Managers eye improvements with biomass pilot project

For The Journal

Published Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Haying portions of two state wildlife management areas (WMAs) and three federal waterfowl production areas (WPAs) in Stevens County may give habitat managers a new tool that encourages native plant growth, attracts more wildlife and reduces dependence on fossil fuels, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Forty-eight acres of the 300-acre Eldorado WMA and 16 acres of the 160-acre Klason WMA will be cut as part of a biomass pilot project that includes the DNR, University of Minnesota-Morris (UMM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

The USFWS manages another169 acres scheduled to be cut as part of the project. They are Giese Waterfowl Production Area WPA northwest of Donnelly, Pepperton WPA north of Alberta and Lamprecht WPA southwest of Morris. Weather conditions prevented prescribed burns on each WPA last spring.

The project will examine the harvesting and use of native prairie vegetation as biofuels for an $8.9 million UMM gasification project in which up to 80 percent of campus steam heating needs will be met with locally produced biofuels.

“The Minnesota DNR manages its lands first and foremost for wildlife,” said Kevin Kotts, DNR Glenwood area wildlife manager. “We won’t compromise that mission. But cutting these small areas makes sense because we’ll remove some undesirable growth and use the information we gain to determine if haying is a viable and sensible management practice.”

Prairie needs periodic disturbance in order to thrive. Land managers today rely on prescribed burning as the chief method for revitalizing prairie growth and controlling invasive woody growth or noxious weeds.

But prescribed burns require exacting weather conditions and significant manpower to conduct, two requirements not always present. So land managers are experimenting with occasional grazing and haying, which mimic the grazing once provided by native grazers including bison.