Possible Reconstruction of
a Bur Oak Opening or Oak Savannah at the Whitehouse Nature Center Research
Area: An Interdisciplinary Case Study
by Tamara Crupi, Director of
Whitehouse Nature Center,
Albion College, Albion,
Michigan
People restore all kinds
of things - furniture, paintings, boats, cars, houses, churches, neighborhoods - why
not native plant communities?
Introduction
Before
European settlement of the Midwest and Great Lakes region, there were native
grasslands in southern Michigan. Some
of these prairies were of the type known as oak openings, generally located
within forested areas and usually on the glacial outwash plains in areas of the
eastern Great Lakes. Several maps of
pre-settlement vegetation in Michigan indicate the research area at Whitehouse
Nature Center was some type of grassland, either bur oak opening or oak
savanna. Prairies and oak openings
occupied an important place in our history, both for the pioneers who cleared
them to farm and for the Native Americans who hunted and lived on them. However, today only a few patches of
original prairie remain intact in Michigan, many of these along railroads; in
southern Michigan there remain no original prairies of the type known as
bur oak opening.
An
oak opening is a prairie or grassland surrounded by forest. Within the grassland there are intermittent
oaks spaced singly or in clumps (1-15 per acre). (Occasionally the term oak savanna is used in the
literature.) This plant community is
characterized by the presence of prairie grasses and other, often colorful,
flowering plants, as well as sporadic trees - white, yellow, or black oak. When
a pure strain of bur oak is present, then the grassland is called a bur oak
opening (or bur oak plain). Various shrubs such as hazelnut are also typical,
as are many vertebrate and invertebrate species, e.g., badgers, American Bison,
Karner Blue butterflies. Visualizing an
oak opening can be difficult. There is
a nice description of one toward the beginning of James Fenimore Cooper’s Oak
Openings, published in 1848.
Though
formerly widespread, oak openings are known to us now only in
literature. These areas that were at
one time attractive parts of the southern Michigan landscape no longer exist,
and in their place we often find unused, scrubby, and unattractive farmland,
such as the research area at the Nature Center.
Part of the mission of Whitehouse Nature Center is to provide examples of various plants, animals, and communities for students of ecology or local history. The area currently designated for biology research in the Nature Center is not committed to a use that would exclude habitat restoration. Would it then be desirable to reconstruct the area in order to provide an example of one of the world’s rarest ecosystems? Could such a reconstruction be undertaken on the eastern twenty acres of the Whitehouse Nature Center research area? (See Nature Center map on website http://www.albion.edu/naturecenter )
Elements of the case study
In examining this possibility the following should be considered:
1. Which type of oak opening, bur oak or oak savanna, would best be located in the research area?
2. Which species should be included in the reconstruction?
a. Where and how can they be obtained?
b. Are there important factors in their arboriculture to consider?
3. Is the soil suitable for such a project?
4. What
techniques should be used in the reconstruction?
5. How should
the area be managed after reconstruction?
6. What effects would there be on existing wildlife? For example, can the existing Bluebird next boxes remain?
7. What are the problems such a reconstruction would represent to the
Community. For example, are area residents fearful of wildfire that might result from prescribed burns?
a. What sort of community education about historical lands and habitat management is necessary?
8. What would be the cost of such a project?
9. What are some
suggestions for funding and staffing the project?
a.
Should volunteers be
recruited?
Any
recommendations that are made should consider the pre- and post- settlement
history of the land, the past and present-day soil conditions, and the ecology
of the area, including past and present wildlife and plant surveys. It is suggested that those involved in the
study be representative of various disciplines - biology, geology, history, and
economics - and that there be some representation from the Albion community.
Background
Whitehouse
Nature Center is a 135-acre environmental education center developed by Albion
College in 1972 for use by Albion College faculty and students and by community
groups and public schools. Activities
are limited to those that encourage observation, study, and enjoyment of the
several natural areas in the Center and its flora and fauna. The Center employs one full-time Director
and five part-time student assistants, with College and community groups
serving as a volunteer base. The
responsibilities of the Director include management of the property as well as
direction of the Center’s program at the College and in the community. The budget of the Center is small, though
there exists additional outside funding from alumni and other donors.
In
1981 the College purchased the 80-acre farm of John Passmore located on 29 ˝ Mile
Road in Albion Township, Calhoun County, Michigan (R. 4 W., T. 3 W., section
1), granting him a lifetime lease to live in his house on the property. The farm was annexed to the Nature Center
and used as a biology research area.
John
Passmore, who had farmed the land for 40 years, mowed the area late in the
summer each year until his death in 1993, and yearly mowing has continued,
which discourages woody plant growth and encourages American woodcock display
and nesting. (The original woodcock display area is designated as an area in
succession, unsuitable for woodcock display.)
One
early project in the Biology Research Area was the mid-1980's planting of 400
Carolina Hybrid Poplars at the west end of the property, intended as a
demonstration wood crop. Those in
the wood-burning community for whom this demonstration was intended, however,
had little or no interest in learning about wood-crop practices from Albion
College, and so the project was abandoned.
Another project was the attempt, also during the mid-80's, to develop a
nursery for various species of nut-producing trees. Foraging by deer and rabbits made this project unsuccessful, and
it too was abandoned after several years.
B. Current use of the Research Area
The
on-going bluebird nest-box research of Dr. Dale Kennedy and Dr. Douglas
White, has involved the placement of 30
nest-boxes on the site which are monitored daily during breeding season.
Another
project, which used an area 20'x 20' for a zucchini plot, was Dr. Gwen
Pearson’s study of Squash Vine Borers (1997-1998).
Pre-settlement
Vegetation
Maps
outlining pre-settlement vegetation indicate that previously the biology
research area was a bur oak opening and that the area was surrounded by the Kalamazoo
River on the north and a small tributary of the River now called the Murdock
Drain to the south. To the north and
south of these boundary waters were expanses of another plant community - oak
savanna.
Barnes, B.V. and Wagner,
W.H. 1981. Michigan Trees.
The Press. Ann Arbor. University of Michigan.
Brewer, L.G., Hodler, T.W.,
and Raup, H.A. 1984. Presettlement Vegetation of Southwestern
Michigan. Western Michigan
University.
Crupi, T. D. 1999.
History of the Land at Whitehouse Nature Center, unpublished
document available upon request from Whitehouse Nature Center.
Drobney, P. M.
1994. Rebuilding a Pre-Pioneer
Prairie. Garbage Magazine Fall
issue. Adapted from Restoration and Management
Notes, summer, 1994.
Kenoyer, L. A.
1934. Forest Distribution in
Southwestern Michigan as Interpreted from the Original Land Survey (1826-32). Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science,
19:107-111.
Kenoyer, L. A.
1940. Plant Associations in
Barry, Calhoun, and Branch Counties, Michigan, as Interpreted from the Original
Survery. Papers of the Michigan
Academy of Science, 25:75-77.
Society for Ecological
Restoration. 1997. The Tallgrass Restoration Handbook. Island Press. Washington, D.C.
United States Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service.
Agricultural Handbook No. 450. Seeds
of Woody Plants in the United States.
Washington, D.C.
United States Department of
Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service. 1997. Soil Survey
of Calhoun County, Michigan.
Websites:
http://www.dnr.state.mi.us/wildlife/heritage/mnfi/
http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/oak94/erptoc.html
http://www.OakOpeningsRegion.com