McPete Prairie
We own 226 acres of land. 40 acres are tilled by a neighbor farmer (we qualify for CRP but he needs the hay/corn/soy for his dairy cows. This will change down the road). The rest is a combination of goat prairie, tallgrass prairie and deciduous woods. We own a mile of bluff over a valley that runs into the Mississippi River, 1-2 miles away. For ½ mile, we own from County Road 77 on the bluff to County Road 10 in the valley. For the next ½ mile, we own the slope which is goat prairie and deciduous woods. I identify submissions as McPete Prairie and McPete Land. The tallgrass prairie is around our house on top, about 5-7 acres as well as the goat prairies. The goat prairies below connect and are original. The prairie around our house was created from scratch in 1993 and has evolved with an incredible biodiversity. At the beginning, we scraped off the topsoil and broadcast over 250 species of native prairie plants. We collected seeds from local goat prairies and purchased seeds from Prairie Moon Nursery in Winona, MN that were local as well. We have maintained it with periodic burnings and slow removal of invasives.
The primary underlying base is limestone. Partway down the hill is a band of sandstone. There also is a layer of sandstone on the top in certain areas. Our six-lined racerunners live on the sandstone band down the hill.
Our created prairie and the plants have thrived. Invertebrates have appeared that are specific to tallgrass prairie. We have Bombus affinis and a number of MN DNR endangered/threatened/special concern plants. The biodiversity is rich.
The high number of plant species is vital to a healthy prairie. North American prairie plants live primarily underground. Along with a richness of species, this allows the prairie to survive anything: drought, burns, weather changes, grazing animals, haying, mowing and so forth. As long as the soil remains intact, the prairie does well. We have watched over the years how some species seem to disappear then suddenly show up when conditions are right. They are surviving underground until conditions are right. I hadn't seen Culver's root for several years; then one appeared this past summer. It never left!
The soil is "aerated" by pocket gophers and ants. I love tracking the movements of our pocket gophers from year to year. We also have least and short-tailed weasels, plenty of mice, 13-lined ground squirrels, red and gray squirrels, gray and red fox, and an occasional possum: the coyotes sing to us every night. Too many white-tailed deer. A neighbor has a photo of a black bear on our land! Milk & garter snakes, bats in my bat house every summer.
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