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Roadway scientist
Brian Wilsey working with Iowa DOT to help establish prairie along
Iowa's roads.
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There are approximately 750,000 acres surrounding the highways and byways
of Iowa.
And if a research project currently being conducted by Brian Wilsey, assistant
professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology, proves its feasibility,
there is a chance that many of those roads may one day be surrounded by
native prairie.
The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) is funding a long-term $17,000
grant to Wilsey to determine whether a native cover crop will allow prairie
species to prosper.
"Planting cover crops to simultaneously establish native prairie
seedlings and prevent weed invasion is a common management practice,"
Wilsey says. "This is based on the assumption that the cover plant
will act as a nurse plant to the prairie seedlings, and have a positive
effect on seedling recruitment by increasing weed suppression and by lowering
the harmful effects of high evaporation and light availabilities."
Farmers sometimes will plant corn and prairie species on the same plot
of land. The corn helps keep weeds out of the prairie but since it is
an annual, it also allows the prairie species to prosper after the first
year.
"The DOT wanted to test native species as cover crops," Wilsey
said. "The thought is to use species that have short live in order
to keep the weeds out and also keep the soil moist.
"Then after the first couple of years, the prairie should come on."
Wilsey and graduate student Andrea Blong established experimental plots
last spring on slopes near roadsides at the ISU Horticulture Farm in Story
County and at the ISU Western Research and Demonstration Farm near Castanea
in Monona County. The Story County site receives intermediate rainfall,
while Monona County is described as a dry site.
The experimental plots contain 30 native prairie species that were added
to one of six cover crop treatments ranging from black-eyed susan to Canada
wildrye.
"Outside of using agricultural species, this has never really been
tested," Wilsey said.
Despite that, Wilsey has some theories of what to expect.
"The best results will probably come from those cover crops that
let in some weeds," he said. "Cover crops that keep out all
the weeds may also keep the prairie species from growing. So if we're
able to keep the weeds down to a minimum that may allow the prairie to
grow and establish itself in a couple of years."
Wilsey says the increased interest in establishing tall grass prairies,
the most endangered ecosystem in the nation, is just one reason the Iowa
DOT is interested in this project.
"There are other benefits as well, including lower costs for mowing,
better infiltration of water and establishing prairies that are visually
appealing," he said.
This is one of two projects that Wilsey is working on for the Iowa DOT.
He has also received a $9000 grant to determine if dominant warm-season
grasses determine the diversity of prairie plantings.
"Our objective is to help better understand how grasses dominate
plots and suppress diversity," he said.
This experiment will again include plots in Monona County, which will
receive transplants of a single warm-season grass species along with a
mix containing 26 native forb and cool season grass species.n
Around LAS
February 21 to March 6, 2005
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