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Re: [BMP-List] prairie/savanna remnants and soil type

John,
It's a good question. My experience tells me it isn't the specific soil types but more the lack of soil depth. Dubuque silt loam has some prairie remnants where it becomes thin over bedrock so that it wasn't plowed, but most of that soil was deep enough to be plowed. It is more the percent slope and aspect (direction of slope) that make for the steep prairie remnants. In Iowa County and the Town of Vermont there are savanna remnants associated with St. Peter Sandstone and Prairie du Chien dolomite. Those areas should perhaps be preserved as part of a land use plan, but preservation alone with the current fire suppression and deer browse and invasive species really doesn't mean a whole lot.
Bob Wernerehl
Ecologist
The Blue Mounds Area Project

At 12:05 PM 3/10/2004 -0600, you wrote:
Hello.

I''ve read and heard that most prairie/savanna remnants in Dane County, Wisconsin, are found on steep slopes or poor soil not suitable for agriculture.

I realize it is a long shot, but has anyone found a statistically significant correlation between such remnants and certain slopes or certain USDA soil types? I'm wondering whether this information might be used to set aside specific areas as part of a land use plan. I know this would not be 100% effective, but it might help. The goal is to find objective criteria for setting aside land without relying on site inventories.

Thank you for any suggestions.

John A. Raasch
Mount Horeb


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