by Susan Farrington
I am writing concerning Ken Midkiff’s letter to the Ozark Sierran in which he opposed DNR’s request to use chain saws to control cedars on glades in the Roaring River State Park Wild Area.
I have participated as a Sierra Club glade restoration volunteer for five years, leading the volunteers during the last two years. Sometimes when we are participating in glade restoration, it seems like a major manipulation of the area, and the cedar stumps can be unsightly temporarily. Certainly while we're working, we feel like we're creating a bit of a “moonscape.”
But when we see the results of our work in the next year and the years to follow, we are amazed. The seed bank is there and the grasses and wildflowers return on their own once we let the sunshine in. This is not glade creation; we are not planting the flowers or grasses that emerge. These glades have been openings in the woodlands for many thousands of years, maintained both by natural fires and by the purposeful actions of Native Americans. The frequent fires kept the cedars from growing on glades, relegating them to the river bluffs where fire could not reach. It is only in the last 50 to 75 years that we have sought to suppress the frequent fires that kept the glades open, and the cedars have quickly taken advantage.
Glades support tremendous biodiversity, providing invaluable habitat to many plants and animals. Tarantulas, collared lizards, painted buntings, prairie warblers, Bachman’s sparrows, Fremont's leather flower, Missouri evening primrose, Trelease’s larkspur, Bush’s poppy mallow and the federally endangered Missouri bladderpod all depend on open glade habitat. Since glades are south-facing, they are the first habitats to green up in the spring, providing numerous hungry animals with their first spring meal, including black bears just emerging from hibernation.
I was disappointed in Ken Midkiff’s letter which contained some inaccuracies. He stated, “The historical records reveal that naturally occurring wildfires seldom burned more than an acre. Current data support this. Unlike the arid West, there are no “dry strikes” of lightening in Missouri...”
I’m not sure what current data Ken is citing, but dry lightning strikes do occur in Missouri, though certainly not as often as in the West. According to Douglas Halliwell, Fire Program Staff Supervisor with MDC, 172 lightning fires were reported in the eight years between 1992 and 2000, burning a total of 2,153 acres. This would be an average of 12.5 acres burned per lightning fire. When fires are ignited by these strikes, they are often quickly extinguished by local firefighters. Roads, parking lots and plowed fields also prevent the spread of these fires. Before these barriers and fire departments existed, lightning fires would no doubt have burned many more acres.
Ken also wrote, “We no longer have bison, elk, grizzly bear, black bear, mountain lions, or Indian tribes roaming the state....” Actually, black bears are roaming Missouri once more, as are mountain lions. And Missouri was never home to grizzly bears.
I was particularly upset with Ken’s characterization that, “We don't want to see stumps or wide open spaces between trees where pretty flowers grow - there are such places all over the state, including most cities.” First, that implies that glades are an artificial habitat, which they are not. Second, he is likening a glade to an urban park or a botanical garden, but they are not alike at all.
Ken appears to attack glade restoration anywhere, likening it to gardening. If you agree with him that glade restoration is not a worthy undertaking at all, then there isn't much to discuss with regard to save Roaring River’s glades. But if you accept the premise that glade restoration is worthwhile, then let’s examine the issue of glade restoration in the Roaring River Wild Area.
First, no one can dispute that it is setting a possibly dangerous precedent to make an exception to allow chain saws in a wild area. Certainly someone in the future might try to use this precedent for bad purposes. But while this is a possible danger, the absolute danger facing us right now is that Roaring River’s glades will soon be gone if nothing is done. One suggestion is to use prescribed fire more aggressively to control the cedars at Roaring River. While cedar seedlings are easily controlled by fire, the only fire that will kill large cedar trees is a catastrophic fire, the kind that burns whole forests to ashes. No one would wish such a fire on this wild area.
The glades in the wild area will soon be shaded out to the point of no return, and the task of removing the large cedar trees there is far too monumental to handle with manual crosscut saws. It is very labor intensive even to remove them with chain saws, and it is prohibitively intensive to do it without them. Yes, chain saws are annoying, and no one wants to hear them when hiking in a wild area. But the intrusion would be short-lived, and could be structured to avoid peak visitation. Once the trees are removed, there will be no further need to return with chain saws: prescribed fires every few years will keep cedar trees from encroaching again.
It is true that there are glades in Roaring River State Park that are outside the wild area, and nothing prevents us from clearing the cedars and maintaining these glades. But there are twice as many acres of glade in the wild area as in the rest of the park, and the glades in the wild area provide crucial links between these habitats. We would be losing a great deal to lose the glades in the wild area.
In an idyllic world, we would manage wild areas completely hands-off, and if an area were truly undisturbed, far from any human manipulation, we could do just that. But what do we do when kudzu erupts in the middle of a wild area? Cuivre River State Park’s wild area is a prime example. Surrounded by numerous invading exotic species, the area would soon be overrun with these exotics if no land management was practiced. Yes, this is manipulation, but we as humans have wreaked such havoc on the land that little is truly wild and untouched anymore. We are forced to make decisions to try to maintain the wildness as best as we are able. We may not always make the right decisions; history will ultimately judge us. But do we want history to judge that we merely stood by and watched species disappear because we didn’t want to interfere?
I hope that the Ozark Chapter of the Sierra Club will support glade restoration efforts in the Roaring River Wild Area.