FRANKLIN COUNTY — Along the Franklin-Butler County line, a small public hunting area protects something increasingly difficult to find in Iowa: 16 acres of original native prairie that have never been plowed.
The roughly 40-acre West Fork Prairie wildlife area attracts pheasant hunters throughout the season, but its remarkable feature is a former pasture that escaped cultivation because the ground was too difficult to farm. Today, that untouched remnant offers a surviving glimpse of Iowa’s original prairie landscape.
“It seems to have a following among hunters,” said Justin Clark, a wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Cedar-Wapsi Unit at Big Marsh. “Every time I drive past, it seems someone is either getting ready to hunt it or has just finished. It does hold birds.”
A rare piece of Iowa’s original prairie
Part of the old pasture fencing still stands. Underfoot, firm ground changes to spongy soil as the elevation drops, and in some places water overtops visitors’ shoes. Because the pasture was never tilled, its native prairie survived while much of the surrounding landscape was converted to agriculture.
“It’s different. You can just tell you’re on a remnant prairie,” Clark said.
In addition to the 16-acre remnant, West Fork Prairie includes approximately 21 acres of restored prairie, four acres of savanna and a 2.5-acre sorghum food plot. The sorghum is planted outside the untouched prairie. The state acquired the area in 2013.
Across Northern Iowa, prairie restoration and public wildlife access remain important conservation priorities. NIT has also covered prairie and wetland restoration near Pilot Knob.
Fire and water help maintain habitat
DNR management includes prescribed burning about every five years, cutting encroaching trees and spraying sumac. Wet soils make it difficult to move equipment through the property, so crews generally burn the area all at once rather than in sections.
“It’s too wet to get a vehicle down to burn it in sections so we burn it all at once,” Clark explained.
Broken field drainage tile helps the property collect and retain rainfall and runoff. During an early September visit, heavy dew covered the prairie while monarch butterflies moved from flower to flower.
Nearby wildlife areas attract hunters
About half a mile west and southwest lies the West Fork Wildlife Area, another frequently visited public hunting destination. Its two parcels, approximately 1.5 miles apart, cover about 40 acres in the northwest and 135 acres in the southeast. Both are accessible from parking areas along gravel roads.
“This is another area that has a lot of hunting pressure. It’s a nice complex and manageable to hunt,” Clark said.
The larger parcel contains restored prairie, roughly 10 acres of wetlands in low-lying areas and timber along the eastern side. The West Fork of the Cedar River flows through adjoining county-managed land. Nearby private farmland and timber create additional habitat edges.
One continuing challenge is stopping trees from the floodplain from overtaking the restored prairie. Managers burn this property regularly, sometimes in consecutive seasons.
Outdoor recreation and a living classroom
The combination of prairie, wetlands and riverside timber supports pheasants, deer and other wildlife. High school and college students are among the visitors, and Franklin County maintains a boat ramp on the West Fork of the Cedar River.
Similar opportunities can be found at other state wildlife areas, including the Troy Mills Wildlife Area and the Callahan Tract at Little Sioux Wildlife Area.
But the 16 untouched acres at West Fork Prairie are especially valuable. Restored prairie can provide substantial habitat benefits, while a native remnant preserves a piece of the original ecosystem that cannot be recreated exactly once destroyed.
Source: Iowa Department of Natural Resources (top photo).