Restoring a mixed-grass prairie and a cultural landscape
By Kurt Foote
kurt_foote@nps.gov
Resource Management Specialist, Washita Battlefield National Historic Site, Oklahoma
When a visitor stands at the overlook at Washita Battlefield National Historic Site in Oklahoma, he or she should gain a sense of the area as it appeared 132 years ago. In 1868 the U.S. Cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer attacked and decimated a Southern Cheyenne Indian village on the windswept plains along the Washita River. In the intervening years the former battle site has been ranched and farmed, but the rural character of the land has kept its integrity. Since acquiring the site in 1997, the National Park Service has sought to restore this cultural landscape by converting a 20th-century farm into a 320-acre (130-hectare) patch of mixed-grass, native prairie. The recent Natural Resource Challenge, with its emphasis on restoring native plant and animal species, gave the park added incentive to begin the restoration. During 2000 several projects undertaken at the park have led to progress in achieving this goal.
In order to restore natural conditions to this habitat, resource managers must first understand its current state. Toward that end, the park has entered into a contract with the University of Oklahoma to perform biological inventories of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians currently on-site, and the first field sessions took place in summer 2000. Inventories of other major taxa, such as vascular plants and fish, will begin within three years as a result of the park’s participation in the Inventory and Monitoring Program’s park networks created through the Challenge. Information derived from these inventories will help determine which species should be restored to the landscape. In the meantime the first geographic information system maps of the park’s native and exotic vegetation were produced this year with the assistance of specialists from the regional office.
The exotic vegetation documented by the mapping teams poses the most serious impediment to fully restoring the site. At least 15 aggressive weed species occur on-site and together occupy upwards of one quarter of the park’s acreage. To gain a foothold in stemming the invasive tide, the park used its neighbors and the newly formed Chihuahuan Desert/Shortgrass Prairie Exotic Plant Management Team (EPMT) to great avail during the year. With the assistance of the USDA Forest Service, the park eradicated 4 acres (1.6 hectares) of black locust trees, and by combining the efforts of the EPMT and a tamarisk control crew from Lake Meredith National Recreation Area (Texas), removed over a mile (1.6 kilometers) of tamarisk from the south bank of the Washita River and elsewhere in the park.
At another location on this former battleground, the park is going beyond the removal of Old World bluestem, an introduced crop species. In a 57-acre (23-hectare) former pasture, a contracted farmer is repeatedly plowing under the nonnative forage grass to exhaust the seed source while annually planting winter wheat as a cover crop to reduce erosion. This is being accomplished in accordance with a plan drawn up under the guidance of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. When this three-year process winds up in 2001, sorghum will be sown along with a mixture of native grasses that will mature into a replicate prairie grassland.
All of these restoration activities help contribute to Washita Battlefield’s GPRA (Government Performance and Results Act) goal of protecting, restoring, and maintaining the natural and cultural resources of the site. More important, they help fulfill the Challenge’s mandate to focus attention on the ecological integrity of parks and the restoration of native plant and animal life in the national park system.
[[Photo]]
Acquired by the National Park Service in 1997, Washita Battlefield National Historic Site is being converted from a modern farm into a mixed-grass, native prairie. The restoration entails conducting biological inventories, exotic species control, and temporary planting of winter wheat (shown here). In 2001, native prairie grass species and sorghum will be planted to complete the process.
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Last Updated: 06/17/2001
Direct comments on this website to jeff_selleck@nps.gov