One of the things we like to do is to look back at how places on the farm used to look, and compare them with the way they look now. So here’s a series of comparison photos – before and after scenes of the planted and remnant prairies and savannas. Use the sliders to see both photos.
Sumac Bluff
The left photo is of the farm and Sumac Bluff when it was owned by the Rutschows. On the right is almost the same view taken more recently.
Planted Prairies
On the left is Buffalo Ridge when it was planted with soybeans. On the right is nearly the same view in its 14th summer as a planted prairie.
On the left, planted in soybeans. On the right, as an 18 year old prairie.
On the left, planted with soybeans with a buffer strip down the middle. On the right, the prairie is 17 years old.
Prairie and Savanna Remnants
These photos are looking south from the top of the bluff prairie down into Center Valley and across the road to Maple Ridge.
Looking north from the bluff prairie into the overgrown savanna. We’ve done much clearing work here over the years.
Another view of Indian Grass Point looking north toward the savanna. Before and after we cut the invading birches.
Again – looking north into the savanna. Just after girdling the aspens, and then the same scene after many years of clearing work and recovery.
On the left is a pre-digital camera photo of this remnant in the summer of 2000. The middle photo shows it after we’d been mowing once a year for 15 years. The right photo was taken the summer after we’d cut and removed the small trees (mostly apple and wild cherry) from the middle of the prairie.
One more comparison from the Knife Edge Prairie. This shows before and after cutting and removing the scattered small trees from the prairie, and after spending several years pulling Queen Anne’s Lace.
On the left is the overgrown thicket just before beginning our first ever savanna clearing project. In the middle is the same tree, from a different angle, once we’d finished our clearing work for that year. On the right is the savanna after a few years of recovery.
This is part of the northern section of the savanna. We started clearing under these oaks in the fall of 2017. This group of 3 photos shows what it looked like in 2005, then in fall of 2017 as we were working on clearing, and then in summer of 2018, after it had had a chance to heal for a year.
Here’s another view of Twisted Oak Savanna. There’s a remnant prairie opening on the left which we call Ragwort Opening. In 2017 we cleared out the brush between the path and the opening.
This is the path through Twisted Oak Savanna. The first photo is after we had mowed a path, but before we’d done any clearing. The second is after extensive clearing work – the initial clearing in 2013 and subsequent clearing work in 2017 (to the right of the path), and then in 2018 (to the left of the path).
This is the savanna area just north of the prairie point. We cleared brush and small trees here in October of 2004. The first two photos are looking north from the prairie into the savanna before and after doing that work. The third photo is the same place in 2022.
Here’s another view from a little farther north – showing a former aspen grove. I girdled the aspens in 2005 and 2006. They died, brushy shrubs grew up between them, and many fell down, turning it into a jungle. In 2011 we cleared the dead and fallen trees. Since then we’ve been mowing it once a year, in early spring.
