Restoration Begins on Birch Point Prairie!

Recently Friends of the Blufflands began the restoration of Birch Point Prairie bringing the total number of prairies undergoing restoration and maintenance in Hixon and the surrounding bluffs to eight. In the following historical taken in 1938, Birch Point Prairie can be seen circled in red. Progressing to the left in the photo and proceeding to Mathy Bluff Prairie circled in blue are Zoerb, Lookout, Vista, Milson (not restored), Stry then Mathy…like a “string of pearls”!

Also note the "Experimental Farm" above Birch Point as described in a previous post- https://www.friendsoftheblufflands.org/post/what-are-those-slabs-of-cement-and-pieces-of-metal-on-upper-hixon and formally known as the Upper Mississippi Valley Soil Conservation Station.

As can be seen in the photo, the prairies were much larger in 1938. Since then, they have been slowly hemmed in by the encroachment of trees and brush. At a certain point, an invasion is complete and the prairie is gone. Birch was just on the cusp of going under for good with only a few areas of rather sparse prairie sod remaining. Here is Birch before restoration efforts began with the remaining prairie circled in red:

Now, with the help of an excellent contractor, Micheel Forestry, Birch has a chance. Funds for this work were provided by a grant from the La Crosse Area Community Foundation matched by the City of La Crosse. Here is the work done so far as visible from Bliss Road with multiple brush piles to be burned in the future:

And here are the areas with remaining prairie sod, again outlined in red:

There is still a ton of work ahead! Already, Micheel Forestry has been hired to do additional work with grant funds provided by the Natural Resources Foundation matched by donations to Friends of the Blufflands. And over the coming years there will be a lot more restoration work to do by volunteers, including collecting seeds from the small intact patches and spreading them onto the bare areas, starting at the top. Hopefully the neighboring prairies will be generous and donate some of their seeds as well! Over time, maybe Birch will start to look like it was back in 1938 in all its glory!

Why put all of this effort into resurrecting these remnant prairies? Well, prairies are part of our local heritage- did you know that La Crosse was originally called Prairie La Crosse and that the terrace on which it is built and the nearby bluffs were mostly covered by prairies? Here is an iconic picture of La Crosse in 1867 showing the lack of trees in the City and prairies covering most of the bluffs:

These remaining remnants are relicts of a landscape that had been around for eons and are not easy to replace. Although a planted prairie is important and provides pollinators much needed habitat, a remnant prairie is an intact gem that has all of the components and relationships that have been developed over hundreds or even thousands of years! This ecosystem includes those plants and insects seen above ground, but also a wildly impressive, complex community in the soil. The relationships between plants and their fungal and bacterial partners living in the soil takes many years to form. Just as the importance of the microbiome for human health is being increasingly recognized, so has the importance of the microscopic life in the soil for the prairie. When all of these components are there and ready to expand, it should be regarded as too precious to lose. Here is a previous blog post about the importance of fungi to the living world: https://www.friendsoftheblufflands.org/post/entangled-prairie

So, one more prairie joins the Friends of the Bluffland/Coulee Region Chapter of TPE resurrection club. Are there more out there waiting? Well, those restored or being restored running from north and west to south and east are Kaplan (owned and being restored by the Mississippi Valley Conservancy), Mathy, Stry, Vista, Lookout, Zoerb, and now Birch in Hixon. Further south, are Dobson Prairie near Grandad Bluff and all the way to Juniper Tract Prairie across from the south side Walmart. Mixed into this line up are three more remnants that could be candidates for restoration- Milson circled in blue, Log in red, and Grandad Bluff in yellow as seen in the following photo from 1938:

As can be seen, Log Prairie is just a short distance from Birch. Here it is today, showing a good amount of intact prairie:

Friends of the Blufflands has no immediate plans to restore these remaining prairies. But perhaps one day...dreaming…an ambitious young person out there will be ready to join us and take on Log Prairie...then Milson and Grandad…and save more gems in this archipelago, this incredible "string of pearls”!