Small Town News

Trenton master gardener, Wesclin students team up for prairie plant restoration

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Sitting on the edge of what was once a large expanse of native prairie, Wesclin High School has been the site of a major portion of a project designed to help restore to Clinton County and other parts of this region prairie plants that have been almost completely wiped out.

In his writings about his travels in southern and central Illinois in 1841, Englishman William Oliver described his encounter with Looking Glass Prairie, which covered parts of present day Clinton, St. Clair, Madison and Bond Counties: "A few miles further on we entered on a branch of Looking Glass Prairie ... where long reaches of green undulating prairie stretched away until they became lost in the haze of distance, and within a few hours of sunset, we emerged from a grove (and the prairie) lay stretched out before us like an ocean. In the direction which the track we were following took, we could just distinguish the forest like a low bank of cloud, whilst on our right the prairie stretched away, one vast plain, uninterrupted by tree or bush, as far as the eye could reach."

Today, however, none of the vast prairie Oliver described still exists, and the plant species that covered the hundreds of square miles of treeless expanse are either gone or rare at best.

In an attempt to restore remnants of native tall-grass prairie to this region, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources has developed programs to return patches of parks and private land to a state that Oliver might have seen during his travels through this area.

As a part of his requirements for public service as a University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener, Tom James of Trenton initiated a project in 2009 with the cooperation of the staff at Hazlet State Park near Carlyle Lake, and Illinois DNR Natural Heritage Biologist Marty Kemper.

"During my Master Gardener classes, I learned of a gardener in north-central Illinois who had developed a seed nursery garden for prairie plants, and I decided I could do that too," says James.

Although prairie forb seed and plants are available commercially from nurseries, the best strains of plants for prairie restoration come from local sources near the restoration. These are the plants that have been survivors and have adapted well to the local ecosystem. The problem is, says James, in most cases not much exists and what does exist may be spread thinly over a very large area. That makes collection difficult and time consuming.

The nursery garden planned for Ha-zlet Park will contain over a dozen species of prairie forbs, wild prairie flowers, grown from seed James collected in and around the park. Biologist Kemper identified the desirable plants during the summer of 2009, and James watched the plants throughout the summer and fall until the seed matured and he could collect enough of each to meet the project's goals.

James explained that he "had to learn as much as I could about the plants, some of which I didn't know existed--scurfy pea, compass plant, and false white indigo--just to name a few. In fact, the only one I really knew for sure was black,-eyed susan, and I had never collected or grown that."

Much of this type of seed requires a simulation of winter conditions in order to germinate. This process is called stratification and scarification. Stratification requires the seed be kept cold and moist for an extended period to break the seed's dormancy. And, scarification means scratching the seed coat to allow in moisture to begin the germination.

"Most of my experience in gardening is in the vegetable garden, so I really didn't know anything about stratification and scarification and the other special needs of these forbs, and not much is available about some of the species." says James. He did find a few books and some online information that helped, so by the end of 2009, he had the seed in a moist medium in a refrigerator. Nevertheless, he didn't know where he was going to germinate the seed and grow the seedlings to a viable size for transplanting into the garden.

This is when Matt Fisher and his Wesclin horticulture class came to the project's rescue. "I thought I was going to have to build a bunch of cold frames and start the plants there, but that would have been harder and less successful than starting them in the greenhouse at the school." James says.

Fisher agreed to allow James to bring out his seed in early March when the students in the horticulture class were starting their vegetable and flower seedlings. Although none of them had planted these native species, they used their knowledge of growing other plants, and that resulted in germination of 15 of the 18 species.

Although they didn't achieve 100 percent success with the forbs, James was happy with what they did get to grow and how healthy the seedlings have been.

In fact, he was able to take four species to Hazlet Park for their Earth Day celebration during which students from Carlyle and Lebanon High Schools under the direction of Hazlet Natural Resources Coordinator John Bunnell set out the plants in a prairie restoration area in and across from the main campground area.

On April 23, most of the plants were mature enough to remove from the Wesclin greenhouse to harden off for planting outside. James plans to start planting the seed nursery garden as soon as the soil has dried from the recent rains.

"I hope to have all the plants planted by early May." says James. With hundreds of tiny seedlings to set out, he says he will need help to get them all planted, and several of the Clinton County Master Gardeners have volunteered to help him, but he encourages "anyone with a green thumb" to volunteer by calling him at 920-7018.

If he can get the compost in place and the weather cooperates, he hopes to begin the planting by April 29 and finish by the end of the first week in May.



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© 2010 The Trenton Sun Trenton, Illinois. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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