Plant Communities of the Midwest - NatureServe

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is no trivial matter to compile a description of midwestern plant communities using a
classification framework that is part of a national and international effort. As Midwest Regional
Ecologist for The Nature Conservancy, I could not hope in any reasonable time to develop on my own a
classification that covered all twelve states in the Midwestern Region (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,
Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin). I was
fortunate to have the support of the network of ecologists in the state Natural Heritage programs that are
listed as contributors on the title page of this document. They, along with various Conservancy field office
staff, formed the core team that provided the expertise and the many hours in review and at meetings that
ensured the accuracy of this classification. These individuals worked closely with me to define the various
plant community types in the Midwest. Through their own extensive field experience, they provided the best
and most current knowledge of midwestern vegetation and ensured that this classification is tied directly to
state classifications. Although not all agreed with all of the decisions and approaches taken in producing this
classification, they nevertheless helped to ensure its quality.
When I joined The Nature Conservancy’s Midwest Conservation Science Center in 1992 to
further the work of a national vegetation classification, Steve Chaplin, (Director, Midwest Conservation
Science Center) lent his full support to this effort. Time and again, when the demands of my job
threatened to distract me from this goal, he kept me focused, and I thank him for those efforts. Since
1993, I have been fortunate to have Jim Drake and Kristin Snow working with me in the Midwest. Their
contributions were instrumental in completing this document. Early on, Jim helped with the writing of
many of the association descriptions, and he co-authored the alliance descriptions. Kristin Snow put her
innovative database skills to great use, helping with database design, data management, and reporting.
My move from Minneapolis to Syracuse in 1997 only complicated her work, but she successfully kept me
from straying too far from good database practices while I wrote and edited the descriptions. I thank
Mary Russo, our database manager, particularly for her care in updating all of the plant species taxonomy
to Kartesz (1999) standards. I am pleased to now work with Shannon Menard, who succeeded me as
Midwest Regional Ecologist in April of 2000. She has already begun to improve the classification,
including assisting with the final review of all descriptions.
Regional integration of information on midwestern vegetation did not begin in 1992. Starting in
1985, Kim Chapman, Midwest Regional Ecologist at the time, began synthesizing the midwestern natural
community concepts used among many of the state Natural Heritage programs. His classification (Chapman
1988) provided a detailed cross-reference to the different state vegetation classifications in the region and
helped set the stage for the work presented here.
A number of ecologists wrote plant community descriptions as a part of their work on Midwest
Office projects: Donn Ambrose assisted with the writing of some of the rare plant community types;
Carol Reschke completed a major synthesis of information on all of the alvar types in the Great Lakes
region and on all vegetation types on Isle Royale National Park (Michigan); Peter Lesica worked on a
number of the rare types in the Northern Great Plains; Steve Rolfsmeier worked on types found in Scotts
Bluff National Monument (Nebraska); Michael Smith and Norm Aaseng worked on types at Voyageurs
National Park (Minnesota); and Hollis Marriott provided an invaluable service in helping to write up
information on all types in the Black Hills region of South Dakota and Wyoming.
Without the help of Rick Schneider during his time with the Great Plains Program of the
Conservancy, I would still be riding the Plains in an effort to understand how midwestern types fit in with
surrounding regions. His shuttle diplomacy over a two-year period enabled ecologists from the
Conservancy’s Midwestern, Western, and Southern Resource Offices and from state Natural Heritage
programs to resolve many classification differences in the Great Plains.
PLANT COMMUNITIES OF THE MIDWEST – 2001
i