Grasslands National Park Restoring Habitat for Species at Risk

Grasslands National Park

For the past 26 years, Grasslands National Park has been restoring native plant communities to create wildlife habitat and for the inherent value of native prairie, its resilience towards drought, and potential mitigation effects on our changing climate. As a national park that manages habitat for 33 species at risk, it is an ongoing priority to preserve existing grasslands and to create new habitat where possible.

Restoration projects are focused on land that was farmed (cultivated and seeded to annual crops) or intentionally seeded to non-native plants prior to being purchased by Parks Canada. Over 450 hectares of new mixed grassland plant communities have been created through field restoration work and have been a significant steppingstone in species at risk conservation efforts at Grasslands National Park.

Figure 1. This field was kept under cultivation of annual crops until GNP staff were able to seed it with native plants in 2000. Twenty years later (above photo), there is good ground cover, a variety of native flowers, and even plant species that were not seeded. This shows that natural processes will continue to encourage diversity and establishment of native plants across the field. In the summer, both Chestnut-collared longspurs and Sprague’s Pipits can be heard singing in the field.

The Process

To restore a field covered with non-native plants, it is first farmed and planted with annual crops for multiple years to remove unwanted vegetation and to reduce the number of non-native seeds in the ground. This creates a blank slate for native seeds and gives them time to grow before other unwanted plants can move back in. The farmed boundary always follows the already disturbed field edge to ensure no new impacts to the soil or any cultural resources happen.

GNP staff spend hours each summer collecting seeds using a variety of techniques, including hand collection and the use of machines made specifically to collect native seeds. From the seeds collected, unique mixtures are created that are specifically tailored to each project to help increase the chances for plant growth.

Figure 2. Two park staff are operating a motorized seed stripper that has bristles on the front that beat the mature seed heads into the back bin. It can be adjusted to collect at different heights depending on the seed being collected. Large patches of grass seed are usually collected this way.

In either early spring or late fall, once the seed mix has been prepared, a heavy harrow is used to loosen the hard-packed ground. When the weather cooperates, the field is broadcast seeded and mixed loosely into the soil with a loose tine harrow. The ground is then packed with a land roller to make sure the planted seeds are making contact with the soil and remain in place.

Figure 3. The seeder set up for our Fall 2021 seeding project made up of a 10-foot broadcast seeder, loose tine harrow and land roller.

Once seeding is done, nature takes over and success of these fields is dependent on the weather conditions that come next. The only thing left to do is patiently wait for plants to grow and to monitor the seeded fields.

Monitoring the results

Monitoring of the restoration fields is an ongoing process that occurs every two years until the field is 15-years old and then it is reduced to every four years. This ensures the fields are visited on a regular basis and allows staff to learn which plant species and techniques work well in restoration. Monitoring involves sampling a portion of the field using a Daubenmire frame for percent cover of native and non-native plants, bare ground, the cover of individual species, taking photographs for comparison over time, and recording wildlife species in the area.

Figure 4. Two Park staff used Daubenmire frames to monitor a 22-year-old field to track the change of plant cover and diversity over time. This monitoring will help us create improved restoration plans for upcoming seeding projects.

Heather Facette, Resource Management Officer at Grasslands National Park, has been involved in grasslands restoration projects since 2014.

"The most rewarding part of monitoring is detecting species at risk occupying the field, knowing that new habitat is available."

Heather Facette, Resource Management Officer
Figure 5. The boundary between two fields seeded in 2009 (left) and 2010 (right) showcasing how weather conditions influence plant establishment. Both fields had silver sagebrush seed, a shrub species essential for the greater sage-grouse, added in the seed mix but the field seeded in 2010 had conditions more suitable for that species to germinate and establish in the field.

To learn more about the work taking place at Grasslands National Park to restore native plant communities and habitat for species at risk, contact Sarah Rheubottom (sarah.rheubottom@pc.gc.ca)

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