from the past -- even if this were possible -- but rather to use the presettlement data as a tool to learn about the system. Presettlement vegetation data provide our only detailed window into a period when the systems were in some type of dynamic equilibrium, sustaining all the components of their biota. By studying the context of the presettlement landscape, we can gain insights into the configuration, and thus function and dynamism, of the systems we are attempting to sustain through time.

RESULTS

Native Flora

As shown in Appendix 1, a total of 563 native species have been documented from MPF lands. Additionally, 92 species of exotic weeds occur on MPF lands, amounting to 14% of the flora of all sites. For comparison, in Missouri as a whole, nearly 28% of the total flora consists of introduced species (Yatskievych 1999).

The total flora of the MPF sites constitutes an impressive diversity, representing some 28% of the total native vascular flora documented from Missouri. In an analysis of the 988 species of native vascular plants characteristic of Midwestern tallgrass prairies (Ladd 1997), more than 80% of the flora was perennial, with slightly more than half of the flora (52%) consisting of perennial forbs. The physiognomic profile of the aggregate flora of MPF sites is provided at the beginning of Appendix 1, and closely approximates the physiognomic profile of prairie flora for the entire Midwest. Approximately half (46%) of the MPF site flora consists of perennial forbs, and 77% of the flora is perennial.

Figure 3 provides a floristic summary for all MPF sites. More detailed floristic information is provided at the beginning of the individual accounts for each prairie, and in Appendix 1. Floristic diversity at each MPF prairie is relatively high, ranging from 220 to 337 native species per site. The Floristic Quality Index for each MPF site exceeds 50, the threshold value sometimes used to identify potential natural areas. The index value is not linear -- an increase of a few points indicates an exponential increase in diversity, or a highly significant increase in mean conservatism. The mean conservatism of the vegetation is fairly consistent among sites, ranging from 3.6 to 4.0. This indicates a reasonably diverse native vegetation component that has been influenced by post-settlement perturbations, and is far higher than the mean conservatism values for the vast majority of the Missouri landscape.

As shown in Figure 4, coefficients of similarity⁽³⁾ were calculated among the floras of each possible pair of MPF prairies to determine the degree of floristic resemblance. The coefficients of similarity for the vegetation at MPF sites were uniformly high and constrained within a narrow range from 0.62 to 0.75. Generally, values above 0.50 indicate high levels of floristic resemblance. These values suggest that prairie vegetation, despite occurring in a range of habitats, substrates, and ecoregional contexts, tends to have common floristic attributes. This would be expected for a formerly wide-ranging vegetation type influenced by a common set of climatic conditions and process regimes.

Significant Plants

Eleven noteworthy species of plants are documented from Missouri Prairie Foundation sites. These species, discussed individually below, are either listed by the Missouri Department of Conservation (1998), or are rare or of limited distribution in Missouri. Where available, the global rank (G rank) and state rank (S rank) are provided for species discussed below. These ranks, ranging from 1 to 5, were developed by The Nature Conservancy to categorize the relative degree of conservation concern from both global and statewide perspectives. Common and demonstrably secure taxa are ranked 5, while taxa in imminent danger of extirpation are ranked 1. Thus, dandelion would be G5S5, indicating that its continued survival as a species is demonstrably secure both globally and within Missouri. A species threatened with imminent global extirpation which also occurred in Missouri would be ranked G1S1, while a globally common species that was extremely rare in Missouri, such as the Xyris torta reported here, would be ranked G5S1. Generally, ranks numbered 3 and lower are considered to be of potential conservation significance.

Asclepias meadii [Mead's Milkweed] - G2S2; Federally Threatened. This milkweed, now rare throughout its range, was once widely distributed throughout the tallgrass prairie biome. Most of the world's remaining populations are in western Missouri and eastern Kansas. Recent research has indicated that many populations of this long-lived perennial are small, isolated, and not reproducing (Bowles et al. 1995). Although not seen during the course of this study, documented populations of Mead's Milkweed are known from Friendly, Gayfeather, and Stilwell prairies. Additionally, there is an unconfirmed report from La Petite Gemme Prairie. Management considerations for Mead's Milkweed should include protection from growing season haying, and regular dormant season fire.

Astragalus caryocarpus [Indian Pea, Ground Plum]. This low, purple-flowered vetch is known from several open to lightly shaded sites scattered in western Missouri, mostly in the counties bordering Kansas. It occurs on loess hill prairies and in prairies and open grassy woodlands associated with limestone. Missouri populations are at the southeastern edge of the range for this primarily Great Plains species. During this study, a single small population was discovered in an area of rocky, high quality prairie at Stilwell Prairie, associated with Lomatium foeniculaceum.

Calopogon oklahomensis [Prairie Grass Pink]. Missouri populations of Grass Pink Orchids have recently been divided into two separate species. The element in acidic uplands on prairies in the Osage Plains is now considered to be separate from the more eastern and northern element that occurs in the minerotrophic fens of the eastern Ozarks (Goldman 1995). A small population of C. oklahomensis, discovered by Stan Parrish, grows on a sandy slope at Schwartz Prairie.

Camassia angusta [Prairie Hyacinth] - G5?S3. This species has been confused with the common Wild Hyacinth (C. scilloides). Although identification of preserved specimens can be difficult, in the field the two are absolutely distinct in appearance, habitat, and flowering time. Camassia angusta is an obligate tallgrass prairie species. Missouri comprises a substantial portion of the plant's global range. The global rank is probably erroneous. Documented populations of the plant are known from Drovers, La Petite Gemme, and Penn-Sylvania prairies, and a previous report of C. scilloides from Gayfeather Prairie may also be referable to this species.

Geocarpon minimum [Little Geo; Tom Thumb] - G2S2; Federally Threatened. This diminutive vernal annual is restricted to glades on channel sandstones in southwestern portion of Missouri, and disjunct populations in Arkansas and Louisiana. Channel sandstones are unusual rocks of limited distribution; they formed in braided freshwater streams. A small population of Geocarpon occurs on a degraded sandstone glade at Schwartz Prairie.

Gerardia skinneriana (=Agalinis skinneriana) [Pale False Foxglove] - G3S3. This sporadically distributed, wide ranging species is known in Missouri from prairies in the southwestern part of the state and from a small area of dolomite glades in east-central Missouri. Populations are known from Gayfeather and La Petite Gemme prairies.

Lomatium foeniculaceum [Hairy Parsley]. This plant attains the eastern edge of its range in the western part of the tallgrass prairie, ranging east to extreme western Missouri. Although Steyermark (1963) maps it from numerous counties along the western border of Missouri and it is not considered to be of conservation concern by the Missouri Department of Conservation (1998), the authors have seen very few healthy populations in Missouri. During this study, a population was discovered at Stilwell Prairie, associated with Astragalus caryocarpus. The presence of two predominately western prairie taxa in a small area of this property is interesting, and raises the possibility that additional western floristic elements will reappear as site restoration progresses.

Rhynchospora harveyi [Harvey's Beak Rush] - G4S1. This diminutive sedge occurs on sandstone glades and on thin sandstone-derived soils in prairies at scattered locations on southern Missouri, mostly in the Osage Plains region. Missouri populations are at the northwestern edges of the range of this species. A population occurs at Schwartz Prairie, in thin sandy soils at the base of a gentle slope.

Rhynchospora macrostachya [Horned Beak Rush] - G4S1. Despite the erroneous records mapped in Steyermark (1963), this species is currently known in Missouri from only four sites: an historical collection from near Lamar in Barton County, Osage Prairie in Vernon County, a wet prairie at Tingler Lake in Howell County, and a population discovered during this study at Drovers Prairie in Pettis County. Here there is a large population along the shore and inflow of an old artificial pond. This is the northernmost population in the state.

Trifolium reflexum [Buffalo Clover]. Although not listed by the Department of Conservation (1998), this is a conservative species associated with high quality savanna woodlands and prairies. It has become far rarer in recent years. A small population occurs at Stilwell Prairie.

Xyris torta [Yellow-Eyed Grass] - G5S1. This is an unusual wetland plant of uncertain habitat affinities in Missouri. It was known from three sites in the state: a historical and presumably extirpated population in Lawrence County, Taberville Prairie in St. Clair County, and a fen in Ripley County. During this study, we discovered a large population in an old pond remnant at Gayfeather Prairie in Vernon County.

Vegetation Sampling

Results of the vegetation sampling are shown in Figure 5. The complete transect data summary and analysis is provided in Appendix 3. Just as with the site floras, there are compelling similarities among the vegetation of MPF sites. At each prairie, the mean per-plot conservatism, native diversity, and floristic quality index fall within a fairly constrained range. The total number of species encountered along the transect in all plots ranges from 40 at Denison Prairie, probably reflecting the lack of recent fire in the sample area, to a high of 60, inexplicably obtained at Friendly Prairie.

An interesting contradiction to the prevailing notion that prairies are dominated by grasses is provided by the data in Figure 5. In every case, the aggregate forb importance value well exceeds the aggregate grass importance value. This reinforces data from vegetation sampling in high quality prairies throughout Missouri. Although grasses are typically among the most visually prominent components of prairie vegetation, they are seldom the dominant physiognomic class from a cover or importance value perspective. Similarly, although grasses are visually dominant, the grass diversity on a prairie is invariably dwarfed by the forb diversity of the site.

This is not to say that grasses are a minor or insignificant part of prairies - these are after all grassland systems. Evidence of the prominence of grasses is provided by the fact that a grass has the highest importance value on all nine MPF prairies. On every prairie but Stilwell, Little Bluestem (Andropogon scoparius) has the highest importance value. Of the two transects sampled at Stilwell, one was dominated by Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) and the other by Gama Grass (Tripsacum dactyloides).

The species with the five highest importance values at each prairie comprise a varied mix of grasses, forbs, and two sedges, and comprise 24-36% of the total vegetational presence in the sample plots. In this and other respects, the structural and physiognomic commonalities among the vegetation of each MPF site is striking: just as with the floristic attributes, there are strong commonalities that largely transcend location, substrate, and, to an extent, previous land use history, provided that the native matrix is intact. Each prairie is unique and has a unique character and biological components, but at a coarser level, there is a fundamental "prairieness" that can be characterized and quantified across Missouri's unglaciated tallgrass communities.

Exotic Species

A fact of life in contemporary North America is the ubiquity of exotic biota. Virtually every acre of the landscape, particularly here in the Midwest, is influenced by organisms that were not components of the pre-European landscape. As an illustration, about one quarter of the vascular flora of Missouri consists of exotic species. Exotic plants and animals are superbly adapted to the conditions and process regimes associated with modern civilization, and have become accepted, unremarkable components of daily life. In some cases, they have become so inculcated into the ecosystem and public conception that they are deemed to be a part of the native environment. Thus, although honeybees, most terrestrial isopods, most earthworms, and most slugs are exotic species, they are popularly associated with a nonjudgmental concept of "nature".

An understanding of the impacts and role of exotic species in natural vegetation requires consideration of the historical antecedents of both our exotic species and our native landscape. Exotic species have been receiving increasing amounts of both popular and scientific attention, but an unfortunate ancillary consequence of this has been the branding of exotic species as the culprits responsible for many of the ailments afflicting natural areas. This approach trivializes the complexities of the situation and results in counterproductive management strategies that do not target core problems. As one eminent biologist has remarked, trying to sustain our natural areas by removing the weeds is like "trying to cure measles by cutting off the spots"!

Most of the invasive exotic plants afflicting our landscape have their origins in the beginnings of sedentary, agricultural societies in the Old World. From the first time someone scratched the soil to benefit a food or fiber plant, some of the local vegetation were better adapted to this type of disturbance. Over time these plants gradually evolved into our modern weed flora, becoming increasingly more disturbance tolerant even as agriculture, urbanization, and husbandry became more intensified and technologically advanced. This gradual co-evolution has resulted in a suite of species that are supremely adapted to the processes and conditions associated with our inhabitancy of an area.

The role of humans in shaping the vegetation of the New World was no less pervasive but vastly different. Human populations in midwestern North America were not primarily associated with sedentary agricultural societies, and until very recently domesticated few plants and animals. The environment supported a complex human culture largely dependent upon hunting, gathering, and a low level of transient, short-duration agricultural activities. Associated with this was an increasingly sophisticated interaction with, understanding of, and capability to influence the natural environment for human needs through a variety of mechanisms, notably fire.

For thousands of years the human history of earth experienced the parallel development in the Old and New worlds of these vastly different approaches to interacting with and shaping the landscape. The differing process regimes imposed in part by humans resulted in the development of biological associations - suites of plants and animals - adapted to different sets of conditions and disturbance dynamics.

All of this changed with the arrival of European people in North America. Even as this culture imposed its own disturbance dynamic on the landscape, altering patterns of process and site conditions that had prevailed for millennia, it brought along a plethora of plants and animals completely adapted to these circumstances. In biological time, the process dynamics of an entire continent were drastically shifted virtually overnight, often rendering a competitive advantage to the Old World species adapted to the new dynamic.

It is difficult to comprehend the magnitude or rapidity with which modern civilization has changed forever the biological fate of the continent. Few episodes in the more than four billion year history of life on earth have occurred with such rapidity or pervasiveness. Our native biota are still reeling from the dual onslaught of a suite of new players and altered process regimes and disturbance dynamics.

This essentially instantaneous, catastrophic perturbation has resulted in draconian alteration of and often loss of sustainability in our native biological systems, with accompanying species losses. In the space of some three centuries - an eyeblink on the evolutionary time scale - we have rended the gently rippling fabric of biological stability and shredded the integrity of our native landscapes. This rich, delicate tapestry has instead been in all too many places supplanted by the coarse, undifferentiated burlap of exotic species and our few native weeds.

Given this, a goal of conservation should be to identify and curate in some sustainable array those areas of the landscape that harbor irreplaceable constellations of diversity. These are sites that have continuity with their pre-European settlement incarnations in terms of biotic composition, site conditions, and process regimes. Such areas must be sustained by maintaining or emulating the dynamics of the system within the dynamic amplitude to which the system and its component organisms have become attuned through millennia of selection as interactive groups of species.

The establishment of exotic plants in conservation landscapes is more of a symptom of larger problems than an evil in and of itself. Once established, however, exotics can themselves cause increased system degradation and diversity loss. In virtually all cases in the Midwest, exotic species do not invade functional, synecologically intact native systems unless these systems or the process regimes to which they are attuned have undergone perturbations for which there are no presettlement antecedents. From the perspective of an organization such as the Missouri Prairie Foundation, conceptually addressing exotic species issues should take a two-pronged approach:

1. The presence of exotic weeds at a site should be regarded as symptomatic of more pervasive problems, and these problems should be identified and to the degree possible addressed. Factors favoring the establishment and increase of weeds over native vegetation include fragmentation, previous land use deleterious to native diversity, such as intensive grazing, spraying, or overseeding, hydrologic alterations, and passive nonmanagement in a fire- and nomadic herbivore-free landscape.

2. Direct exotic species reduction efforts should be implemented and designed to minimize impacts to native biota. These efforts are necessary to prevent established species from increasing and causing further system degradation, as well as to restore already degraded areas. Direct control of exotics alone, without addressing the issues that facilitated their initial establishment, will ultimately be unsuccessful.

Planning for exotic species issues should be integrated with overall site management planning designed to insure sustainable, functional, biologically rich native systems. Given the condition of the ambient landscape, and the configuration of MPF sites within that landscape, there will always be populations of aggressive exotic weeds nearby. A key management goal should be to design sustainable site configurations that insure physical site integrity and facilitate the maintenance or emulation of prevailing presettlement process regimes to which the native biota are attuned. By playing to the genetic memory of the native biota, which for thousands of years have become superbly adapted to the nuances and vagaries of a given site and its microenvironment, the competitive advantage will be with the native biota, precluding exotic establishment.

Exotic species are a reality, and it would be impossible to remove all exotic species from any MPF site. To that end, monitoring exotic weeds, while it may be necessary to assess the effectiveness of control measures, should not be used as an indicator of site quality or overall management success. Exotic species are a problem only to the extent to which they reduce site integrity or native richness. A more meaningful measure of exotic species impacts is through a direct assessment of the native biota.

Ninety-two species of exotic plants were documented from MPF lands during this study. This represents 14% of the total flora of the study sites. Exotic plants range from 35 to 57 species per site, although in terms of cover the vegetation at each site is overwhelmingly native. Many of the exotic species on MPF lands are restricted to recently disturbed areas, and pose no threat to the integrity of the native vegetation. As would be expected from a disturbance-adapted group of organisms, a large proportion (58%) are annuals or biennials, as contrasted with only 19% of the native flora being annuals or biennials. Appendix 1 provides the physiognomy of the plants comprising the weed flora of MPF lands.

To evaluate the implications and management issues associated with these weeds, a weed category ranking was developed. Each weed was given a ranking from 1 to 5, based on its observed performance in the landscape and its potential to become problematic once established in an area. Appendix 2 provides an annotated enumeration of all exotic plant species and their assigned weed class, according to the general categories summarized below

Class 1 Accidentals - uncommon, sporadically distributed taxa appearing here and there, usually in small numbers and generally not persistent, or, if persistent, incapable of proliferating on MPF lands. This category includes casual escapes from cultivation and some of the rarer and less offensive weeds.

Class 2 Obligate ruderals - invaders of newly exposed or perennially disturbed soils; not capable of persisting without continual recent ground disturbance. This category includes many of our cropland weeds.

Class 3 Potentially persistent ruderals - invaders of recently or severely disturbed ground that, once established, have the potential to proliferate, or preempt vegetation succession patterns and remain major components of the system. This category includes many widespread weeds that are not extremely aggressive, but can be stubbornly persistent once established.

Class 4 Weak to moderate grassland competitors - weeds capable of invading and becoming established in degraded or stressed tallgrass vegetation, or persisting and pre-empting native succession. Once established, these species can be difficult to control unless proper management, including fire, is maintained. This category includes many of the Old World pasture grasses and meadow weeds.

Class 5 Aggressive grassland invaders - aggressive exotics which, once established, are difficult to displace, and under favorable conditions can continue to spread in stressed native grasslands. These are the potentially most problematic exotic taxa on MPF sites, although it should be noted that many of our native woody species such as Rough-Leaved Dogwood (Cornus drummondii) and Winged Sumac (Rhus copallina) display similar ecological attributes in contemporary prairie systems.

Distribution of the 92 taxa of exotic plants documented from MPF sites among the five weed classes is shown in Figure 6. These data reveal that half of the weeds are class 1 or 2, meaning that they are accidentals or essentially restricted to newly disturbed sites, and pose little threat to the integrity of the remnant prairie vegetation. An additional 35% of the weed flora, categorized as class 3 weeds, consists of species that are not a threat to the integrity of remnant prairie vegetation, provided a proper management regime is maintained. These species may be difficult to eradicate from degraded prairie stands, and may thus pose problems for prairie restoration efforts, but do not pose an imminent threat to the survival of existing high quality remnants. The remaining 15 % of the weed flora are the species deserving of the most attention and eradication resources.

Each of the five class 5 weeds designated in this study is discussed individually below. These species are all problematically aggressive competitors which under favorable conditions are capable of displacing native vegetation. Two of these are woody species which will not invade systems that experience regular fire, but given the lack of fire in much of the modern landscape, and the fact that these taxa are well-established on several MPF sites and are capable of rapidly proliferating, they pose immediate threats to the survival of high quality prairie systems.

Class 5 weeds

Tall Fescue (Festuca elatior) is an aggressive, cool season grass that is invasive in open habitats. It spreads mostly by seeds and can form dense monocultures. Most spontaneous populations have an endophytic fungus that confers competitive advantages on the plant, possibly including allelopathy. Tall Fescue flourishes in severely degraded areas and is tolerant of overgrazing and other abusive land management. It is widely used as a pasture and hay grass throughout Missouri, and is ubiquitous in the contemporary landscape. Fescue thrives in disturbed prairies, or where light shade impedes the vigor of prairie plants, such as along fencerows.

Most control strategies for fescue in prairie systems are based on the cool season attributed of the plant. Repeated late spring burns are effective in reducing population, as are fall burns timed before the onset of a period of sustained subfreezing temperatures. A combination of burning and late season foliar application of 1-2% Roundup can achieve significant reduction of fescue populations in a single season. Although grazing is generally considered ineffective, the role of targeted high intensity, short duration grazing in early spring and late fall in mixed stands of fescue and remnant prairie vegetation need to be further tested. In some cases, a grass specific herbicide such as Fusilade 2000 may be effective in spot infestations where there are forbs present and proximal sources of warm season grasses to recolonize the site.

Dense stands of tall fescue can be treated in the spring with a mixture of 1.25% Roundup Ultra, 0.47% Plateau, 1.25% methylated seed oil, and 0.2% (by weight) ammonium sulfate applied at a rate of 20 gallons per acre. The mixture should be applied to recently burned fescue with 4-8 inches of regrowth. This mixture provides some residual control, and is somewhat friendly to warm season grasses (Hodges 1998).

One concern with Tall Fescue control in areas with remnant native vegetation is that a small but significant proportion of our native prairie grasses are cool season grasses. Determination of appropriate control measures should take into account the remnant native potential of the area being treated.

Sericea Lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata) is a deep-rooted warm season perennial capable of proliferating in degraded prairies, pastures, and open woodlands. Once established, this species may be capable of invading intact, high-quality prairies, although evidence of this is anecdotal and inconclusive. Once established, this plant can quickly form dense stands excluding other vegetation. It is a prolific seed producer and can develop an extensive soil seed bank. These seeds are capable of surviving for decades -- once account mentions a 60% germination rate in 55 year old seed! This is potentially the most serious exotic threat to MPF prairies.

Suggested control strategies for Sericea Lespedeza rely on various timings and types of herbicide treatments. Spraying with a 2% solution of triclopyr or 0.5% clopyralid in water has been reported to be effective if applied in the early growing stages (typically up to mid June) prior to branch formation. Effectiveness of these treatments appears to be enhanced by the addition of a 0.5% concentration of a non-ionic surfactant. Another treatment is spraying with a 2% solution of glyphosate from early summer to late August. A 1% Remedy solution applied when plants are 12-15 inches tall has also been used. Discussions of chemical controls and their effectiveness are included in Altom et al. (1992) and Yonce and Skroch (1989).

Dormant season burning has been reported to favor Sericea Lespedeza. However, Hamilton (1998) recently reported success in reducing Sericea Lespedeza with late growing season fires timed to coincide with flowering. Preliminary results indicate that these fires produce high rates of seedling mortality, decrease plant vigor, and produce significant mortality in adult plants.

Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) is a trailing or high-climbing woody vine capable of forming dense patches to the exclusion of most other vegetation. In Missouri prairies it generally infests thickets, woody fencerows, and draws. Because stems can root at the nodes, and branch roots can spread up to three meters laterally, established infestations can spread rapidly and be difficult to eradicate.

Multiple fires can be an effective control strategy, although single fires have limited effects, and ground layer fuels are often sparse in heavy infestations. Japanese Honeysuckle leaves are evergreen and contain flammable constituents. Although difficult start, once ignited they burn, intensely, producing a "jackpotting" effect that can effectively decimate above ground stems, but which also poses potential problems from long-glowing, convection-lofted firebrands.

Grazing and repeated low mowing have been variously described as successful and ineffective as control strategies, although our observations suggest that these treatments are usually ineffective in Missouri. Foliar application of Roundup or Crossbow in autumn is effective in controlling Japanese Honeysuckle, although timing is critical. Application should occur after most native vegetation is dormant, but before there is a several hour interval of temperatures below 25^o F. More detailed information is provided by Evans (1984) and Solecki (1997).

For MPF sites, the key to honeysuckle control is opening up dense infestations through a combination of fire and chemical treatments, and insuring that there is a source of native materials to recolonize the site, which may require seeding.

Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) is an aggressive thorny tree native just southwest of the Osage Plains. It has been widely planted for fencerows and windbreaks, and rapidly invades disturbed open or lightly shaded sites. It is a prolific seed producer, and can also spread by root sprouts. Cut stumps readily resprout.

Fire is an effective control method for smaller trees -- typically less than 8" DBH -- although sufficient fuel must be present to achieve cambial mortality. In most cases, heavy infestations require cutting and stump treating. Girdling is often ineffective because of frequently convoluted circumference makes complete severing of the phloem difficult. Immediate treatment of cut stumps with a 50% Garlon solution is effective (Glass 1992), but extreme care must be taken to protect adjacent ground. This treatment should not be used in areas immediately adjacent to high quality vegetation if rain is forecast in the next several days, because runoff will damage other vegetation.

Johnson Grass (Sorghum halapense) is a coarse, aggressive, perennial, warm-season bunchgrass. It is capable of invading and forming dense stands in fields and severely disturbed sites, and can spread rapidly, to the exclusion of other vegetation. It is generally not a problem in high quality prairies, but can be a major problem in prairie restoration work. It spreads by seeds and rhizomes, including small fragments of rhizomes. Soil disturbance in infested sites often results in a proliferation of Johnson Grass.

Fire management alone seems to be ineffective as a control strategy, although regular burning when there is a diverse mix of established prairie plants will reduce Johnson Grass infestations. Unfortunately, most Johnson Grass occurs in areas without a diverse component of prairie natives. Application of a 2% foliar spray of Roundup prior to see maturity, typically in June, will achieve significant reduction, but will impact all species in the area. Repeated treatments will probably be required. Repeated close mowing or repeated tilling are also effective control strategies, although by themselves will not result in complete eradication (Solecki 1997).

The potential of this plant to impede prairie recovery mandates that all infestations be spot treated rapidly to prevent their proliferation.

As stated in the methods section, vegetation sampling transects were located in representative areas of high quality, dry-mesic prairie vegetation. Except for attempting to locate the plots in high quality prairie vegetation, no attempts were made to exclude areas with exotic species from the sampling area. It is notable that, despite this, exotic species were an extremely minor component of the vegetation at all sites except Stilwell Prairie. This supports observations that exotic species problems on MPF lands are largely restricted to discrete areas of degraded prairie. The areas where exotic species populations tend to be high are in areas of degraded or nonexistent prairie vegetation, which leads to a "which came first" question. Did the exotics invade areas of previously degraded prairie, or did the infestation of exotics cause the degradation of the prairie vegetation?

The answer probably involves components of both scenarios, but all evidence to date indicates that most of the exotic species present on MPF lands are opportunists infesting areas where the diversity and integrity of the perennial component of the prairie vegetation have been impacted by past disturbances. Once established in these areas, some exotics are capable of precluding successional patterns of native vegetation, and in some cases of even expanding into less disturbed areas.

GENERAL MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

All MPF prairies are afflicted with threats to their sustainability and biological integrity. These threats are largely analogous to the stresses impacting all natural areas in the Midwest. In the case of the MPF lands, some of these stresses are exacerbated because of the small size of most MPF preserves and the highly fragmented, intensively utilized landscapes within which they are embedded. Virtually all of these stresses are direct or indirect results of the site impacts, exotic biota, and altered process regimes associated with the contemporary post-European-settlement society we have established throughout the continent. Exotic species issues have been discussed previously. The following section discusses some other considerations and recommendations for management of MPF prairies, grouped according to the following headings:

1. Woody vegetation

2. Rare species

3. Fire management

4. Other vegetation manipulation

5. Existing ponds

6. Ecological restoration

7. Site conservation planning/conservation goals

8. Monitoring/inventory/research

1. Woody Vegetation

Every Missouri prairie remnant today has problems with encroachment of woody vegetation. Most of the species comprising this vegetation are native, including Rough Dogwood (Cornus drummondii), Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana), Black Cherry (Prunus serotina), Winged Sumac (Rhus copallina), Smooth Sumac ((Rhus glabra), Poison Ivy (Rhus radicans), blackberries (Rubus spp.), Bristly Greenbriar (Smilax tamnoides hispida), Buckbrush (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus), Slippery Elm (Ulmus rubra), and Summer Grape (Vitis aestivalis). There are also some equally aggressive woody exotics, notably Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) and Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora).

These species typically become established in prairies under one of two conditions. Sometimes, previous severe disturbance results in a loss of vegetational diversity and integrity, and the woody plants become established from a nearby donor source. This scenario, when following an episode of catastrophic overgrazing, seems especially likely to lead to the establishment of populations of Osage Orange and other exotic species, as well as some of the native woody invaders.

The second scenario involves prairie vegetation that remains essentially intact, but has altered process regimes, such as in prairies with a long history of hay production and ongoing fire suppression. In such sites, although the prairie vegetation on the uplands remains high quality, altered process regimes disproportionately impact inaccessible, rocky, or wet sites that are not hayed. In these areas, such as along fencerows, the lack of regular fire or haying allows the establishment and flourishing of woody vegetation. Although most of these woody species are native, and undoubtedly existed through the prairie region, they now exploit the altered conditions, and proliferate at the direct expense of herbaceous prairie vegetation.

This has caused the loss of most of the mesic and moist prairie vegetation in upland systems, as small depressions once replete with a rich assemblage of mesic plant species become brush choked and barren in the ground layer. Today, invasion by native woody species is a more pressing threat to the integrity of MPF prairies than exotic species. Actually, exotics and invasive native woody species often impact prairies synergistically, compounding the impacts to the site.

A major share of MPF management resources should continue to be devoted to aggressive reduction of woody vegetation while minimizing impacts to site integrity or native biota. The presettlement vegetation analysis completed in this project for each MPF prairie should serve as a guide for directing woody removal efforts; those few areas of potential presettlement timbers should be treated more cautiously, with more reliance on fire and selective cutting. Other areas should be treated with the goal of reestablishment of prairie vegetation. The goal is not the eradication of all woody vegetation -- most of these taxa were components of the presettlement prairies, albeit in diffuse and discontinuous populations. Once invasive woody vegetation is removed and a prairie fuel matrix is reestablished, regular fire should be sufficient to insure site maintenance.

In most cases after cutting woody vegetation, it will be desirable to treat stumps with herbicides to prevent resprouting. In the past year, MPF has tried several different herbicide treatments, with varying results. Although it is beyond the scope of this project to delve into herbicide-specific management issues, the following should be kept in mind when developing control plans for woody or exotic species reduction:

-Most of the existing data on secondary lethality of herbicides from leaching, runoff, or root transport are developed using assays involving agricultural weeds. These plants are typically more stress tolerant than many prairie species; hence supporting documentation regarding benign secondary effects should be treated with skepticism. Additionally, given how little we know about the incredibly diverse and complex interrelationships among the prairie biota, particularly in the rhizosphere, herbicides with a short active phase are generally preferable. Although chemical treatment is a necessary evil in the contemporary environment, we need to be constantly vigilant against regarding their use as routine or benign.

-Little systematic information exists regarding use of herbicides in natural areas restoration. It is thus critical that accurate, disciplined information be kept for every herbicide application interval. This information need not be onerous, but should include the type of treatment, timing, dosage, concentration, application technique, exact area applied, weather (including weather and soil moisture notes), total quantity used, and any relevant comments. This will build a knowledge base that will advance restoration science, and allow correlation of any delayed effects with treatments. If herbicide types, dosages and treatment areas are not well documented, it severely limits the learning that can be derived from past work. Detailed information of this nature is important, because so many environmental variables affect success of chemical treatments. Accurate records are essential to determining why one treatment worked and the same treatment under seemingly similar circumstances was not as effective. We recommend that MPF establish a policy that all herbicide application be accompanied by a standard form documenting the relevant information, and that site monitors conduct post-treatment evaluations of application areas to observe collateral damage and success on target species.

Whenever chemical treatments are used, attempts should be made to minimize drift, leaching, runoff, and anything else that exposes native vegetation to herbicides. In some cases, particularly for exotic infestations or dense brush concentrations, foliar spraying may be needed, which will require precise control and absolute adherence to maximum windspeed guidelines. Where possible, dormant season spraying should be used in these cases, such as for fescue and honeysuckle.

2. Rare Species

As documented in this study, numerous rare plants occur on MPF prairies, as well as populations of some rare animal species. While management of MPF lands should never be geared to a single species, considerations of the ecological needs of priority species should be incorporated into management planning. Consideration should also be given to the rangewide conservation status of target species. Thus, although Prairie Chickens are of considerable conservation concern in Missouri, and an appropriate conservation target, they are currently secure elsewhere in the prairie biome and not as globally compromised as other species on MPF lands, such as Prairie Mole Crickets and Mead's Milkweed.

Natural areas (and parts of all MPF sites are natural area quality) should be holistically managed for system integrity, with the goal of conserving self-replicating arrays of all the native biota present. System integrity and sustainability should be the primary focus of all management actions, filtered, to the extent possible, by management considerations aimed at single species needs. Often, particularly for motile animals, it is preferable to provide certain habitat attributes on adjacent buffer lands or by agreement or incentive with neighboring private landowners. Specific examples of this would include agreements with adjacent producers to maintain certain lands in grazed grassland for prairie chickens, or payments to leave specific levels of crop residue for prairie chicken feeding and wintering areas.

A rare plant of particular concern reported from four MPF sites is Mead's Milkweed (Asclepias meadii). Missouri populations of Mead's Milkweed are small, widely scattered, and not producing viable seed (Bowles et al. 1995). Just as it has been involved in a cooperative effort to insure Missouri prairie chickens remain extant and viable, MPF should consider engaging a coalition of partners in a Mead's Milkweed recovery effort. The goal of this effort should be to establish fertile populations of Mead's Milkweed at several Missouri sites. This will involve nursery growth and reintroduction, targeted demographic monitoring, and a variety of other research and restoration activities.

In order to insure that ongoing management activities, or region-wide land use trends, do not threaten rare species on MPF lands, some level of monitoring should be implemented for all target species on MPF lands, as discussed in part 8 below.

3. Fire Management

It is well established that fire is an essential component of prairie management, particularly given the proliferation of exotic species that can invade prairies in the absence of fire, even under a haying regime. Fire should be a component of the management of every MPF site. Much remains unknown about timing and return intervals for optimum prairie management, but some general statements and recommendations can be made.

-the prevailing fire regime in presettlement Missouri prairies was frequent, dormant season, largely autumnal, fires. These fires were mostly human set fires; Native American fire practices in the presettlement period vastly outnumbered the relatively small number of natural ignitions.

-for restoring degraded prairie or establishing prairie plantings, annual fire is often the most effective tool for the first five years or more.

-a diversity of fire treatments, timings, and return intervals is desirable in intact native vegetation. Except for very small areas where fireline impacts would be deleterious, entire sites should not be burned at once. On the other hand, a bewildering (and poorly supported) array of numbers for the maximum portion of an area that can be burned exits in the literature and as rules of thumb...most of these are too conservative to allow recovery of degraded prairie vegetation, and in some cases may not allow sufficient fire return intervals for maintaining diverse, synecologically intact prairie vegetation.

-a lot of supposed "facts" about fire effects on prairie vegetation remain uncertain. For instance, an oft-cited point is that spring burning increases grasses at the expense of forbs. This was documented in degraded prairies in Kansas, and some Missouri studies appear to suggest this trend. However, some of the most diverse prairies in the Midwest have decades long histories of annual or nearly annual spring burning, without a shred of evidence that grasses are increasing at the expense of forb diversity, nor do any of the annual spring burn data from Cook Meadow support this. The lesson here is that we still know little regarding fire timing on vegetation, especially in a predictive sense, and the tallgrass biome may be too diverse to impute universal truths based on studies remote from Missouri.

-The Nature Conservancy has adopted a regime of mostly autumnal fires on its prairies, augmented by occasional spring fires, especially in degraded areas prone to erosion. The Conservancy also pioneered some small scale summer prairie fires in the mid 1980's, with initially encouraging effects on brush and perennial exotics, but disappointing impacts on exotic annual grasses. Fall burns are more heterogenous in their coverage and fire effects, due to a remnant live fuel component. MPF should implement an integrated fire management program on all of its preserves, with a mix of fire timing and fire return intervals.

Although fire management is an essential component of tallgrass prairie systems, it is also a potentially dangerous activity fraught with liabilities. As one of the key prairie management organizations in the Midwest, MPF has a responsibility to its members, its neighbors, and the rest of the natural resource community to insure safe, professional, effective fire management. To effectively use fire as a management tool and protect the surrounding public, the following should be implemented in the MPF fire management program:

- All MPF sites should have a written fire management plan, including detailed prescriptions for every burn unit. Prescriptions should be based on USFS or TNC prescription models, and explicitly detail management goals, weather parameters, fuels, contingencies, hazards, minimum equipment, fireline preparation, ignition pattern, crew training and experience, mop-up, and smoke considerations. There should be at least informal internal review of prescriptions before burning. All fireline personnel should have read or received a detailed briefing on the prescription prior to ignition.

- All MPF burns should have a window of acceptable weather, and this should be religiously adhered to during fire management activities. Any deviation from acceptable weather parameters, or alteration of prescription parameters, should be made in writing prior to starting the burn. A brief fire summary memo should be completed after every burn, including recommendations for future burns.

- MPF should supply Nomex coveralls for all fireline personnel. This is a basic safety item that should be requisite, especially considering the limited experience of many MPF crew members. One disastrous miscalculation will result in a personal and organizational cost vastly outweighing the limited expense to secure adequate protective gear. Requiring all fireline personnel to wear Nomex also facilitates rapid identification of crew members when mingled with non-fireline personnel, and helps to create an image of professionalism.

- There should be consideration of minimum experience and fitness guidelines for leaders and core crew members at each burn. A clearly designated fire leader should be responsible for each burn; we would recommend that MPF, for its own protection, mandate training requirements for fire leaders. The prescribed burn training provided by MDC is excellent, although in itself insufficient for fire leader training. Some of the federal level courses, such as S130/S190 for crew members and S290/S390 for fire leaders, would be beneficial. Additionally, specific fire leader training for prescribed fires, such as the nationwide series cosponsored by TNC and various agencies, would be useful. MPF might want to explore the possibility of hosting prescribed burn training for potential crew members (and neighboring landowners?), perhaps in conjunction with other agencies and organizations.

- Every fire event on MPF lands should be preceded by an evaluation of possible problems and escapes, and the appropriate response. Much of the equipment, planning and preparation at any fire, prescribed or wild, is for unlikely contingencies. There should be on hand some level of contingency response capability at all MPF fires.

4. Other Vegetation Manipulation

Haying and grazing have been used as prairie management tools, and all MPF sites have a long history of some combination of these two treatments. As with fire management, there remain more questions than answers surrounding the use of these techniques in prairie management.

Tallgrass prairie evolved under a regime of regular fire and some level of large animal herbivory, although opinions differ greatly about the intensity of the latter, particularly in the tallgrass region. The structural and process attributes associated with grazing are probably an essential component for maintaining a full array of prairie biodiversity. The degree to which adjacent, intensively utilized private lands provide this context in a modern setting is unknown.

For healthy prairie, seasonally varied, short-duration, intensive grazing at infrequent intervals is probably a beneficial component of prairie management, provided that ancillary impacts, such as exotic species introductions and mechanical damage, can be controlled. The size and distribution of MPF lands makes this difficult or impossible in most areas, but some sites might lend themselves to this type of management in the future. Some producers have reported encouraging results by intensively grazing cattle early and late on cool season infestations, and resting the area during peak warm season growth intervals. This might be useful for targeted recovery areas, but sustaining this pattern would provoke concerns for the vernal flora and native cool season component of our prairies.

Since European settlement some 150 years ago, many prairies in Missouri's Osage Plains and Ozarks regions have been maintained by a regime of annual haying. While it is probable that imposition of an annual haying regime, and the associated annual mining of mineral nutrients fixed in plant tissues, resulted in some declines in diversity, this very haying was the salvation of the prairie, as the surrounding prairie regions were plowed or reverted to degraded woodlands through fire suppression.

We feel that repeated haying is not an ideal prairie management practice, but has a role at specific sites, if combined with fire and other management techniques. Localized or pattern haying can provide some structural attributes for specific wildlife. There is a compelling need to determine the extent of nutrient impacts associated with more than a century of forage removal without corresponding nutrient inputs. Any opportunities MPF has to stimulate or sponsor such work would advance our understanding of the role of haying in prairie management.

An often underestimated impact to prairies is the result of large bale storage on the prairie landscape. If stored sufficiently long, large bales kill the vegetation under them. Subsequent recovery to high quality prairie vegetation is often slow or incomplete, and these sites are frequently inhabited by weeds. To prevent this, any haying agreements should include contract wording that limits hay storage on site to no more than 5 days.

An alternative to haying is native seed production from prairie systems. This allows revenue generation while limiting biomass removal, and potentially providing a more structurally heterogeneous habitat manipulation. MPF and other agencies and organizations should continue to expand the use of native seed production as a prairie management tool, providing always that entire seed crops are never harvested from any one site, leaving sufficient remnants for plant colonization and wildlife food sources.

5. Existing Ponds

Many MPF lands have artificial ponds. Prior to MPF ownership, these were established for stock watering or wildlife enhancement. Some of these ponds are surrounded by high quality vegetation, with minimal evident disruption associated with their construction, while others have more disturbance impacts associated with them. There has been a trend among conservation organizations and restorationists to remove artificial features such as these ponds as standard practice in a comprehensive restoration program.

For MPF, adopting a universal policy of removing all artificial ponds would be counterproductive. Many of these ponds harbor considerable native diversity of both plants and animals, and in many cases the disturbances associated with pond removal would outweigh any benefits.

The biota of many of the ponds is something of an historic artifact: were the same ponds to be constructed today, they would not be colonized by the diverse suite of native organisms that inhabit the existing ponds. Many of the ponds were constructed in a period when the landscape was less fragmented, exotic species were less pervasive, and the wettest phases of our prairie systems were more intact. There was thus available a source of plants and animals to colonize the ponds and their environs. Over decades, some of these ponds have stabilized and even support species of conservation concern. Those ponds with relatively stable water levels provide a refugium for wetland organisms that have been lost from their former habitats as the landscape has been dewatered and the draws have filled in with brush. Many of these ponds may serve as breeding sites for amphibians.

Decisions regarding the disposition of ponds should be made on a case by case basis after an evaluation of the impact of the existing pond on the local surface watershed, an assessment of the current biota of the poind and environs, and an assessment of what would be gained by pond removal, balanced against the disturbance impacts and losses associated with removal activity.

Ponds on MPF lands are inherited artifacts, but in some cases provide significant biodiversity attributes, and help to buffer against species losses associated with site disturbance. While new ponds would not be desirable, many of the existing ponds should be retained, and, in some cases, actively and sensitively maintained. Of particular note are the ponds at Drovers and Gayfeather prairies, each of which supports a diverse assemblage of wetland and aquatic plants, and each of which has a species of statewide conservation concern.

5. Ecological Restoration

Many areas on MPF sites, particularly at Schwartz and Stilwell prairies, are completely devoid of prairie vegetation and will require restoration. As MPF moves to complete more viable site designs at its other preserves, and acquires additional sites elsewhere, prairie restoration will become an increasingly important issue for the organization.

As used here, ecological restoration includes two aspects: rehabilitative restoration of previously impacted sites with sufficient on-site native diversity to be recovered through intensive management, and reconstructive restoration, involving previously plowed or otherwise converted sites with essentially no remnant native potential, which must be restored by importing sources of native vegetation. Some level of rehabilitative restoration is required for virtually all prairie remnants in Missouri. This section addresses some general issues involving reconstructive restoration.

Despite much glib discussion of successful prairie restoration, no one has even come close to restoring a diverse, fully functional prairie matrix. Most attempts fall short of even modest diversity goals. This should not hinder restoration attempts, since many restorations are still invaluable from an ecological perspective, but it should enforce a realization that much remains to be learned about the art and science of prairie restoration. MPF is in a position to make major contributions to our knowledge of prairie restoration in Missouri, and should make concerted efforts to document all aspects of its ongoing restoration work.

In general, local seed sources (within the 8 immediate counties if possible) should be utilized as donor sources for restoration plantings. These mixes should be aimed at maximizing the diversity of native seed materials incorporated in the planting mix, including prairie species typically associated with areas both wetter and drier than the intended planting site. This will accommodate undetected complexities in soil and microhydrologic regimes, and also buffer against changes in site conditions that inevitably occur as the restoration becomes established and influences site conditions. Precise determinations of specific habitat character at a site is difficult, and restoration plantings should include species with a variety of pH and substrate requirements, to accommodate unanticipated microhabitat variability. Restoration activities should not assume that a particular species will or will not grow in a given location, since our knowledge of autecological dynamics of most prairie plants, especially in a restoration setting, is embarrassingly meager.

Much contemporary prairie restoration work is derived from antecedents in agriculture, where rapid establishment of a productive resource is a goal. Biodiversity-based prairie restoration is a more complex and slower process. Here the goal is to install as diverse a mix of native forbs, sedges, and grasses as possible, and to insure the recruitment and establishment of a diverse cohort from this mix. To that end, planting mix selection should be focused on diversity above all else; specific quantities per acre of this species or that are only paper comforts, and convey in themselves little assurance of restoration success. Diversity potential may be enhanced by reducing the seeding rates for native warm season grasses such as Big and Little Bluestem, Panic Grass, and Indian Grass. Seeding rates of a few pounds per acre or less may allow germinated forbs a better chance to become established. In some cases, a weakly competitive nurse grass such as Red Fescue or Rice Cut Grass might be useful as a temporary space filler and fuel bed. Any restoration plantings should include provision for weed management (usually by mowing), and annual prescribed fire as soon as there is sufficient fuel accumulation to carry combustion.

Management activities in restoration plantings should not be geared towards maintaining populations of any single elements, but at sustaining or emulating the process regimes and site conditions that prevailed at the site during the presettlement period, and thus providing a context of stability within which the biota can change and adapt to the gradual alterations that affect all systems.

7. Site Conservation Planning/Conservation Goals

To insure maximum viability and effectiveness, every MPF site should have a brief site conservation plan. Key aspects of site conservation plans are a synopsis of the site and its ecological significance, an initial site design, analysis of site stresses and their sources, evaluation of management needs and restoration issues, and an assessment of the feasibility, costs, and viability of the conservation design for the area. Management discussions should be inclusive of all relevant activities, and may range from specific prescribed fire issues to community based activities such as establishing erosion control incentives for private landowners in targeted watersheds or working with local road districts to alter herbicide application practices along critical right of way zones bordering a site.

Site conservation plans can be used to direct site conservation activities, prioritize tasks and actions, apportion available resources, develop budget and fundraising plans, and gauge conservation success. Site designs should be flexible, evolving documents that focus appropriate conservation actions while not becoming onerous or overly rigid.

Conservation goals for MPF should be aimed at sustaining or restoring the full array of native organisms at a site, and maintaining site integrity and process regimes integral to the genesis and perpetuation of the biological systems of the site in the presettlement period.

8. Monitoring/Inventory/Research

A crucial need in landscapes throughout the Midwest is to establish the current condition and composition of existing remnant natural areas, and to implement ecological monitoring protocols which will provide an accurate, efficient means of assessing changes over time and direct site management actions. There are also critical data or answers relevant to management and site design issues that can only be answered through research. These data-intensive issues are some of the most important long term considerations facing conservation organizations, yet they are often neglected or misunderstood.

Especially for a membership-supported organization such as MPF, it is imperative that sufficient baseline and monitoring data be secured for every site involving MPF resources or actions to be accountable for how well the organization is using donor resources to accomplish its mission. To this end, baseline ecological data and a preliminary site design should be completed for every potential acquisition prior to purchase. These data should include at least preliminary vegetation assessments, as well as an evaluation of potential for faunal targets and restoration issues.

For sites that MPF owns or manages, there should be ecological monitoring systems in place to insure periodic, dispassionate assessments of the degree to which conservation goals are being achieved. Ecological monitoring is unglamorous work that typically does not attract publicity or funding, but is a fundamental responsibility of any entity engaged in stewardship of irreplaceable biodiversity resources.

In addition to vegetation monitoring, there are abundant opportunities for additional monitoring that will be of direct benefit to MPF. These opportunities can involve a broad spectrum of the membership in activities such as photomonitoring of restoration efforts and rare plant monitoring (which should be conducted at some level for all listed taxa). In every case, the primary requirements are to develop and implement an efficient, repeatable, archival system.

Missouri Prairie Foundation lands are an irreplaceable facet of the nation's tallgrass heritage. The Foundation has recently expanded its stewardship efforts to become a leader in hands-on rehabilitative management. As these efforts continue and intensify, and as baseline data and ecological monitoring are expanded, site conservation plans are developed, and site designs are implemented, the Foundation stands poised to enter the twenty-first century with a sound foundation for insuring the long term viability of these critical areas.

INDIVIDUAL SITE DESCRIPTIONS

This section contains an account for each MPF prairie, sequenced alphabetically by site name. Each account includes the following information:

-summary of site size and location

-floristic quality summary, providing total native and introduced taxa, mean C values, floristic quality index value for site, and wetland ratings (see Ladd 1997)

-conservatism distribution among site flora, with percentages

-physiognomic profile of site flora, with percentages, for both native and exotic vegetation

-presettlement vegetation map for each prairie and the surrounding area

-vegetation/land cover map of each site and its immediate surroundings, with locations of vegetation sampling transects

-description of the site and its landscape character

-synopsis of site soils and geology

-description of presettlement vegetation

-description of current vegetation

-discussion of exotic species problems

-site-specific management recommendations

-site design considerations

-brief evaluation of conservation significance

Denison Prairie

[240 acres, in Barton (160 acres in N1/2 sec. 5 T33N R31W) and Vernon (E1/2 SW1/4 sec. 32 TT34N R31W) counties; Sheldon 7.5' USGS quad]

FLORISTIC QUALITY SUMMARY

281 Native taxa

39 Introduced taxa

4.00 mean conservatism (C value)

67.23 floristic quality index

1.1 native wetness

wetland category: FACULTATIVE (-)

CONSERVATISM DISTRIBUTION OF SITE FLORA

C value No. %

* 39 12.2%

0 12 3.8%

1 20 6.3%

2 33 10.3%

3 43 13.4%

4 64 20.0%

5 51 15.9%

6 29 9.1%

7 17 5.3%

8 8 2.5%

9 4 1.3%

10 1 0.3%

PHYSIOGNOMIC PROFILE

NATIVE 87.8% ADVENTIVE 12.2%

16 Tree 5.0% 1 Tree 0.3%

16 Shrub 5.0% 2 Shrub 0.6%

10 W-Vine 3.1% 1 W-Vine 0.3%

3 H-Vine 0.9% 0 H-Vine 0.0%

139 P-Forb 43.4% 6 P-Forb 1.9%

6 B-Forb 1.9% 4 B-Forb 1.3%

34 A-Forb 10.6% 13 A-Forb 4.1%

34 P-Grass 10.6% 7 P-Grass 2.2%

3 A-Grass 0.9% 4 A-Grass 1.3%

18 P-Sedge 5.6% 0 P-Sedge 0.0%

1 A-Sedge 0.3% 0 A-Sedge 0.0%

2 Fern 0.6% 0 Fern 0.0%

Description

As treated here, Denison Prairie includes the tracts formerly known as Lipscomb Prairie and Lattner Prairie. Located just inside the Ozark ecoregion along the Ozark/Osage Plains division (Figure 1), this site consists of a level to gently rolling upland prairie dissected by the upper reaches of two shallow, west-trending draws with intermittent streams. Total topographic relief at the site is about 55 feet. At the southeast corner of the northern half of the tract is a large pond in the upper reaches of the northernmost draw. A short distance down drainage, south of the road, is the remnant of another small pond that is dry for much of the year.

Soils/Geology

Most of the uplands at the site are on soils formed from sandstone or shale under prairie grasses. These soils, of the Barco, Barden, and Collinsville series, are all acid and have permeabilities ranging from good to slow. The eastern quarter of the southern half of the tract is Parsons soil, which is a shale-derived, acidic prairie soil with an impermeable clay pan that creates a perched water table for much of the year. Level, poorly drained areas of Parsons soil have hardpan prairie vegetation. The area near the large pond is mapped as Lebanon soil, which is a sterile, acidic cherty loam typically formed under sparse woodlands. A narrow region along the lower reaches of the main draw in the southwestern part of the tract consists of Hepler-Radley soils. These are acidic bottomland soils formed under prairies and hardwoods, and have poor permeability, leading to seasonal ponding.

Presettlement Vegetation

The 1841 Government Land Survey map for the area (Figure 8) reveals that this site was part of a large expanse of prairie, with extensive timbered lands to the south, west, and north. These timbers approach within one quarter mile of the southwest corner of the tract, and undoubtedly influenced the fire regimes and other forces shaping the character is the landscape.

Current Vegetation

Vegetation at the site consists of predominately dry-mesic sandstone/shale prairie. Much of the perimeter fenceline, pond environs, and draws are overgrown with dense woody thickets. The hardpan prairie character of the southeastern part of the tract is evidenced by areas with sparser vegetation including such characteristic hardpan prairie plants as Liatris pycnostachya, Polygala sanguinea, and Rhynchospora capitellata. Two prairie species closely associated with the hardpan soils at this site are known only from Denison Prairie among all MPF lands: Melanthium virginicum and Muhlenbergia capillaris.

The area of Lebanon soils around the large pond is interesting in that it was mapped as prairie in the land survey notes, but consists of a typically woodland soil, and supports several plants characteristic of low woodland, including six species unique to this site among all MPF lands: Asimina triloba, Bidens discoidea, Cocculus carolinianus, Laportea canadensis, Peplis diandra, and Pilea pumila. This suggests that there may have been at least some scattered shrubby or woodland vegetation associated with the draw, although its proximity to a section line would have resulted in notes to that effect if the vegetation were dense or luxuriant. As in most Missouri prairies, the wettest phase of the prairie vegetation, associated with the draws, has been lost through dense woody invasion and subsequent loss of the prairie flora through shading and possibly erosion. Erosion in the draws is generally minimal.

Exotic Species

A total of 39 exotic plants have been documented from this site. The most problematic weeds are locally dense infestations of Japanese Honeysuckle associated with overgrown woody areas along the draws and pond borders. Some of the peripheral areas along the boundaries of the south half of the tract have minor to moderate Tall Fescue populations interspersed in a matrix of prairie vegetation, sometimes also with minor amounts of Kentucky Bluegrass. Although we did not note any Sericea Lespedeza on the tract during this study, we did note small populations south and west of the tract. The annual Korean and Japanese Bush Clovers are minor weeds scattered through some of the prairie areas, particularly in more sterile zones. Overall, exotic species, while present on the site, are not critically impacting native vegetation.

Management Recommendations

Management activities should include removal of invasive woody vegetation in the draws. These pose far more of a threat to the integrity of the prairie system than most of the exotic species at the site. This is exacerbated by the locally dense infestations of Japanese Honeysuckle accelerating degradation of overgrown zones. Woody vegetation associated with fencelines and draws should be cleared, except for the area around the pond at the southeastern corner of the southwest quarter of section 32. Although this pond is artificial, a presettlement antecedent in that the draw probably supported wetland vegetation, some of which persists at the site today. The presence of Lebanon soils raises the possibility that this small area was possibly more of a moist thicket or supported a more shrubby or diffusely timbered habitat than is typical for draws in this region. This zone is undoubtedly more overgrown and densely stocked than its presettlement incarnation, and should be exposed to regular fire as an initial management treatment. Pending more detailed examination, we recommend against wholesale clearing of all woody vegetation in this area.

Site Design Considerations

As indicated in the site map (Figure 7), much of the land to the south of Denison Prairie is cropland, and lands to the east of the southern half of the site are formerly cropped and have been fallow for several years. Lands west of the site are grazed pasture with some native vegetation. The northern half of these lands are heavily infested with brush and small trees. There is an area of high quality prairie north of the road near the middle of the east boundary. Most of the lands north and east of this area are heavily degraded pasture, with a remnant native component and varying degrees of brush and fescue. From a watershed perspective, the hydrologic integrity of the 80-acre tract east of the north half of Denison Prairie is a priority, as are the 80 acres in the northern half of the southeast quarter of section 5. The only high quality habitat adjacent to the prairie is the prairie area east of the middle of the north boundary, and this should be secured in some type of conservation status to insure the prairie integrity is maintained. Although not high priorities, there is potential for warm season grass or prairie restoration on all surrounding lands, should suitable opportunities arise.

Conservation Significance

This is a large tract of high quality prairie. Parts of the site are among the highest quality vegetation of MPF lands. Overall native diversity is fourth highest in the study, with a correspondingly high mean conservatism and a floristic quality index of 67, also the fourth highest in the study. Denison Prairie is located within the Liberal focus area developed by the Grassland Coalition and its partners. There are several private and protected prairie remnants of varying conditions within a 5 mile radius of the site, and it plays a potentially critical role in the regional prairie landscape.

Drovers Prairie

[80 acres, in Pettis County (NE1/4 & SW1/4 of NE1/4 sec. 1 T43N R22W; Ionia 7.5' USGS quad]

FLORISTIC QUALITY SUMMARY

223 Native taxa

41 Introduced taxa

3.59 mean conservatism (C value)

53.64 floristic quality index

1.2 native wetness

wetland category: FACULTATIVE (-)

CONSERVATISM DISTRIBUTION OF SITE FLORA

C value No. %

* 41 15.5%

0 23 8.7%

1 20 7.6%

2 28 10.6%

3 35 13.3%

4 43 16.3%

5 32 12.1%

6 23 8.7%

7 9 3.4%

8 5 1.9%

9 3 1.1%

10 2 0.8%

PHYSIOGNOMIC PROFILE

NATIVE 84.5% ADVENTIVE 15.5%

11 Tree 4.2% 2 Tree 0.8%

14 Shrub 5.3% 1 Shrub 0.4%

8 W-Vine 3.0% 0 W-Vine 0.0%

1 H-Vine 0.4% 0 H-Vine 0.0%

101 P-Forb 38.3% 9 P-Forb 3.4%

7 B-Forb 2.7% 4 B-Forb 1.5%

35 A-Forb 13.3% 11 A-Forb 4.2%

25 P-Grass 9.5% 6 P-Grass 2.3%

5 A-Grass 1.9% 8 A-Grass 3.0%

16 P-Sedge 6.1% 0 P-Sedge 0.0%

0 A-Sedge 0.0 0 A-Sedge 0.0%

0 Fern 0.0% 0 Fern 0.0%

Description

Drovers Prairie is located in the northern portion of the Osage Plains/Flint Hills ecoregion, not far from the transition to the Ozark ecoregion to the south and east (Figure 1). The site consists of slightly rolling upland prairie with minimal upstream drainage onto the tract. The south portion of the site has a gentle westerly aspect, while the north portion ranges from neutral to a very slight northerly aspect. Total relief across the entire tract is about 70 feet. There is a pond along the northern edge of the north tract. A small stream along the west boundary of the south tract meanders into the property; the bed of this stream notable down cutting and post-settlement erosion.

Soils/Geology

Soils at the site are deep to very deep silt loams in the Eldon, Friendly, Maplewood, Paintbrush and Pershing series. These soils have varying degrees of clay subsoil components, and permeabilities ranging from moderate to slow. These soils were derived from varying combinations of loess and cherty dolomite and limestones. All of these soils are at least slightly acidic. The least permeable soil, Pershing, predominates in the western half of the southern tract. Here the strong clay component of the subsoil creates seasonally saturated conditions. The area along the stream at the western edge of the south tract is Dameron silt loam, a deep, well-drained, neutral to slightly acidic floodplain soil formed in loess.

Presettlement Vegetation

According to the 1838 Government Land Survey map (Figure 10), Drovers Prairie was part of a large expanse of prairie some three miles east of a relatively narrow band of timber along Flat Creek. The notes indicate a small spring just south of the present location of the pond in the northeastern part of the site.

Current Vegetation

According to Toney (1989), the northeastern tract had a history of grazing, with resultant invasion of fescue and bluegrass. Management by Missouri Department of Conservation has resulted in recovery of much of the prairie vegetation, and an apparent reduction in weedy grasses. Most of the area would be classified in Nelson (1985) as dry-mesic chert prairie, although the chert influence appears minimal on some of the deeper soils. Part of the southeast quarter of the north tract, particularly along a shallow drainage, and a smaller area of the northwest corner of the north tract, shows evidence of past disturbance and is floristically depauperate. Portions of the perimeter fenceline have minor to moderate woody invasion. The area along the stream bed along the west boundary of the south tract is wooded, with a dense overgrowth of woods and brush in former prairie in the southwestern corner of this tract. Just east of this wooded band, in the west-central portion of the south tract, the effect of the clay subsoil of the Pershing silt loam is clearly evidenced by the soggy nature of the habitat through much of the season, and a vegetation phase that is in some respects evocative of hardpan prairie.

The uplands and berm area around the pond are severely degraded, and consist of a mix of non-conservative native forbs and grasses, brush, and exotic weeds. The small springy stream inflow at the southwest corner of the pond, and the low shore along the south side of the pond, support a rich wetland vegetation, including a healthy population of a state listed sedge, Rhynchospora macrostachya, known to exist at only two other sites in the state. It is likely that this sedge persists along the pond shore as a remnant from the original population in the presettlement spring-fed drainage. The drainage itself shows evidence of some downcutting and erosion.

Six other species of plants are unique to Drovers Prairie among all MPF sites. These are mostly weedy native opportunists responding to past land use history, and not evocative of any unique aspects of prairie vegetation attributable to the site. Christisen (1998) reported Michigan Lily (Lilium michiganense) from the site, based on old records, but it was not located during this study and may no longer be present at the site. If present, it should flourish after several years of fire in the moist seepy areas on the lower slopes at the north end of the tract

Exotic Species

Most of the 41 species of exotic weeds known from the site are present in relatively low numbers and present little threat to degradation of existing prairie vegetation, assuming site management actions continue. There are scattered, mostly small, populations of Sericea Lespedeza, particularly on the north tract. There is a fairly large cluster of Sericea Lespedeza plants near the northwest corner of the north tract, and Tall Fescue occurs mixed with native vegetation in several of the more heavily impacted portions of the prairie, particularly in the northern half of the site. Three of the five weed species designated as Class 5 (problematically aggressive) occur at this prairie: Tall Fescue, Sericea Lespedeza, and Osage Orange. The wooded area along the west edge of the site is a post-settlement artifact, and its biodiversity is further compromised by locally dense infestations of Common Chickweed in the moist alluvial soils

Management Recommendations

Except for the southwest edge of the south tract, woody encroachment is minor and will be relatively easy to remove. Care should be exercised when performing work around the pond, given the diversity of the shoreline vegetation, including a species of conservation concern. Woody vegetation around the pond environs should be completely removed, and a frequent, perhaps annual, burning regime established in the 8-10 acre unit containing the pond and associated degraded areas in the northeastern part of the north tract.

The woody vegetation in the southwest corner of the south tract and along the stream should be removed, but perhaps in two phases to preclude the potential of severe erosion. In the first phase, most of the undergrowth and saplings can be removed, followed by fire treatments to maintain an open understory and promote herbaceous growth. In two to four years, when a well-developed perennial herbaceous component is established, the overtopping trees can be removed. Stream clearing activities should ideally be conducted in conjunction with the adjacent landowners to be effective in restoring some aspects of hydrological integrity.

Site Design Considerations

Although small, the site is fairly defensible from a watershed perspective. There are no known areas of high quality prairie adjacent to the preserve. Much of the northern half of section 6, immediately east of Drovers Prairie, is pasture with a strong component of native vegetation and excellent recovery potential. It might be valuable to pursue some management agreement with this landowner, particularly in light of the significance of the area for prairie chickens. Toney (1989) similarly recommended the protection of the 40 acres of cropland in the NW1/4 NE1/4 of the same section because of its potential for prairie chicken management.

Since MPF's Friendly Prairie is a mile north of this site, there is an opportunity for MPF to catalyze a ca. 1,500 acre management initiative aimed at securing habitat for prairie wildlife on critical private lands in the immediate vicinity of these two prairies.

Conservation Significance

Drovers Prairie is one of a number of prairies in conservation ownership in the Sedalia focus area identified by the Grassland Coalition as important for prairie conservation. The site is a mile south of MPF's Friendly Prairie (40 acres). Grandfather Prairie (78 acres) and Paint Brush Prairie (314 acres), both owned by the Missouri Department of Conservation, are within two miles of the site. Two additional Department of Conservation prairies and The Nature Conservancy's Goodnight-Henry Prairie (40 acres) occur within five miles. This complex of deep soil chert prairies in the upper region of Missouri's Osage Plains represents a different land type association than the prairies further south in the Osage Plains.

Drovers Prairie has the lowest floristic quality index of any MPF site, and, along with the much smaller Friendly Prairie, the lowest native plant diversity of any MPF site. Nonetheless, there are still more than 220 native plant species documented from the site, including a highly significant plant of statewide concern. This prairie is a high quality, but not best of type, example whose value is enhanced because of its landscape context, particularly from a prairie chicken conservation perspective.

Friendly Prairie

[40 acres, in Pettis County (SW1/4 SE1/4 sec. 25 T44N R22W; Ionia 7.5' USGS quad]

FLORISTIC QUALITY SUMMARY

220 Native taxa

37 Introduced taxa

3.84 mean conservatism (C value)

56.90 floristic quality index

2.1 native wetness

wetland category: FACULTATIVE UPLAND (+)

CONSERVATISM DISTRIBUTION OF SITE FLORA

C value No. %

* 37 14.4%

0 15 5.8%

1 17 6.6%

2 23 8.9%

3 44 17.1%

4 41 15.9%

5 36 14.0%

6 23 8.9%

7 8 3.1%

8 8 3.1%

9 3 1.1%

10 2 0.8%

PHYSIOGNOMIC PROFILE

NATIVE 85.6% ADVENTIVE 14.4%

16 Tree 6.2% 2 Tree 0.8%

18 Shrub 7.0% 1 Shrub 0.4%

7 W-Vine 2.7% 1 W-Vine 0.4%

2 H-Vine 0.8% 0 H-Vine 0.0%

106 P-Forb 41.2% 7 P-Forb 2.7%

3 B-Forb 1.2% 5 B-Forb 1.9%

29 A-Forb 11.3% 11 A-Forb 4.3%

26 P-Grass 10.1% 5 P-Grass 1.9%

3 A-Grass 1.2% 5 A-Grass 1.9%

10 P-Sedge 3.9% 0 P-Sedge 0.0%

0 A-Sedge 0.0 0 A-Sedge 0.0%

0 Fern 0.0% 0 Fern 0.0%

Description

A small upland prairie with a gentle north aspect and 50 feet of total relief. Friendly Prairie has no ponds or major intermittent streams, and only small headwater sections of a few north-trending draws near the north end of the tract. The prairie is located in the northern portion of the Osage Plains ecoregion, not far from the transition to the Ozark ecoregion to the south and east (Figure 1).

Soils/Geology

Soils at the site are deep to very deep silt loams in the Eldon, Friendly, Maplewood, and Paintbrush series. These soils have varying degrees of clay subsoil components, and permeabilities ranging from moderate to slow. Parent materials were varying combinations of

loess and cherty dolomite and limestones. All these soils are at least slightly acidic. A small area of a similar, but loess-derived, poorly permeable soil in the Pershing series occurs in a lower area along the center of the north boundary. Small seasonally seepy areas occur on the lower slopes near the north edge of the tract.

Presettlement Vegetation

According to the 1838 Government Land Survey map (Figure 10), Friendly Prairie was part of a large expanse of prairie some three miles east of a relatively narrow band of timber along Flat Creek. The nearest timber mapped is a lobe of timber along Henry Creek, a tributary of Flat Creek, extending to within one mile west/northwest of the site. Henry Creek continues eastward about one half mile north of the site. Although largely wooded today, the Government Land Survey map indicates that this portion of the creek was formerly bordered with treeless tallgrass prairie.

Current Vegetation

According to Toney (1989), Friendly Prairie has a previous history of annual haying. Since acquisition by MPF, the Department of Conservation has managed the area under a regime of haying, resting, and more recently, occasional prescribed fire. Most of the area would be classified in Nelson (1985) as dry-mesic chert prairie, although the chert influence appears minimal on these deep soils. The west and south fencelines are thin bands of moderate to dense, tree and brush thickets. The north boundary is a dense post-settlement woodland that has resulted in a loss of fine root structure and consequent erosion of the intermittent drainage along the north boundary. The land to the north is densely occluded brushy pasture with occasional open areas having a fair native component. A small, low thicket in a draw fingers south from near the center of the north boundary, and there are two small islands of brush and trees in the southwestern quarter of the tract. The small, seasonally seepy areas on the lower slopes near the north end of the tract are characterized by Heliopsis helianthoides, Liatris pycnostachya, and Rudbeckia subtomentosa.

This study documented 220 native species from Friendly Prairie, the lowest native diversity of any MPF site. Diversity at this site may have declined -- Hurd and Christisen (1975) report a total of 268 species of vascular plants from Friendly Prairie, but do not list individual species. There is a population of Asclepias meadii in the central portion of the prairie. Five plants are unique to Friendly Prairie in this study. None are of conservation concern, and most are included on the basis of previously published reports for the site.

Exotic Species

Thirty-seven species of exotic weeds have been documented from Friendly Prairie, although most are casual weeds symptomatic of post-settlement perturbation and do not pose critical threats to the integrity of the prairie vegetation. Four of the five most aggressive, or Class 5 weeds identified in this study occur at the site, mostly along boundary fencelines, although Sericea Lespedeza occurs here and there as diffusely scattered plants in the prairie, with several larger clumps scattered through the southeast quarter and an area north and east of the parking lot. There is Tall Fescue infestation along the boundary fencelines, particularly in lightly shaded areas where it tends to have a competitive edge over the native prairie grasses. Small localized patches of Japanese Honeysuckle occur in some of the brushy thickets. Although there are Osage Orange trees in some of the woody fencelines, they have yet to become a major problem.

Management Recommendations

Woody encroachment is the major threat to this site. This threat is exacerbated by the small size of the preserve, making the degradation of prairie vegetation caused by brushy fencelines particularly critical, given the limited available high quality habitat. A management priority for the site should be the elimination of woody vegetation along the perimeter and throughout the preserve. Any incentives that could facilitate woody vegetation removal on the land north of the site would also be beneficial, particularly if combined with a fire management program. Aggressive spot treatment of Sericea Lespedeza infestations, and more frequent and differently timed burning along fescue-infested fencerows will reduce populations of these weeds to manageable levels.

Site Design Considerations

The site is small and currently has a high perimeter-to-area ratio. The surface watershed of the preserve is largely self-contained. Toney (1989) recommends acquisition of the forty acres south of the tract, which is categorized as high quality prairie, and the 80 acre tract extending half a mile west of the west boundary, which is a mix of pasture and former cropland. The tract south of the preserve is degraded prairie that appears to have been sprayed or otherwise manipulated, with portions appearing as if they had been plowed, although this is not supported by aerial photos. The land east of the site is mostly cropland. The badly overgrown pasture north of the site has pockets with moderate native diversity. Private landowner habitat improvement incentives might make removal of the woody vegetation on this tract, and perhaps the implementation of a fire regime, possible options.

As discussed previously, MPF's Drovers Prairie is a mile south of this site. There is an opportunity for MPF to catalyze a ca. 1,500 acre management initiative aimed at securing prairie wildlife attributes on critical private lands in the immediate vicinity of these two prairies.

Conservation Significance

Friendly Prairie has the lowest native diversity of any MPF prairie. Still, the presence of more than 200 native species in the late twentieth century landscape is a rare occurrence, especially given the small size of the tract. Despite a slightly lower native diversity than the twice as large Drovers Prairie, the mean conservatism of the vegetation at Friendly Prairie is notably higher, reflecting the less damaging previous land use history, and resulting in a higher overall floristic quality index. As discussed under Drovers Prairie, Friendly Prairie is one of a number of prairies in conservation ownership in the Sedalia focus area identified by the Grassland Coalition as important for prairie conservation.

Just as with Drovers Prairie, this is a high quality, but not best of type, prairie whose value is enhanced because of its landscape context, particularly from a prairie chicken conservation perspective. Both sites are also significant in that they are remnants existing in the deeper cherty soils of the northern Osage Plains, where row crop agriculture has more severely impacted the original expanse of prairie than in the rocky areas in the southern Osage Plains.

Gayfeather Prairie

[116 acres, in Vernon County (in SW1/4 sec. 1 T34N R30W; Bellamy 7.5' USGS quad]

FLORISTIC QUALITY SUMMARY

270 Native taxa

35 Introduced taxa

4.03 mean conservatism (C value)

66.21 floristic quality index

1.5 native wetness

wetland category: FACULTATIVE UPLAND (+)

CONSERVATISM DISTRIBUTION OF SITE FLORA

C value No. %

* 35 11.5%

0 15 4.9%

1 18 5.9%

2 29 9.5%

3 38 12.5%

4 66 21.6%

5 42 13.8%

6 30 9.8%

7 15 4.9%

8 8 2.6%

9 5 1.6%

10 3 1.0%

PHYSIOGNOMIC PROFILE

NATIVE 88.5% ADVENTIVE 11.5%

15 Tree 4.9% 1 Tree 0.3%

15 Shrub 4.9% 2 Shrub 0.7%

7 W-Vine 2.3% 1 W-Vine 0.3%

3 H-Vine 1.0% 0 H-Vine 0.0%

129 P-Forb 42.3% 5 P-Forb 1.6%

8 B-Forb 2.6% 4 B-Forb 1.3%

30 A-Forb 9.8% 9 A-Forb 3.0%

30 P-Grass 9.8% 7 P-Grass 2.3%

5 A-Grass 1.6% 6 A-Grass 2.0%

23 P-Sedge 7.5% 0 P-Sedge 0.0%

1 A-Sedge 0.3 0 A-Sedge 0.0%

4 Fern 1.3% 0 Fern 0.0%

Description

This site consists of two contiguous ownerships, a northern tract of 76 acres owned by MPF, and a southern tract of 40 acres owned by MDC. The site is managed by MDC, and for the purposes of this report is treated as a single entity. It is a gently rolling upland prairie in the Osage Plains ecoregion with 30 feet of total relief and some shallow headwater draws flowing north, south, and west from the tract. There is a four acre cemetery inholding at the northwest corner of the MPF tract. The remnants of an old pond occur near the west edge of the MPF tract.

Soils/Geology

Soils for the site, except the western edge of the MPF tract, consist of the Barco series. These are moderately deep loams developed under prairie from sandstone and shale parent materials.

They are slightly acidic to neutral in the top layer and acidic below, with moderate permeability and sandstone bedrock within 40 inches of the surface. A small fringe at the western edge of the MPF tract consists of silty and sandy loams in the Barden, Bolivar, and Hector series. Barden soils are deep, acidic, slowly permeable soils developed under prairie in weathered silty or clayey shales. Bolivar soils are moderately deep, moderately permeable acidic soils developed under grass and hardwoods in sandstone and shale. Hector soils are shallow, rapidly permeable acidic soils over sandstone bedrock that developed from sandstone in woodlands.

The lower area at the southern end of the MDC tract is often seepy and wet, probably because of shallow depth to bedrock and shallow subsurface recharge from the gentle upland swell just to the north.

Presettlement Vegetation

As indicated above, the soils at the western end of the unit are clearly woodland soils. According to the 1854 Government Land Survey map for the area, based largely on 1835 survey data, a majority of the land within what is now Gayfeather Prairie was mapped as timbered (Figure 13). A broad north-south belt of timber more than 3 miles wide extended eastward through part of the Gayfeather site. This timber was associated with Clear Creek and Walnut Creek. The pattern of prairie/timber intricacies is complex: an 80 acre grove of prairie in a timbered landscape includes part of the northwest corner of the MPF tract, and the southern half of the MDC tract is mapped as part of a huge prairie extending miles to the south. Some two square miles of prairie occurred just a quarter mile north of the site.

Care must be taken not to apply preconceptions of "prairie" and "timber" based on contemporary occurrences. As discussed by Ladd (1991), early timbers were often very open and park-like, with a prominent prairie flora, including a well-developed warm season grass component. While the precise nature of the timber in the area cannot be determined, it was undoubtedly an open, savanna-like habitat with a prairie floristic character. The timber component may have been sparse and widely separated, and the resultant productivity of the system and depth and biomass of the fine root structure may have resulted in so-called "prairie" soils. As discussed below, the soil and presettlement vegetation data are supported by the presence of a number of woodland species not occurring at other MPF prairies, making it one of the more ecologically interesting prairies in the state.

Current Vegetation

Most of the site consists of dry-mesic sandstone/shale prairie. The southwest corner of the MPF tract, mostly in the Hector soils, is clearly a woodland that has become overgrown and cedar infested, but still retains an attenuated diversity of woodland species. The north-trending draw near the center of the MPF tract is a dense brush thicket, and there is a tangled overgrown woodland along the draw at the east edge of the MPF tract. There is also a floristically depauperate grove of trees in the northeast part of the MDC tract which contain some native woodland species and may be an overgrown remnant of the original woodland system. There is also a dense sumac-dominated thicket just east of the cemetery.

Among MPF lands, the unique nature and woodland influence of this prairie is evidenced by the fact that 14 species of plants were only found here during the study. This includes several woodland species such as Botrychium dissectum obliqum, Desmodium glutinosum, Desmodium paniculatum, Solidago ulmifolia, and Triosteum perfoliatum. Three other plants characteristic of open, savanna like woodlands, Ascyrum hypericoides multicaule, Carex complanata hirsuta, and Lespedeza procumbens occur in the prairie portion of the MPF tract.

The seasonally seepy area at the south end of the MDC tract supports a sedgy, acid seep type of vegetation, including Rhexia interior and Rhynchospora capitellata, both unique to this site among MPF sites, as well as a large population of Rhynchospora globularis. Toney (1989) reported the rare Rhynchospora harveyi from the area where R. globularis is common, but this record is provisionally excluded until a confirming specimen is located, although the habitat is suitable. This prairie also has a small population of Asclepias meadii near the center of the east half of the MPF tract. The current status of this population is unknown, as it was not observed during this study.

The old pond remnant at the west end of the MPF tract supports a diverse assemblage of emergent wetland vegetation, including a population of several hundred plants of Xyris torta, a state listed species known only from three other sites in the state.

Exotic Species

Four of the five most aggressive and problematic (class 5) weeds identified during this study occur at the site: Tall Fescue, Sericea Lespedeza, Japanese Honeysuckle, and Osage Orange. There are scattered Japanese Honeysuckle patches along the boundaries and associated with overgrown streamside woods and thickets throughout the site. Several areas along the boundaries of the tracts, particularly bordering thickets and wooded fencerows, have dense populations of Tall Fescue, sometimes with cover values exceeding 50%. There are also localized infestations of Sericea Lespedeza along the south boundary of the MPF tract, in the northern part of the MDC tract, and scattered along the areas of the site bordered by roads. Eastern Red Cedar occurs in the southwestern part of the MPF tract. A surprisingly large population of an unusual weed, Blackberry Lily, occurs in the low weedy woods along the east boundary of the MPF tract. While not a problem in intact systems that receive regular fire, it has become well established in these degraded, shaded environments.

Management Recommendations

A priority management activity should be to remove woody vegetation along the perimeter of the site, except in areas of presettlement woodlands. Because of the small size and high perimeter-to-area ratio of the preserve, deleterious effects from edge thickets and fencerows allow weeds already present on site to expand at the expense of the integrity of the native vegetation. Aggressive control efforts should be initiated to remove Sericea Lespedeza and Japanese Honeysuckle, which will otherwise invade and preempt recovery of degraded areas. Red Cedars should be removed from the entire site.

According to Toney (1989), the site has a previous history of annual haying prior to MDC management, which has been a combination of "resting", haying, and burning. Fire frequency should be increased, especially in brushy and woodland areas, whether or not they have been cleared. It would be interesting to monitor the effects of regular fire on the vegetation of the woodland groves at the site. Given the data supporting the woodland character of the site, native canopy tree cutting should not occur in the oak groves, particularly in the southwestern part of the MPF tract, although exotic species and dense brush and saplings should be removed.

The old pond remnant represents a unique wetland phase that may emulate conditions no longer available naturally since we have obliterated the wettest phases of our prairies. Care should be taken to insure its continuity, and any interventionist management activities necessary to sustain the shallow wetland nature of the pond should be conducted with sensitivity. Any management activities involving this pond should be aimed at not impacting the entire pond site, thus providing a refugium to facilitate subsequent recovery.

Site Design Considerations

The site is virtually self-contained from a watershed perspective. None of the adjacent lands are high quality prairie, although rough, intensively grazed pastures with varying levels of native diversity dominate the adjacent landscape. At this point, it is probably not justified to aggressively seek expansion opportunities, although, just as with other sites, working with neighboring landowners to encourage prairie-friendly management and establishment and utilization of prairie vegetation are probably critical factors for the long term sustainability of the site as a viable prairie providing habitat for area-dependent prairie wildlife.

Conservation Significance

Gayfeather prairie is one of the most complex and fascinating sites in MPF ownership. As discussed above, this site has several unique attributes among MPF prairies. It has a high native diversity (270 species), with a relatively high mean conservatism, yielding a floristic quality index of 66. Although not within any of the current focus areas established by the Grassland Coalition, and fairly far from other prairies in conservation ownership, this site conserves what has become an unusual phase of the Osage Plains landscape.

Golden Prairie

[320 acres, in Barton County (W1/2 sec. 8 T30N R29W; Maple Grove 7.5' USGS quad]

FLORISTIC QUALITY SUMMARY

303 Native taxa

42 Introduced taxa

3.93 mean conservatism (C value)

68.42 floristic quality index

1.2 native wetness

wetland category: FACULTATIVE (-)

CONSERVATISM DISTRIBUTION OF SITE FLORA

C value No. %

* 42 12.2%

0 24 7.0%

1 20 5.8%

2 31 9.0%

3 43 12.5%

4 65 18.8%

5 59 17.1%

6 30 8.7%

7 13 3.8%

8 11 3.2%

9 4 1.2%

10 3 0.9%

PHYSIOGNOMIC PROFILE

NATIVE 87.8% ADVENTIVE 12.2%

17 Tree 4.9% 2 Tree 0.6%

15 Shrub 4.3% 2 Shrub 0.6%

8 W-Vine 2.3% 1 W-Vine 0.3%

1 H-Vine 0.3% 0 H-Vine 0.0%

151 P-Forb 43.8% 8 P-Forb 2.3%

6 B-Forb 1.7% 3 B-Forb 0.9%

47 A-Forb 13.6% 12 A-Forb 3.5%

31 P-Grass 9.0% 6 P-Grass 1.7%

3 A-Grass 0.9% 8 A-Grass 2.3%

22 P-Sedge 6.4% 0 P-Sedge 0.0%

1 A-Sedge 0.3 0 A-Sedge 0.0%

1 Fern 0.3% 0 Fern 0.0%

Description

This is a beautiful expanse of rolling upland prairie located along the transition between the Osage Plains and Ozark ecoregions (Figure 1), in the county that had the highest percentage of presettlement prairie in the state (86%, Schroeder 1981). The site has a broad, saddle-like rise running east-west through the middle, with intermittent upland drainages falling away to the north and south. Total relief at the site is 70 feet. There is a large pond at the center of the northeastern quarter, and a small spring and formerly impounded wet area south of this pond. A small, often only muddy pond remnant occurs at the southwestern corner of the site, but as of 1998 was scheduled to be removed.

Soils/Geology

The soil and geologic patterns at this prairie are the most complex of any MPF site. At least eight different soil types occur on Golden Prairie. More than 90% of the tract consist of soils in the Carytown, Creldon, Keeno, and Parsons series of silt loams and cherty silt loams. All of these soils are characterized by being moderately deep to deep, acidic, and very slowly permeable, with a fragipan or dense clay subsoil that causes a perched water table and impedes drainage. These soils formed under prairies in shales and cherty limestones, in some cases in association with loess or silt. Despite the supposed parent materials, much of the gentle south-facing slope in the west half of Golden Prairie is strewn with medium-sized sandstone boulders. The situation is further complicated by the presence of occasional calciphilic plants in these supposedly acidic soils.

A small area along the drainage at the south end of Golden Prairie consists of Lanton and Summit silty clay loams. These are deep, neutral to alkaline, slowly permeable soils that developed under prairie in sediments or calcareous clays, shales, and limestone.

Presettlement Vegetation

Golden Prairie was centered in a vast expanse of continuous tallgrass prairie extending for a nearly five mile radius Figure 15). According to the 1854 Government Land Survey map, based largely on 1834 and 1835 survey notes, one of the nearest woodlands was a lobe of timber extending down to about as far south as Golden Prairie along the east side of Goodluck Creek, some 4 miles east of the site.

Current Vegetation

The site is a combination of sandstone/shale prairie and hardpan prairie, although even on gentle slopes the hardpan influence is mitigated by surface drainage. Some area may be sufficiently cherty to be considered dry-mesic chert prairie, although influence from underlying sandstone bedrock is still evident. Prairie vegetation on the boulder-strewn slopes is mixed with sumac and other brush of varying densities. Prairie vegetation in the northeast part of the site is rougher and of lower diversity. The west and south boundaries have dense wooded fencelines, with larger woody areas at the northwest and southwest corners. There are several scattered areas of woody vegetation associated with ponds, drainages, and stony spots. Some of the streams show signs of post-settlement erosion. Vegetation at the site has changed markedly since this study was initiated, as a result of intensified management activities. An aggressive brush cutting program has succeeded in opening up many of the draws and drainages.

Fifteen species of plants are unique to Golden Prairie among all MPF sites. Most of these are conservative prairie species, such as Asclepias stenophylla, Baptisia australis, Callirhoe digitata, and Silene regia. A few of the unique species, such as Carex lanuginosa and Scirpus validus, are associated with tiny wetland areas in draws. This prairie has one of the largest expanses of consistently high quality prairie vegetation of any MPF site, and is among the better large prairies in the entire state in terms of uniformly high floristic quality.

In addition to the plants recorded here, people affiliated with MPF have mentioned that two separate floristic inventories have been conducted at the site over the years, but we have been unable to obtain copies of any results or determine if the studies were ever completed.

Exotic Species

Exotic species problems at Golden Prairie are mostly localized and occur in association with perimeter fencerows, woody invasion, and anthropogenically disrupted areas such as ponds and cisterns. Forty-two exotic taxa have been documented from the site, including four of the five aggressive and potentially problematical weeds designated as Class 5 in this study: Tall Fescue, Sericea Lespedeza, Japanese Honeysuckle, and Osage Orange.

Many of the invasive woods or brush thickets, particularly in the southern part of the property, have dense, sometimes choking infestations of Japanese Honeysuckle. The honeysuckle also creeps and spreads into the edges of the prairie. Tall Fescue generally occurs in patches here and there where prairie vegetation has been impacted by previous disturbance. Perhaps the largest region with fescue is north and east of the large pond. Sericea Lespedeza is the most widespread weed in the prairie, and occurs in widely scattered patches, especially through much of the northeast quarter of the site and along the periphery. Other weeds at the site present only minor problems, with the possible exception of bluegrass species, which are locally common in some lightly shaded prairie areas bordering woody fencerows.

Management Recommendations

Continuation of the ongoing woody plant removal program is strongly encouraged. Special attention should be directed to removal of honeysuckle-infested woodlands, and to continuing the spot spray program for systematic eradication of Sericea Lespedeza populations. Tall fescue and bluegrass populations are not dominant and should yield to prairie vegetation under a proper management regime that includes regular fire. The ongoing program of tree reduction on neighboring properties should be continued as circumstances allow; this will enhance opportunities for both prairie chickens and other prairie biota.

Removal of the concrete cistern associated with the small spring should minimize impacts on the tiny wetland. The large pond is probably more beneficial than the impacts associated with its removal, although it might be possible to reduce and recontour the berm to create a more natural downstream hydrologic regime.

Site Design Considerations

A small portion of the tract west of the northern quarter of the west boundary drains into Golden Prairie, as does some of the land east of the north half of the site. Both of these are minor issues from a hydrologic standpoint. The lands surrounding the tract are a mixture of intensively grazed pasture, some of which is badly brush and tree infested, and cropland. From a vegetation perspective, the tract immediately west of Golden Prairie has the most potential for restoration of native diversity.

Conservation Significance

Golden Prairie is a key component of the Grassland Coalition's Golden/Dorris Creek focus area, along with The Nature Conservancy's Cook Meadow three miles north, and the Department of Conservation's Pa-Sole and Dorris Creek prairies some four miles to the northwest. The site provides important habitat for prairie chickens.

With more than 300 native plant species, Golden Prairie is the second most diverse MPF site, and the floristic quality index of 68 is the third highest of the MPF sites. Despite some exotic species and restoration issues, the site currently has the most consistently high quality prairie vegetation of any MPF site, and is a living example of why prairie is important and spectacular.

LaPetite Gemme Prairie

[37 acres, in Polk County (SW1/4 NW1/4 sec. 25 T33N R23W; Bolivar 7.5' USGS quad]

FLORISTIC QUALITY SUMMARY

277 Native taxa

44 Introduced taxa

4.19 mean conservatism (C value)

69.76 floristic quality index

2.0 native wetness

wetland category: FACULTATIVE UPLAND (+)

CONSERVATISM DISTRIBUTION OF SITE FLORA

C value No. %

* 44 13.7%

0 16 5.0%

1 20 6.2%

2 30 9.3%

3 39 12.1%

4 49 15.3%

5 50 15.6%

6 32 10.0%

7 19 5.9%

8 12 3.7%

9 3 0.9%

10 7 2.2%

PHYSIOGNOMIC PROFILE

NATIVE 86.3% ADVENTIVE 13.7%

14 Tree 4.4% 4 Tree 1.2%

19 Shrub 5.9% 1 Shrub 0.3%

7 W-Vine 2.2% 1 W-Vine 0.3%

3 H-Vine 0.9% 0 H-Vine 0.0%

142 P-Forb 44.2% 8 P-Forb 2.5%

7 B-Forb 2.2% 7 B-Forb 2.2%

36 A-Forb 11.2% 12 A-Forb 3.7%

29 P-Grass 9.0% 6 P-Grass 1.9%

6 A-Grass 1.9% 5 A-Grass 1.6%

13 P-Sedge 4.0% 0 P-Sedge 0.0%

0 A-Sedge 0.0% 0 A-Sedge 0.0%

1 Fern 0.3% 0 Fern 0.0%

Description

Located well within the Ozark ecoregion (Figure 1), this small prairie is bisected by a north/south abandoned railroad bed running through the western third of the tract. The rail corridor is currently undergoing a rails to trails conversion. The eastern half of LaPetite Gemme Prairie is on the northwest corner of a large elevated mound which slopes steeply to the gently west-trending western half of the site. Total relief on the tract is 80 feet. Two drainages run generally northwest from the knob slope. These are both largely overgrown with impenetrable brush, although there has been some recent brush removal at the site. There are also dense brush and invasive woodlands in the northwest and southwest corners, and along the right of way and west boundary.

Soils/Geology

Soil data for the site is confusing and incomplete. Newly obtained preliminary data from the Polk County NRCS office indicates that the soils at the site are Bona and Gravelly silt loams on the knob. These are deep, moderately permeable, presumably alkaline soils formed from clays and shales. Most of the rest of the site is Creldon silt loam, a deep, acidic soil with an impermeable fragipan that in level sites causes seasonal ponding and a perched water table. These soils formed under prairies in cherty limestones with a loess or silt component. A tiny area in the northeast corner of the site is mapped as Liberal silt loam, an acidic, slowly permeable soil derived from shale and sandstone. A small zone in the northwest corner of the tract is mapped as soil unit "70039", but this designation is not listed on the county soil key.

Presettlement Vegetation

According to the 1838 Government Land Survey map, LaPetite Gemme Prairie was located in an extensive prairie, with timbered lands within a few miles in most directions (Figure 17). The elevated knob is clearly indicated on the map, and the words "tree mound prairie" appear in sections 25 and 26. An extensive timberland with small scattered prairies was within a mile northeast of the site.

Current Vegetation

The site is predominately dry-mesic limestone/dolomite prairie associated with the knob slopes in the eastern half and acidic hardpan prairie in the western half, moderated by minerotrophic percolation from the knob slopes. The disturbance and contour changes associated with the railroad corridor have resulted in a weedy thicket with a raised stone ballast bed and virtually no remnant natural integrity. Similarly, dense overgrown thickets in the hardpan soils west of the tracks have extremely low diversity. The vegetation in the draws is largely overgrown with low diversity invasive brush, although some areas with more open prairie vegetation persist.

The sideslopes on the knob apparently have semi-permanent subsurface seeps which can support species associated with constantly saturated minerotrophic fen wetlands such as Lysimachia quadrifolia and Rudbeckia fulgida, both unique to this prairie among MPF sites. The shaley calcareous substrate of the knob also provides habitat for species typically associated with glades on carbonate bedrock, and not occurring at other MPF sites, such as Rudbeckia missouriensis and Solidago gattingeri.

A total of 18 taxa unique to the MPF study occur at this site. There is also a small population of the Federally threatened Asclepias meadii. In addition to the flora recorded in this study, Weber et al. (1984) reported 191 taxa from LaPetite Gemme Prairie; many of these species would be new records, but many of the voucher specimens reported as being deposited at SMSU have not been located. Since these taxa were not observed during this study, they may have been misidentified in the report, or have been lost from the site in the intervening years.

Exotic Species

Although all five of the potentially problematic aggressive weeds identified as Class 5 weeds in this study have been documented from LaPetite Gemme Prairie, most of the site is suffering from the effects of woody encroachment and lack of regular fire more than from exotic species invasions. Even in some areas of fairly good prairie vegetation, there is an overabundance of blackberry and buckbrush. The woody thickets are suffused with Japanese Honeysuckle and Multiflora Rose. Scattered populations of Sericea Lespedeza occur through the northern half of the tract. A small population of Johnson Grass west of the railroad bed has the potential to expand if not treated. The small, scattered population of Lespedeza thunbergii near the southwest corner of the tract should be removed to prevent any chance of its spreading.

Management Recommendations

Management at the site should continue the recently instituted program of brush removal, and insure that the cleared areas have a regime of frequent fires for at least the next decade. It may be desirable to use on-site seed to restore the areas of woody invasion once they have been cleared if passive recovery is minimal. A plan to mitigate the impacts of the railroad corridor needs to be developed and implemented. This plan should address deterrence of potential adverse use problems, such as off road travel, as well as reducing the potential for the corridor to serve as a vector for invasive brush and weeds and minimizing any adverse hydrologic impacts associated with the corridor. The potential to interpret the prairie landscape to trail users is an attractive opportunity to showcase MPF and Missouri's prairies to a new audience.

Site Design Considerations

The small size of this site raises serious concerns about its long-term sustainability as a diverse, viable prairie community. Priority should be given to securing binding conservation commitments for the ca. 30 acres of high quality prairie land east of the site. Consideration should also be given to developing innovative prairie outreach programs with neighboring pasture and CRP-enrolled landowners, to promote the use of local genotypes of prairie species. As the Bolivar area continues to grow, augmented by pressures from the greater Springfield metropolitan area, it is inevitable that the surrounding lands will face subdivision pressure. A proactive program to secure conservation easements from willing site neighbors would lay the ground work for sustaining the rich diversity of this site for future generations. A minimum long term goal should be to secure binding conservation of 100 acres of contiguous prairie vegetation; this will require restoring some degraded lands.

Conservation Significance

This site is designated as a Missouri Natural Area. Despite its small size it has an amazingly high diversity, including plants with Ozarkian affinities typically associated with fens and glades. Rehabilitative management will probably result in the discovery of several new species of sedges in the hardpan prairie west of the railroad corridor. Part of the surprisingly high diversity is due to the "unofficial" effect of the adjacent privately owned prairie, but the totals are nonetheless surprisingly high for such a small isolated remnant. The challenge for the future will be to sustain this richness as the surrounding landscape changes with regional human population growth.

LaPetite Gemme Prairie exists today as an eastern outlier of the tallgrass prairies that extended well into the Ozarks. It is not near or linkable with any other public prairies, and will probably always be an isolated remnant, making it all the more compelling that site design and conservation planning insure the maximum potential for site viability.

Penn-Sylvania Prairie

[160 acres, in Dade County (SE1/4 sec. 22 T32N R28W; Lockwood 7.5' USGS quad]

FLORISTIC QUALITY SUMMARY

253 Native taxa

35 Introduced taxa

4.04 mean conservatism (C value)

64.19 floristic quality index

1.1 native wetness

wetland category: FACULTATIVE (-)

CONSERVATISM DISTRIBUTION OF SITE FLORA

C value No. %

* 35 12.2%

0 15 5.2%

1 17 5.9%

2 29 10.1%

3 32 11.1%

4 54 18.8%

5 49 17.0%

6 29 10.1%

7 15 5.2%

8 9 3.1%

9 2 0.7%

10 2 0.7%

PHYSIOGNOMIC PROFILE

NATIVE 87.8% ADVENTIVE 12.2%

12 Tree 4.2% 3 Tree 1.0%

15 Shrub 5.2% 1 Shrub 0.3%

4 W-Vine 1.4% 1 W-Vine 0.3%

3 H-Vine 1.0% 0 H-Vine 0.0%

128 P-Forb 44.4% 6 P-Forb 2.1%

6 B-Forb 2.1% 3 B-Forb 1.0%

28 A-Forb 9.7% 9 A-Forb 3.1%

35 P-Grass 12.2% 7 P-Grass 2.4%

2 A-Grass 0.7% 5 A-Grass 1.7%

19 P-Sedge 6.6% 0 P-Sedge 0.0%

1 A-Sedge 0.3% 0 A-Sedge 0.0%

0 Fern 0.0% 0 Fern 0.0%

Description

Located along the Ozark side of the ecoregional transition to the Osage Plains (Figure 1), this site encompasses a low, broad upland ridge system with a predominately southeastern exposure. A small, downcut, intermittent tributary to Cedar Creek runs east through the southeast corner of the property. There is a shallow draw running southeast through the center of the tract, with a small, elongated pond. There is also a larger pond along the south boundary. Total elevational relief at the site is 50 feet.

Soils/Geology

Soil mapping information for Dade County is incomplete. According to a preliminary map provided by the Dade County NRCS office, most of the uplands of the site are in soils of the

Barco/Sylvania complex. These are loamy, acidic, moderately permeable soils formed from acid sandstones. Small areas near the northwest, northeast, and southeast corners of the site have Barden soils. These are deep, acid, slowly permeable loams and silty loams that developed in shale residuum with a silt or loess component. The upland draw through the center of the tract, and much of the swale of the larger intermittent stream at the southeast corner of the tract, consists of Hepler silt loam. This soil is a deep, acidic, slowly permeable soil said to have formed from silty alluvium under prairie and scattered hardwoods. Part of the swale at the southeast corner consists of Dameron silt loam, a very deep, nearly neutral, moderately permeable soil developed in alluvium.

Presettlement Vegetation

According to the 1841 Government Land Survey plat map for the township, based on field surveys conducted from 1835-1840, Penn-Sylvania Prairie was part of a large continuous expanse of tallgrass prairie (Figure 19). A lobe of timber associated with a stream occurred about a half mile north of the northeast corner of the site. There was also a small, elliptical grove of isolated timber mapped a half mile west of the northwestern corner of the tract.

Interestingly, the tributary to Cedar Creek running through the southeastern part of the tract is mapped as treeless prairie throughout its length. Since this stream crosses surveyed section line at three points along the boundary of Penn-Sylvania Prairie, this total lack of trees must be regarded as an accurate interpretation.

Current Vegetation

Most of the site consists of high quality dry-mesic sandstone-shale prairie. The vegetation associated with the intermittent stream is densely overgrown woody brush and trees, and there is brushy encroachment in the central draw. There are also thin strips of woody vegetation in fencelines along much of the site perimeter. The Hepler soils on the lower slopes in the southern part of the tract are often wet and seepy, and support a mesic (sometimes approaching wet-mesic) prairie community with abundant Panicum scoparium and Rhynchospora glomerata. Some of the lower slopes and small sideslope patches in the Barco-Sylvania complex also have small patches of mesic prairie vegetation. Two plants occurring in these mesic areas are known on MPF lands only from this site: Pycnanthemum pilosum and Veronicastrum virginicum.

The pond area in the central draw supports many wetland plants, including an extensive population of Juncus effusus and several other rushes. Two aquatic plants found here are unique to this area among all MPF sites: Brasenia schreberi and Nelumbo lutea.

The larger intermittent stream in the southeast part of the tract, and the adjacent pond, are dominated by dense woody invasion. These woodlands contain no notable woodland plants, testifying to their recent post-settlement origin and weedy nature.

Exotic Species

Three of the potentially problematic aggressive weeds designated in this study as Class 5 weeds are known from the site: Tall Fescue, Japanese Honeysuckle, and Osage Orange. Osage Orange is present only in small numbers in invasive woody areas. Tall Fescue is a minor weed in parts of the site, particularly along partially shaded prairie areas along the perimeter. The east part of the south boundary bordering the fescue field is particularly weedy. Japanese Honeysuckle is common in parts of the central draw and locally in the woodlands at the southeast corner, and is probably the most abundant weed at the site.

A few scattered plants of Sericea Lespedeza were noted off the site to the west and south, but we observed no plants on the tract during our visits, and if Sericea Lespedeza is present it occurs in very low numbers, most probably along the perimeter and in the northern half of the tract. Although 33 other species of exotic weeds are known from the site, none appear to be potential problems if a proper management regime is maintained. Native brush, notably Rubus species and Rhus copallina, is locally problematic in parts of the western half of the site.

Management Recommendations

The recently initiated program of woody vegetation removal should be continued, with the ultimate goal of complete reduction of all trees and shrub patches. Spot treatment of Japanese honeysuckle should be accompanied by repeated annual burnings of infested areas, as fuel loading permits, especially along the central draw. Parts of the upland prairie have scattered but abundant blackberry plants, and would benefit from a more regular fire regime.

Site Design Considerations

A small area west of the southwest corner of the tract, and more than 100 acres south and southwest of the tract, drain through the stream crossing the southeast corner. Much of this land is rough pasture with a native component. What happens on much of this land directly influences what will happen to the wettest phases of the vegetation at Penn-Sylvania Prairie, assuming the stream corridor can be opened up and restored to native herbaceous vegetation. It is a priority to establish a relationship with these landowners, and work as much as possible with them to insure that the surface watershed remains in deep-rooted perennial herbaceous vegetation. Prairie grasses or even a prairie restoration initiative would be ideal, but even a well managed, non-native, deep-rooted perennial forage would help to protect the watershed.

The 160 acre tract due north of Penn-Sylvania Prairie is a privately owned high quality prairie known as Coyne Prairie (Snadon Prairie). The owners are participants in The Nature Conservancy's Natural Areas Registry program, and have a long tradition of managing the land for its prairie attributes in conjunction with prairie hay production. Coyne Prairie is an essential element of the overall conservation design for this site, and an ongoing dialogue between the owners and MPF should incorporate discussions on all phases of management planning.

Because of watershed configuration and current land use and vegetation patterns, future actions for the site should be concentrated in section 22. The CRP land northeast of the site, and the extensive cropland to the east may be candidates for warm season or prairie wildlife-friendly plantings at some future date. The land to the south of the western half of the site is currently overgrown, but contains numerous prairie species and has restoration potential, particularly if a fire management program was initiated.

Conservation Significance

This is a diverse, high quality prairie in a critical landscape position. It lies within the Lamar focus area designated by the Grasslands Coalition as a priority for prairie chicken survival. Along with adjacent Coyne Prairie, this site is an essential component of a matrix of protected prairies that include Niawathe Prairie (320 acres) one half mile to the northeast, Horse Creek Prairie (80 acres) six miles to the south, and Stony Point Prairie 640 acres) two miles to the northwest.

The Floristic Quality Index for the site is 64, and the site flora has the second highest mean conservatism of any MPF site. This site also supports the only significant, though tiny, areas of intact mesic prairie on MPF land. These mesic communities are among the rarest natural community type in Missouri. As site restoration activities continue, there may be a possibility to recoalesce a small area of wet-mesic to wet prairie vegetation along the alluvial soils in the stream swale at the southeast corner of the tract.

Future evaluation should be conducted to determine the feasibility of concentrating a prairie habitat conservation program on the lands in the four sections encompassing Penn-Sylvania and Niawathe Prairies.

Schwartz Prairie

[240 acres, in St. Clair County (in sec. 13 T36N R27W; Roscoe 7.5' USGS quad)]

FLORISTIC QUALITY SUMMARY

337 Native taxa

51 Introduced taxa

3.99 mean conservatism (C value)

73.21 floristic quality index

1.5 native wetness

wetland category: FACULTATIVE UPLAND (+)

CONSERVATISM DISTRIBUTION OF SITE FLORA

C value No. %

* 51 13.1%

0 24 6.2%

1 25 6.4%

2 34 8.8%

3 52 13.4%

4 68 17.5%

5 59 15.2%

6 40 10.3%

7 14 3.6%

8 10 2.6%

9 5 1.3%

10 5 1.3%

PHYSIOGNOMIC PROFILE

NATIVE 86.9% ADVENTIVE 13.1%

22 Tree 5.7% 2 Tree 0.5%

18 Shrub 4.6% 1 Shrub 0.3%

8 W-Vine 2.1% 1 W-Vine 0.3%

5 H-Vine 1.3% 0 H-Vine 0.0%

141 P-Forb 36.3% 11 P-Forb 2.8%

8 B-Forb 2.1% 4 B-Forb 1.0%

60 A-Forb 15.5% 15 A-Forb 3.9%

37 P-Grass 9.5% 6 P-Grass 1.5%

10 A-Grass 2.6% 11 A-Grass 2.8%

21 P-Sedge 5.4% 0 P-Sedge 0.0%

4 A-Sedge 1.0% 0 A-Sedge 0.0%

3 Fern 0.8% 0 Fern 0.0%

Description

Situated along the transition between the Osage Plains and Ozark ecoregions (Figure 1), Schwartz Prairie consists of two broad uplands separated by a shallow northeast-trending drainage. Three small ponds occur in the vicinity of an old farm site at the southwestern corner of the tract. Just north of the ponds is a degraded glade on channel sandstone, which is an unusual type of sandstone formed in shallow, braided, freshwater stream systems. Total elevational relief at the site is 110 feet.

Soils/Geology

Soils in most of the northern half of the tract, including the drainage, are Barco or Collinsville fine sandy loam. These are acidic, permeable soils over sandstone bedrock that developed from

sandstone parent materials in prairie vegetation. The area around the sandstone glade and northward is Barden silt loam, an acidic soil developed in loess, sediments, and alluvium. These soils are only slowly permeable and have a perched water table. Small areas of Moniteau silt loam, an acidic alluvial soil, and Hector fine sandy loam, a sandstone-derived soil, also occur on the tract.

Presettlement Vegetation

According to the 1838 Government Land Survey maps, Schwartz Prairie was at the eastern edge of an approximately 12,000 acre island of prairie vegetation (Figure 21). This region was mapped as a complex intermingling of varying sizes of irregular prairie areas and extensive or stranded woodlands. Less than 100 yards east of Schwartz Prairie was a large continuous timber that extended east for more than seven miles. A small lobe of woodland extended south to within a mile of the northwest corner of the site, and there was an extensive north-south woodland within three miles to the west. There were also several other large prairie areas within five miles of the site to the northwest, northeast, and southwest.

Current Vegetation

Current vegetation of the site is mostly dry-mesic sandstone/shale prairie, with minuscule pockets of somewhat mesic prairie vegetation in the more open areas bordering slope bases and draws. Most of the draws are afflicted with dense invasive trees and brush, although there are some native oaks as well. The 40 acres containing the old farm site has been intensively used for grazing and row crops. There is essentially no native vegetation in this area, except for the immediate vicinity of the sandstone glade.

The sandstone glade displays evidence of a long history of intensive grazing, and attempts have been made to manipulate the surface channels for stock watering. Despite these abuses, and a vegetation dominated mostly by weedy native taxa, the bare rock areas and associated thin soil pockets of the glade itself support a number of plants unique among MPF lands, including a small population of the Federally Threatened Geocarpon minimum. Other species restricted to this glade among all MPF lands include Allium mutabile, Arenaria patula, Coreopsis lanceolata, Oenothera linifolia, Selaginella rupestris, Selenia aurea, Talinum calycinum, and T. parviflorum.

Elsewhere on the tract, sterile, acidic, sandy soils provide habitat for a number of species unique to this area among MPF sites, including Collinsia violacea, Krigia dandelion, the state listed Rhynchospora harveyi, and Scirpus koilolepis. The two westernmost ponds, situated in a weedy fescue pasture and apparently subject to large fluctuations in water level, have relatively low native diversity along the margins.

Forty-three plant species occurring at Schwartz Prairie are not known from any other MPF site. This is nearly twice the number of unique floristic elements as are known from any other MPF site.

Exotic Species

Exotic species at this site are mostly correlated with areas that have been converted from prairie, especially on the old farm tract. The sterile, droughty, acidic soils at the site are not conducive to most Old World weeds, which typically evolved in heavy, nutrient-rich agricultural soils. Because of this, even the fallow fields on the tract are dominated by weedy native plants such as Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Bidens polylepis, Erigeron annuus, and Rudbeckia hirta.

Four of the five potentially problematic aggressive exotics designated in this study as Class 5 weeds occur at the site: Tall Fescue, Sericea Lespedeza, Japanese Honeysuckle, and Osage Orange. The Honeysuckle and Osage Orange are restricted to overgrown brush, woods, and thickets. Tall Fescue dominates most of the western two thirds of the farm site, and is locally pervasive elsewhere on the tract, especially bordering woody vegetation or in partially shaded low areas. Sericea Lespedeza occurs at scattered locations, especially in the southern half of the site.

There are also areas with dense populations of both Korean and Japanese Bush Clover, particularly in the central area of the southern quarter of the site. A total of 45 species of exotic weeds have been documented from the site.

Management Recommendations

Site management actions are already underway, and seem to be well planned and executed. Continuing with this program, with the aim of reducing woody vegetation, eliminating aggressive weeds, and restoring formerly converted areas should continue to be the major foci of site work. Given the proximity of oak timbers to the eastern margin of the tract at the time of settlement, it might be advisable to thin but not eliminate the trees at the eastern end of the main draw, and to run regular fires through this area, closely tracking vegetation response. If there is any remnant woodland component to the vegetation, it should become evident within 5 years. The woody vegetation over the rest of the site should be eliminated. It should be possible to essentially eliminate Tall Fescue, Sericea Lespedeza, Osage Orange, and Japanese Honeysuckle from the site.

The small pond at the north end of the old cultivated field should be left alone, since it harbors an interesting assortment of native wetland plants. The two ponds in the old pasture unit north of the house site should be evaluated carefully for hydrologic impacts and any potential for impacting the glade system. It may be advisable to eliminate one or both of these, or it may be they provide benefits, such as serving as amphibian breeding sites, which mitigate against their removal.

Site Design Considerations

Most of the surface watershed of Schwartz Prairie is self-contained, except for the region to the south. The 160 acres due south of the prairie are the most important from a surface watershed perspective.

Much of the surrounding lands are degraded prairie pastures with native vegetation and varying degrees of brush and tree infestation. There are some areas of Tall Fescue pasture and formerly cropped ground to the west and north.

As discussed in TNC's June 1990 memo provided to MPF, consideration should be given to acquisition of or securing prairie conservation work on, critical adjacent lands to the south, east, and west. Securing native grass cover and insuring hydrologic integrity for the 320 acre tract south of Schwartz Prairie, in the north half of section 12, is probably the most important priority. The 80 acres west of the prairie that were part of the original purchase contain some original prairie and degraded lands on the tract are undergoing an active prairie restoration program. Some type of binding conservation agreement, such as an easement or irrevocable planned gift should be secured for this tract. From a management and boundary integrity perspective, acquisition of the SW1/4 NW1/4 sec. 1, which contains some prairie vegetation and some cool season pasture, would be helpful.

Conservation Significance

This site has the highest native diversity of any MPF lands, despite being only the third largest preserve. Most of the flora consists of relatively conservative species, resulting in a Floristic Quality Index of 73, far and away the highest of any MPF site. For these reasons alone, the prairie is a critical segment of Missouri's prairie biodiversity. The association with the sandstone glade provides an additional measure of biotic and habitat diversity.

The site is in the Wah'Kon-Tah Prairie Focus Area designated as a priority area for prairie chickens and prairie conservation issues by the Grassland Coalition. Wah'Kon-Tah Prairie, the second largest protected prairie in the state, lies seven miles to the west.

Schwartz Prairie is one of the remaining gems of Missouri's prairie landscape. From a vegetation plant diversity perspective, it is the crown jewel of the MPF sites. With ongoing site restoration work, and possible prairie restoration and management of priority adjacent lands, the significance and potential viability of the site will increase further.

Stilwell Prairie

[376 acres, in Vernon County (in sec. 3 T24S R33W; Richards 7.5' USGS quad)]

FLORISTIC QUALITY SUMMARY

300 Native taxa

57 Introduced taxa

3.66 mean conservatism (C value)

63.39 floristic quality index

1.5 native wetness

wetland category: FACULTATIVE UPLAND (+)

CONSERVATISM DISTRIBUTION OF SITE FLORA

C value No. %

* 57 16.0%

0 31 8.7%

1 22 6.2%

2 32 9.0%

3 52 14.6%

4 65 18.2%

5 46 12.9%

6 27 7.6%

7 8 2.2%

8 10 2.8%

9 2 0.6%

10 5 1.4%

PHYSIOGNOMIC PROFILE

NATIVE 84.0% ADVENTIVE 16.0%

17 Tree 4.8% 3 Tree 0.8%

15 Shrub 4.2% 1 Shrub 0.3%

7 W-Vine 2.0% 0 W-Vine 0.0%

3 H-Vine 0.8% 0 H-Vine 0.0%

141 P-Forb 39.5% 7 P-Forb 2.0%

8 B-Forb 2.2% 8 B-Forb 2.2%

51 A-Forb 14.3% 20 A-Forb 5.6%

30 P-Grass 8.4% 8 P-Grass 2.2%

7 A-Grass 2.0% 10 A-Grass 2.8%

17 P-Sedge 4.8% 0 P-Sedge 0.0%

2 A-Sedge 0.6% 0 A-Sedge 0.0%

2 Fern 0.6% 0 Fern 0.0%

Description

The westernmost MPF site, this area is about three miles east of the Kansas state line, in the heart of the eastern portion of the Osage Plains (Figure 1). The site encompasses the southern half of a broad, shallowly dissected north-south ridge system. There are several small intermittent headwater drainages running west off the west slope of the ridge system, and northeast off the east slope. Total elevational relief at the site is 120 feet. Five artificial ponds are scattered through the site, mostly on middle side slopes.

Soils/Geology

Most of the broad upland portions of the ridge are mapped as Liberal-Coweta-Barco soil complex. These soils are loams, sandy loams, and silty clay loams over sandstone bedrock and

are acidic, somewhat permeable, and developed in prairie over sandstone with interbedded shale. Some of the low, broad summits and sideslopes are developed in Lula silt loam and Zaar silty clay. Both of these are deep prairie soils developed in limestone and limestone with clayey shale, and range from acid above to alkaline in lower horizons. Lower sideslopes have acidic silt loams and silty clay loams in the Barden and Liberal associations.

Perhaps the most interesting soils on the site are small curving bands of Balltown flaggy silt clay loam at the northeast and south central parts of the tract. These shallow soils lie over limestone and developed from limestone parent materials in a prairie environment. They are alkaline, and have copious limestone fragments in some areas.

More detailed soil studies may result in a revised map; several areas on upper sideslopes are mapped as soils developed in sandstone over sandstone bedrock but have limestone fragments and distinctly calciphilic vegetation.

Presettlement Vegetation

According to the Government Land Survey maps of 1843 and 1844, Stilwell Prairie was part of a continuous expanse of prairie between two east-west trending belts of streamside timber about seven miles apart (Figure 23). The nearest timber was the north end of a narrow band of timber along Cottonwood Creek two miles southwest of Stilwell Prairie, and a broader belt of timber along the Little Osage River two miles north of the site. The numerous streams in the vicinity of Stilwell Prairie are mapped as prairie and not timbered. The maps also show a military road and a few settlements about 2 miles north of the site, as well as several cabins four miles to the south.

Current Vegetation

Current vegetation at the site reflects a history of intensive agricultural activities, including cattle grazing and row cropping. The tract contains a complex of prairie with varying degrees of woody invasion, formerly cropped lands in varying stages of passive recovery and with varying degrees of erosional degradation, and dense post-settlement woodlands of low diversity.

There are about 30 acres of high quality prairie in the center of the southern quarter of the tract. Part of the northeast corner of this area, on the alkaline Balltown soils discussed previously, contains a small, mingled population of Astragalus caryocarpus and Lomatium foeniculaceum. Both of these are species with affinities to the Great Plains and are near the eastern edge of their range at this site. Their presence at Stilwell Prairie is unique among MPF sites. Much of this prairie area has apparently been overseeded with Japanese Bush Clover, which is abundant throughout the low ground layer vegetation.

Much of the northern half of the tract consists of dry-mesic prairie, with some lower side slopes having tiny pockets of mesic prairie. The eastern third of the site is densely overgrown with woodlands that are artifacts of modern land use. These woodlands are low in native diversity, and are dominated in many places by Osage Orange and other weedy trees.

The previously cropped areas are often eroded and sterile, but have some native components and excellent recovery potential. None of the streams at the site are permanent, although removal of trees and establishment of deep-rooted prairie vegetation might reduce evapotranspirational water levels and increase infiltration rates to the point that the toe slopes serve as small springs and recharge the lower reaches of the draws throughout the year.

Twenty five species of plants documented from Stilwell Prairie are known from no other MPF site. More than half of these are opportunistic native weeds or nonconservative woodland plants, such as Acer negundo, Chenopodium standleyanum, and Hackelia virginiana. Others, such as Physalis angulata are native weeds of restricted distribution in the state. Plants such as Ophioglossum engelmannii are obligately associated with the calcium-rich soils derived from areas of limestone bedrock. There are also records of Asclepias meadii at the site, although it was not observed during this study.

Exotic Species

With a total of 57 documented exotic weeds, Stilwell Prairie has the highest number of exotics and also the largest proportion of its flora (16%) consisting of introduced taxa. Four of the five most aggressive and potentially problematic weeds designated as Class 5 weeds during this study occur at the site: Tall Fescue, Sericea Lespedeza, Osage Orange, and Johnson Grass. Perplexingly, we were unable to locate any Japanese Honeysuckle, although given the disturbance history and current vegetation of the area it almost certainly occurs here.

Areas of exposed, previously cleared, limestone-rich soils are locally infested with White Sweet Clover and Tall Fescue. Scattered populations of Sericea Lespedeza occur throughout the tract, even in the best prairie vegetation. Many of the woodlands are a nearly impenetrable nightmare of thorny trees, notably Osage Orange and Honey Locust. Although Honey Locust is regarded as native in Missouri, it was never native in this area, and is an introduced weed at the site.

As mentioned previously, the southern area of good prairie was apparently overseeded with Japanese Bush Clover, and it remains a pervasive component of the site vegetation in this and other localized areas.

Management Recommendations

Stilwell Prairie presents the greatest management challenges of any MPF site, from both a perspective of sheer scale, and from the severity of past land abuses. Some of the impacts, such as soil erosion, have the potential to alter prevailing vegetation succession patterns for decades or centuries. This site will require more reconstructive restoration than any other site currently in MPF ownership.

The ongoing program of intensive removal of woody vegetation should be continued. Based on presettlement vegetation data, topography, and soils, there is no need to keep any trees on site, with the exception of a few native woody species such as Ilex decidua, which may have existed as scattered individuals along the wetter toe slope draws. Areas with dense woody overstory and depauperate ground layer flora should be evaluated for erosion potential, and sensitive sites should be thinned in a two-tiered approach that establishes a well developed ground layer flora before canopy removal is completed.

As discussed previously, restoration plantings should utilize mixes aimed at maximizing the diversity of seed materials incorporated in the planting mix, including prairie species typically associated with areas both wetter and drier than the intended planting site. The complex soil configuration at the site, exacerbated by ionic infiltrations from proximal substrates, makes determination of the specific habitat character difficult. Restoration plantings should include species with a variety of pH and substrate requirements.

Given the degraded nature of the site, and the manipulative restoration that will be required, conservative native vegetation not documented from the site but known to occur in similar habitats in the immediate region should be considered as restoration candidates. Subsequent management activities should not be geared towards maintaining populations of any single restoration element, but at sustaining or emulating the process regimes and site conditions that prevailed at the site during the presettlement period, and thus providing a context of stability within which the biota can change and adapt to the gradual alterations that affect all systems.

The small area with the Lomatium and Astragalus should be monitored and managed to sustain these elements; this may require fall or late growing season burns to reduce grass dominance.

Site Design Considerations

Little consideration was given to site design at Stilwell Prairie during this study. The surface watershed is self-contained within MPF ownership. Most of the surrounding lands are in pasture or row crop agriculture, with most of the pastures appearing previously cropped. The tract bordering the northern half of the east boundary contains some natives in a very weedy pasture, but would fill in a management boundary.

There are no nearby prairies in protected ownerships, although the site lies just north of the Marmaton River Watershed Landscape Conservation Area identified by MDC and TNC.

Conservation Significance

This is the largest tract in MPF ownership. Despite a history of abusive management activities, it supports rich prairie vegetation. The presence of 300 native plant species is significant. The mean conservatism of the vegetation is the second lowest of any MPF site, as would be expected in an area with this land use history. This level of mean conservatism is still incredibly high - virtually no land other than natural areas supports such vegetation today. The Floristic Quality Index of 63 indicates the tremendous recovery potential for the site under a suitable restoration and management regime.

Aspects of this prairie are unique among MPF sites. Stilwell and LaPetite Gemme are the only MPF sites with significant alkaline soil areas, and the limestone-derived soils at LaPetite Gemme are in many ways more evocative of an Ozark glade, reflecting the influences of its location in the Ozark ecoregion. Stilwell Prairie has influences from the Great Plains and the western elements of the tallgrass complex. Aggressive restoration of degraded portions of the tract, and rehabilitation of existing prairie areas, should reveal the presence of a number of additional plant species, possibly including elements of conservation significance.

LITERATURE CITED

Altom, J. V., J. F. Strizke, and D. L. Weeks. 1992. Sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata) control with selective postemergence herbicides. Weed Technology Journal 6(3): 573-576.

Bowles, M. L., D. Tecic, D. Nickerent, B. Schaal, D. Hayworth, and K. Williamson. 1995. Recovery and restoration implications of DNA and allozyme variation in Mead's milkweed. Unpublished report to U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 35 pp.

Christisen, D. M. 1998. Prairie profile -- Drovers' Prairie. Missouri Prairie Journal 19(2): 4-5.

Evans, J. E. 1984. Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica): a literature review of management practices. Natural Areas Journal 4(2): 4-10.

Glass, B. 1992. Vegetation management guideline: osage orange (Maclura pomifera (Raf.) Schneider). Natural Areas Journal 12(1): 43-44.

Gleason, H. A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada, 2nd ed. New York: New York Botanical Garden. lxxv + 910 pp.

Goldman, D. H. 1995. A new species of Calopogon from the midwestern United States. Lindleyana 10: 37-42.

Hamilton, B. 1998. Exotics on the tallgrass. Oklahoma Conservator 37(4): 6.

Hodges, J. 1998. How to kill tall fescue: the recipe for success. Quail Unlimited Magazine, January/February issue.

Hurd, R. M. and D. M. Christisen. 1975. Ecological Study of Friendly Prairie, Missouri. pp. 89-101 in Wali, M. K., ed. Prairie: a multiple view. Grand Forks: University of North Dakota Press.

Ladd, D. 1997. Vascular plants of midwestern tallgrass prairies. pp. 351-397 in: Packard, S. and C. F. Mutel, eds. The tallgrass restoration handbook. Washington, D. C.: Island Press. xxxii + 463 pp.

Ladd, D. 1991. Reexamination of the role of fire in Missouri oak woodlands. Proceedings of the Oak Woods Management Workshop, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston: 67-80.

Ladd, D. and B. Heumann. 1995. Prairie State Park: baseline assessment and vegetation monitoring establishment. Final report for Missouri Department of Natural Resources contract # 801781697. 189 pp.

Ladd, D. and B. Heumann. 1994. Baseline ecological assessment of selected oak woodlands on the Houston-Rolla District, Mark Twain National Forest. Final report for USDA Forest Service challenge cost share agreement 05-09-119. 183 pp.

Missouri Department of Conservation. 1998. Missouri species of conservation concern checklist. Jefferson City: vi + 29 pp.

The Nature Conservancy. 1997. Designing a geography of hope -- guidelines for ecoregion-based conservation in The Nature Conservancy. Arlington, VA. viii + 84 pp.

Nelson, P. W. 1985. The terrestrial natural communities of Missouri. Jefferson City: Missouri Natural Areas Committee. ix + 197 pp.

Schroeder, W. A. 1981. Presettlement prairie of Missouri. Missouri Department of Conservation Natural History series no. 2. iii + 37 pp.

Solecki, M. K. 1997. Controlling invasive plants. pp. 251-278 in: Packard, S. and C. F. Mutel, eds. The tallgrass restoration handbook. Washington, D. C.: Island Press. xxxii + 463 pp.

Steyermark, J. A. 1963. Flora of Missouri. Ames: Iowa State University Press. lxxxii + 1728 pp.

Taft, J. B., G. S. Wilhelm, D. M. Ladd, and L. A. Masters. 1997. Floristic quality assessment for vegetation in Illinois, a method for assessing vegetation integrity. Erigenia 15: 3-95.

Toney, T. 1989. A management plan for the prairies administered by the Missouri Department of Conservation. Jefferson City: Missouri Department of Conservation. iii + 183 pp.

Weber, W. R., P. Nelson, and R. Budde. 1984. Vascular plant species list, LaPetite Gemme Prairie, Polk County, Missouri. Missouri Prairie Journal 6(1): 7-13.

Yatskievych, G. 1999. Steyermark's Flora of Missouri, volume I. Jefferson City: Missouri Department of Conservation. xii + 991 pp.

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1. As used here, natural areas are places where site conditions, biota, and process regimes display some level of spatial and temporal continuity with their presettlement incarnations.

2. ¹The floristic quality index, I, is based on a regression of the mean C value of all the native flora in a site (or plot), C, by the aggregate native diversity of the site (or plot), n, according to the formula I = C(n^½).

3. ¹the coefficient of similarity, S, is calculated as S = 2C/[a + b], where a = number of taxa in flora of site A, b = number of taxa in flora of site B, and C = number of taxa common to the floras of both site A and site B.