Restoration underway on savanna at Matsell Bridge Natural Area

CENTRAL CITY -- A habitat restoration project is underway this winter at the Matsell Bridge Natural Area near Central City to revitalize a degraded savanna and provide a haven for an endangered bumblebee species.

The Matsell Bridge Natural Area is Linn County’s largest natural area at 1,912 acres. It offers hiking, hunting, trapping, fishing and horseback riding opportunities.

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Restoration of the area’s 9-acre original savanna began this week, said Linn County Conservation ecologist and project lead Andrew Huck.

Savannas in Iowa typically sport a few scattered trees — usually oaks — and wide expanses of prairie plants. But, since the 1930s, woody vegetation has infiltrated the Matsell Bridge Natural Area savanna and crowded out budding oak trees. With woody vegetation shade, new oak trees and prairie plants can’t grow.

The area will be cleared except for the bur, red and white oak trees and a cover crop planted this winter. Next year, workers will mow and spray the area to prevent invasive and woody vegetation from sprouting up.

Eventually, they’ll plant prairie grasses and flora to reconstruct the original savanna. That plant community will be managed with fire, like it was traditionally.

“We'll get some good prairie out there and then with the oak trees, we can hopefully turn that into a nice savanna again,” Huck said. The work, he said, shouldn’t disturb any trails.

The restoration is funded through a $20,000 National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant administered through the Practical Farmers of Iowa to improve habitat for the rusty patched bumblebee.

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Populations of the pollinator species have dropped by 90 percent in about three decades, and the federal government listed it as being endangered in 2017.

The restored savanna and the neighboring 5-acre prairie could be a haven for the bumblebee, Huck said.

Brittney J. Miller is the Energy & Environment Reporter for The Gazette and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Comments: (319) 398-8370; brittney.miller@thegazette.com

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