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Mann Wetlands dedication Saturday, July 20

PHOTOS BY GARRY BRANDENBURG — The Mann Wetlands area will receive accolades Saturday morning at 10 am of how team work by natural resource agencies, federal, state, local and numerous private conservation organizations pooled their knowledge and finances to make a restoration wetland project possible. But it all started in part by the family of the late Clarence Mann of Albion, who owned a bottomland area located just south of Albion. Leaving a legacy and memorial to the Mann family, a natural wetland was and remains a fixture of this landscape, a shallow depression that in most years holds water, grows cattails, and is home to numerous aquatic creatures, waterfowl and fur bearing mammals. Saturday's dedication will summarize an enormous effort to come up with an acquisition plan, tell how it was financed by donations and grants, and the reseeding plan where on Dec. 20, 2023, crews from the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service put 17 grass seed types onto the soils along with 55 forbs and legumes that are native to prairie and wetland habitats. Today's aerial image was made on Tuesday, July 16, and enables viewers to see a birds-eye view of the 216 acre project. And a theme applicable to this wetland are known nearby nesting Sandhill Cranes, who periodically fly into the area to feed on insects and amphibians.

The Mann Wetlands Area will be the focus of attention on Saturday morning, July 20, 2024. Speakers and dignitaries will recall and relate the history of this site.

Telling the story of another land conservation project and its habitat renewal will be an interesting mixture of many agencies cooperating to accomplish a goal. It took many years for the project to make its appearance into reality, and now, it is well on its way to a many years long transition of the habitats, ephemeral wetlands, and native prairie reconstruction.

The land area has a total of 216 acres, some of which are bottomland forest types of trees. The balance of the 159 acres was a mix of grasslands, wetland areas and some cropland areas that were always subject to high water table conditions or outright flooding events, big and small, when the nearby Iowa River would spill over or burst over its banks. Flooding from minor to major has been a fact of life for the wildlife that live there, and for inconveniences water topped highways caused to travelers using Highway 330.

In Mother Nature’s eons of time scales, river bottom lands, called floodplains by geologists, is where excess water from a river dispersed during highwater flow episodes. The energy of a flooded river dissipated in those shallow depth water covered lands.

Over time, floodplains gradually received small amounts of silt from all upland watershed locations. Ancient meandering river channels still exist in the floodplain, telling the stories of geologic time, and the back and forth cutting and filling of active river channels.

As for the Mann Wetlands complex today, re-seeding during December 2023 has put the right kinds of seeds onto the soil. They will germinate and find their places to thrive within the battlegrounds of green plants vying for sunlight space and soil types best suited to each plant species.

Seventeen species of grasses were “frost seeded” along with 55 species of legumes and forbs. Frost seeding is a successful method by which seeds are dispersed over frozen ground or even upon the surface of snow covered ground, then allowed to sink to the soil surface with snow melt actions as a new spring season approaches.

An advantage of frost seeding is that vehicles, tractors or other machinery do not fight mud or the possibility of getting stuck. The seeds settle to the soil surface and many will find a good place to germinate. Also, many of the seeds require freeze-thaw air temperatures (stratification) in order to allow the germ of those seed contents to wake up for a new growing season.

Grass species go by the common names, to highlight a few but not all, such as Indiangrass, Bebb’s sedge, Fowl mannagrass, Canada wild rye, Big bluestem, and Rice cutgrass. Seeding rates ranged from 0.002 to one pound per acre.

Shallow depressions in the soil surface, many made by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service land biologists, received special seedlings specifically for ephemeral water areas. Forbs and legumes made up a list that was 55 species long.

A few of these plant names are milkvetch, spiderwort, gentians, anemone, mints, compass plant. Prairie phlox, lobelia, asters, blue flag, prairie milkweed, white wild indigo, spotted trumpetweed, goldenrod, Culver’s root, tick trefoil, coneflowers and many others.

When the planting list and seeding rates were totaled, it came to 744 pounds of pure live seed. These were spread out over the entire 159 acres which accounted for about 38,503 seeds per square foot. Another way to state this is that those pure live seeds amounted to 4.677 pounds per acre.

Seed costs are not inexpensive since many had to be hand harvested from ecozones similar in habitat to the Mann wetland area. A great knowledge base exists at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge near Prairie City, where part of their mission is to conduct research on prairie

plants, harvest seeds, and assist where they can with other agency seeding projects.

Seed costs were shared by the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation ($24,000+), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ($8,000+), Iowa Department of Natural Resources added $15,000, and the remaining costs were covered by funds already in hand by the Marshall County Conservation Board ($10,540). Pheasants Forever chapters in central Iowa contributed seed mixes they had access to. Collaboration worked well.

Now that seeds are in the ground, management schemes must take place to encourage those new growths. Since bare land seldom stays vegetation free, some types of plants and true weeds will try to take over.

Unless management can help curtail the tall weedy types and allow for sunlight to penetrate toward the new leaves of newly emerged prairie and forbs/legumes. A first year prairie reconstruction will require mowing the area down to about a 6 inch height either three or four times that first year.

The second year mowings may be only twice, or as needed in selected places. The third year, the same plan but perhaps with a twist of using selective cuttings. After these establishments of desired vegetation types are going well, select areas for controlled fire management may be utilized.

Mother Nature took her sweet time to develop a diverse mix of native prairie, savanna and forest environments across the continent. Natural resource managers try to fit their tool kits for modern day management into this big picture.

Time is a great item indeed for a true success story of prairie and conservation success. The Mann Wetland Area is now at its beginning stages of a very long term endeavor.

Wildlife will benefit with its mammals, birds and aquatic amphibians and reptiles. Pheasants and wild turkeys already use the area with more to come and thrive over time.

Water quality will improve as surface waters get filtered by native vegetation. The long range outlook is very good.

Congratulations are in order to every person, and every agency, public and private, who helped make the Mann Wetland project become a reality. May your enthusiasm be sustained and celebrated just like dancing Sandhill Cranes.

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Sandhill cranes are big birds, easily standing three to four feet tall and weighing in at six to 12 pounds. These majestic birds have wingspans of six to seven feet and they may live from 20 to as much as 40 years.

At least one pair of Sandhill Cranes, or their descendants, live in the bottomland wetlands between Albion and the northwest corner of Marshalltown. Sandhills are known as one of the oldest living species on the planet.

Fossil evidence uncovered at Nebraska’s Ashfall Fossil Beds State Park, peg the age of these birds at least back 11 million years, maybe even more. Crowned Cranes at Ashfall looked identical to the same bird now found in Africa’s Serengeti grasslands.

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the earliest unequivocal Sandhill Crane fossil is from a Florida Macasphalt Shell Pit. That fossil was 2.6 million years old. Sandhills are known for their long migration flights. Even today, central Nebraska gets 1.5 million Sandhills every March and early April along the Platte River.

Sandhill Cranes eat plant and animal matter depending upon the season and where the birds are at any specific time of the year. Waste grain in farm fields works. Wet meadow environments provide insects, reptiles and amphibians and that works. Seeds and fleshy plant tubers also fit the diet billing. Grubs, earthworms, snails and small rodents are dietary morsels they use.

Sightings of Sandhill Cranes at the Mann Wetlands are a random and mostly rare happening. I have been lucky to hear their twittering call from my residence in Albion.

I have been fortunate occasionally to see them when driving along Highway 330. There is never a guarantee but when it happens, my binoculars and long lens camera will come into action.

I trust and hope you will have similar wildlife viewing opportunities reveal themselves to you during future years when traveling near or observing wildlife at the Mann Wetlands. Lots of great things have set the stage for more successes.

There will be lots to learn in the decades to come. Be ready.

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Here is a quote from Albert Einstein regarding nature: “We still do not know 1,000th of one percent what nature has revealed to us.” An open and curious mind is a first step.

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Garry Brandenburg is the retired director of the Marshall County Conservation Board. He is a graduate of Iowa State University with a BS degree in Fish & Wildlife Biology.

Contact him at:

P.O. Box 96

Albion, IA 50005

Starting at $4.38/week.

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