TURIN, Iowa (Iowa Media Wire) – On Friday morning, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) hosted its annual Great Race Against Shrubs and Shade, or G.R.A.S.S., an event protecting the prairie land of Loess Hills.
“The magical thing about the Loess Hills here in Iowa is its super diverse prairie remnant,” Iowa DNR wildlife biologist Doug Chafa said. “Remnant means that it’s original, so it might have upwards of 350 plant species, and that allows for a big diversity of insects.”
To replenish the land, the conservation groups and volunteers cut down the towering cedar trees that cover the hills.
“As those trees enlarge, they shade out the sun to the ground, and then those grassland plants don’t get enough sun to thrive,” Chafa said. “And you can kind of see it’s a barren understory of cedar needles, and so it really simplifies and eliminates a lot of those species that were here.”
For more than 40 years, volunteers have made the prairie lands anew, and this year a younger generation found themselves with chainsaws in hand.
“The college kids that are coming up that will be taking over caring for Iowa’s natural resources, they’re full of enthusiasm,” Chafa said. “They’re excited, and so investing some time mentoring, teaching them chainsaw skills, keeping them safe, kind of passing that torch to the next generation is a big deal.”
“I just put a tree down in the wrong direction, but I mean, it happens,” Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation intern Hannah Hageman said. “Just being able to learn about the way that trees move when you’re cutting them down is always very interesting because they don’t like to do what you expect.”
With constant work, the effort from those participating in G.R.A.S.S. will impact the natural state for years to come.
“It’s really, really fun to come back to an area like this that we’ve done a lot of management work in after the fact,” Hageman said. “You can see those native prairie plants and the native species coming back and, like, taking over what was originally theirs.”
“The land heals itself really well if we just undo some of the negative effects of fire exclusion and some of that tree evasion,” Chafa said.
This event kicks off the weekend for the Loess Hills Prairie Seminar.