Curtis Long Named Prairie Landowner of the Year
Dr. Curtis W. Long, owner of Briarwood Angus Farms, Butler, MO, received the prestigious Clair M. Kucera Prairie Landowner of the Year Award in 2013. The honor is bestowed annually by the Missouri Prairie Foundation upon an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the cause of prairie through ownership and stewardship.
“There are roughly 90,000 scattered acres of prairie, much of it degraded, that remain of Missouri’s original 15 million acres,” says Carol Davit, Executive Director of the Missouri Prairie Foundation and Editor of Missouri Prairie Journal. “Of that, 65,000 scattered acres are owned by private individuals, some of whom actively maintain the land as prairie.”
“Dr. Long was selected based on his accomplishments in a very short time to restore prairie on land he owns in Bates County,” she says. Briarwood Native Prairie is the only half section of Native Prairie left in Western Missouri.
“Under his ownership and with the help of a dedicated crew, he has been very effective in removing an invasive exotic species, sericea lespedeza, from his prairie. This invader, which had a very noticeable presence when Dr. Long undertook care of the prairie, has been reduced to rare and scattered populations.”
Today, the fields are thriving. Dr. Long, says the 280 acres usually yields 600 bales of hay “without applying a drop of fertilizer.”
Davit noted other areas where Dr. Long is proactively managing the prairie, including a plan to remove another invasive plant – fescue — that is ubiquitous on a portion of the prairie. In addition, savanna restoration is underway, adding even more variety and quality to the 94 documented species of plants on the site.
This summer, a non-plant species also claimed the West Central Missouri acreage as home. As a result of the successful and extensive prairie management work accomplished, a female prairie chicken found the Briarwood Native Prairie habitat a perfect place to locate and nest. Her arrival and discovery were possible thanks to a radio transmitter fitted to the Kansas native fowl who traveled nearly 50 miles from Wah’Kon-Tah prairie near El Dorado Springs, MO, where she had been relocated. The transmitter allowed conservationists to locate the bird and her nest of 11 eggs, nine of which hatched.
“I hayed this field in the 60s and 70s, and it wasn’t unusual to see 20 prairie chickens,” Dr. Long says. “But I haven’t seen any in years.”
The mission of the Missouri Prairie Foundation is to protect and restore prairie and other native grassland communities through acquisition, management, education, and research. A nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, the Missouri Prairie Foundation will recognize its 50th anniversary in 2016.
“The Missouri Prairie Foundation does not ask landowners to do anything, but reaches out to interested private landowners, encouraging them to conserve prairie they may own or to reconstruct prairie on their land, and provides them with technical advice,” says Davit. That may include signing up with the Grassland Reserve Program (GRP) available through the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).
“Prairie is an ecosystem dependent on disturbances,” Davit explains. “Without disturbance like periodic, prescribed fire, woody species will invade, decreasing the biodiversity of prairie-dependent species. Also, vigilant control of invasive, nonnative herbaceous plants like sericea lespedeza and tall fescue is necessary to maintain native plant species diversity–and as well as diversity of the native insects and other wildlife that depend on those plants.”
Dr. Long signed his GRP contract in 2011. He can cut hay from it, graze it and use it for hunting and other recreation activities. But he must maintain it as grassland. And he’s happy to do so.
“I hope to preserve the prairie forever,” he says.