We’ve just celebrated 25 years of Prairie Haven. We bought the land on May 15, 2000.
Here’s a collection of before/after photos showing some of the changes.
Sumac Bluff – Thanks to the Rutschow family for this early photo from when it was a working farm.
This is the view looking in from the road. The wooden sign was about a trout stream restoration project that was done before we came.
Buffalo Ridge Prairie – my favorite of our planted prairies. The early photo shows it planted with soybeans. We planted it with prairie seeds in the winter of 2004/2005.
3 Finger Valley – one of our earliest planted prairies. It’s in a deep valley, so it still tends to get invaded by honeysuckle and buckthorn.
Indian Grass Point – the remnant bluff prairie above the house. It was overgrown with birch and sumac. We’ve cleared the brush and trees, and now prairie flowers are blooming again.
The ridge on top of Indian Grass Point. When we came it was thickly overgrown with birch, aspen, honeysuckle and buckthorn.
Indian Grass Point and Savanna – looking south toward the point, through what used to be woods. By 2003 we had mowed the center area – the middle of the flat top of the point. In the years since then we’ve mowed and cleared farther and farther out. Now the whole top is savanna.
The Knife Edge Prairie – a mesic prairie remnant. We mowed the brush every spring for many years, and then in 2017 we cut and removed the small trees.
Twisted Oak Savanna – On the left is a big, old oak almost hidden in the overgrown tangle. This was the first savanna clearing project we’d tried. The middle photo shows the oaks we found and cleared around. On the right is the savanna after a few more years of clearing and recovery.
Another view of the path through Twisted Oak Savanna.
Knife Edge Point – a long narrow point along the eastern edge of our land. The west-facing slope has prairie plants, but had been invaded by brush and birches. We’re still working on removing the invading brush.
