Et cetera NCCC’s Maple 5: Fowl Sunrises and Woody Sunsets on the Prairie

Maple 5 of Vinton’s AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) program is working in northwestern Minnesota at Rydell and Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuges. The team is locating booming (mating) grounds of the threatened greater prairie chickens and removing invasive tree species on the native grasslands of the prairies.

The team sets off to work every day before sunrise to drive to specific locations on the refuge where the chickens are expected group up into “leks” and establish a booming ground. The term “booming” refers to the call of the male greater prairie chicken. They produce a low cooing, comparable to the deep, solemn hooting of an owl, which can be heard up to half a mile away from the booming ground.

The chickens are an indicator species, meaning that as their natural habitat thrives, so does the community. The greater prairie chicken went almost entirely extinct in the 1930's because of hunting and loss of habitat. Glacial Ridge and other wildlife refuges have put a lot of effort into restoring the natural prairies so native species can claim back the habitat they've lost. Maple 5's work in identifying, counting, and locating the chickens will aid the refuge's research in observing how successful the prairie restoration process has been thus far.

After searching for chickens in the morning, Maple 5 clears out woody vegetation invading the prairies for the remainder of their day. In one week, the team removed a quarter of an acre of willow and dogwood trees that are not native to the prairie grasslands. With the help of loppers and bow-saws, Maple 5 is able to successfully cut trees low enough to the ground to prepare for a prescribed burn once the weather conditions are desirable.

Maple 5 also helped facilitate an Illumination Ski event at Rydell Refuge. At the event, members of the surrounding communities came to the refuge to cross-country ski for a weekend. The team helped carve a ski path and greeted guests as they filtered through the refuge’s Visitor’s Center to warm up and gear up for fun in the outdoors.