Near the end of the year I thought it an opportune time to summarize the past couple years attempts to bring a prairie restoration to life on my land in Day County, South Dakota. Much of the work that was done in 2017 and 2018 has been discussed in other posts, but it seemed worthwhile to integrate that work with what has been done the past year in a single post.

Over the summer and fall of 2017 I planned for and received a contract to put 154 acres into the continuous CRP program, split between the wetland restoration program (CP 23) and the pollinator habitat program (CP 42). Much of the CP 23 CRP, 54 acres, was on my northeast quarter, following a linear wetland that bisects the quarter. This was seeded to a diverse mix of native species (about 25 species) by the conservation district in November of 2017. I was not attempting to do a comprehensive restoration on this land because the shape of the tract meant issues with pesticide drift were inevitable. Thus, I had limited goals for the services this land would provide.

The remainder, 100 acres on the southwest quarter where I planned to do a more complete restoration, were not able to be seeded at the same time because of concern I had for herbicide carryover on a few acres which had been spot-treated for tall waterhemp control in the soybeans in July, 2017. The spring of 2018 was late and wet, and it was mid-June before the field was seeded by staff of the Day County Conservation District with their drill. There were three different seed mixes for three different range sites: xeric, dry mesic and mesic. Each mix had 30-35 different species purchased through Milborn Seeds in Brookings, South Dakota. In addition to the official seed mix I spread seed that I had gathered the past growing season from adjacent native prairies I own, seed that had been gathered by Ben Lardy, a Pheasants Forever employee working in Day County and a variety of small amounts of seed that I had purchased from Prairie Moon Seeds in Minnesota. These were spread in appropriate areas about the same time.

I realized that the timing of the seeding precluded the seeds undergoing stratification, a period of cold needed to overcome dormancy, so my expectations for what I would see that summer were modest. However, even my modest expectations were dashed by what I observed. It became evident that the mixtures of seed had bridged in the drill box, and large areas had not been seeded. Perhaps 40 acres were showing no seedlings, 30 acres were showing scattered seedlings and 30 acres were already looking well established by Labor Day last year (most likely those 30 acres had received 70-80% of the seed). Most distressing, the largest empty area adjoined a native grass pasture where Dakota skipper (Hesperia dacotae) butterflies had been found. One of the main drivers for the project had been to extend the habitat for these skippers and so far I had nothing for them.

Zone 1: 30 acres of dry mesic soils which have an excellent stand from the original seeding

Zone 2: 30 acres which showed scattered seedling growth by fall, 2018. The two main areas include both the wettest and the most xeric soils on the field. Thus, even though I have it listed as one zone it is actually managed as about four.

Zone 3: Zero stand on about 25 acres of mostly xeric soils in the heart of the restoration.

Zone 4: Zero stand on 15 acres of mesic soils adjoining the farm field.

During the summer and fall of 2018 I gathered substantial amounts of seed from my prairies, as well as several other prairies owned by friends, and augmented that with seed gathered by Ben Lardy. After evaluating what we had, I further augmented that with seed purchased from Milborns, primarily grasses. In November we spread this on Zones 2 and 3, with emphasis on Zone 3 near the skipper habitat, adding 20-25 seeds per square foot. On Zone 4 we spread primarily purchased seed, including what Milborns calls “Native Harvest” mix, seed harvested directly from a native prairie. All this would receive a full stratification over winter, putting the fall seeding on track to jump out of the ground in 2019. And in order to put the maximum effort in improving Zones 2,3 and 4 I had to accept that Zone 1 would be what it was.

Over the long winter of 2018/2019 I thought about all the problems of the 2018 seeding, all the weak spots and all the mistakes I had made. I decided that it was worthwhile to continue to provide even more seed to provide a veneer of redundancy to cover some of those mistakes. Here is the plan those winter musings became.

First, I was still concerned with the barren hills on Zone 3. Here is what it looked like in late May, 2019, a year after seeding:

Though I had worked very hard to cover this area with seed the previous fall I bought and blended about 15 species, all with minimal seed dormancy, to attempt to get more seedlings started on the gravelly hills. Ben brought the broadcast seeder out once more and we spread another 15 seeds/square foot on the 25 acres of Zone 3 and 15 adjacent acres of xeric soils of Zone 2.

During the summer and fall of 2019 I once more obsessively gathered seed from my prairies. Building upon the knowledge gained the past two seasons, and upon what turned into a good year for seed production, I was able to make more efficient use of my time, both in knowing locations to find various species and in having a better feel for the “Goldilocks” timing for harvest. I was able to gather 8-10 new species and gathered much larger amounts of 15-20 species that I had gathered minimal amounts of in 2018. It was a very successful and enjoyable venture.

Once more Ben brought out the broadcast seeder and after blending my gathered seed with some additional grass seed it was spread over all of Zone 3, all but the wetter areas of Zone 2 and a few adjacent acres of the Zone 1. About another 10-15 seeds per square foot were spread.

We spread a different seed mix over Zone 4, the 15 acres on the east side next to the farm field. It had been too wet to seed in the spring, but I had also been neglecting that area for another reason. A bad infestation of Canada thistle had established itself during the summer of 2018, and I feared that any additional seeding was futile until the thistles were controlled. I had the farmer who rents my farm ground spray the 15 acres in late June with Widematch, a common wheat herbicide with excellent thistle activity. Then in November I purchased a 14 species blend of native species with tolerance to Milestone, another excellent thistle killer. Hopefully I can get some forbs established through the weeds, and if not I will at least have a 15 acre native grass border to provide a buffer between the farm field and the restoration.

That brings us to today. In total, 145 native prairie species have been seeded, with perhaps 100 seeded in significant amounts. Zone 1 has its original CRP blend of 30-35 species and the density of plants is such that it will be very difficult to establish anything more (remember this area likely got more than a 2X seeding rate to start). Zone 2 filled in pretty well last summer, and is likely to fill in completely this summer, hopefully including much of the gathered seed that was spread a year ago. Zone 3 still looks like hell, but by the end of the fall I could find new perennial prairie seedlings every spot I looked (and I looked at hundreds of spots). And Zone 4 is a big question mark, but it will at least have a diverse grass cover.

CODA

Life is frustrating for all of us because it so rarely matches our expectations. I have certainly been frustrated by the poor job done on the original CRP seeding. Even now after several remedial seedings it is nowhere near my vision for a prairie restoration. However, I must not let the act of looking back come at the expense of doing my best today. I like the Buddhist take on this universal dilemma. To paraphrase: “Suffering is universal and caused by our desire for life to be different than it is; yet there is a path beyond suffering through changing how we think about and act in the world.” I read a book about 20 years ago called “The Dancing Wu Li Masters” which compared Eastern thought to the physics of relativity and quantum mechanics. Two things stand out from my memory of the book. The first is that everything is always interconnected and changing. The second is illustrated by the way chapters were labeled. Each chapter was Chapter 1. We are always beginning again, and what we are doing is always important because each action changes the world. So today I begin again, as I will again tomorrow. We boldly and bravely go out every day to remake the world.