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Nature Preserves NEAR GRINNELL Center for Prairie Studies his guide introduces fi ve natural areas within 15 miles of Grinnell, Iowa, that are open to the public. Together these fi ve Tpreserves provide a good representation of the nature of “natural areas” in east-central Iowa. We invite you to use this guide to enhance your exploration of the Conard Environmental Research Area, Jacob Krumm Nature Preserve, the Reichelt Unit of Rock Creek State Park, Rock Creek State Park, and Sugar Creek Audubon Nature Sanctuary. The guide provides information about and images of the natural features and plants and animals that can be found in each of the fi ve areas, and also commentary on conservation efforts and needs. We hope this publication gives you a greater appreciation of nature in the Grinnell area. You may download a printer-friendly version of the guide at the Center for Prairie Studies website, www.grinnell.edu/academic/cps. Russell Tabbert at the Reichelt Unit of Rock Creek State Park The text of this guide was written by Russell Tabbert. He is a nature enthusiast from Grinnell and a retired English professor from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. He enjoys volunteering at Grinnell area preserves and has been especially involved in managing Sugar Creek Audubon Nature Sanctuary. Larissa Mottl and Laureen Van Wyk collaborated on the design and layout of this publication. Larissa manages the Grinnell College Conard Environmental Research Area and assists with Center for Prairie Studies programs and publications. Laureen Van Wyk is the program associate for the Center for Prairie Studies and manages and coordinates Center for Prairie Studies programs, special projects, and publications. Center for Prairie Studies staff Professor Jonathan Andelson ’70, director Larissa Mottl, biological fi eld station manager Laureen Van Wyk, program associate © Copyright Grinnell College, 2009 Table of Contents Preserve Location Map …………………………………………………………………………… 4 Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………… 5 Conard Environmental Research Area ………………………………………………………… 11 Jacob Krumm Nature Preserve ………………………………………………………………… 21 Reichelt Unit of Rock Creek State Park ………………………………………………………… 31 Rock Creek State Park …………………………………………………………………………… 39 Sugar Creek Audubon Nature Sanctuary …………………………………………………… 47 Appendix A: Scientifi c Names of Plants Referenced in Text ……………………………… 55 Appendix B: Image Credits ……………………………………………………………………… 57 Preserve Locations N Legend Preserves Guide Area Reservoirs and ponds Jacob Krumm Nature Preserve (450 acres) Rock Creek State Park (1,697 acres) Rock Creek Wildlife Management Area (254 acres) Reichelt Unit of Rock Creek State Park (444 acres) Conard Environmental Research Area (365 acres) Sugar Creek Audubon Nature Sanctuary (49 acres) Preserve entrances 4 Introduction his guide introduces fi ve natural areas within 15 miles of types of public areas, including parks, preserves, playgrounds, TGrinnell that are open to the public. All are west of town recreation centers, forests, and wildlife areas.”2 Although the in Jasper County. Rock Creek State Park and the Reichelt Unit land trust movement has not become well established in Iowa, of Rock Creek State Park are owned by the Iowa Department two private organizations have played a recent role in natural of Natural Resources. Conard Environmental Research Area area preservation. The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (www. (CERA) is owned by Grinnell College. Sugar Creek Audubon inhf.org) and the Nature Conservancy of Iowa (www.nature. Nature Sanctuary is owned by the Tallgrass Prairie Audubon org/wherewework/northamerica/states/iowa) acquire lands with Society, the local Audubon chapter; and Jacob Krumm Nature signifi cant natural values, usually transferring ownership or Preserve is owned by the Jasper County Conservation Board. management to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources or Together these fi ve preserves provide a good representation of to a county conservation board.3 the nature of “natural areas” in this part of Iowa. As a consequence of this history of land preservation, all natural areas in Iowa, including those described here, have been impacted by agricultural or other utilitarian practices. Background Understanding this fact is central to understanding the nature of Iowa’s natural areas. It is also key to understanding the ecause the land that became Iowa was surveyed and challenges of managing the resources. Bsold by the federal government in the mid- and late-19th century, no public preserves were established from land in the public domain. No features of Iowa’s landscape inspired a movement such as that which saved Yellowstone from Prairie disposal. The single focus was to get land into private hands. Thus, all of Iowa’s parks and other protected natural areas have n 1847, at the time of survey by the Government Land been established by acquiring private land. There is only a tiny IOffi ce, this part of Iowa was largely tallgrass prairie, an amount of federally owned land in Iowa. The largest piece, ecosystem dominated by grasses and colored with dozens of Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, is a several-thousand- species of wildfl owers (“forbs”). Periodic fi res, either caused acre prairie reconstruction in southwest Jasper County, about by lightning or set by Native Americans, kept most heat- 35 miles from Grinnell as the crow fl ies. sensitive brush and trees from invading. But in Iowa, prairie has virtually disappeared, mostly under the farmer’s plow, but While many other state governments were establishing public also under the shade of trees and shrubs after the elimination of land preserves in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Iowa did regular fi res. Only scattered remnants of native prairie remain not pass a law authorizing state parks until 1917. The fi rst such today, including small patches at all fi ve of these Jasper County park, Backbone State Park along the Maquoketa River, was not preserves, the largest and best one being at the Reichelt Unit. established until 1920.1 County-owned natural areas, such as Krumm Preserve, were not possible until much later. In 1955, In recent years, as enthusiasm for prairies has grown, many the state legislature authorized counties to vote on whether to individuals and organizations are “reconstructing” prairie by “levy taxes for park funds and to create county conservation sowing or drilling seeds on land, especially cropland, from boards with authority to acquire, control, and manage several which prairie has long been absent. Although reconstructions big bluestem Indiangrass Canada wild rye switchgrass 1 Rebecca Conard, Places of Quiet Beauty: Parks, Preserves, and 2 Conard, 230–231. Environmentalism. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1997, 36, 54. 3 The websites of these two organizations give information about their activities. Neither group owns land in the immediate Grinnell area. 5 usually lack the species diversity of good-quality native prairies for miles in all directions one gorgeous mass of variant remnants, large ones, such as those at CERA and Krumm, beauty.”4 can give us a hint of what it must have been like living in or traveling through the original tallgrass prairie. Six striking forbs that occur in many of the Jasper County reconstructions and remnants are compass plant, lead plant, It is the shoulder and head-high grasses that give this plant rattlesnake master, round-headed bush clover, prairie blazing, community its name. In order of prominence, they are big and butterfl y milkweed. bluestem, Indiangrass, Canada wild rye, and switchgrass. little bluestem prairie dropseed side-oats grama Important shorter prairie grasses are little bluestem, prairie The common names of plants sometimes refl ect folk wisdom. dropseed, and side-oats grama. What you cannot see of these For example, the presence of lead plant supposedly indicated plants is equally impressive: they have root systems that go that lead ore was to be found there. Or the venom of a down several feet into the ground, making them far more rattlesnake bite could be counteracted by applying a poultice drought resistant than shallow-rooted grasses such as corn. made from the root of the rattlesnake master. However, in the (Yes, corn is a grass, though much modifi ed by plant breeding case of the compass plant, there is a rough accuracy in the and now genetic engineering.) name. The large, many-lobed leaves do more-or-less face east- west, thus pointing north-south.5 compass plant lead plant rattlesnake round-headed prairie butterfly master bush clover blazing star milkweed Not so well represented in most reconstructions are the forbs, 4 Reprinted in Glenda Riley, ed., Prairie Voices: Iowa’s Pioneering the wildfl owers, that color high-quality native prairie. Early Women (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1996), 218–219. pioneer accounts of the Midwest marveled at the carpets of 5 An excellent guide to prairie plants is Tallgrass Prairie blossoms. Here is Joanna Harris Haines 1865 recalling her Wildfl owers: A Field Guide to Common Wildfl owers and Plants of the arrival in the Grinnell area in 1855: “Another thing I shall Prairie Midwest (second edition) by Doug Ladd and Frank Oberle remember as long as I live with unalloyed and inexpressible (Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press, 2005). The plants are arranged according to blossom color and, within the color groupings, by time pleasure was the magnifi cence of the wild fl owers that made the of fl owering. A guide specifi c to Iowa and with more technical detail is An Illustrated Guide to Iowa Prairie Plants by Paul Christiansen and Mark Müller (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1999). It is arranged according to plant family and has excellent line drawings. 6 Savanna nother important, though much smaller, plant community Ain presettlement Iowa was savanna. It was comprised of oaks of a similar age and of a ground layer of grasses and forbs. These plants and the fallen oak leaves provided fuel for the frequent fi res that moved through from the prairie. The thick, heat-resistant bark of the oaks, especially bur oaks, allowed them to survive and grow, but the fi res kept other heat-sensitive trees and brush from becoming established there.

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