Nebraskaland

October 2021 • Nebraskaland 35 Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Garden County and other conservation lands tried to stimulate blowing sand by intensely grazing cattle and using heavy equipment to scrape grass off blowouts. These eff orts mostly failed. If the blowout penstemon was to survive in the Sandhills, a practical method of creating and maintaining blowouts was sorely needed. The Spikebox Ranch Project On a summer day in 2016, I was with several Turner ranch managers and biologists on their 142,000-acre Spikebox Ranch. As we contemplated bison lazily grazing a high dune having a few scattered blowouts, our conversation naturally drifted to bison and blowouts. Based on years of observation, the managers suggested that if one was inclined to create blowouts through heavy grazing, bison might be better suited to the task than cattle. They explained that unlike cattle, which favor low ground, bison prefer grazing and loafi ng on high dunes where blowouts tend to develop. On top the dunes, bison can scan for approaching predators and, with luck, they catch a breeze to ward off fl ies. Compared to cattle's broad, fl at hoofs, bison have sharp-edged hoofs that more easily cut through sod. The staff surmised that if a bison herd were confi ned to a pasture with high, loose-sanded dunes for an extended period, blowouts would likely develop. I mentioned the blowout penstemon's decline and its need for blowouts. The lead manager ran with the thought and by day's end, we had a handshake agreement to intensively graze bison in a pasture on the Spikebox Ranch to create blowouts in which we would plant blowout penstemon. By the following year, a plan was in place. A 250-acre section of the Hunt Pasture containing old, grassed-over blowouts was fenced to facilitate the project. The pasture's size was thought to be small enough to allow bison, over time, to eliminate the grass cover and start the sand blowing. Key to choosing the Hunt Pasture was its central location on the ranch, so that if the blowouts slowly migrated in coming decades or centuries, they would stay confi ned to the ranch. "Before we could start the project, there were issues we had to get our heads around," said Carter Kruse, director of conservation for Turner Enterprises. "What were the ecological pros and cons? The production consequences? Fencing and water needs? And especially concerning for the then Spikebox manager, Terry Purdum, how do we keep bison in a near grassless pasture long enough to create blowouts without over-stressing them?" Kruse said their biologists were excited about the project from the start; but Purdum, who is a member of the local cattle ranching community, was worried about how neighbors and friends would perceive Turner Enterprises for creating blowouts. Partners in the Spikebox project included the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, which all shared expertise in blowout penstemon ecology and restoration. The Forest Service donated penstemon seed harvested from populations on the Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest and grew penstemon seedlings for the project in a greenhouse at the Charles E. Bessey Tree Nursery at the Bessey Ranger District of the Nebraska National Forest near Halsey. The Sandhills Blowouts Over millennia, grass cover on Sandhills dunes has waxed and waned in response to climate, grazing pressure and fire. About 8,000 years ago, for example, a 3,000-year-long mega-drought descended upon the Great Plains, withering the dune-stabilizing grass. The sands set to blowing, and Sahara-like naked dunes slowly rolled across the land. After the drought ended, vegetation re-stabilized the dunes. By comparison, the 19th century was a period of relative dryness, with wildfires and roving bison herds still active on the land. The dunes were stable, but grass cover was sparse compared to today. J.H. Snowden of the 1857 Warren Expedition wrote that the dunes were "much broken by and cut by winds, supporting a very scant vegetation." Blowouts were common in the Sandhills. Euroamerican settlement of the Sandhills, which began in the late 1800s, brought dramatic changes to the landscape. Wildfires were extinguished quickly, the bison were extirpated, and, later, conservative methods of cattle grazing were implemented. These factors, along with a wetter climate beginning in the early 1900s, has led to dense grass on the dunes and to very few blowouts. The dunes are now at a level of stabilization where only extreme, prolonged drought would cause widespread blowouts. A recently created, active blowout in the Hunt Pasture. GERRY STEINAUER, NEBRASKALAND

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