*This entry is part of the ongoing series exploring at the ecological history of what is now Faville Grove Sanctuary.*

Landscape Agriculture

Last time, we detailed the demise of grassland birds and light on the landscape. Today, we’ll observe, in detail, how farming practices have changed to the benefit of some species and detriment of others.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. *Photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren*

Imagine a forest filled with old growth oak trees. Now imagine a big mower, bigger than any the world has ever seen—a Paul Bunyan mower. Wake up on a June morning in this oak woodland and your ears are filled with… life: Eastern Towhees, Scarlet Tanagers, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, woodpeckers, bumblebees, frogs, grasshoppers, katydids, and squirrels; then, the mower roars onto the scene, smashing through the woods, consuming most everything in its path and leaving a mess behind. Destruction, right?

We might consider our prairies like those old growth oak trees–an ancient grassland. With tremendous investment in roots, the prairie grasses are able to be burned off and cut most years unlike the oaks, but the critters who live in the old growth grassland aren’t so lucky; when the mower comes, if they aren’t able to move out of the way then the inhabitants are toast. Through the first half of the 1900’s, the mowers came about once per year and most species were able to work with this arrangement. Since then the ancient grass has been replaced with alfalfa, and the mowers visit five, six, seven, eight times per growing season, causing enough destruction for most species to abandon these fields entirely.

Aldo Leopold was famous, in part, for his study of phenology–when things happen in the natural world. Nina Leopold-Bradley even published research in 1999 based on phenology data over 60 years, showing evidence of climate change in Wisconsin. These included observations of migratory bird arrivals and first blooms of plant species, but at Faville Grove, Leopold and his students also documented crop phenology. They surveyed farmers in the area and gathered data on first hay mowing, first crop sowing, and the date cows were turned to pasture.

According to data compiled by area researchers during 1936 and 1937, the average start of haying was June 19. Importantly, these dates had quite a bit of variability across farms, even in the same year, with the first mowing ranging from June 6 to July 1. Of the 14 farms for which reliable data was acquired, just three mowed hay more than two times per year. Thus, if one farm mowed hay in early June, there would typically be time from late June into early July for grassland birds to nest. In addition, for farms mowing hay late, say July 1, grassland birds would be able to get a brood off in the month prior. For productive birds, multiple broods might be possible by nesting early in an unmowed field and renesting in late June or early July in a recently mowed field.

The boxplots below deserve some explanation. The data is from Wisconsin’s Second Breeding Bird Atlas and include grassland bird nesting dates where the atlaser recorded a bird on the nest (ON), a nest with eggs (NE), nest building (NB), or carrying nesting material (CN). The black lines through the boxes represent the mean dates, while the blue dots represent individual observations. One important caveat is that this BBA data is over 80 years after our recorded data for haying at Faville Grove. The vertical red lines on the plot represent the average starting and ending dates for the first haying of the season in 1936 and 1937. As you can see, most of the Atlas observations fall outside of that range for haying. It’s possible that the 1930 birds nested later, and pushed into the red range, but given the variability of dates for haying, most birds were likely able to rear young either before or after haying, or both.

Most of the dates are at least a full week before haying commences. Additionally, habitats like pasture, and small grain fields would be suitable for grassland birds throughout the season, save for some chance trampling by livestock.

Today, the picture for grassland birds on Wisconsin agriscapes is grim. Upwards of 70% of the hay crop is alfalfa, and is cut at least five times per year. A farm near Faville Grove Sanctuary cut alfalfa over a dozen times on a single field a few years back. There is simply very little habitat on the landscape for grassland birds. According to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service for Wisconsin in 2021, mowing of alfalfa began on an average date of May 20, ending October 10. This is a full month earlier than the 1930’s, and mowing stops almost two month later than it stopped in the 1930s.

As evidence of a changing Wisconsin landscape, we can observe crop production locally since the start of the twentieth century. Statewide, small grains like barley peaked in production acreage around the time the Faville Grove Wildlife Experimental Area was in existence, in 1935. Wheat peaked early, in 1895. Oats acreage peaked in 1945. Hay acreage peaked in 1944. So, around the time of Leopold’s work at Faville Grove, small grains, hay, and diverse farming was common.

The map above depicts these diverse farming operations down Prairie Lane (running from the top to the bottom of the page), in 1938. The area of “Bog Pasture” roughly equals the area in corn. Alfalfa, wild hay, grazed oak-hickory savanna, barley, oats, sweet corn, and orchards comprise the rest of the land cover. Once again, this diverse operation of mixed use agriculture and pasture was great for grassland birds, but recorded yields amounted to about 40 bushels of corn per acre.

The map here shows Prairie Lane crops as of 2003, before widespread prairie restorations. This more current landscape produces 4-5 times the bushels of corn per acre. The pink band that cuts 90 degrees to the left shows Prairie Lane. As you can see, most of the crops are corn (yellow) or soy (green). The formerly grazed oak-hickory savanna (the Lake Mills Ledge) had been ungrazed for so long that thousands of invasive trees and shrubs had invaded the little outcrop. This was a landscape of harsh edges and unusable agriculture for wildlife, with little land left for wild things. Leopold’s idea for the Experimental Area focused on creating “the best possible conditions for all wildlife,” while the 2003 picture paints a poor picture for most all wildlife.

Lastly, we’ll take a look at one of the major influences on the vegetation: livestock.

Robert Hodgell’s study of the Wisconsin landscape for his state centennial mural in 1948 at the Wisconsin State Fair.

With the conversion of the land to agriculture, only fragments of woodlands and savannas remained within that agricultural matrix. Whereas fire formerly shaped and maintained savannas and grasslands, cows quickly continued that influence. Despite understory decimation in grazed woodlands and savannas, the overall structure of the trees remained and open-grown trees with spreading crowns predominated to the benefit of grassland and savanna birds.

One of a few pastures in southeastern Wisconsin retaining bur oak canopy composition, rather resembling Hodgell’s murals. *Photo by Drew Harry*

Invasive species and the cessation of grazing have tipped the scales in favor of buckthorn, mulberry, boxelder, honeysuckle, and black cherry. Where once a thrilling vista of oaks, creeks, wetlands, and prairies carpeted southern Wisconsin, now stands a biologically degraded, simplified natural community.

Returning to the Paul Bunyan analogy, what Paul didn't cut with his axe or mow with his oversized mower he left to Babe the Blue Ox and relatives. Where once indigenous fires and stewardship detailed the landscape, by the turn of the twentieth century the key forces shaping the land were axes and saws, mowers, and cows.

Most farms in Wisconsin had open pastures where cattle would freely graze during the summer. Leopold’s students documented the average start of grazing in pastures in the area on May 20th. This timing left a small period for spring wildflowers and ephemerals to bloom and reproduce. Little pockets of original Wisconsin–unpalatable to the cows, growing in an inaccessible spot, or flowering at a time when the pasture wasn't in use–persisted in many of these pastures despite the conversion of understory to non-native grasses. We see this today with certain plants on the rocky outcrops of the Lake Mills Ledge.

Moreover, Wisconsin’s dairy herd has been reduced by over one million cows since the 1930s, but total milk production has continued to increase; a cow today produces nearly five times as much milk as a cow in the early 1930s.

Our 1930s landscape fed those cows with small grains, rolling pastures, and hay. Today’s fields receive chemical inputs of fertilizers, the cows are fed highly nutritious alfalfa, and the food is brought to them. These nutrient inputs end up being an overestimate for most cows, and what's left amounts to tons of nitrate washing down the hill and into the local river, lake, or groundwater, polluting bodies of water and people too.

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A farm in the 1930s, as we've seen, was much less productive, much more diverse, and much better for certain wildlife like grassland birds. These halcyon days of farming hold true for grassland birds, as farming in the 1930s more or less maintained grassland in the south while opening up huge swaths of forest in the north. But, as we’ll see in later posts, the complete picture for wildlife was uneven during the time of the Faville Grove Wildlife Experimental Area.

Today at Faville Grove we are restoring biodiversity to the best of our abilities, with a focus on grassland birds but the entire ecosystem in mind. Unfortunately we've had to reject Paul Bunyan’s offers to help…shouldn't he retire already?

Written by Drew Harry, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward

Cover photo by Arlene Koziol