Stop 3 - Grasslands

Welcome to Stop 3 on the Wildlife Drive. Middle Creek is home to many grassland dependent species that rely on the fields you see here. Species like short-eared owls, northern harriers, bobolinks, and eastern meadowlarks all are species of greatest conservation need that depend on the grasslands at Middle Creek at some point during the year. In order to keep grasslands from turning into forests, habitat management tools such as prescribed fire are used to "reset the clock". Without these tools and continued management, many of these fields would turn into shrublands and eventually forests, making them unsuitable for our grassland species.