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Pilot Meadow Restoration Project Completed at Pine Run

At Heritage Conservancy, we know how to preserve land-we've been doing it for nearly 50 years. One thing we've learned along the way is that truly successful land preservation isn't accomplished just by placing a conservation easement on a parcel of land. It's at that point that mindful land management comes into play, and must remain in play in perpetuity.

Heritage Conservancy has just completed the pilot phase of a unique land management project, the Pine Run Meadow Restoration Project. Pine Run Reservoir, in Bucks County's Doylestown Township, consists of a 39-acre flood-control lake and approximately 74 acres of adjoining lands, all owned and maintained by the Bucks County Department of Parks and Recreation and located in the North Branch Neshaminy Creek watershed.

Though some of the land at Pine Run is forested, about 65 acres is maintained as meadow. Residents use this area for hiking, walking, and bird watching, and it is home to a variety of grassland-nesting bird species. Pine Run is very popular with local birders and is less than two miles away from the Peace Valley Nature Center, designated by National Audubon Society as an Important Bird Area. This means that Pine Run could form part of the regional habitat for the many bird species that live or breed in Peace Valley.

Despite its deserved reputation as a great place for birds, plants, and people, Pine Run also presents a number of environmental challenges, most notably the presence of invasive plant species that are not ideal habitat for the native birds. Pine Run's fragile status as a bird habitat matters because grassland-nesting birds are in decline throughout the northeastern United States due to widespread loss, fragmentation, and degradation of their grassland and agricultural habitat, much of which has already been developed.

Even those areas where farming continues can be inhospitable to grassland-nesting birds because of intense cultivation and use of harmful chemicals. The report Wildlife Habitat in Pennsylvania (2002) showed an 80% decrease since the 1960s in populations of grasshopper sparrow, bobolink, eastern meadowlark, and ring-neck pheasant—all of which have historically nested at Pine Run—as well as vesper sparrow.

In response to this situation, Heritage Conservancy, in partnership with the North Branch Watershed Association, the Bucks County Conservation District and the Bucks County Department of Parks and Recreation, initiated the Pine Run Meadow Restoration pilot project in 2004 with a grant from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation.

Our goal was to create a small (10-acre) demonstration site on the property that would

The project plan involved the removal (using herbicides) of 90% of the invasive and non-native species present in the 10-acre demonstration site; planning and planting of appropriate native, warm-season meadow grasses on the 10-acre plot; and planning a long-term management and mowing regime for the demonstration site.

By November 2005, the herbicides had been applied and grass seeds planted. We knew that an appropriate mowing regime would be an important component in the project's success. Too much or ill-timed mowing would prevent the birds from breeding at Pine Run; too little mowing early in the growing season could retard the growth of the newly planted native grasses but encourage the existing invasive species.

In 2006 the site was mowed every two to three weeks until mid-August, when mowing was stopped to allow the newly planted native warm-season grasses to grow. This mowing schedule helped to control the invasive species and allowed sunlight to reach the new native seedlings. In 2007, the site will again be mowed in spring and through mid-August, but beginning in 2008, there should be only one pre-breeding-season mowing, and then no mowing between mid-April and mid-June.

In addition to its benefits to birds, the reduced mowing schedule should also result in better water quality, as tall meadow grasses will discourage Canada Geese from using the area and act as an effective filter of stormwater run-off.

Education and public outreach have gone hand-in-hand with the research, planting and mowing at Pine Run. The Reservoir is publicly owned, and much of it is accessible to the public, so we felt it was vitally important to keep the community informed about our plans and to involve them as much as possible. We have made presentations to both birders and the general public, at which we were able to address concerns such as how the temporarily increased mowing schedule could negatively impact breeding, and to engage volunteers from the neighborhood and the local birding community to monitor the site and report which birds are using it, among other vital tasks. A local Girl Scout Troop constructed 15 blue-bird boxes, which volunteers installed in May.

We won't know for three to five years whether we have fully succeeded in creating a healthy meadow of warm-season grasses that supports diverse and important bird species, but the signs are good. The grasses are growing and many of the key bird species we are trying to protect have been spotted on the site.

Now that the pilot phase of the project is complete, we will continue to monitor progress and to advise the county as needed. In future, we would like to expand the project area and to restore important grasslands in other parts of the region, including on Heritage Conservancy-owned land.

Our thanks go out to our great partners on this project: the Bucks County Department of Parks and Recreation; the Bucks County Conservation District; the North Branch Watershed Association, whose executive board and members have provided valuable insight as well as labor for the project; and local residents and birders, whose input and hands-on help have been key to the project's success so far.