Lessons In Prairie Restoration: Nevada, IA

I started working on this 11 acre restoration project back in 2019, so we are on our fifth year! There was an existing prairie of approximately 5 acres that had been CRP for many years, and had transitioned out of the CRP program. Then there are several other areas of the acreage I am working to restore. An acre or two of existing brome grass, some heavily infested honey suckle areas, and a 2-acre area we transitioned into a prairie in 2021 aka a baby prairie!

Dalea purpurea

The five acre existing CRP area was relatively low in diversity, but had strong stands of purple prairie clover, showy goldenrod, indian grass, big bluestem, and round-headed bush clover. I hadn’t worked on a prairie with such an impressive purple prairie clover (shown) stand before, so it was important to me as I went about getting the cedars under control, to maintain the purple prairie clover stand while diversifying the other flowers and colors surrounding it.

Increasing diversity hasn’t been as much of a challenge as I expected (I always expect the worst, hope for the best!). It came down to some thoughtful over-seeding and species selection, but by 2023 I noted the species list had doubled. In two years! Amazingly, these five acres have yet to succumb to any of the annoying invasive weeds I am fighting on the rest of the property. Just little cedar suckers popping up from time to time.

Because I often hop around the property in and out of each of the different prairie spots, I always wash my boots off before entering to help minimize weed seed crossover. This step, while tedious, makes a really big difference when dealing with nearby prolific weeds like Japanese hops.

The below photo is of this same 5-acre prairie stretch after two years of working to boost diversity. I didn’t survey it in 2024, but I likely will again in 2025 and I’m excited to see what new plants I find!