JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. -- Joint Base Lewis-McChord contains the largest remaining portion of historical outwash prairies. The Prairie Oak Preserve is a small piece of prairie located inside the cantonment near Evergreen Elementary that offers the JBLM community public access to the rare South Sound Prairie ecosystem. Restoring this area by removing invasive species and keeping it free of litter ensures this area will be available to enjoy for years to come.
The Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division hosts several restoration events throughout the year to restore and maintain the Prairie Oak Preserve. On April 20th, 2023, 40 JBLM volunteers celebrated Earth Day by cleaning up the Prairie Oak Preserve. The hard work continued Jan. 18, 2024, when 35 volunteers braved the winter weather to continue restoring this special area.
The South Sound Prairie landscape and habitat has been reduced by 90 percent, with only three percent of that remaining as pristine prairie. JBLM is home to the largest portion of that. The South Sound native prairies support an array of plant and animal species, including several protected species like the Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly, the Mardon Skipper butterfly, the streaked horned lark, the Western gray squirrel and the Mazama pocket gopher. Invasive species can easily overtake these prairies and interfere with native species.
The focus of these restoration events was to remove Scotch broom, which is an invasive species commonly found in prairies. Scotch broom can overtake and crowd out the native species in the preserve, such as oak and kinnikinnick.
“One mature Scotch broom plant can produce thousands of seeds every year, and these seeds can remain viable in the soil for decades,” Kathryn Hill, a Forest and Fire Ecologist at JBLM, said. “The first step is removing mature plants to stop this continuous seed production and buy some time to plan for the next round of germinants that will then emerge. By keeping up with removal of these younger plants, we can begin to deplete the seedbank. Two regular cleanup events per year, with all of these awesome volunteers that come out to hand-pull the broom, greatly helps keep new seed production in check and helps us to then deplete the population over time. Eventually this will allow an herbaceous understory to flourish in the oak savanna areas and native shrubs to thrive in the oak woodlands.”
Because JBLM is home to such rare habitats, these restoration events are critical to maintaining and improving these areas. Restoration events like these also celebrate the connection between people and green spaces. This inspires environmental stewardship, and encourages the use of these spaces for education, health benefits, and recreation. Join us in our continued effort to restore the Prairie Oak Preserve this Earth Day, April 22. Remove invasive species, clean up litter, and view this beautiful slice of prairie. Registrations for the event may be made at usarmy.jblm.id-readiness.list.dpw-edpr1@army.mil.
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