These comments on a post were submitted by Professor Emeritus Dennis Nyberg. Professor Nyberg has long been both a serious researcher, a dedicated natural areas conservationist, and a volunteer steward. The comments touch on many important conservation issues that deserve more attention and discussion.
I have a history with Tomlinson Nature Preserve. From 1967-70 I lived about a mile and a half northwest (as crow flies) of Tomlinson Cemetery. Though not yet a NP it was known as a pioneer cemetery. My memory is that Tomlinson was a nice prairie (like the INAI, I was focused on prairies), but not one of the best in the late 60s.
In the 2020s I decided to return. The Tomlinson cemetery is difficult to get to. (A permit from the Champaign Cou8nty Forest Preserve District is required to visit it.) Tomlinson is not surrounded by ag fields. The last part of the path runs along the edge of the flood plain of the middle fork of the Vermilion River. The area east of the Nature Preserve is degraded flood plain vegetation. Only south and west are ag fields.
In the 50+ years since my original visit, the prairie component had greatly reduced while hazel and American bittersweet had greatly increased. American bittersweet is being overwhelmed genetically by oriental bittersweet (Zaya) so the abundance of American bittersweet at this isolated site was a positive for me. Yes, Tomlinson NP has degraded, but not nearly as much as the formerly fine prairies along the IC tracks (north of Rantoul) and the Short Line prairie east of Gifford (which was plowed during a 1970s ag crisis).
What are my thoughts on this blog post and general comments.
1) Nature is dynamic. There are often big changes at the same place from year to year. Comparisons of inventories done by different individuals/groups without knowing the details of the dates and methods is of very limited value. The more specific the inventory (quadrats, no repetition at different dates) the more likely to find differences that are exaggerated by methods of data collection. A meandering inventory of the entire site with abundance category estimates gives a better picture of sites less than 10 acres and takes a lot less time.
2) If the time and energy put into sampling and inventories had been put into management to enhance native community the site would be much better than it is with inventories. Back in the late 80s I went to a talk by Prof. Roger Anderson about 20+ years of monitoring what started as a prairie opening but was degrading with non-native species and woodies. I thought how much better to do something than to document the degradation.
Management is harder to do than collect data. One has to deal with others whose permission is needed. Management requires tools and other things that need to be purchased. Management often requires other people that need to be recruited and trained. Many people are ready to inventory and count, but with explanation of the importance of management many will choose that route which makes a real difference, i.e. actually helps the native community.
FQA as described in literature is based on the entire species list. Transformations to subset of the lists has not been evaluated. It may be useful, but 8 does not seem obviously better than 5 or 10. Using cover % would be more useful (but see #1).
It is good that the Champaign County Forest Preserve is involved. I speculate that the fire shown was after my 2023 visit. CCFP has a major restoration along the middle fork of the Vermilion river upstream from Tomlinson NP. CCFP seems to have both the knowledge and resources to do good management work.
I have visited over 100 nature preserves throughout Illinois. For those I have visited twice or more, almost all are degrading to a knowledgeable observer. Some are getting better, some have retained excellence with good management. Those I have visit only once were often in such poor condition that there was no motivation for a second visit. As noted in your post the original idea was to stop harvests, and all would be fine. Then, the negative effects of non-native species was recognized. Now good management involves regulating abundance of native animals and trees. It takes knowledge and resources. There are owners that are doing effective management.
Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves recruits and honors people who want to maintain/enhance native communities. Probably more preserves would have active management if there were a periodic, say ten years, re-certification process. Places that were not accomplishing the goals set in dedication would lose status. We do reviews of species as Threatened or Endangered every 5 years. New species are added and species meeting abundance goals are removed. A similar system should apply to Nature Preserves.
Dennis Nyberg
Professor Emeritus
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Illinois at Chicago
I'm not sure that losing protection status over neglect/degradation would motivate landowners to invest in ways to turn things around/to care. It's not like losing UNESCO-Word-Heritage status that comes w/ losing prestige and tourist $$$. But it would be great if it were like that. The true stakeholders are the people who love these lands, put in the work and bask in the joy that good results can bring. Losing protection status is just a sobering reality. Resignation. Ideally, protection status would come w/ management protocols that ensure sites receive the care they require. 'Keep it like it was' suggests intervention.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who once lost a job for suggesting a site was no longer worthy of natural area designation, I'll say some care.
ReplyDeleteAs Prof Nyberg suggests maybe time would be better spent on management rather than studies.
ReplyDeleteThe vast majority of management can be done with no studies required.
Isn't it pretty much always better to go after invasive plants, thin existing woody plants/trees and do prescribed burns than do nothing?
I've thought about how to get owners involved in management of natural areas. Money is a great motivator. If there was a tax break on property taxes for "naturally managed areas" maybe more would be willing to spend time at it. Verification and guidance of proper methods and strategies would be required. Another hindrance is getting good general info to landowners to start with.
The vast majority of "natural" lands that are state owned are poorly managed if managed at all.
Allowing these unmanaged lands to be managed by an knowledgeable individual should be allowed. These individuals could be approved for different levels of management. Being able to cut and treat buckthorn is one level. Being able to ID and use proper methods to treat is required for that approval. Treating Garlic Mustard is another and so on.
Don't get it twisted. IDNR/INPC are absolutely looking for knowledgeable people to take on Nature Preserves that have gotten away from them. They'll always be things like contracts needed for specialty large scale herbicide work and forestry mulching IDNR/INPC has to handle themselves, but clearing brush and such can provide remarkable results. The Friends of IL Nature Preserves is a volunteer force that does a lot of things including near full ownership of activities at individual Nature Preserves with oversight from a number of paid field technicians. There are several others groups affiliated with the larger Friends group (Langham Island, Hitt's Siding, Yorkville Prairie - see the Friends volunteer schedule for all of them). If an individual (or someone with a group) in Will County south of I-80 would like to recover a small B rated INAI moist/wet area I have a number of them at my Nature Preserve I need to start once higher priority items are finished and these new spots are instant gratification type jobs. If it works out and they have "the knack" I could probably get that person lined up with their own Nature Preserve. It's not just me, there are many individuals and the Friends group itself that can provide these opportunities via coordination with IDNR/INPC (it's not realistic for IDNR/INPC to directly interface with random people unless they've worked with Friends for a while).
DeleteNature is dynamic. To maintain native communities requires attention and some management, quite a bit at some sites. Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves is providing both at many preserves. Preserves need flexible rules/procedures to accommodate the different needs of different preserves. Some fine ideas have have already been expressed in the comments. I suspect readers of this blog all agree that preserves need attention and management help.
ReplyDeleteHere I want to bring attention to a problem of the INPC. There is an 80 acre preserve I enjoyed visiting. I decided to give some money to improve this preserve. The steward, INPC employee, was happy to get the money, but suggested the INPC not prepared to handle such a donation effectively. I was asked to give the money to a conservation land trust who would hire a contractor to do the work on the preserve (following INPC plan). I got the impression that the Springfield staff was tied in a maze of rules that kept a donation of money from being happily received and quickly approved. INPC should desire money to make individual preserves better and encourage such donations.