2002 Natural Resources Management

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found in groves with hazelnut or oak brush common in areas that do not burn frequently. Natural disturbances like gopher mounds and badger excavations are common. Common plant species include bur oak and pin oak, prairie rose, leadplant, heart- leaved alexanders, butterfly milkweed, purple prairie clover, bird -foot violet, prairie sage, and several species of asters and goldenrods. Common grasses include Indian grass, little and big bluestem, prairie dropseed, and sideoats grama. Common animal species include mourning dove, indigo bunting, sparrows, squirrels, pocket gophers, and white -tail deer. These areas have often been degraded by grazing or farming activities. The impact of overgrazing is a reduction in grass and forb diversity, and forage quality and quantity, as well as invasion by exotics such as leafy spurge, knapweed, and sweet clover. Prior to Euroamerican settlement, regular fires maintained these communities. Without fires, the spread of woody shrubs such as sumac, prickly ash and red cedar is increased. Many areas of Roseville that historically contained oak savanna have slowly converted to oak woodland or forest. This succession has largely been brought about by the absence of fires and the use of appropriate levels of grazing in the past. Mesic Prairie — is a fire- dependent, dry -mesic to wet -mesic grassland that has a continuous cover of tall grasses and forbs. The forb diversity of mesic prairies is typically high. Trees and shrubs are absent in better quality remnants, but may occur in localized patches in moist, protected areas such as ravines and in areas that have not been periodically grazed, hayed, mowed, or burned. Common native grasses of mesic prairie include big and little bluestem, Indian grass, porcupine grass, prairie dropseed, and Kalm's brome. Some of the most common forbs found here include leadplant, sky blue aster, rough blazingstar, purple and white prairie clover, prairie phlox, stiff goldenrod, prairie coreopsis, betony, golden alexanders, and bird -foot violet. Common bird species seen on mesic prairies include meadowlark, goldfinch, field sparrow, and eastern kingbird. Some common mammals include the meadow jumping mouse, meadow vole, thirteen -lined ground squirrel, as well as a number of frog, salamander, and toad species. Although it once covered an area from Texas to Canada, and Kansas to Ohio, today mesic prairie is among the rarest natural community types in North America. Because the soils formed by City of Roseville 14 Parks Natural Resource Management