Look for new players like riprap, blazing star and willow fascines in Ohio State’s Gwynne Conservation Area.
The nearly 70-acre facility, part of CFAES’s Farm Science Review site at the Molly Caren Agricultural Center in London, has started two new projects — one to diversify its prairie plantings; the other, to protect the banks of Deer Creek, which flows through the grounds.
Review Manager Nick Zachrich said the projects offer double benefits: They improve the Gwynne itself. And they demonstrate practices that people — including the Review’s 100,000-plus visitors every September — can take home and use on their own land, too.
1. Flower power
Blazing star (pictured), is one of the many forbs, or wildflowers, to be planted — via new seed mixes — in the Gwynne’s 10-plus acres of prairie. Asters, milkweeds and coneflowers are others.
2. Pollinator, wildlife benefits
Previously, the Gwynne’s prairie plantings were mostly just two grasses: big bluestem and Indian grass. The new seed mixes, which include forbs with grasses, hold benefits for pollinators — such as monarch butterflies (pictured above) — and wildlife.
3. Testing best management methods
The prairie project also is demonstrating forb-friendly management — involving disking, burning, removing residue or a combination. Mike Retterer, an Ohio-based biologist with the nonprofit Pheasants Forever, helped develop the strategies.
4. Bank guards
5. Excavation implementation
As a first step, however, members of the Ohio Land Improvement Contractors of America, a longtime Review partner, will excavate the stream bank, reduce its slope and eliminate an unstable undercut.
Visit the Gwynne’s website.