I was back up at the Niobrara Valley Preserve last week to help with a roundup and sorting of the east bison herd (more on that later this week). While I was there, I was glad to see the prairies starting to green up again. It had been about three weeks since the wildfire, and the area had received an inch of rain one week prior to my visit.
Grasses and other prairie plants are sticking their heads up from the ash in the sandhill prairie of the east bison pasture.
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From a distance, the sandhills still appear black, but at the right angle, you can see the thin green grasses starting to pop up.
Of all the areas of the Preserve that burned, I’m the least concerned about the sandhills prairie. We’ve done enough summer burning in the sandhills – as well as in sand prairie along the Platte River – that we know what to expect there. The only question is about how the drought will affect the recovery. Because many of the plants, especially those that had been grazed, were already dormant because of the drought, I’m guessing they’ll wait until next year to resprout. If that’s the case, we may see immediate greening mainly of those plants that had escaped grazing or that have particularly deep roots. Either way, next spring will bring recovery of the entire sandhills plant community. In the meantime, our east bison herd would appreciate it if enough plants greened up to keep them fed through the winter. We’ll see – some more rain would sure help.
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Leadplant is one of the fastest-recovering plants in the prairie – likely because of its very deep root system and the fact that it is rarely grazed in our bison pasture.
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This ground cherry is re-emerging from the base of its old stem.
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Smooth sumac appears to be recovering quickly and vigorously. The prairie has always had large patches of sumac, but at 7,200 acres, the east bison pasture can absorb fairly large patches of shrubs without losing its open grassy nature.
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In contrast to the prairies, the woodlands are not yet greening up. I’m not sure what to expect with pine trees – will the survivors start to put on new needles yet this fall? Or next year?
We have a lot more questions about what comes next. I’ve put out feelers to some colleagues who have been through similar wildfires to see if they can share some lessons that would help us be proactive. If anyone reading this has experience that could help us, I’d appreciate hearing from you as well. You can add comments to this post or contact me separately. Thanks!
This photo was taken just a few days following the wildfire (and used in an earlier post). Notice the trails beneath the powerlines, and compare those to the next photo (below).
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About three weeks after the fire, the shallow trails beneath the powerlines appear to be eroding somewhat. There has been about an inch of rain since the fire. I think some degree of erosion is to be expected, but I’m not sure whether or not it’s something we should worry about – or what we’d do if we wanted to… This is one of many questions we need to be thinking about in the weeks and months ahead.
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