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how much prairie

I sometimes post emails from this list to prairie friends who for one
reason or another are not on this list. I sent Geoffrey's summation to
my friend and this is what she had to add.
MJ Hatfield

       It seems to me and a few others I've talked to that the answer to
"how much prairie is left in Iowa"  (and the figure I keep hearing is
about 3/100 of 1%)  largely depends on how generous one is willing to be
in considering a degraded site to still be a prairie.   If we're talking
about how much high-quality prairie is left, the answer will be very
different than if we're
willing to include (1)  very beat-up remnants that have never been
plowed but have been sprayed, overseeded with exotics, and overgrazed to
the point that many natives are now gone, and/or (2)  remnants which
have been so invaded by woodies that it's hard to tell how many natives
are left.

       The answer may also depend on why the question is being asked. Is
it being asked in terms of "actual existing good prairie", or "possible
potential good prairie if intensive restoration/management were
possible"?  In a practical sense,  I'm not willing to just write off
degraded areas, partly
because they can sometimes improve remarkably with good management,
partly because Iowa doesn't  have enough prairie remnants to be able to
write them off easily, and partly because sometimes those beat-up
remnants, though depauperate, have unusual species.

       In addition, those remnants may have species, especially
early-spring bloomers,  that aren't often found in reconstructions,
which gives them extra value as seed sources.   One example is a small
riparian area of our land which may not have been plowed but apparently
had a near-death grazing experience at some point.  We've been burning
and removing brush for ten
years, and it is now clear that it has almost no natives left except
Scribner's panic grass, blue-eyed grass, and frilled puccoon, plus
Monarda, whorled milkweed, hoary vervain, and a few other unpalatable
common natives. I think it would be really stretching things to call it
a prairie remnant, but we wouldn't plow it up to plant it -- we're
overseeding with local-ecotype seed.

        I've seen pasture remnants in not-much-better shape, and also
pieces of land with a few prairie natives still trying to bloom in the
middle of woody invasion (Eurasian buckthorn, elm, red cedar, etc.)
Whether those areas are considered "prairie" or not would probably
determine how much Iowa prairie is left.





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