MARCH 2015 • NEBRASKAland 41
from nearby populations would find
its way to our prairie across miles of
intervening crop fields. So we decided
to seed the species into our prairie.
Seeding Lost Species
On summer and fall days we
walked nearby prairies and roadsides
harvesting ripe wildflower seed, tossing
it into five-gallon buckets belted to
our waists. The seed was dried for
a few weeks on tarps spread on our
garage floor. The tight seed heads of
some species, such as sunflowers, were
rubbed against a sandpaper-covered
board to release the individual seeds.
All seeds were combined into a rich
mix.
Our first seeding occurred four
winters ago during Christmas, near
where the old soddy had stood. In
preparation, the previous October, I
sprayed a house-sized patch of brome
with the contact herbicide glyphosate.
At the time, the cold-hardy brome was
still green and growing and herbicide
susceptible, while the few surviving
native plants had been frost-bitten and
were now dormant and glyphosate
immune. Two weeks after spraying,
and unknown to my mother-in-law, I
borrowed her riding lawn mower and
shredded the withered brome. After
raking away the litter, I sowed the seed,
then drove the mower over the plot to
firmly press the seed into the bare soil
to increase germination.
Good rains came the following
spring and prairie seedlings sprang
from the earth. The plot is now home
to stiff sunflower, compass plant,
rough gayfeather and other wildflowers
previously absent from our prairie. Stiff
sunflower, rigid goldenrod and a few
other more hardy species are spreading
beyond the plot into the prairie.
Hopefully in time, more will follow.
Some frown upon using herbicides
to restore prairie, but often there is
little choice. Seedlings of prairie
plants struggle to establish in dense
brome and bluegrass sod, and by
killing or stressing these grasses with
herbicide the native seedlings have a
fighting chance. Without some type of
disturbance, even dense native grass
sod can stifle wildflower seedlings.
Heavy livestock grazing in late summer
or fall can set back grasses, reduce
litter, and expose soils in preparation
for late fall or winter seeding. The
summer following seeding, additional
grazing can further stress grasses
reducing competition for seedlings.
We have mowed areas of brome
Big bluestem, a dominant grass of the tallgrass prairie, has responded well to
prescribed fires and stands are expanding in areas previously occupied by smooth brome.
