“The country is surpassingly beautiful on both sides [of the lower St. Croix River], being prairie along the shores, while at a greater distance, the land rises in gradual slopes and is covered with a scattering growth of oaks.” – James Goodhue, Minnesota Pioneer, 1849

The lower St. Croix Valley was once mostly grasslands, a mosaic of prairie and occasional oaks. Here the Great Plains extended east across the river, with a globular triangle of prairie and savanna extending nearly twenty miles into what’s now Wisconsin. While most of the St. Croix River basin was wooded, tributaries like the Kinnickinnic and Willow Rivers in particular flowed through significant open country.

Those grasslands filtered rainfall and kept lakes and rivers clean, were home to bountiful and unique wildlife, stored many tons of carbon, and more. Today, the prairie is almost all gone, dwindling from around 300 square miles in the valley when the first government surveys were conducted in the 1840s, to a few acres here and there today.

Most of the biggest remaining prairies in the St. Croix Valley are found on public land, from William O’Brien State Park in the northwest to the Kelly Preserve in the southeast. For decades, local citizen groups, government agencies, and others have worked to bring prairie back to the St. Croix region. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages more than 1,600 acres of grasslands as part of the St. Croix Wetland Management District, and the DNRs on both sides of the river have also acquired properties with remnants remaining.

Restoration education

The Prairie Enthusiasts’ St. Croix Valley Chapter is one of the busiest citizen groups in the effort, actively managing and restoring several properties. The organization is now trying to empower others to follow its lead, with a workshop planned in Hudson to offer tips for anyone seeking to restore prairie on their own property.

“Geared towards both ‘do-it-yourselfers’ or those who want to hire a contractor, the workshop will teach landowners how to turn their garden, yard, or pasture into a landscape of native prairie grasses and flowers,” the group says. “Experts in prairie restoration will discuss the best methods of prairie planting for a variety of sites and will cover site analysis, site preparation, planting and maintenance. A panel of homeowners will share stories of lessons learned and successes on their projects.”

The event is being held on Nov. 9 at YMCA – Camp St. Croix and will run from 8:45 to 3 p.m. It features a line-up of expert speakers on topics related to all aspects of preparing, planting, and maintaining native prairies. It will conclude with a panel discussion of homeowners with experiencing converting their property back into prairie.

The project is funded by a grant from the St. Croix Valley Foundation. Advanced registration by Oct. 25 is required. More information and registration is available here.

Historic habitat

St. Croix Valley prairies. (Greg Seitz/St. Croix 360)

Most of the St. Croix Valley’s prairie was plowed under for farms that benefited — at least briefly — from millennia of soil growth. The economic value was immediately apparent to white settlers along the St. Croix. The soil was fertile and there weren’t any pesky trees that had to be cleared before plowing and planting.

“Here and there a farm is seen; but the most of the lands are not yet even claimed,” James Goodhue of the Minnesota Pioneer wrote after his 1849 excursion up the river. “Where can more productive lands be found than the whole of that rich peninsula between the St. Croix and the Mississippi river?”

Other sources also noted that the prairie made for great farms.

“Richmond Township is one of the richest farm sections in the county,” wrote Augustus B. Easton, author of the 1909 History of the Saint Croix Valley. “The land is mostly undulating prairie.”

People and prairie

St. Croix Valley prairies. (Greg Seitz/St. Croix 360)

Prairie in this region has probably always been a primarily human creation. Indigenous people set fires to keep grasslands open, providing habitat and fresh forage for favored game like bison, improving food and medicine gathering, keeping travel routes open, and other purposes.

“So extensive were the cumulative effects of these modifications that it may be said that the general consequence of the Indian occupation of the New World was to replace forested land with grassland or savannah, or, where the forest persisted, to open it up and free it from underbrush,” wrote Stephen Pyne in a 1982 book called Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire.

While the role of humans in setting fires in the eastern prairie region is still debated, it might be more helpful to look at the question from another direction. When Europeans settled in the St. Croix Valley, they usually prevented and put out wildfires as quickly as they could. Whether by halting intentional prairie fires or by putting out natural fires, the effect was the same: where land was left alone, prairie grasses were largely replaced by trees.

Today, though, some people are working to reverse those impacts. Many of them will be gathering in Hudson on November 9.