Custom Sales Book - 8

Ghosts of the grasslands
Partnership works to return the prairie chicken to Missouri

To order a print of this photo or other prairie chicken photos, see page 29.

Above: A male prairie chicken dances on a lek, or “booming grounds” in Kansas. Missouri conservation ofﬁcials are working to bolster prairie habitat and chicken populations in the ShowMe State. Right: Prior to European settlement, wildﬁres and grazing bison herds provided the disturbance prairies needed to remain healthy. Today at Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie outside El Dorado Springs, prescribed burns and cattle now mimic those historic effects.

ens boom on a lek in central Kansas. “Prairie chickens are a part of our grassland heritage in Missouri, and ven before the ﬁrst rays of we’re working hard to ensure their dawn could claw their way future in our state.” over the horizon, the age-old Max is leading an effort that, if ritual had begun. successful, will return the sounds of In the faint half-light, an eerie coogreater prairie chickens “booming” to ing resonated for miles across the vast portions of their traditional breeding expanse of prairie grass. The deep, belgrounds in the Show-Me State. lowing baritones hauntingly ﬁlled the Such displays were once a common air, only to be sharply interrupted by occurrence here. Before European cackling banshees whose evil laughter settlement, roughly a third of the state seemed to echo acute displeasure. was covered with grasslands, and it’s Early American settlers — waking estimated that hundreds of thousands to this cacophony in a strange land of the birds lived in Missouri. for the ﬁrst time — may have wonTechnically a member of the grouse dered whether Beelzebub himself had family, the prairie chicken is still a come to join their wagon train. popular game bird in Western But as the sun states where populations remain climbed into the eaststable. The story is quite differern sky, fear of devils ent in Missouri, however. and demons soon was Here, changes in the landreplaced with awe and wonscape during the past two der as these ghosts of the • El Dorado centuries have left little grasslands were revealed — Springs room for prairie chickmale greater prairie chickens, which were placed ens dancing and singing on the state’s endanon their lek, or “booming gered species list in 1999. Fewer than grounds,” hoping to attract a mate. 100 native birds still exist in Missouri. “It’s quite the spectacle, one you’re Most of the state’s tallgrass prairie not soon to forget,” says Max Alleger, met the plow. Other areas were congrassland bird coordinator with the verted to fescue pastures or allowed Missouri Department of Conservation, to grow up in trees and shrubs. Today, after a morning of watching chick-

by Jason Jenkins

less than 1 percent of Missouri’s native grasslands remain, leaving only isolated vestiges where prairie chickens can thrive. But hope is not lost. A coalition of conservation and agricultural groups have partnered in an effort to not only restore prairie chicken populations but also the native grasslands upon which the species relies. “This is a difﬁcult bird, a very picky bird from a habitat standpoint,” says Max, who leads the Conservation Department’s Greater Prairie Chicken Recovery Team. “It’s not going to adapt to what we offer right now. This is a challenge of having to go in and remake the habitat, and it requires the interest and cooperation of lots of landowners in these landscapes.” In 2008, Max and his team began a ﬁve-year restoration project to test whether a self-sustaining prairie chicken population could be established at Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie, a 3,000-acre grassland just northeast of El Dorado Springs straddling the St. Clair and Cedar county line. The property, owned by The Nature Conservancy and managed in conjunction with the conservation department, had once supported a small population of chickens. “Wah’Kon-Tah had some chicken

habitat but no longer had chickens,” explains Len Gilmore, a wildlife biologist who has overseen several years of intensive management to prepare the prairie to be a suitable home for chickens. “It made for a good location to see if our management is working.” Prairies like Wah’Kon-Tah comprise hundreds of plant species — including native grasses such as big bluestem and Indian grass, as well as broadleaf plants such as compass plant and pale purple coneﬂower. To remain healthy and provide for the needs of prairie chickens and other grassland bird species, the prairie relies on disturbance. In the past, two distinct forces — ﬁre and grazing — prevented woody plant species from taking over. “Historically, after a wildﬁre would burn across a section of prairie, succulent plants would emerge,” says Len. “This new growth would attract bison that would graze the area, then the herd would move on. It’s this system that we’re trying to replicate.” Today, Len and his team are using a technique called “patch-burn grazing,” which combines prescribed ﬁre and cows at Wah’Kon-Tah. Units of 40 to 50 acres are burned in the spring, then yearling calves are allowed to graze. They gravitate toward the tender, young plants in the burned areas,

RURAL MISSOURI

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Custom Sales Book

Custom Sales Book
Contents
Comments
Columns
Ghosts of the Grasslands
Out of the Way Eats
Mail Bag
Best of Rural Missouri
Hearth and Home
News Briefs
What’s Old is New Again
Marketplace
Around Missouri
Missouri’s Horse
Neighbors
Look for the Dinosaur
Just4Kids

Custom Sales Book