Tallgrass Aspen Parklands

.16 MINNESOTA CONSERVATION VOLUNTEER AN UNSUNG WILDERNESS PRESENTS A VAST OPPORTUNITY FOR CONSERVATION. Our course lay on the east side of the river, through a beautiful level prairie studded with willow bushes.... A very perceptible change was observed in the prairie the next day. Hummocks of aspen and willow relieved the sameness of the scenery. Betiueen Pine River and Middle River the soil preserves its light character, the trail running for many miles on ancient lake ridges or beaches. —HENRY HIND, OCTOBER 1857 F EXPLORER HENRY HIND WERE TO repeat this journey today, he Iwould find no trace of the "beautiful level prairie" on the east side of the Red River. Since European settlers first introduced wheat to the Red River valley in the early 1800s, Hind's rich prairies have been entirely converted to cropland. Much the same fate has befallen all of Minnesota's tallgrass prairie, which by building some of Aspen parkland, characterized by a smattering of aspen groves, shrub thick ets, and tallgrass, is found in northwest ern Minnesota and southern Manitoba. 27 Aspen Parkland the world's finest agricultural soils biological phenomenon depends on assured its own destruction. large, intact blocks of land. However, on reaching the beach The survival of this ecosystem is ridges, Hind would find himself in the result of a fortuitous combination familiar surroundings, a brushy of the agriculturally inhospitable prairie full of "hummocks of aspen nature of the landscape, its history of and willow." Here in the tallgrass settlement, and the foresight of indi aspen parkland, tens of thousands of viduals who decades ago recognized acres have been spared the plow. its value for wildlife. Recent recogni Unlike the tallgrass prairie, which is tion that the tallgrass aspen parkland extinct as a naturally functioning is an ecosystem found only in north D. & M. ZIMMERMAN. VIREO western Minnesota and adjacent Manitoba has brought new urgency to the task of conserving it for future generations. Natural PatcLwork The tallgrass aspen parkland extends roughly from Red Lake Falls, Minn., to Winnipeg, Manitoba, encompass ing 1.2 million acres. It is the north ernmost expression of the transition between tallgrass prairie and forest ecosystems. In Minnesota it is sand One denizen of the aspen parkland is wiched between the conifer forests the rare and elusive yellow rail. and peatlands north of Red Lake and the croplands in the former rich ecosystem, the parkland survives in prairies of the Red River valley. sufficient acreage to function much Scarcely an explorer passed as it did when Hind journeyed there. through the parkland without com Because it is a dynamic landscape, menting on the islands of willow maintained by cycles of wet and dry and aspen that everywhere inter years, frequent fire, and natural rupted the prairie expanse. Colorful recovery, the parkland's future as a township names attest to the patch work: Marsh Grove, Eckvoll (Nor Nancy Sather and Robert Dana are wegian for "oak vale"), and Espelie botanists and plant ecologists with the (also Norwegian, meaning "poplar DNR Natural Heritage and Nongame slope"). Today, the intact areas are Research Program and Minnesota still a mosaic of trembling aspen County Biological Survey. and balsam poplar groves, prairies, 18 MINNESOTA CONSERVATION VOLUNTEER „§pen Jnarklaim MANITOBA i _ ., Lake of Caribou WMA the Woods 73 a-' : Beaches Lake WMA 7=<> M Lake Bronson .J- [ _ t Thief Lake WMA State Park , iff ' NORTH MIN SIESOTA DAKOTA \ 'V, Agassiz National •\ 'Thief'River Falls?* Wildlife Refuge Red Grand Forks • Lake •1 U-AJL: * Red Lake Falls if Native parkland sites today Presettlement tallgrass aspen parkland Winnipeg MANITOBA 2 3 11 i^ssss^s&simam^s^s^es^ Aspen Parkland UPTON. MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY The deafening screech from the wooden axles of Red River ox carts echoed through the parkland during the mid-1800s. A half-century later, hunters (below right) gath ered at the Hotel Hallock to shoot the plentiful game, including moose, deer, and elk. and sedge-dominated fens dotted pre-European peoples and bison, with willow and bog birch. A strik these beach ridges also provided an ing feature is the abundance of upland route for thousands of ox shrubs (more than 25 species) in the carts hauling furs from posts in the prairies and meadows, resulting in Red River valley and Canada to St. a native plant community known as Paul throughout most of the 19th brush prairie. century. Most of the area is level and poor ly drained, smoothed first by flow Railroad Legacy ing ice and later by the waters of In 1879 the U.S. government grant Glacial Lake Agassiz. The most ed alternating square-mile blocks of prominent topographic features are land throughout the northern Red 10,000-year-old beach ridges of River valley, including most of the Glacial Lake Agassiz that rise a aspen parkland, to a railroad com mere 25 feet above the plains and pany (later to become part of James trend sinuously northward through J. Hill's empire) to finance the con the center of Marshall and Kittson struction of rail service into the area. counties. Their sandy soils once By 1912 the Kittson County plat supported strings of oak savanna atlas showed that the land most and dry prairie, fragments of which promising for agriculture had near still remain. Important trails for ly all been sold. However, in several 20 MINNESOTA CONSERVATION VOLUNTEER large areas of poor agricultural state investor group before Beaches potential, the railroad's ownership Lake and Caribou had been created. remained largely intact. Development of these tracts would Impressed by the wildlife value of fragment the parkland, reducing these vast blocks of parkland, their value to wildlife. Robert Farmes, the DNR area The investors offered their land in wildlife manager for northwestern Beaches Lake WMA for sale. The Minnesota in the early 1960s, sought Nature Conservancy of Minnesota, a to protect them as public wildlife private conservation organization lands. In 1969 Kittson County dedicated to protecting areas impor approved plans for Beaches Lake tant for biodiversity, bought all 6,900 and Caribou wildlife management acres and transferred them to the areas, and the DNR began buying DNR in 1993. tax-forfeited land within the units. Soon after, a Swiss entrepreneur By 1990 the state owned most of the who had bought most of the old land within the WMAs, except for railroad lands in and around the checkerboard of former railroad Caribou WMA decided to sell many properties, which had been pur of the undeveloped tracts. Again, chased for speculation by an out-of The Nature Conservancy bought the KITTSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1999 21 Aspen Parkland land and transferred the 4,300 acres early explorers are gone, in Caribou to the DNR. With these hunting opportunities two transactions, the early vision for abound to this day. The Beaches Lake and Caribou wildlife parkland harbors the management areas, respectively the state's second largest pop largest and second largest contigu ulation of moose, and it is ous blocks of tallgrass aspen park one of the few places in land in the United States, has come Minnesota where the close to realization. sharp-tailed grouse still reaches populations of Paradise for Wildlife adequate size to be hunted. Although the thousands of bison, The aspen parkland supports not prairie wolves, and elk noted by only a variety of common water- Though once-plentiful elk have nearly disappeared, moose (below) still roam the parkland in large numbers. Sandhill cranes (upper right) feed in grassy openings. sag *r. Ill; 22 MINNESOTA CONSERVATION VOLUNTEER Ten Tlhousanul Cranes SANDHILL CRANES WERE COMMO N IN r j • HBgB the Red River valley and east ward until 1890. Settlement of the prairie and unregulated hunting m m dramaticall y decreased their numbers. By 1944 they were believed to have declined to 10 to 25 breeding pairs. Since then the species fowl, but also horned grebes, red has been increasing. By 1985 the state's population had revived to an necked grebes, sandhill cranes, and estimated 760 to 1,160 nesting pairs. Wilson's phalaropes. Agassiz The wetland-laced landscape of the National Wildlife Refuge and Thief aspen parkland is prime crane Lake WMA are keystone areas for habitat. It has shallow wetland roost migratory waterfowl, including areas; an abundance of nesting sites colonial waterbirds and other in taller vegetation such as cattails, nongame species. reed-grass, and bulrush; and nearby Not only does the parkland sup open habitat for feeding. Although noticeable because of port a large diversity of species, but it their size and high trumpeting call, also provides habitat for some of the sandhill cranes become quieter and state's rarest plants and animals, as less obvious after their "colts" (chicks) documented by the Minnesota hatch. As summer progresses they County Biological Survey in the early move to feed in nearby fields, 1990s. For example, the survey dis congregating at night in wetland roost covered that the aspen parkland is areas. By early September thousands the stronghold in Minnesota for the of cranes from Minnesota and rare yellow rail, once believed to be Canada move into Agassiz National Wildlife imperiled in the state. In addition to Refuge and area 35 new locations for the yellow rail, WMAs. A 1988 study found that the survey documented 285 new seven aspen parkland sites provided fall staging grounds for more than 10,000 cranes. For information on Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge, call 218-449-4115. To learn about visiting area WMAs, state parks, and other sites, call the DNR Information Center, listed on page 63. —NANCY SATHER MARIE READ 23 Aspen Parkland ROBERT DANA Aspens form small but often dense groves.

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