Our work in Missouri is part of The Nature Conservancy’s global focus on promoting biodiversity. In this report, you’ll find examples of what TNC and its partners are doing right now to conserve the habitats that support the impressive variety of life we have in Missouri.
VOLUME 23 | FALL
MISSOURI ACTION AND IMPACT
BOARD OF TRUSTEES Beth Alm, Kansas City Michele M. Risdal-Barnes, Springfield Rick Boeshaar, S hawnee Mission, Kansas Jeanne Steinberg Bolinger, Kansas City John Brands, St. Louis Carl Freiling, Ashland Debra Filla, Kansas City Jeanette Hartshorn, Kansas City Diane Herndon, St. Louis Steve Mahfood, Wildwood Carolyn K. Polk, St. Louis Robbie Price, Columbia Joel Pugh, St. Louis Fritz Riesmeyer, Kansas City Jon M. Risdal, Springfield Sharon Shahid, Washington D.C./ St. Louis Jean Wagner, Kansas City Wallis Warren, Jeffriesburg Nancy Ylvisaker, St. Louis
Every time I step outside, I can see something wild.
It’s one of the thrills of living in Missouri. I’ve gotten into mushroom hunting, a hobby that might not always be the most reliable method for bringing home dinner but does force me to slow down and really see all the little plants and animals at work in the woods. Honestly, you don’t even have to go into the woods to appreciate the natural elements all around us. You’re probably not going to find too many morels on city streets in Missouri (if you do, you can trust me with your secret hunting spots), but even staring out the window turns up a procession of wild birds through the seasons. If there’s a community
garden or a pocket park nearby, all the better.
Of course, there are truly stunning hotspots of biodiversity in Missouri, places that take your imagination back to what this landscape must have been thousands of years ago: Ozark streams that are home to tiny creatures that live nowhere else. Unplowed prairies where hundreds of species of grasses, flowers, insects and other wildlife can be found within a few square meters. Sadly, those spaces cover only a fraction of the ground they did just a couple of hundred years ago. A global biodiversity crisis is making the world less resilient, less healthy, less... wild. Our work in Missouri is part of The Nature Conservancy’s global focus on promoting biodiversity. We start by really looking at what is around us. Where are those habitats critical to Missouri’s native species? Where are they most at risk? Who else is working on the problem? Can we team up? Then comes the most important part: We act. In the pages that follow, you’ll find examples of what TNC and its partners are doing right now to conserve the habitats that support the impressive variety of life we have in Missouri. A lot of the programs are new, such as our Habitat Strike Teams (pages 3-5), which we’re deploying across the state. We are also drawing on the shared strength of our TNC staff across state lines (pages 6-7) and our partnerships with other organizations and agencies (pages 10-11) to extend our reach. As always, we rely on science (pages 12-13) to measure our progress and provide insights. All of this is possible thanks to your help. I’m guessing that you, like me, love those days when you can step outside and see something wild. Working together, we can make sure there are plenty of those opportunities—and mushrooms—in our future.
Printed on 100% PCW recycled, process chlorine-free paper, creating the following benefits: 30.1 trees preserved for the future 2,315.9 gallons of water not used 4,494.0 pounds of CO 2 prevented The Nature Conservancy is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) international membership organization. Its mission is to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends. The Nature Conservancy meets all of the Standards for Charity Accountability established by the BBB Wise Giving Alliance. The BBB Wise Giving Alliance is a national charity watchdog affiliated with the Better Business Bureau.
Adam McLane Missouri State Director
THIS PAGE Adam McLane © Kristy Stoyer/TNC COVER Xeromphalina mushrooms © T.J. Crow Photography
ON THE GROUND
Battling for Biodiversity The Nature Conservancy’s new Habitat Strike Teams go to work
habitat needs help. Natural allies of the grasslands, such as bison and elk, were driven from the land by European settlement and federal policies that sought to displace Indigenous tribes. The cascading effects of losing key pieces of the ecosystem have left an opening for invaders. “One of the reasons we have to fight these shrubs so hard is there are no more elk and no more bison,” Tanner says. “We’re just sort of a proxy.” Tanner is part of The Nature Conservancy’s strategy to use newly created Habitat Strike Teams in Missouri to combat invasive species and promote biodiversity. Three mobile teams have been staged in priority geographies: Western Ozarks, Eastern Ozarks and the Osage Plains.
If you were to observe Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie from the air, you would see a struggle for the landscape’s future playing out as a battle of colors. The wildflowers’ lavenders, whites and yellows dot a front of native grasses, which grade from pale green to gold in the heat of midsummer. Together, they fight to hold ground against creeping, monochromatic green islands of unwanted shrubs and trees—sumacs, persimmons, cherries and oaks—that threaten to turn this open expanse of western Missouri plains into scrubby forests, thick with brush, through a process called succession. “The No. 1 reason to stop that process is biodiversity,” says Isaiah Tanner, The Nature Conservancy’s Osage Plains fire and stewardship coordinator in Missouri. “That’s mission No. 1.”
There are more than 300 species of plants at Wah’Kon-Tah, not to mention all the wildlife that depends on them. That kind of variety used to be the norm when wild spaces covered the land. Now, it is rare. Less than 4% of the world’s tallgrass prairie remains, making it one of Earth’s most endangered ecosystems. And it’s not just prairies that are in trouble. Ecosystems around the globe are struggling amid twin crises of a changing climate and rapid decline of biodiversity. More than a million species could face the threat of extinction in the coming years, and habitats are disappearing at alarming rates. Wah’Kon-Tah stands out in that context as a jewel of biodiversity. The land within its boundaries is protected from threats such as development, and it will stay that way. Even so, the
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NATURE.ORG/MISSOURI 3
THIS PAGE Isaiah Tanner is the leader of one of The Nature Conservancy’s new Habitat Strike Teams. © Doyle Murphy/TNC
BIODIVERSITY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
“In this landscape, high-quality habitat management and wildfire risk reduction are one and the same,” says Ryan Gauger, who serves as TNC’s fire and stewardship manager in Missouri and supervises the Habitat Strike Teams. Prescribed fire is one of the predominant tools the strike teams use to open forests and stop the succession process that can turn prairies into savannas and savannas into dense, unhealthy forests if shrubs and trees are left unchecked. Prescribed fire is just one tool in the toolbox of land managers. During those weeks and months when prescribed fire is either not available or recommended, the Habitat Strike Teams turn to other methods— everything from hand tools to heavy machinery—and carefully targeted herbicide spraying to beat back unwanted species. Given the typically narrow windows for burning, that is where a large part of the battle against invasives is fought. Tanner’s home base is Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie. The 4,040-acre preserve near El Dorado Springs, between Springfield and Kansas City, is the largest protected prairie complex in the Osage Plains, and TNC co-manages it with the Missouri Department of Conservation. Outside of fire season, Tanner spends much of his time working back and forth across grasslands, battling invasives.
On a broiling day in mid-July, he heads out along a two-track dirt road. The temperature has already hit 98 degrees by midday, and a cell phone weather app helpfully points out that the humidity makes it feel more like 104. Tanner passes buried buckets where visiting researchers created temporary homes for the American burying beetles being reintroduced to the prairie. A pair of quail race out in front of his UTV, an apparent attempt to lure this perceived threat away from a nest hidden in the grass. The height of wildflower season has passed, but there are still the sunny coronas of compass plants, delicate purple bundles of Missouri ironweed and the odd stalk of cream false indigo that still has a few white petals attached. “It kind of looks like it’s sticking its tongue out at you,” Tanner says, pausing to gently lift one of the little legume’s flowers with his fingers. Riding through the prairie here is a reminder of both the challenge and importance of managing such a diverse habitat. The pollinators flitting from flower to flower, raptors soaring overhead and an occasional deer spotted in the grasses are only a hint of the amount of life packed into every square meter. Tanner has settled into a summer rhythm: In the mornings when it’s cooler, he spot sprays individual stems of Lespedeza cuneata
There are plans for a fourth in the Grand River Grasslands, pending funding. The Habitat Strike Teams are designed to be agile and highly collaborative. Members might start a week hacking down invasives on a TNC preserve and finish it by plugging into a multi-agency burn crew, adding the extra hands needed to conduct prescribed fires around the state. Funded in part by a Cohesive Strategy: Cross Boundary Grant from the U.S. Forest Service as well as the Missouri Department of Conservation, the aim of the Habitat Strike Teams includes a strong focus on working with conservation partners and private landowners to mitigate the risks of wildfires and support the development of high-quality habitats, rich in biodiversity and resilient to our changing climate. Landscapes across North America evolved with regular fires, both sparked naturally by lightning and set by Indigenous people who developed controlled burning techniques over thousands of years. But a century’s worth of federal policies that sought to exclude fire from the land allowed fuels to pile up and unwanted species of plants to gobble up habitats at the expense of native plants. Restoring balance to those ecosystems can reduce the risk of harmful fires and act as a conservation tool, regenerating natural systems.
THIS PAGE The weather influences when and where Tanner works. © Doyle Murphy/TNC A grasshopper hitches a ride on the UTV. © Doyle Murphy/TNC
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(also known as Sericea lespedeza ), an exotic variety of bushclover that wreaks havoc on natural habitats. During the blazing afternoons, he usually switches to the air-conditioned cab of a skid steer outfitted with a mowing deck to blitz stands of unwanted saplings. The Habitat Strike Teams plan to ramp up with two or three seasonal employees each during fire season. But full-timers Tanner and his counterparts in the Western and Eastern Ozarks each serve as teams of one in the months in between. At Wah’Kon-Tah, he uses a GPS map on his phone to track his progress spraying and mowing. A series of squiggly lines showing where he has been. The zoomed-out view of the map can hide the on-the-ground work that goes into each of those lines. As if to prove the point, a fieldstone hidden in a dense cluster of sumac and wild plum trees bangs up one of the skid steer’s wheels, cutting short the afternoon’s mowing while Tanner figures out how to repair or replace it. Similarly, a storm the next morning proves too breezy for spraying. Higher winds make it too difficult to spray the Lespedeza cuneata without wafting the spray onto neighboring natives, and protecting those is just as important
as removing the unwanted ones. Tanner takes advantage of the rare bit of downtime to scout out a few of Wah’Kon-Tah’s far-flung units as prep for future prescribed fires. He passes units burned within the past seven to eight months that have returned, bursting with flowers and thigh-high grasses. Another, located at a distant corner of the sprawling preserve, shows signs of succession on the rise. Rounding a bend, Tanner spies a swath of young oaks, ranging from saplings standing roughly two feet tall to juveniles cresting eight feet. “Wow, look at that!” he says. “That really wants to be forest.”
If allowed to take over, the trees would quickly overwhelm the nearby grasses, erasing badly needed habitat for hundreds of prairie-dwelling species. To preserve biodiversity, it’s important that the grasslands stay grasslands, especially with so few remaining. Crossing the road between the units, Tanner pauses at a gate where he spots a hopeful sight. Vines of American bittersweet curl around an old wooden fence post, their yellow berries adorning the entrance in a cheerful welcome. Their exotic cousins, known as Oriental bittersweet, have become a noxious weed in the Midwest—a harmful invasive that Tanner had grown intimately familiar with in a previous conservation job. The exotic bittersweet has become so common that it is a surprise to find the native species. Tanner pauses to appreciate this unexpected sighting before driving on. “I’m really kind of buzzing about that American bittersweet,” he says after a while. “I can’t tell you how many Oriental bittersweets I’ve killed in Southern Illinois. They’re almost like kudzu, like this apocalyptic plant. So, to see an American bittersweet, just one, is kind of nice.”
THIS PAGE BOTTOM LEFT Rattlesnake master is among more than 300 species of plants at Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie. © Doyle Murphy/TNC RIGHT Wah’Kon-Tah Prairie covers 4,040 acres near El Dorado Springs, Missouri. © Doyle Murphy/TNC THIS PAGE TOP Protecting native species from invasives is an ongoing battle in the grasslands. © Doyle Murphy/TNC
NATURE.ORG/MISSOURI 5
INTERIOR HIGHLANDS
Going Underground TNC is crossing borders to protect our caves
director of conservation in Oklahoma. “Working across state borders allows us to address it as a whole and figure out where we can make the biggest difference.” At a meeting this summer in Missouri, the TNC team determined two main priorities for the region: reconnecting aquatic habitats by removing barriers that block rivers and streams, and protecting karst systems across the region. Karst systems are the Swiss cheese-like networks of subterranean passageways, popping through the surface in the form of cavemouths, sinkholes and springs. They are formed by mildly acidic water that slowly eats away the rock, creating voids as the water sinks farther underground. Missouri alone has more than 7,000 caves, earning it the nickname “The Cave State”. In recent years, TNC’s Ozark Karst Project Manager Mike Slay has conducted assessments of karst systems in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri to determine the most vulnerable locations. The work will help protect species we know and, almost certainly, many we don’t. Slay has discovered numerous previously unknown species during his career. Each trip underground has the potential to reveal something new. “We always talk about going to look for unicorns, because of the rarity of some of these species and the off chance you might see them,” Slay says.
for state boundaries. So, The Nature Conservancy is taking a different approach to protect these systems and the unique species that depend on them. A team of TNC staffers from three states has begun focusing on the Interior Highlands, a region that spans much of Missouri. It runs southwest from the St. Louis metro through the Ozarks and on into the northwest corner of Arkansas and the eastern edge of Oklahoma, nicking the corner of Kansas. Along with caves, the Interior Highlands are home to the unique geology of the Ozarks plateau and the Ouachita and Boston Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Glades, fens, oak-hickory savannahs, prairies and pine forests can all be found within its expanse. “The Interior Highlands are a fascinating region that includes some of the most biodiverse landscapes on Earth,” says Katie Gillies, TNC’s
On maps of the surface, solid lines define the states, separating Missouri from Arkansas, Arkansas from Oklahoma. But in the dark and twisting tunnels of the world underground, those lines don’t mean much. Thousands of caves, sinkholes and springs cut through the limestone and dolomite that undergird landscapes across our region. And while they hold huge importance for people, as well as an array of species scientists are still discovering, they have little respect
SCAN THIS CODE or visit nature.org/ mopodcast to hear the full conservation with Mike Slay
THIS PAGE TOP TNC has protected the watershed above Sherfield Cave, where the largest colony of endangered Indiana bats in Arkansas hibernate each winter. © Ethan Inlander/TNC BOTTOM From late fall through winter, Indiana bats hibernate in caves in the Ozark region. © Fauna Creative
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TNC’s Interior Highlands team will use the data from Slay’s research to overlay areas of high biodiversity with those of high risk to map karst priorities in the region. Once they have those priority areas, team members can figure out where to focus resources for the greatest impact, says Holly Neill, The Nature Conservancy’s deputy director of conservation policy in Missouri.
Often, the solutions to the problems facing karst systems start at the top. Sources of food and water enter the karst system from the surface, falling into caves or following the downward flow of water as it sinks farther and farther into the earth. That’s important for those species that depend on these gifts from above. However, pollutants travel the same pathways to reach the
underground. The porous nature of the landscape can offer direct access for storm runoff and excess nutrients that plunge into sinkholes, springs and other natural features. “If you don’t protect your karst system, you could taint a really biodiverse system—and your drinking water supply,” Neill says. Curbing erosion and reducing runoff can help keep harmful chemicals from entering caves and underground waterways. Preventing harmful materials from coming in is a lot easier than trying to pull them out. Protecting those systems will take a region-wide effort. Just as the caves cross state lines, so does TNC.
U.S. Forest Service National Park Service Department of Defense
TNC Preserves and Easements Ozarks and Ouachita Mts. Ecoregions
State Lands Other Protected
THIS PAGE TOP Cave Spring is one of more than 7,000 caves in Missouri. © Bill Duncan THIS PAGE BOTTOM Protected areas of the U.S. Interior Highlands. Produced by TNC in Oklahoma (C. Hise)
NATURE.ORG/MISSOURI 7
AT-RISK BIODIVERSITY
Mapping Biodiversity Protecting species at risk
Biodiversity protection is at the heart of our mission. It’s in everything we do. It underpins every aspect of life on our planet— but it’s currently declining at an unprecedented rate. In Missouri, we have more than 70 species listed as state endangered. That list includes a wide range of species from tiny Ozark mussels and minnows, greater prairie-chickens and Indiana bats, to a variety of trees, shrubs and flowers. Each species plays vital role in the larger ecosystem. The nature we need is under threat, but it is also profoundly resilient and can regenerate if we work with it instead of against it. Our collaborative Habitat Strike Teams and stream work are helping to protect these at-risk species as well as supporting the broader suite of biodiversity in the region. This map from NatureServe, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and other groups, identifies hot spots of at-risk biodiversity—or areas most likely to support plant and animal species that are at high risk of extension— and the work taking place to protect some of the species in each area that are under threat. To dive deeper, you can read more about the work of our Habitat Strike Teams on pages 3-5 and more about our stream work on pages 10-11.
NEBRASKA
Osage Grasslands Habitat Strike Team • American burying beetle • Mead’s milkweed • Greater prairie-chicken Western Ozarks Habitat Strike Team • Eastern hellbender • Bachman’s sparrow • Niangua darter
KANSAS
Elk River Basin • Yellow mud turtle • Neosho madtom • Ozark cave fish
OKLAHOMA
Interior Highlands Due to its rich biodiversity and threatened landscapes, the Interior Highlands is a priority region for TNC—and requires strategic collaboration across state boundaries. You can read more about the work taking place in the Interior Highlands on pages 6-7.
THIS PAGE © Mapping Specialists. Creature Illustrations: Nirupa RAO
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IOWA
ILLINOIS
Meramec River Basin • Elephant-ear mussel • Ebonyshell • Pink mucket
MISSOURI
Eastern Ozarks Habitat Strike Team • Indiana bat • Hine’s emerald dragonfly • Ozark hellbender
ARKANSAS
Concentration of imperiled biodiversity
Lowest
Highest
Protected areas
THIS PAGE TOP TO BOTTOM Greater prairie-chicken © Danny Brown Elephant-ear mussel © Harold E. Malde Hine’s emerald dragonfly © Emily Mills/TNC 2021
NATURE.ORG/MISSOURI 9
WESTERN OZARKS
Water Work A confluence of creeks, conservation and collaboration in southwest Missouri
On the western edge of the Ozarks, a flood-prone cattle pasture is undergoing a transformation. The 35-acre property sits just north of Neosho in Newton County, where spring-fed Hickory Creek meanders into Shoal Creek. Despite its recent use for livestock, the confluence site is river land. Shoal Creek eventually joins Spring River and winds its way through Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and on to the Gulf of Mexico. Historical riparian zones and wetlands here once supported a diversity of plants and wildlife native to southwest Missouri. A resurgence is underway. “This site, with our support, is returning to a natural riparian forest and wetland … sometimes called ‘rewilding,’” Conservation Counsel Eric Dannenmaier says. Dannenmaier, who has decades of experience teaching and advocating for natural resource conservation and water rights, directs RiverLaw.org and is counsel to nonprofit
environmental groups, including Land Learning Foundation (LLF), a Missouri land trust and nonprofit focused on outdoor education. LLF received a grant to acquire the property in 2020 and set out to create a demonstration site for riparian conservation practices. LLF connected with four core conservation partners: The Nature Conservancy, Midwest Waters Initiative, Missouri Stream Teams and RiverLaw.org. Together, they formed the Shoal Creek Watershed Consortium. These partners have, in turn, worked with local community leaders and landowners in an ever-widening network of schools, agencies and conservation organizations as the project and the confluence property have become a hub of research, outdoor education and innovative restoration practices. Depending on the time of year, you might find high school and college students planting trees and shrubs, Missouri
THIS PAGE The Nature Conservancy’s Drew Holt and Land Learning Foundation Deputy Director Katie Wiesehan Marsh introduce GLADE participants to Shoal Creek watershed issues and restoration plans at the Hickory-Shoal confluence. © Eric Dannenmaier
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ranchers and other partners, contributing to cleaner, healthier waterways. The restoration at the Hickory-Shoal confluence site is designed to ripple far beyond the present time and physical space. One of the challenges of the site was active erosion. When cattle grazed along the creek, they trampled and destabilized the streambanks and introduced nutrients into the watershed. The currents flowing past then carved away the streambank and carried sediment, field runoff and cattle waste downstream. Unfortunately, this is all too common and can damage habitat necessary for aquatic life native to the Ozarks, as well as ecosystems far downstream. As water from Shoal and Hickory creeks enters the Mississippi River system it leaves a hypoxic legacy. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cites excess nutrients flowing into the Mississippi as one of the major contributors to the hypoxic zone, sometimes called the “dead zone”, in the Gulf of Mexico. The WATER Institute at Saint Louis University is one of the partner organizations working at the confluence site. Their experts have designed the bioengineered streambank stabilization that will use native trees and shrubs to restore the bank. This will promote a long-term, low-maintenance solution to erosion and help filter water that runs off the land into the river system. “Working to restore watersheds in partnership with local communities gives every participant a hands-on experience with conservation methods and trains a new generation to be land and water stewards,” says Katie Wiesehan Marsh, LLF’s deputy director. “For Shoal Creek Consortium partners, engaging the community in the whole process—planning, research, monitoring, planting, managing for the future—gets the work done and reinforces the importance of conservation values,” Dannenmaier adds. “It makes the project sustainable. The landowners and students we’re working with today are from this place, and they know it better than anyone. They are the leaders of the next 10, 20, 30, and 40 years.”
Department of Conservation and Missouri Department of Natural Resources experts certifying volunteers to take water samples, university researchers gathering data or biologists monitoring water quality and riverine habitat. “We started this project with the Land Learning Foundation, and look what it’s become,” says Drew Holt, Western Ozarks watershed coordinator for TNC. Work at and near the confluence site has taken off in recent years, according to Holt, who has spent 30 years working on watershed issues in southwest Missouri. Across the road from the confluence site, the City of Neosho, in partnership with state and federal partners, recently constructed an aquatic organism passage at Lime Kiln Park that converted a dangerous low-head dam into an updated recreation hotspot with a path for fish to migrate and a passage for kayakers to safely paddle through. The consortium’s confluence site project has been the catalyst for another half-dozen projects in the watershed, all of which collaborate with private landowners, farmers,
SCAN THIS CODE or visit shoalcreekwatershed.org to learn more.
THIS PAGE TOP TO BOTTOM GLADE students use a kick net to collect macroinvertebrates in Hickory Creek. © Katie Wiesehan Marsh Neosho High School volunteers ride out to help with tree planting. © Jeremiah Brewer
NATURE.ORG/MISSOURI 11
SCIENCE
Lessons of the Prairies Research in the Grand River Grasslands helps develop sustainable agriculture
Traveling the highways and backroads near the border of Missouri and Iowa, most people never see the fragments of the land’s deep history. But they are there. Hidden in aging hay fields, overlooked cow pastures and even the odd roadside ditch, clusters of telltale grasses and wildflowers flag the presence of resilient prairies. Dr. Thomas Rosburg, a professor of ecology and botany at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, describes these hard-to-spot remnants of unplowed prairie as “the invisible prairie”. “You can see cattle and pasture out there, but you don’t really get the sense of what’s really there until you get out and walk around and see it up close,” Rosburg says. Exploring the prairie up close is exactly what Rosburg has done for more than three decades. After starting his career as a wildlife biologist for federal and state agencies, he decided in the early 1980s to return to his family’s farm
in western Iowa to see for himself the possibilities of sustainable farming practices. The five-year experiment sparked an interest in soil health, which led him to prairies. He was fascinated by the grasslands’ ability to support hundreds of species in such a way that built deep, rich soils, rather than depleting them. “It’s the model for how agriculture can be more sustainable,” he says. “Prairie has figured out how to be one of the most productive ecosystems on Earth and provide a home for the most species on Earth.” He eventually earned a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology, and in 2003, he established Drake Prairie Rescue, a program that provides students with hands-on experience restoring prairie sites. Rosburg’s work has long informed The Nature Conservancy’s understanding of prairies and connected landscapes
within what is now known as the Grand River Grasslands, a region of roughly 160,000 acres that sprawls across the Missouri-Iowa border and includes TNC’s Dunn Ranch Prairie in Missouri’s Harrison County. Twice in the early 2000s, TNC tapped Rosburg to explore large swaths of the countryside to identify and map prairie remnants in the region. The first survey, in 2003, covered a portion of the southeastern corner of Iowa. In 2005, Rosburg headed south into Missouri to survey land from the state line to the northern border of Dunn Ranch Prairie. The Missouri Department of Conservation then hired him in 2015 to do the same just south of Dunn. Each project covered blocks of 18,000 to 20,000 acres of private land. With permission of the landowners, Rosburg traversed the fields on foot, using a compass and paper aerial maps to walk
THIS PAGE Bisons’ effect on the grasslands is under study at Dunn Ranch Prairie. © Doyle Murphy/TNC
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straight lines in search of species of historical prairie plants from a list he had created. He marked locations by hand on his maps, creating a system of symbols for species that he would later add into digital databases. In the early days, he would log long days walking across promising fields and then retire to a motel, where he would spend another couple of hours with a phone book, dialing landowners into the evening, setting up appointments for the next day’s explorations. Each project required 35 or more days in the field. “I loved it,” he says. “Walking around a pasture, looking for prairie plants— what could be more fun than that?” In his surveys, Rosburg mapped nearly 1,000 acres of remnants and 38,000-plus prairie indicator species in Missouri. The three projects provided the most complete picture of the remaining prairie in the region to date, helping private landowners manage their lands and conservation organizations set priorities and develop strategies for the Grand River Grasslands. “Dr. Rosburg’s knowledge of the Grand River Grasslands is invaluable,” says Kent Wamsley, TNC’s grasslands and sustainable agriculture strategy manager for Missouri. “He understands the history of this area and the need for resilient measures to preserve them.” Over the past year, Rosburg has embarked on another project to research the effects of sustainable grazing practices on grasslands. He and TNC staff have set up nearly two dozen plots across Dunn Ranch Prairie where he can measure the changes in pasture and prairie species over time, comparing the types and concentrations of plant species on grazed and non-grazed plots while also capturing the on-the-ground
management activities of invasive treatment, woody control, and prescribed fire. The sites are scattered across Dunn, including the vast bison lots and the separate grassbank, where TNC allows local ranchers to graze cattle at certain times of the year as they implement conservation practices on their own land. The data will be crucial to TNC’s ongoing work with ranchers to develop the most effective strategies for sustainable grazing. “Farmers and ranchers are the primary stewards of the grasslands, and they understand better than anyone the necessity of taking care of the land,” Wamsley says. “We want to support them by taking some of the guesswork out of adapting conservation practices, and we have to have the research to show which practices are practical and profitable.”
He points to the example of cover crops. The prairie was almost never bare, and an increasing number of farmers are now rediscovering the value of mimicking natural systems by planting off-season crops to protect their land and water from erosion and nutrient runoff. The better we understand the grasslands, the more we can adapt their lessons in service of people and nature. To this day, Rosburg continues to get calls from landowners who want him to head out into their fields with them in search of surviving prairie. He still loves to go. It’s like those days when he conducted the surveys for TNC, never knowing what plants awaited him. “There was always this incentive,” he says. “I always wanted to see the next pasture.”
The lessons are out there. After decades of studying the prairie, Rosburg is sure of that. “We’re not going to go back to a
completely prairie landscape,” he says. “I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is the prairie can show us some ways of farming more sustainably.”
THIS PAGE TOP The prairie can support hundreds of species of plants and animals. © Noppadol Paothong BOTTOM Dr. Thomas Rosburg © Christine Curry
NATURE.ORG/MISSOURI 13
LEGACY CLUB
Leaving a Legacy Planned gifts help carry TNC’s work into the future
Toward the end of their lives, Drs. Joseph and Linda Kurz made plans to care for a world that they knew would still need their help after they were gone. The two were scientists, retired from Washington University in St. Louis as emeritus professors. Linda had focused her career on biochemistry and molecular biophysics in the university’s medical school. Joseph taught general chemistry and organic chemistry. For fun, they traveled, crisscrossing the country in their RV. Joseph took part in multiple artic icebreaker expeditions in his retirement. They also trained dogs, and Linda developed an annual program with the United Doberman Club to recognize the Service Dog of the Year. It was a full life, and they told The Nature Conservancy that when it was over, they wanted to help protect nature for future generations. They formalized that wish in a planned gift to TNC. In doing so, they joined a growing number of people who have made similar choices to take care of places they cherish and preserve them for the people who come after them. For the Kurzes, that meant designating half their gift to the highest priority in North America and the other half to the highest priority in Missouri. During the process, they worked with staff from TNC’s Legacy Club who helped answer their questions and ensured their wishes were carried out. Throughout their lives, the Kurzes made an impact through their science and research and continue to make a difference today through their legacy with TNC. What is the Legacy Club? The Legacy Club is special group of Nature Conservancy supporters who have made a lasting commitment to conservation by making a life-income gift with the Conservancy or by naming the Conservancy as a beneficiary in their estate plans. Members enjoy invitations to exclusive trips and events, a biannual newsletter, TNC’s annual report and other benefits—all while making a world of difference.
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THIS PAGE Coneflowers at Dunn Ranch Prairie © Frank Oberle
Did You Know? • A Planned Gift is one of the most impactful ways you can support The Nature Conservancy’s critical conservation work. • You can Direct Your Gift to be used at a place or for a program that matters to you (such as a state or country). By completing a Bequest Information Form provided by TNC you can express your preferences and TNC can better understand your intentions for your gift. There are many ways to give a gift other than those made by check or credit card, each with different features and benefits: • One of the easiest ways to give to TNC is through your Will or Revocable Living Trust , or by naming TNC as a beneficiary to your Life Insurance. Bequests to TNC are free from federal estate tax. • By giving Gifts of Stock to TNC, you avoid tax on the gain and your charitable contribution deduction is equal to the full fair market value of the stock. • Through various charitable Life-Income arrangements, you receive steady income and a charitable tax deduction. The income is paid to you and/or a loved one for life, after which the principal is used by TNC. • In addition to naming TNC as a beneficiary of your retirement account, if you are 70 ½ years old or older, you can make a tax-free distribution from your traditional or Roth IRA .
To make a gift of any kind to The Nature Conservancy is an act of generosity. To make a long-term gift—one derived from the work of a lifetime—is to make a lasting difference. Whether you are starting your career or beginning to think about life after the 9 to 5, actively planning your present and future goals is important for everyone.
We know these gifts can seem—and sometimes are— complex, but they don’t have to be. The Nature Conservancy has Gift Planning Specialists who are happy to meet with you and your professional advisors to explore the best choice for you and your goals. To speak with someone, contact the Missouri office at 314-968-1105.
NATURE.ORG/MISSOURI 15
THIS PAGE Ruby-throated hummingbird © Haley Fredericks /TNC Photo Contest 2018
The Nature Conservancy Missouri Chapter P.O. Box 440400 St. Louis, MO 63144 nature.org/missouri
NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID EUREKA, MO PERMIT NO. 40
MISSOURI ACTION AND IMPACT
Protect Nature and Provide for Your Future Safeguard the world you love with a gift that pays you income for life.
New legislation allows donors 70 ½ or older to use qualified charitable distribution (QCD) from their IRA accounts to establish life-income gifts benefiting a qualified charity. You can currently, during one year in your lifetime, contribute up to a $50,000 maximum ($100,000 with spouse contribution) QCD that can be used to fund a gift that will pay income for life, like a Charitable Gift Annuity. Each state has different rules around utilizing this manner of giving. Please reach out to our team to discuss how a gift like this may uniquely affect you!
(314) 501-1521
nature.org/incomegifts
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY CANNOT RENDER TAX OR LEGAL ADVICE. PLEASE CONSULT YOUR FINANCIAL ADVISOR BEFORE MAKING A GIFT. PHOFQ22FY01APGHOXX
Morning meadowlark © Tyler Moore/TNC Photo Contest 2021
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