Savannas also provide habitat for game animals such as wild turkeys, and many bats, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects that are currently threatened or in decline. Oak savannas are highly biodiverse, often harboring over 300 species of plants, more than are often found in either prairies or forests. Oak savannas are a unique plant community characterized by a prairie-like ground layer dotted with large, widely-spaced oak trees. This oak savanna at the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge has the classic structure of large-canopied, well-spaced oak trees dotted among prairie grasses and wildflowers.

That meant once these plants were gone, they didn’t come back. This troubling pattern of disturbance leading to long-lasting change is found in many other plant communities, including oak savanna. The results were startling-we never found rare plant species in areas that had been plowed, even if the plowing ceased a century ago. Our mission that summer was to look for rare and threatened species of plants, comparing data between wetlands that had been historically drained and plowed, and those that had not. I had been looking for a way to get my feet wet in the research world suddenly there I was, standing in boot-deep water with very wet feet. During my freshman year of college I met a researcher in need of fieldwork help, and before I knew it, I was out working in restored wetlands.

I stumbled into the world of ecological restoration almost entirely by chance. Oak savanna has lost over 99% of its historic range-how can we restore this imperiled ecosystem? Graduate researcher Austin Yantes introduces a project that is looking into silvopasture as a potential solution, and explains how partnering with Extension gives this fix a fighting chance.

Moon over savanna desert