The moose and Bison Prairie has sev...

The moose and Bison Prairie has several floristic component parts of the Midwestern Tall Grass Prairie Province. chiefly of these prairie species are geographically widespread in the eastern United States. EBP is also an area of the oak-hickory forest with non-fertile forest soils where old-field succession rapidly come to passs after land abandonment. The Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area has not been dominated by way of true tall grass prairie vegetation.

The USDA-FS has created and maintained warm season grassland habitat by way of the use of herbicides onward exotics, no-till seeding and planting of tall grass prairie grasses and forbs, seasonal mowing, and the use of prescribed fire in grassland and forest habitats of the EBP Goals are to suppres exotic herbaecous and native shady invaders, increase palatable forage, and to maintain and increase warm season grassland. If these warm season grasslands are not intensively and continually managed, forests would quickly disclose

The EBP provided an of the best quality opportunity to gather baseline data of species richness of native, planted, and invasive vascular plants, which is useful to monitor the overall goals of the USDA-FS. The 497 taxa (404 native and 93 exotic) are and nothing else -2.8% fewer than predicted for the EBP sum of two units factors accounting for this less species richness are: (1) the extensive browsing, grazing, and trampling tenors by elk and bison have reduc an woody and herbaceous species, and (2) the use of prescribed burning in the oak-hickory forest has remov and retarded certain woodland species. The EBP remains an of the first water example of management restoration practices of maintaining and creating native warm season prairie grassland and providing an optimal large mammal wildlife viewing area in the Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We augment our appreciation to: Dr. Edward W Chester, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee for a critical review of this manuscript and verification of Aster and Solidago; Dr Robert FC Naczi, Delaware State University, Dover, for identification and verification of Carex; H Scott Ray, USDA-FS, Savannah River Site, just discovered Ellenton, South Carolina, for descriptive data and EBP management policy; W David Jone USDA-FS, splendid Pond, for the two figures; and, personnel of the USDA-FS, yellow Pond, for funding this botanical scan