Native Youth Plant a Bee Meadow

In spring, 2015, we held several planning meetings that included the Project Coordinator, Aidan Shaughnessy, a recent graduate of the University of MN Horticulture program, Farm Manager Heather Drake, Executive Director Diane Wilson, and volunteer advisor, Beth Markhart. Once the initial planning was reviewed and in place, we invited the Program Manager, Estella LaPointe, to participate in planning the youth program activities. Rather than hiring an intern as was originally proposed, we decided to work with the 28 Native Garden Warriors who were participating in our summer programs. Each of the Garden Warriors is paid a stipend for participating in our programs.

Site preparation began with a vegetation survey of the site. The pre-existing plant diversity was low and dominated by Smooth Brome grass, Quack grass, and Kentucky bluegrass. Forbes were Canada Goldenrod, field bind weed, Cinquefoil and blue Gentian. Woody plants were Siberian Elm.

The Site was slowly mowed in sections to allow insects and other wildlife opportunity to vacate. After the entire site was mowed with a brush mower on a tractor, a drag harrow was run across the entire site in an attempt to pick up thatch from mowing. Drag harrowing resulted in clumping of thatch, but was relatively ineffective at removing it. Students from a program called H.E.C.U.A. volunteered the 7^th of October raking up thatch and removing it from the restoration area. The area was then disked to break up the soil and provide good seed to soil contact. After the initial disking, it was determined that patches of Brome grass and Kentucky bluegrass were too thick to provide a good seed bed. We then rented a sod cutter to remove these thickly matted grasses. Sod strips were rolled up and removed from the restoration site. Two thirds of the area was then disked twice more in opposite directions to break up any residual thatch or matted grass patches. Many clumps of quack grass were removed from the site to mitigate re-establishment. The restoration area was drag harrowed to smooth the area in preparation to broadcast the native seed mix.

The custom native seed mix ordered from “Prairie Moon” includes 39 herbaceous forbs species, two woody shrubs and 9 species of Native grasses. This seed mix is from appropriate ecotypes that were harvested within 75 miles of our site. This mix shares roughly 75% species correlation of the Southern dry prairie (Ups13) from the DNR guide book to ’Native Plant Communities of Minnesota’. This seed mix was broadcast at a rate of ten pounds per acre with an addition of 3 pounds per acre of annual winter oats to hold soils in the first year.

The seed mix was broadcast the 22^nd and 23^rd of October utilizing all staff of Dream of Wild Health and other volunteers. The seed mix was combined with vermiculite 1:3 to enhance visibility of where broadcast seed has landed and to protect against disproportionate broadcasting. The entire seed mix will be split into two parts and the site will be broadcast seeded by hand in a grid one direction and then seeded again in a perpendicular direction to ensure even distribution of seed spread.

After seed was broadcast, it was raked in the soil 1/8-1/4” to protect against herbivory erosion and to provide good seed to soil contact. The site was then cultipacked with a roller to protect the site against erosion. The native seed mix will stratify over the winter to overcome their cold dormancy requirements.

The first season management plan (2016) is to mow the site in sections to 6” when vegetation reaches heights of 12-18” or about every three weeks. This is to allow sunlight to reach slow growing native plants during establishment and to cut back annual weeds and keep winter oats from going to seed.

The second year management plan is to spot mow where native plants are slow to establish. If smooth brome grass is particularly thick in some patches, a late spring burn is suggested for those areas. It is also recommended that a prescribed burn be enacted every 3-5 years in a prairie restoration to cut back on woody plant establishment.

An earlier plan of doing various site preparations included two different prescribed burns in spring and fall, as well as solarizing an area. This spring season was particularly busy with planting of vegetable crops and didn’t allow time for a spring burn. We were also strongly encouraged by an indigenous farmer from Bolivia not to burn the field and waste organic material that could be returned to the soil. Going forward with this restoration effort, if some areas are outcompeted by invasives, we may reconsider limited use of burns and solarizing.  

Native youth in our summer programs (ages 8-18) were engaged throughout the summer with lessons from program and farm staff. Youth learned the cultural importance of regarding all pollinators as relatives to be treated with respect. Throughout the summer, they helped with maintenance of the honey bee hives as a hands-on lesson in learning more about pollination and becoming comfortable around bees. Program staff led several Bee Meadow site tours prior to installation to discuss process and identify current plants and pollinators in the area.

Farmer lessons focused on the pressures that native pollinators face including displacement from habitat from urban sprawl that has transformed large portions of land to concrete, asphalt, turf grass and edifices. Industrial agriculture has converted tremendous areas to monocrops of corn and soybeans that offer limited nectar and pollen sources. Conventional farms are also regularly sprayed with pesticides and herbicides that directly or inadvertently kill pollinators and other beneficial insects. Habitat fragmentation inhibits free migration through various biomes causing inbreeding depression when populations are critically small. Global climate change threatens many aspects of our ecosystems, but in particular the synchronizing of pollinator life cycle requirements with altered bloom times of flowering plants.

Students were walked through the general life cycle of mining bees, Monarchs and cabbage white butterflies. Differences in where adults lay their eggs were explained, using the example of miner bees laying their eggs in a cavity in the soil with a store of ‘bee bread’ (a combination of pollen and nectar) where they reside from egg through the larval stage and pupation until they emerge from the soil as adults. This differs from the Monarch whose eggs are laid on milkweed specifically and spend their larval stage foraging on the leaves of milkweed, using its toxins as a defense mechanism, until they pupate.  

Students learned about different nesting requirements including exposed soil, leaf litter piles, hollow stemmed plants, and dead wood with examples of the bee genera for each. This lesson also demonstrated how to construct a homemade nesting site of bamboo segments bunched together.

Another lesson focused on eight different native plants that bloom through the entire growing season. Students were acquainted with nursery plants of Prairie smoke, Wild Monarda, Compass Plant, Black-eyed Susan, Prairie Clover, Prairie Cone Flower, Gray Goldenrod and Rough Prairie Blazing star. This included a list of pollinators that utilize Wild Monarda and Rough prairie Blazing Star as well as some medicinal uses for both of these plants. Students transplanted these plants in randomly mixed pattern in an area known as the medicine garden that is near to the field growing indigenous corn, squash and beans. While they planted, students discussed with staff the importance of supporting pollinators who help ensure the health of our indigenous crops, contributing to the cycle of life for all living beings.