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Rare Woodland Conserved Through Easement in Decatur County

DES MOINES, Iowa—January 9, 2008—Sibylla and Bill Brown recently donated a conservation easement on their 200 acres of woodland in Decatur County to The Nature Conservancy. This tract, east of Leon, contains a high-quality, globally rare oak savanna that is the best remaining example of this type and one of seven known high quality occurrences within the region. These temperate deciduous woodlands are among the highest priorities for conservation of all habitat types in the world.

"Fifteen years ago, we had no idea we would be restoring 200 acres of oak savanna when we moved to this farm in Decatur County, Iowa. The land we bought was mostly undeveloped woodland and degraded prairie openings. In the woodland area, the savanna oak trees were obscured by a tangle of multiflora rose, ironwood, elm and prickly ash. Pole timber further closed the wooded canopy," said Sibylla Brown.

After consulting the district forester, the Browns were told to thin the pole timber and eliminate the ironwood, which they accomplished over the next 10 years, working 10 to 15 acres at a time. But a chance visit from Pauline Drobney, biologist at Neil Smith National Wildlife Refuge, made them realize they needed to do more. Drobney told them they had a rare oak savanna and, with proper management, it could be restored.

Oak savannas are open oak woodlands with a diverse ground layer of grasses and prairie wildflowers. Before the Brown land was settled by Europeans, periodic fires maintained the open-wooded character of this habitat. The white oak and burr oak trees with widely spreading crowns were called "wolf trees". In pre-settlement times, there were few other trees other than these large spreading oaks.

By the 1990s, in the few open spots that remained in the degraded savanna, the Browns found remnants of the plant community that had once flourished there, including leadplant, purple milkweed, New Jersey tea and scaly blazing star.

The Browns then took the next important step to managing an oak savanna. They used fire. After several years of controlled burning, the wooded hillsides responded with a dense carpet of Pennsylvania sedge, acres of bluebells and wild hyacinth. In the prairie openings tall green milkweed, cream gentian and Great Plains ladies tresses appeared. Each year more plants long suppressed by lack of sunlight and fire continue to emerge. Currently, the Browns have 417 native plant species on their property.

Fire has also impacted the woody vegetation. Much of the multiflora rose and other invasive shrubs have gradually disappeared.

"The Browns diligently applied best management practices to the property and accomplished so much," said Doug Ladd, director of conservation science for the Conservancy. "This site is a critical priority, since most woodlands of this type have been either cleared and converted, or become severely degraded and overgrown through inappropriate management activities."

Currently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has taken an interest in restoring southern Iowa’s degraded savannas by staffing the area with a private lands specialist to advance private lands conservation activity in this landscape. While much of Iowa’s prairies and wetlands have been destroyed, southern Iowa’s savanna systems are highly restorable. One third of the land in Decatur County, for example, is potential savanna.

The Browns donated the conservation easement of the property to the Conservancy. A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a property owner and the Conservancy, permanently protecting the conservation values of the property while retaining private ownership of the land. In the Brown’s case, the land will continue to be conserved and restored and not further developed other than the immediate area surrounding the residence and winery.

The Conservancy only accepts donations of conservation easements on lands where significant conservation benefits are obtained. "Because this represents a best-known occurrence of a central Midwest white oak-mixed oak woodland, and because of the excellent and active restoration by the Browns, we are thrilled that they have decided to donate the conservation easement to the Conservancy," said Ladd. “This opens the door for other landowners in Decatur County to take active roles in the conservation of this rare habitat.”

Private landowners in the area who are interested in savanna restoration have formed the Southern Iowa Savanna Alliance and partnered with the Conservancy, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Southern Iowa Resource Conservation and Development, Decatur County Conservation Board, Decatur County Development and the Natural Resource Conservation Service. Their goal is to have 10,000 acres of oak savanna under restoration by 2010. Besides assisting private landowners with restoration techniques, SIOSA is also working with local cattlemen interested in sustainable grazing.

"What motivated Bill and I to donate this conservation easement was that this rare habitat be preserved. I can’t tell you how much it means to have the Conservancy recognize it as an important ecosystem. We hope that our easement will only be the first many in Decatur County," said Brown.

More than 1,260 land trusts around the country rely on conservation easements as an effective, efficient way to protect open space, farmland and natural areas. The National Land Trust Census in 2000 found that local and regional land trusts have protected more than 6.2 million acres of open space, an area twice the size of Connecticut. Of this, nearly 2.6 million acres have been protected by conservation easements, almost a fivefold increase since 1990.