The Greater Prairie Chicken A National Look W. Daniel Svedarsky, Ross H. Hier, Nova J. Silvy editors Miscellaneous Publication 99-1999 Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station University of Minnesota Saint Paul, Minnesota The University of Minnesota, including the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, or sexual orientation. The editors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of numerous authors and associates to this publication: (alphabetically) R.D. Applegate, R.K. Anderson, R.S. Bergland, R.W. Cannon, D.M. Christisen, B. Crouch, T.L. Esker, L.F. Fredrickson, D.E. Gawlik, K.M. Giesen, C.P. Griffin, S. Gough, G.L. Heismeyer, G.J. Horak, R.E. Horton, J.R. Keir, G.D. Kobriger, M.A. Lockwood, L.M. Mechlin, M. Moe, M.E. Morrow, M.J. Peterson, M.A. Schroeder, S.A. Simpson, J.E. Toepfer, W.L. Vodehnal, R.L. Westemeier, B. Winter, D.H. Wolfe, T.J. Wolfe. Cover illustration by Karen A. Smith. Used with permission. Editorial assistance, publication design and production management was provided by experiment station senior editor Larry A. Etkin, in the Communication and Educational Technology Services unit of the University of Minnesota Extension Service. Commercial Products Disclaimer Reference to commercial products or trade names is made with the understanding that no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station or the University of Minnnesota is implied. Availability This miscellaneous publication of the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station is intended for a very specialized audience, and only a limited number of copies are available, at $25 each, for distribution to the public. Inquiries as to the availability of these copies ashould be addressed to W. Daniel Svedarsky, Northwest Experiment Station, University of Minnesota, Crookston, MN 56716. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the text of this publication is available in alternative formats upon request. Copyright© 1999. Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved. Printed on recycled paper containing a minimum of 10 percent post-consumer material. Foreword It was indeed a pleasure to bring greetings to the 25th annual meeting of the Minnesota Prairie Chicken Society and to welcome readers to the compilation of papers detailing the national status of this unique prairie bird. Once before, in April of 1976, I addressed this meeting and good friends at Rothsay when that community celebrated its Bicentennial and was dedicated as the "Prairie Chicken Capital of Minnesota." Those sorts of events where farmers, biologists, local citizens, community leaders, educators, and politicians get together to have a little fun and commemorate a symbol of good land stewardship is rural America at its finest! I have fond memories of this bird- and its cousin, the sharp-tailed grouse - having grown up in rural Minnesota near Roseau. I will always remember hunting sharptails with my dad in the 1950s on or near Soil Bank land southwest of Roseau. The birds were abundant, although we weren't sure why. When high grain prices came in the early 1970s, the Soil Bank land was plowed and the sharptails all but disappeared - then I knew why. These prairie grouse are a product of the land and their presence is a sign that the land is healthy. Prairie chickens, in particular, and perhaps people as well, do best when there is a mixture of cultivated agriculture and grassland on the landscape. As these papers document, current prairie chicken populations are a mere sprinkling of their former range due to a wide array of limiting factors. But one of the major factors was too in­ tensive land use which sent too much of our precious topsoil to the sea. Along with this irre­ placeable soil goes nutrients and agricultural chemicals which can foul our waters. We have returned much of the erodible lands to grass cover through the Conservation Reserve Program and we have continued to diversify planting mixtures to improve wildlife habitat values for prai­ rie chickens and other imperiled grassland species but there is more to do. We are witnessing a major exodus of farmers leaving the land and a noble way of life behind. We must reverse these forces by diversifying rural America in a sustainable fashion that celebrates wild areas alongside agriculture and healthy families connected to the land. I salute the efforts of the many people working, in their own way, to study and support wildlife like the greater prairie chicken. You point the way on how good biology can be integrated with wise land use so we can move forward with pride into the new century enjoying the benefits of modern society and the pleasures of wild things. Robert Bergland University of Minnesota Regent and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture The Greater Prairie Chicken: A National Look Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station The Greater Prairie Chicken: A National Look Preface In the winter of 1972-73, a couple of wildlife of a species distributed over a wide range managers and a college instructor got togeth­ of habitats and climates. A species recovery er over coffee and donuts and brainstormed effort is apparently working in Illinois where on how the prairie chicken was doing in Min­ greater prairie chicken numbers and genetic nesota and if more should be done - by peo­ fitness had declined to perilous lows but were ple. A lot had already been done - by agency "rescued" by the introduction of new genes field people who had acquired the "good in transplanted birds. This project was made grass" in various programs that provided the possible by advances in genetic analysis tech­ all-important habitat base. A bunch of meet­ niques as well as the meticulous, long-term ings later, and a prairie chicken organization field work of Ron Westemeier. A paper by was launched- inspired by the Wisconsin Westemeier and co-workers was recently model of the Society of Tympanuchus Cupido published in the prestigious journal, Science, Pinnatus and Fred and Fran Hamerstrom. in recognition of the landmark nature of their findings and potential applications. We are Twenty-five years later, the Board of Directors grateful to Ron for bringing his many years of the Society met to plan the Silver Anniver­ of working with prairie chickens to develop sary meeting and decided to really broaden the symposium summary paper herein, along the scope to include not only a look at our with Sharron Gough of Missouri. own history, but the national scene as well. A number of status papers for states had pre­ A case history on the Attwater's prairie chick­ viously been prepared for a book that was to en in Texas is included to profile an "against include greater and lesser chickens and sharp­ all odds" scenario described by Nova Silvy. tailed grouse and would be published by the It is hard to imagine a current conservation Prairie Grouse Technical Council. Nova Silvy, setting with more challenges than Attwater's of Texas A & M University, organized that chickens, and yet their status 25 years ago, effort which resulted in early versions of most although endangered, certainly did not seem greater prairie chicken papers. Authors of dismal. Let us learn from this example, fine those papers were contacted and invited to tune and adjust our research and manage­ update and submit them for this publication. ment efforts in species conservation, and Several were able to attend the meeting at above all, never get complacent as we help Crookston and present their papers on 25 a species experience success. April1998. Ross Hier provides a glimpse of the storied It was a time for celebration as well as past of prairie chicken hunting traditions in thoughtful reflection. In the 25-year span, prai­ his paper. Prairie chickens have many values rie chickens had held their own for the most - as profiled by Grady Mann - and they have part in Minnesota but such was not the case a solid place in the early settlement, socio­ in some states. We were fortunate in Minne­ cultural history of the prairies. It was suste­ sota to have had a healthy land base to focus nance, certainly, but chicken hunting was management on, in addition to expanded much more. It defined community events, acquisition efforts. It is instructive to see what get-togethers of family and friends, and com­ works and what doesn't in the conservation merce in some cases. We will never again see Miscellaneous Publication 99-1999 The Greater Prairie Chicken: A National Look those days of great chicken abundance but A number of people and organizations helped it is stirring to see and hear a misty-eyed 80- to make this publication a reality. The many year-old say he would "like to just see one, authors who searched for, dusted off, and once again." revised old manuscripts or in some cases wrote new papers. The organizations provid­ From the outset, an underlying goal of the ing funding include: the Minnesota Prairie Minnesota Prairie Chicken Society was to Chicken Society; the Northwest Experiment have some fun while saving a species. Again, Station and the Minnesota Agricultural Experi­ our model was the Wisconsin Society of ment Station of the University of Minnesota Tympanuchus Cupido Pinnatus, where the located at Crookston and St. Paul, respective­ annual meeting is a cocktail party! And we ly; Society of Tympanuchus Cupido Pinnatus, heed an admonition by the late Fred Hamer­ Ltd. through president William Schallert; the strom that, "Good works do not need to be Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Texas done in a sepulchral atmosphere." Indeed, A&M University, College Station; and the you will even find Ross Hier cartoons sprin­ Pembina Trail Resource Conservation and kled amidst the serious scientific papers with­ Development Association.