Summary

Description

This is an annual report of a project funded in FY14 by the Natural Resource Program Center. The goal of this project is to build a multiregional database that documents the specific methods used to reconstruct prairie grasslands for a management unit. This database will be used to capture methods that are frequently not recorded or are lost, thus limiting our ability to learn from past reconstructions. In Region 3, and to some extent in Region 6, prairie reconstructions planting native prairie plants on lands formerly under row crop agriculture are one of the most frequent land management actions employed by refuge managers and they are among the most costly and longlasting of management actions. This project will evaluate the available information captured in the database and identify key management practices with regard to seed mix, soil preparation, and postseeding management that lead to the best success, as defined by the resulting plant diversity and cover of invasive species.