Summer 2007: Volume 28, Number 3 - Missouri Prairie Foundation

CaptionScott WoodburyShaw Nature Reserve’s ExperimentalPrairie and Prairie GardensShaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, Missouri,a satellite facility of the Missouri BotanicalGarden, is a showcase of natural communityrestoration and construction. Included in its2,400 acres are more than 10 miles of hikingtrails through the Shaw Bottomland Forest StateNatural Area, glades, woodlands, constructedwetlands and prairie areas, and a wildflower garden.Shaw Nature Reserve (SNR) also is a leaderin environmental education and native plantlandscaping.Approximately 250 acres of constructed prairiehabitat at SNR began with 76 acres plantedin 1980, thanks to financial assistance from theMissouri Prairie Foundation. From its humblebeginnings as a low-diversity planting of fourgrasses and four forbs, this planting graduallygained additional species through spontaneouscolonization, transplanting and overseeding.It has also become excellent habitat for prairiefauna.The original 76-acre planting is now hometo about 200 plant species. Some of these areexotics, including noxious species such as sericealespedeza and the sweet clovers, these being controlledthrough annual vigilance and judicious useof mowing and herbicide. Annual or biennial fireis an important part of the overall management ofthe SNR prairie complex and all adjacent woodlands.Approximately half of the prairie acreage isburned each winter, preferably when the groundis frozen or at least, wet and cold, thus protectingthe winter hiding places of many prairie insects.Additional plantings have continued throughthe years, with the latest five-acre addition sowedin the winter of 2007 in an area sporting a teepeeand a sod house, which are central to the reserve’seven-numbered years’ celebration of Prairie Day.Thanks to the additional plantings and the variedsoil conditions and hydrology of the landscape,total prairie plant species diversity now approaches300 species, including those in the wetlandscomplex.James TragerShooting stars bloomin spring on a recentlyestablished prairieplanting near theWhitmire WildflowerGarden at Shaw NatureReserve, top, and acicada killer wasp(Sphecius speciosus) visitsa rattlesnake masterflower head on theexperimental prairie atthe reserve.17