3 hours Ago By Brad Dokken
Efforts to jumpstart a grassroots prairie conservation group in Grand Forks County are off to a strong start, thanks to interest from a committed core of natural resource professionals and others with an interest in preserving and bringing attention to the area’s tallgrass prairie habitat. Known as Grand Forks County Prairie Partners, the group’s mission statement is to “preserve, enhance and restore native prairie communities, while providing opportunities for educational, cultural and interpretive experiences.” The roots of Grand Forks County Prairie Partners dates back to the summer of 2000, when a “dozen or so” people – including retired Herald Editor and Publisher Mike Jacobs; Rich Crawford, who taught in UND’s Biology Department for 32 years; Genevieve Thompson and Donna Schneider of Dakota Audubon; and Dave Lambeth, “the dean of Grand Forks birders” – began talking about what could be done to protect grassland habitat west of Grand Forks.
ADVERTISEMENT “Our concern was with the future of several nesting grassland birds, notably western meadowlark and greater prairie chicken,” Lambeth writes in a history of the organization. “In addition, there was concern about protecting remaining parcels of native prairie that not only host grassland birds, but also represent repositories of native plants that are lost when the land is converted to cropland. These initial conversations led to the first meeting of concerned local citizens with representatives of agencies also concerned with protecting grasslands and their flora and fauna.
” Jacobs convened the first meeting of the group in August 2000 and chaired several subsequent meetings, Lambeth writes. As the organization’s website states: “The membership of Grand Forks County Prairie Partners has contributed to local discussions about the history of prairie grasslands in the county, offered engaging presentations about local prairie to the public and spoken up on behalf of prairie when it has been threatened with destruction.” In his history, Lambeth said Grand Forks County Prairie Partners met a few times annually through 2005 and less frequently after that.
Lambeth, along with Glinda Crawford, led the group as co-chairs, a role Lambeth continued after Glinda Crawford resigned in 2005. As often happens with even the most enthusiastic organizations, interest in Grand Forks County Prairie Partners and its mission waned over the years. A major loss, Lambeth wrote in his history, was Glinda Crawford’s resignation as co-chair.
She was a UND faculty member from 1975 to 2005 and died in 2016 at age 67. “Her creative leadership and drive to keep matters moving forward had been crucial for arriving where we were in 2006,” Lambeth wrote. “Subsequently, other members moved away and there were changes in representation by various agencies.
Some members moved on to other priorities. In short, we lost much of our core.” Lambeth continued as co-chair of the group until 2012, and the Natural Resource Conservation Service’s Soil Conservation Service took over leadership, working with partnering agencies to provide incentives for willing landowners to keep their land in grass.
ADVERTISEMENT Those efforts have now kicked up a notch. According to Susan Felege, a professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management at UND, the revived Prairie Partners group held an organizational Zoom meeting in July, followed by a second virtual meeting Friday, Sept. 20.
Initial efforts have focused on setting measurable goals for improving grassland habitat in Grand Forks County, with a priority on tree and shrub management and determining the amount of woody encroachment that exists on prairie lands. Finding landowners with expiring contracts in programs such as the federal Conservation Reserve Program, but who still have an interest in preserving grassland habitat, also stands as an early priority. During its most recent meeting, which included Lambeth and representatives from UND, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, U.
S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NRCS, Audubon, Ducks Unlimited and North American Grouse Partnership, among others, participants talked about leveraging funds and other resources to encourage landowner engagement and grassland restoration efforts. Blooming, Lakeville and Oakville townships will be the initial focus of the group’s efforts, based on discussions at the most recent meeting.
No doubt there’s potential. Oakville Prairie, a 5,000-acre site on the south side of U.S.
Highway 2, features one of the region’s few remaining tracts of tallgrass prairie. UND also has a biology field station at Oakville Prairie, which was dedicated in September 2015, and manages the site in conjunction with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. Game and Fish also manages the adjacent Crawford Wildlife Management Area.
All told, about 50,000 acres of grassland remain in Grand Forks County, including Oakville Prairie and Kellys Slough National Wildlife Refuge, Game and Fish Department-managed WMA lands and assorted School Trust and County Water Board-managed properties, Lambeth writes in his history. ADVERTISEMENT The sites support a variety of flora and fauna that prefer undisturbed prairie lands. Disturbances such as wildfires and grazing bison historically played major roles in maintaining prairie habitat, but these days, managing tallgrass prairie lands requires a helping hand.
If recent GFCPP meetings are any indication, that effort is in good hands. gfprairie.weebly.
com.
