Wetland Reserve Program. This federal permanent easement program provides for prairie reconstruction on wetland soils that have been farmed. The land just east of the River House is still grazed by cattle owned by Stephen Garst. Cows and their calves are put into the timber pasture in the late spring and removed about 90 days later. Breeding bulls stay with their harems in the pasture for a 45 day breeding season.
Cattle can cause serious soil erosion and eat young flora of all kinds, both trees and plants.
Where their hooves disturb the soil, musk thistles tend to invade. Before habitation, prairie fires, started by lightening, went unchecked. Man-made spring burns can duplicate the occasional lightening burn, knock back the earlier rising cool season grasses and give the native plants a relative advantage. The Garst Family conducts controlled burns on approximately 500 acres of prairie and timber each spring. The workers quickly put it out before the fire builds and burns downwind.