Grasslands - Their Value and Their Beauty

“Anyone can love a mountain, but it takes soul to love a prairie” - unknown.   

 As a little girl I devoured the Little House in the Prairie book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder and dreamed of seeing the western prairies one day.  It wasn’t until 2007 that I was able to do so when I visited Prairie State Park in Missouri with a friend.  I tend not to use the word awesome very often because I think it is a word that is used too frequently and lightly.  But believe me when I tell you what lay before us was indeed awesome. Tall grasses and wildflowers were gently blowing in the breeze while birdsong filled the air.  Grasshopper sparrows, meadowlarks and dickcissels sang together in a splendid chorus.  Bison roamed the short-grass areas, snorting and kicking up dust in their path.  We had only allotted one day to visit this preserve and knew immediately that it was just not enough.   While we stood watching the sunset we were treated to a sight that will remain with me forever - as the blazing red and orange sun descended into the horizon, the silhouette of a deer appeared, surrounded by tall grass and perfectly backlit by the flaming orb behind it. As we stood watching in awe, the deer turned and bounded into the sunset, as if swallowed up by a giant fiery ball of fire.  It was pure magic. Thus began my love affair with grasslands.  I have since traveled to grasslands in Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and Texas, as well as New York, each time marveling anew at the abundance of wildlife and beauty before my eyes.

Unfortunately, grasslands have been declining faster than any other habitat in the United States, if not the world.  Human use and sprawl development has taken its toll on our grasslands, with only about 4% of our prairies remaining. While grassland habitats modified by humans for agriculture had replaced some areas of grasslands to an extent, they too are now disappearing.  

Right here on Long Island, grasslands were once a significant feature of our landscape. The Hempstead Plains once covered move than 50,000 acres of little bluestem, birdfoot violets and wild indigo among others.  Today only a remnant of this once great prairie remains...approximately 65 acres in total, along with a few scattered areas further east on the Island.  Unfortunately, most grasslands have been developed into residential, industrial or commercial real estate or converted to ball fields and other intensely used recreational areas. For this reason it is crucial that remaining grasslands be preserved and this valuable community be restored.

Shrinking acreage is not the only issue facing grass and shrublands (another critical habitat on the decline).  There is another significant danger to these habitats: non-native invasive plant species.  Many of our natural areas (not just grasslands) are in danger of being swallowed up by non-native plant species.  These insidious plants threaten the ecological health and diversity of our ecosystems.  According to the United States Department of Agriculture, an invasive species is one “whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health”. 

Non-native vines such as Japanese honeysuckle, mile-a-minute, porcelain berry, English ivy and oriental bittersweet will smother everything in their path, quickly climbing trees, where they aggressively compete for water, nutrients, and sunlight, preventing the tree from photosynthesizing, which can eventually kill the tree.  These twining vines can also make the tree top-heavy and vulnerable to being toppled by wind damage. Autumn olive will quickly grow into a dense thicket, out-competing native plants.  Other invasive plants such as mugwort will rapidly take over a field or grassland, creating an ecologically unhealthy monoculture.   Most plants that are not native to North America provide very little benefit to wildlife here. These species have few, if any, natural enemies here and will swiftly crowd out and out-compete native plant species, altering ecosystems and causing a loss of biodiversity, thereby depriving wildlife of vital food sources and decreasing reproduction success.

Native plants are critical because they support native insects, most of which are specialists rather than generalists and will not feed on non-natives. Insects are a critical food source for a variety of birds and other animals, particularly those raising young.  A dearth of insects means a decline in bird species.  Bird populations are in trouble throughout the world and invasive species are contributing significantly to this decline as habitat quality decreases.  One 6 years study in Ohio determined that Northern cardinals paid a steep price when nesting in areas thick with honeysuckle: these birds reared 20% less young than did cardinals nesting in native plants.  In addition, according to these studies, birds that ate the berries from these plants were artificially bright, signifying to females that they were good choices for mates.  Normally male cardinals with a deeper red color are more fit because they are feeding on nutrient rich berries that contain carotenoid pigments.  Honeysuckle berries contain lots of carotenoid pigments but are nutrient poor. Coloration becomes meaningless as a sign of quality in a mate with the results being that females are mistakenly choosing less fit males as mates.  This can lead to population declines as less sturdy genes are passed on from generation to generation.    

But back to grasslands: as grasslands decline due to these threats, so do the wildlife species that depend upon them. Of particular concern to Huntington-Oyster Bay Audubon (“HOBAS”) are birds: grassland birds are among the fastest and most consistently declining birds in North America; 48% are of conservation concern and 55% are showing significant declines.   Many grassland species have seen over 80% decreases in their populations!  In addition, the iconic monarch butterfly is declining due to habitat loss in the United States as well as its wintering grounds in Mexico. One reason is the decreasing abundance of its most critical host plant-milkweed.   As habitat disappears and invasives take over, milkweed is fast disappearing. 

One already protected area in trouble due to invasive nonnative plant species is Underhill Preserve in Jericho.  This 75 acre preserve, protected as open space in 2002, contains almost 35 acres of grassland, with a mix of native and nonnative grasses and forbs.  Unfortunately, much of it has now been overrun by the aforementioned invasive non-native plant species.  In just five years we have watched bird abundance drastically decrease as these harmful plant species have increased.  Underhill is a perfect local model in which to demonstrate what is happening on a global level, and is in danger of illustrating with unfortunate clarity what happens to an ecosystem that has been overrun with invasive species.

Determined to do something about this, HOBAS hired a botanist in 2013 to survey the preserve.  During this inventory, over 350 plants were documented, including approximately 10 rare or endangered species.  We applied for and received a $39K grant courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and other federal agencies, from a 2003 settlement in a natural resource damage claim against a Superfund Site located in Glen Cove.  This funding will be used for the restoration, creation and protection of grass and shrublands in the preserve.  In addition, we also were awarded $5K from the Long Island Invasive Species Management Area to hire a consultant to map out the invasives and provide us with recommendations to manage the invasive species.  With this funding in place, we will be partnering with the preserve's owners in restoring, creating and protecting shrub and grassland habitat in the preserve, for the benefit of wildlife and rare and endangered plant species. 

All told, Underhill has an impressive list of natural resources. In addition to over 100 species of birds and almost 200 species of insects, over 350 plants and seven species of reptiles and amphibians (including the NYS listed Eastern box turtle) have been recorded since 2008.  Our goal is to make every effort to restore, reclaim, create and protect wildlife habitat in the preserve. While we will never be able to bring Underhill back to its former glory (unless someone wants to gift us with a few hundred thousand dollars!) we do hope to restore some of its dignity by allowing native vegetation to flourish once again, thereby providing critical habitat for birds and other wildlife.  

Grasslands are often dismissed as monotonous stretches of empty landscape.  Far from monotonous and empty, tall-grass, short-grass and mixed grasslands contain a remarkable and diverse number of species, from plants to reptiles to birds to mammals to insects.  It is true that anyone can love a mountain…or a forest or a shoreline.  Their beauty is in your face and splendid. It takes soul to look beyond the obvious. A prairie prairie must be understood to be loved, for once you have experienced the magic and subtle grandeur that is a prairie you will never be the same.    That magical landscape will forever be etched in your heart, as it is in mine.