photo: Thomas Meyer The Prairie-Forest Border Ecoregion: A conservation plan Prairie-Forest Border Prairie-Forest Border Ecoregion: A Conservation Plan Table of Contents I. Executive Summary Page 1 II. Acknowledgements Page 2 III. Context of the Ecoregion Page 2 IV. Description of the Ecoregion Page 3 · Physical Setting · Sections · Human Context V. Ecoregion-wide Threats Page 5 VI. Planning Process Page 7 · Phase I: Target Selection and Goal Setting · Phase II: Target Assessment · Phase III: Selection of Conservation Areas · Phase IV: Implementation · Lessons Learned VII. Conservation Goals Assessment Page 14 VIII. Information Management Page 18 IX. Information Gaps Page 19 X. Implementation/Next Steps Page 20 Glossary of Terms Sources of Data Maps Map 1: Context of Prairie-Forest Border Ecoregion Map 2: Map of Prairie-Forest Border Map 3: Section of Prairie-Forest Border Map 4: Urban Areas within Prairie-Forest Border Map 5: Ecological Drainage Units of Prairie-Forest Border Map 6: Untilled Landscapes of Prairie-Forest Border Map 7: Ecologically Significant Areas Map 7a: Ecologically Significant Areas of Minnesota Map 7b: Ecologically Significant Areas of Wisconsin Map 7c: Ecologically Significant Areas of Iowa Map 7d: Ecologically Significant Areas of Illinois Map 8: Ecologically Significant Areas by Category Tables Table 1: Natural Community Conservation Targets Table 2: Aquatic System Conservation Targets Table 3: Species Conservation Targets Table 4: Ecologically Significant Areas List Table 5: Conservation Targets by Ecologically Significant Areas Table 6: Summary of Conservation Goals Table 7: Prairie-Forest Border Goals Assessment Table 8: Geography of Hope Goals Assessment Appendices Appendix A: Experts involved in Planning Process Appendix B: Natural Heritage Program Ranking System Appendix C: Aquatic Classification System Appendix D: Important Bird Area Analysis Appendix E: Aquatic Target Assessment Appendix F: Plan Review Procedure I: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Prairie-Forest Border ecoregion is the transition zone, or “meeting place” between the tallgrass prairies and the northern forests. Much of the region was covered by successive waves of glaciers, and is composed of rolling hills and extensive flatlands formed by moraines, drumlin fields, pitted outwash, and glacial lakes. Approximately one-third of the ecoregion was unglaciated by the most recent wave of glaciers, and here the land is dissected by old and current waterways. Fire occurred regularly throughout most of the ecoregion, acting in concert with climate to create a shifting mosaic of prairie and forest, an ever-changing matrix of oak savanna, forest, and prairie. Many different plant communities occur within the ecoregion, including globally significant oak savannas, prairies, and algific talus slopes. Total acreage of oak savannas today is less than 1/100th of 1% of the pre- settlement extent, and prairies now cover less than 1/10th of 1% of their historic range in the ecoregion. Sixty-three plant and animal species occur within the ecoregion that are globally rare or federally listed. Thirteen plant communities, ten animal and six plant species are endemic to the ecoregion, found only in this part of the world. These endemics include several species of pleistocene-era land snails and the dwarf trout lily. Led by The Nature Conservancy, many conservation partners came together in a two-year ecoregional planning process to identify important Ecologically Significant Areas and restoration areas that will ensure the long-term survival of all viable native species and ecological communities. Conservation targets for the Prairie-Forest Border include all native natural communities, globally rare species and other species for whom experts feel the Prairie-Forest Border is an important part of their range. The expectation is that by protecting the best examples of all natural communities, we will conserve most of the species of the Prairie- Forest Border by providing adequate habitat for them, without requiring focused efforts for each species. We believe the coarse-filter approach is the most efficient method of capturing the full spectrum of biodiversity in the ecoregion. There were 84 rare species identified as conservation targets, and 107 plant community types. In addition, 24 aquatic community types, or ecological systems, were identified as conservation targets. Conservation goals were set for these targets based on global rank, historic patch size and proportion of historic range occurring in the ecoregion. These goals set the number and distribution of target occurrences within the ecoregion. Using available information about target occurrences, current status and resource needs of the conservation targets, as well as current conservation activity within the ecoregion, a set of ecologically significant areas was identified, places at which The Nature Conservancy and partners will work to preserve the species and communities of the ecoregion. Given the fragmented nature of the ecosystems within the Prairie-Forest Border, and the overall loss of habitat to urbanization and agriculture, the goals for many of the plant communities and target species have not been met in currently intact landscapes, making restoration vital to the creation of a network of viable habitats. One hundred and sixty-six conservation areas, called Ecologically Significant Areas, have been selected for conservation of the biodiversity of the Prairie-Forest Border ecoregion. Many of these areas are large, landscape-scale sites which encompass terrestrial, aquatic and important migratory bird area site components, as well as rare species occurrences. Within many of these areas are concentrations of conservation targets, and many areas encompass current conservation projects. Conservation action will work to maintain the ecological integrity of the landscape context of the areas, as well as focusing on abating the threats to the targets found at the Ecologically Significant Areas. Conservation areas were chosen which will maximize conservation by protecting the highest-quality occurrences of ecoregional targets, and which will protect multiple targets within an area. 1 Land development for residential or commercial uses, incompatible agricultural practices, exotic species and fire exclusion were identified as the primary threats facing conservation targets throughout the ecoregion. Several ecoregion-wide strategies have been identified to abate these threats, including traditional protection actions as well as more innovative outreach and partnership efforts. Many of these strategies will have conservation impacts beyond the Prairie-Forest Border ecoregion, and should be coordinated among adjoining ecoregions. Another key threat to the conservation of biodiversity in the Prairie-Forest Border is the small size of conservation areas and a lack of connectivity among them. The need for connectivity among Ecologically Significant Areas, establishing a network of protected areas for large-ranging mammals, migratory birds and aquatic organisms is an issue to be addressed in future revisions of the ecoregional plan. II: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This conservation plan for the Prairie-Forest Border ecoregion is the result of two years of hard work by many individuals. The Core Team of planners consisted of Conservancy and Heritage staff from each of the four states: Illinois Lisa Haderlein, Director of Conservation Operations, The Nature Conservancy Tim Tear, Director of Conservation Science, The Nature Conservancy Iowa Keith Fletcher, Landscape Conservation Project Manager, The Nature Conservancy John Pearson, IA Department of Natural Resources Gerry Selby, Director of Science and Stewardship, The Nature Conservancy Minnesota Hannah Dunevitz, Regional Plant Ecologist, MN Department of Natural Resources Garth Fuller, Land Steward, The Nature Conservancy Wisconsin Karen Bassler, Conservation Coordinator, The Nature Conservancy Eric Epstein, Ecologist, WI Department of Natural Resources Deirdre Gruendler, Conservation Planner, The Nature Conservancy Paul West, Stewardship Ecologist, The Nature Conservancy From the beginning, Wayne Ostlie of the Midwest Resource Office and later of Weather Creek Conservation Consultants provided invaluable assistance in both the planning process and assessment of targets. In addition, Mary Lammert and Tom Fitzhugh of the Freshwater Initiative of The Nature Conservancy worked with Shelly Miller of the Conservancy on the aquatic assessment for the ecoregion. Many others provided invaluable assistance in assessing targets, identifying ecologically significant areas and in many other ways. These partners are listed in Appendix A. III: CONTEXT OF THE ECOREGION As the name implies, the Prairie-Forest Border ecoregion (PFB) is a large transition zone between the former tallgrass prairies and the northern forests. As a transition zone, the PFB serves as a large-scale ecotone. The general vegetation pattern of this ecoregion is thus very different from many other ecoregions—rather than extensive examples of one or two matrix communities, such as northern hardwoods to the north or tallgrass prairies to the south, the matrix of the PFB is an aggregate of many large patch communities of forests, savannas, and grasslands. There is a constant tension among these community types. This tension is the result of the interaction among northern, continental and moist warm Gulf of Mexico weather patterns, in addition to regular episodes of fire, geologic history and landform patterns.