This article was written and posted on INHF's website in March of 2006.
Marshall County Conservation Board and the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation announced that fundraising has been completed for the purchase and restoration of a 212-acre site adjacent to Marietta Sand Prairie state preserve.
This site is located near Albion, northwest of Marshalltown. The project began a year ago when the two groups secured the opportunity to acquire the site from property owner Elwin Pearey and began fundraising efforts. Together MCCB and INHF raised $456,000.
“This project received outstanding support from a wide variety of donors,” said Mark Ackelson, INHF president. “We’re especially grateful to the Martha-Ellen Tye Foundation for their lead challenge grant, Iowa Prairie Network for their early support and outstanding aid from the state Pheasants Forever council, the Marshall County Chapter of Pheasants Forever and four neighboring county chapters. Also, a $200,000 grant from the state REAP [Resource Enhancement and Protection] program was essential to the project.”
The property is particularly special because nearly 56 acres of sand prairie remnant still exists on the new addition. Remnants of native sand prairie are among the rarest of prairie types and comprise only a few hundred of Iowa’s 35 million acres.
“With the fundraising and purchase complete, now the actual work of restoration starts—and that’s just as exciting as the start of the project a year ago,” said Mike Stegmann, director of the Marshall County Conservation Board. “It will be neat to watch it grow. Then we can show our great-grandkids that this is what Iowa once looked like 200 years ago.”
Restoration efforts started last fall and are planned to continue for several years. Volunteers have been hand-harvesting seed from the preserve to be used for the restoration of the prairie on the new addition. Approximately nine and a half acres have already been planted and another 25 to 30 acres will be done by the year’s end.
Hopes for the restoration beyond 2007 and into 2008 include connecting the preserve with prairie remnants on the new addition. This will create extensive interior grassland habitat for songbirds, pheasants and other species.
“It will take years to establish the prairie, and some care and attention long-term to keep it whole and healthy,” said Joe McGovern, INHF land stewardship program director. “But it’s worth all of the time and effort to do it right.”
Additional special features of the new site include a fen, which is a rare, spring-fed type of wetland with saturated soil. Of the more than 200 plant species found in fens, about five percent are listed as threatened or endangered.
The new addition is not open for public use until the dedication ceremony set for Saturday, September 30. Attendees of the event will be given the opportunity to hand-harvest seed to be used during plantings later in the year. After the dedication the entire site will be available for public enjoyment.
Learn more about this exciting project and how it has unfolded!
For more information, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, Director of Communications, or call (515) 288-1846.
