Russell R. Kirt Prairie

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Russell R. Kirt Prairie
Russell R. Kirt Prairie sign.jpg
USA Illinois location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Coordinates 41°50′24″N88°04′33″W / 41.84000°N 88.07583°W / 41.84000; -88.07583 Coordinates: 41°50′24″N88°04′33″W / 41.84000°N 88.07583°W / 41.84000; -88.07583
Area18 acres (7.3 ha)
Established1984
Named for Russell R. Kirt
Operator College of DuPage
cod.edu/academics/programs/biology/natural_areas/index.aspx

Russell R. Kirt Prairie is a restored tallgrass prairie and savanna within the College of DuPage Natural Areas. [1] A Trail Guide published by the college provides background information and ecological notes. [2] In addition to the mesic prairie and oak savanna, the site also includes a small hill prairie, swale, marsh and wetland areas. [2] : 8 

Contents

Professor Russell R. Kirt states on the back cover of his book Prairie Plants of the Midwest: Identification and Ecology that he "began restoring prairie in 1974, two years after Ray Schulenberg of the Morton Arboretum introduced him to the prairie". [3] In 1981 he started the restoration project by obtaining grant money from the college's Board Of Trustees, and began collecting native seeds and seedlings from sites within a 40-km radius of the college to ensure local genotypes. [4] In 1984, he reestablished a former farmland and parking lot at the college to prairie with the help of numerous volunteers, including students. The restoration used two methods, either seed broadcast or seedling transplant. [5] Whenever possible, species associations as described by Swink and Wilhelm [6] were planted together.

He monitored the site for at least 16 years, and published his findings at the North American Prairie Conference. [7] [8] After 16 years, the Floristic Quality Index (Index Value in Professor Kirt's papers) in areas restored by either method reached about 30, with no significant difference between the two. [8] : 103 

The college Board Of Trustees designated the site as West Prairie-Marsh Nature Preserve in December 1993, and renamed it Russell R. Kirt Prairie in November 1999. [2] : 8 

The prairie is located less than 100 meters from the college's Health and Science Center, making it the only sizable restored prairie in the U.S. that is within walking distance of a college classroom building, and it is often used for field study by biology, botany, and environmental science classes. [9] The college offers a Prairie Ecology class that focuses on the tallgrass prairie ecosystem, with extensive hands-on studies in the prairie. [10] [2] : 17  Other disciplines that make use of the prairie resource include earth science, art, and photography. [11]

Management

Prescribed burns [12] are conducted in the spring and the fall to control weeds and to restore the natural area. [13] In addition, many volunteers are needed to help in hand weeding of invasive plants, seed collection and processing, brush cutting and clearing, and trash removal. [14]

Seeds collected from the prairie are traded with other restoration projects in the region. [15]

Species diversity

The number of plant species identified by Professor Kirt in his studies included 293 native and introduced species. Each species is associated with a coefficient of conservatism (or C value in Professor Kirt's papers) that enable ecologists to determine the Floristic Quality Index (FQI, or Index Value) of an ecosystem. [16] As of 1999 the FQI of the prairie was about 30. [8] : 98 

The plant species are classified into 31 plant families. [17] The three most prominent families are Poaceae (grasses), Fabaceae (legumes), and Asteraceae (composites). [18]

Detailed flowering dates of forbs and grasses growing at the prairie can be found in a phenological chart in Professor Kirt's book [3] : xiii–xvii  and also in the Trail Guide. [2] : 24–26 

Rare species that can be found at the prairie include the federally endangered Dalea foliosa (Leafy Prairie Clover) and the Illinois endangered Nycticorax nycticorax (Black-crowned Night Heron). [2] : 19 

Ecology

Many ecological studies have been conducted at the prairie by college faculty and others. Target species that have been studied include small mammals such as white-footed mouse , [19] [20] ants, [21] [22] and baptisia seed pod weevil . [23] [24]

Many citizen scientists have used the prairie and surrounding natural areas as a monitoring site for birds, [25] frogs, [26] butterflies, [27] dragonflies, [28] etc. The diversity of flora and fauna at the site is documented at the citizen science portals eBird as a "hotspot" [29] and at iNaturalist as a "place" [30] as well as a "project". [31]

Community education

Since 2016, a full-time prairie manager oversees overall management of the prairie, and also coordinates community education and outreach programs. Guided tours and work days are available to students for service-learning opportunities [32] as well as to the general public. [14] [33]

A meeting point for Prairie tours is the Community Education Fuel Garden [34] where students learn sustainable agriculture. [35]

In 2017, the college installed two honey bee beehives in partnership with The Honeybee Conservancy and Kline Creek Farm [36] to provide pollination and to serve as a learning lab for students and the community. [37]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prairie</span> Ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome

Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type. Temperate grassland regions include the Pampas of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, and the steppe of Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan. Lands typically referred to as "prairie" tend to be in North America. The term encompasses the area referred to as the Interior Lowlands of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, which includes all of the Great Plains as well as the wetter, hillier land to the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grassland</span> Area with vegetation dominated by grasses

A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica and are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. Furthermore, grasslands are one of the largest biomes on earth and dominate the landscape worldwide. There are different types of grasslands: natural grasslands, semi-natural grasslands, and agricultural grasslands. They cover 31–69% of the Earth's land area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tallgrass prairie</span> Ecosystem native to central North America

The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals provided periodic disturbances to these ecosystems, limiting the encroachment of trees, recycling soil nutrients, and facilitating seed dispersal and germination. Prior to widespread use of the steel plow, which enabled large scale conversion to agricultural land use, tallgrass prairies extended throughout the American Midwest and smaller portions of southern central Canada, from the transitional ecotones out of eastern North American forests, west to a climatic threshold based on precipitation and soils, to the southern reaches of the Flint Hills in Oklahoma, to a transition into forest in Manitoba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oak savanna</span> Lightly forested grassland where oak trees are dominant

An oak savanna is a type of savanna—or lightly forested grassland—where oaks are the dominant trees. The terms "oakery" or "woodlands" are also used commonly, though the former is more prevalent when referencing the Mediterranean area. These savannas were maintained historically through wildfires set by lightning, humans, grazing, low precipitation, and/or poor soil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Restoration ecology</span> Scientific study of renewing and restoring ecosystems

Restoration ecology is the scientific study supporting the practice of ecological restoration, which is the practice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human interruption and action. Effective restoration requires an explicit goal or policy, preferably an unambiguous one that is articulated, accepted, and codified. Restoration goals reflect societal choices from among competing policy priorities, but extracting such goals is typically contentious and politically challenging.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fire ecology</span> Study of fire in ecosystems

Fire ecology is a scientific discipline concerned with natural processes involving fire in an ecosystem and the ecological effects, the interactions between fire and the abiotic and biotic components of an ecosystem, and the role as an ecosystem process. Many ecosystems, particularly prairie, savanna, chaparral and coniferous forests, have evolved with fire as an essential contributor to habitat vitality and renewal. Many plant species in fire-affected environments require fire to germinate, establish, or to reproduce. Wildfire suppression not only eliminates these species, but also the animals that depend upon them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie</span>

The Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie (MNTP) is a tallgrass prairie reserve and similarly preserved as United States National Grassland operated by the United States Forest Service. The first national tallgrass prairie ever designated in the U.S. and the largest conservation site in the Chicago Wilderness region, it is located on the site of the former Joliet Army Ammunition Plant between the towns of Elwood, Manhattan and Wilmington in northeastern Illinois. Since 2015, it has hosted a conservation herd of American bison to study their interaction with prairie restoration and conservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prairie restoration</span> Type of habitat conservation

Prairie restoration is a conservation effort to restore prairie lands that were destroyed due to industrial, agricultural, commercial, or residential development. For example, the U.S. state of Illinois alone once held over 35,000 square miles (91,000 km2) of prairie land and now just 3 square miles (7.8 km2) of that original prairie land is left.

<i>Sporobolus heterolepis</i> Species of flowering plant

Sporobolus heterolepis, commonly known as prairie dropseed, is a species of prairie grass native to the tallgrass and mixed grass prairies of central North America from Texas to southern Canada. It is also found further east, to the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada, but is much less common beyond the Great Plains and is restricted to specialized habitats. It is found in 27 states and four Canadian provinces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Konza Prairie Biological Station</span>

The Konza Prairie Biological Station is a 8,616-acre (3,487 ha) protected area of native tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills of northeastern Kansas. "Konza" is an alternative name for the Kansa or Kaw Indians who inhabited this area until the mid-19th century. The Konza Prairie is owned by The Nature Conservancy and Kansas State University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge</span> National wildlife refuge in Minnesota, United States

Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge was created on October 12, 2004, the 545th National Wildlife Refuge in the United States. Its creation was the result of cooperation between at least 30 agencies or governmental entities. The creation of the refuge was spearheaded by The Nature Conservancy, and the initial endowment of 2,300 acres (9.3 km2) of land was donated by the Conservancy. In light of its planned final size of 37,756 acres (153 km2), it is described by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as "the largest tallgrass prairie and wetland restoration project in U.S. history."

<i>Dalea foliosa</i> Species of plant

Dalea foliosa, commonly called leafy prairie clover, is a species of flowering plant in the legume family (Fabaceae). It is an endangered species in the United States, where it occurs in three states: Illinois, Tennessee, and Alabama.

Lloyd Clair Hulbert was a professor of biology at Kansas State University from 1955 until 1986. He was recognized for his work to establish Konza Prairie and served as its first director from 1971-1986. Hulbert was internationally known for his "research of bluestem (tallgrass) prairie and prairie-forest interactions."

<i>Asclepias meadii</i> Species of flowering plant

Asclepias meadii is a rare species of milkweed known by the common name Mead's milkweed. It is native to the American Midwest, where it was probably once quite widespread in the tallgrass prairie. Today much of the Midwest has been fragmented and claimed for agriculture, and the remaining prairie habitat is degraded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prairie remnant</span>

A prairie remnant commonly refers to grassland areas in the Western and Midwestern United States and Canada that remain to some extent undisturbed by European settlement. Prairie remnants range in levels of degradation but nearly all contain at least some semblance of the pre-Columbian local plant assemblage of a particular region. Prairie remnants have become increasingly threatened due to the threats of agricultural, urban and suburban development, pollution, fire suppression, and the incursion of invasive species.

Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) is a tool used to assess an area's ecological integrity based on its plant species composition. Floristic Quality Assessment was originally developed in order to assess the likelihood that impacts to an area "would be irreversible or irretrievable...to make standard comparisons among various open land areas, to set conservation priorities, and to monitor site management or restoration efforts." The concept was developed by Gerould Wilhelm in the 1970s in a report on the natural lands of Kane County, Illinois. In 1979 Wilhelm and Floyd Swink codified this "scoring system" for the 22-county Chicago Region.

Stephen Packard is an American conservationist, author, and ecological restoration practitioner active in the Chicago area.

James F. Steffen is an American ecologist with expertise in Midwestern United States flora and fauna.

<i>Trichapion rostrum</i> Species of weevil in the family of Brentidae

Trichapion rostrum, the baptisia seed pod weevil or wild indigo weevil, is a species of weevil in the family Brentidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cemetery prairie</span> Remnant of original grassland ecosystem

Cemetery prairies are remnants of native North American prairie that survive on land set aside by settler-colonizers as burial grounds. These places were thus left unplowed and largely undisturbed, such that the cemeteries became de facto nature preserves.

References

  1. ↑ "Natural Areas". College of DuPage.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kirt, Russell R. (1995). Russell R. Kirt Prairie Trail Guide. College of DuPage.
  3. 1 2 Kirt, Russell R. (1995). Prairie Plants of the Midwest: Identification and Ecology. Stipes Publishing. ISBN   0875635733.
  4. ↑ Lenhart, Jennifer (July 21, 1992). "Pioneer Spirit Fuels Teacher's Prairie Project". Chicago Tribune.
  5. ↑ Kirt, Russell R. (August 5–9, 1990). "Quantitative Trends in Progression Toward a Prairie State by Seed Broadcast and Seedling Transplant Methods" (PDF). Proceedings of the Twelfth North American Prairie Conference. University of Northern Iowa: 183–188.
  6. ↑ Swink, Floyd; Wilhelm, Gerould (1994). Plants of the Chicago Region, 4th Edition. Indiana Academy of Science. ISBN   1883362016.
  7. ↑ Kirt, Russell R. (1997). Warwick, Charles (ed.). "A nine-year assessment of successional trends in prairie plantings using seed broadcast and seedling transplant methods". Proceedings of the Fifteenth North American Prairie Conference. University of Wisconsin Digital Collections: 144–153.
  8. 1 2 3 Kirt, Russell R. (2001). Bernstein, Neil P.; Ostrander, Laura J. (eds.). "A Sixteen Year Assessment of Vegetational Changes in Prairie Seed Broadcast and Seedling Transplant Sites". Proceedings of the Seventeenth North American Prairie Conference. University of Wisconsin Digital Collections: 98–106.
  9. ↑ "Russell R. Kirt Prairie". Wild Ones.
  10. ↑ "Botany (BOTAN)". College of DuPage.
  11. ↑ "Free Tours this Summer of COD's 30-Year-Old Russell R. Kirt Prairies". Patch Media. May 19, 2015.
  12. ↑ Randa, Lynda A.; Yunger, John A. (2001). Bernstein, Neil P.; Ostrander, Laura J. (eds.). "A comparison of management techniques on plant species composition and biomass in a tallgrass prairie restoration". Proceedings of the Seventeenth North American Prairie Conference. University of Wisconsin Digital Collections: 92–106.
  13. ↑ Fresa, Kitt (May 11, 2017). "Honey bees: Pollinating a better future for COD". The Courier.
  14. 1 2 "Prairie Tours and Work Events". College of DuPage.
  15. ↑ Littlefield, Nicole (March 4, 2020). "Diversifying the Russell R. Kirt Prairie". The Courier.
  16. ↑ Chen, Peter. "Russell R. Kirt Prairie Plant Gallery, College of DuPage". nicerweb.
  17. ↑ Kirt, Russell R.; Tweedie, Henrietta H. (June 1, 1989). Prairie Plants Of Northern Illinois: Identification And Ecology. Stipes Publishing. p. 131. ISBN   0875633404.
  18. ↑ Kirt, Russell R. (1995). Prairie Plants of the Midwest: Identification and Ecology. Stipes Publishing. p. v. ISBN   0875635733.
  19. ↑ Yunger, John A.; Randa, Lynda A. (December 6, 1999). "Trap Decontamination Using Hypochlorite: Effects on Trappability of Small Mammals". Journal of Mammalogy. University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. 80 (4): 1336–1340. doi: 10.2307/1383184 . JSTOR   1383184.
  20. ↑ Yunger, John A.; Randa, Lynda A. (December 6, 1999). "Trap Decontamination Using Hypochlorite: Effects on Trappability of Small Mammals". Journal of Mammalogy. The American Society of Mammalogists. 80 (4): 1336–1340. doi: 10.2307/1383184 . JSTOR   1383184.
  21. ↑ Petersen, Chris E; Dave, Dhvani G.; Parker, Charise L.; Petersen, Renee E. (April 2002). "Ant-Plant Relationships in a Re-Created Tallgrass Prairie". The Great Lakes Entomologist. Michigan State University Department of Entomology. 35 (1): 27–32.
  22. ↑ Petersen, Chris E; Berta, Christine; Johnson, Dwight T.; Petersen, Barbara A. (2011). "Revisiting the Mound-Building Ant, Lasius claviger, in a Reconstructed Tallgrass Prairie" (PDF). The Great Lakes Entomologist. Michigan Entomological Society. 44 (1–2): 27–33.
  23. ↑ Petersen, Chris E; Gibbs, Jessica L.; Hidalgo, George (2008). "Relationships Between Asynchronous Flowering by Baptisia alba (Fabaceae) and the Seed Predator, Apion rostrum (Coleoptera: Apionidae)" (PDF). The Great Lakes Entomologist. Michigan Entomological Society. 41 (1–2): 19–26.
  24. ↑ Petersen, Chris E; Bauzys, Sharon M.; Speranske, Felicia A.; Petersen, Barbara A. (2012). "The Varying Phenology and Growth Patterns of Baptisia bracteata (Fabaceae) in Reconstructed Prairie" (PDF). Transactions of the Illinois State Academy of Science. Illinois State Academy of Science. 105 (3–4): 79–84.
  25. ↑ "The BCN Survey: Monitoring Chicagoland's Birds". Bird Conservation Network.
  26. ↑ "Calling Frog Survey". Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
  27. ↑ "Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network". Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
  28. ↑ "Illinois Odonate Survey". Illinois Odonate Survey.
  29. ↑ "College of DuPage—Russel R. Kirt Prairie". eBird Hotspots.
  30. ↑ "Russell R. Kirt Prairie". iNaturalist Places.
  31. ↑ "Russell R. Kirt Prairie". iNaturalist Projects.
  32. ↑ "College of DuPage Natural Areas". College of DuPage.
  33. ↑ "Prairie Tours at College of DuPage". Naperville Community Television (NCTV17). July 11, 2017.
  34. ↑ Duda, Jennifer (August 6, 2018). "College of DuPage Architecture Students Design, Build and Install Gathering Pavilion". GlobeNewswire.
  35. ↑ Rondeau, Ann (April 11, 2018). "COD's prairie gives students hands-on education". Daily Herald.
  36. ↑ "College of DuPage Brings Honeybees to Campus Natural Area". Daily Herald. June 8, 2017.
  37. ↑ O'Keefe, Brian (June 3, 2018). "Hoping For A Healthy Buzz at COD". WDCB 90.9 FM.
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