Views of the Prairie: Mike Schrad

Hello everybody.  The next weblog submit is written by 2024 Hubbard Fellow Claire Morrical.  Claire put collectively a unbelievable sequence of interviews with folks working in conservation right here in Nebraska and we thought you’d get pleasure from studying and listening to their tales. 

This undertaking – Views of the Prairie – makes use of interviews and maps to share the views and tales of individuals, from ecologists to volunteers, on the prairie. You may try the total undertaking HERE.

This submit additionally incorporates audio clips. You could find the textual content from this weblog submit with audio transcripts HERE. If you happen to’re studying this submit in your e-mail and the audio clips don’t work, click on on the title of the submit to open it on-line.

Discover the primary entry of Views of the Prairie, Neil Dankert HERE

In 2014, Mike started what’s now a 10-year survey of small mammals at Platte River Prairies. I joined Mike whereas he set traps for the night to speak concerning the solutions and questions that arose from the survey, what the prairie appears to be like like from the small mammal perspective, and the way Mike’s profession impacts his work immediately.

Interview: July eleventh, 2024

Half 1: Meet Mike

Location: A kangaroo rat burrow within the Derr Sandhills website at Platte River Prairies

That is Mike Schrad.

Thrice a 12 months (spring, summer time, and fall), Mike drives all the way down to Platte River Prairies and surveys small mammals for 2 days. Within the evenings, he units up two grids of 40 traps, then returns at daybreak to see what he’s caught.

I met up with Mike on a heat July night and we drive out to the location the Derr Sandhills to set traps. Just like the extra expansive Nebraska Sandhills to the north, our little sandhills are made up of rolling grass-covered dunes, with sand-loving species like little bluestem and the aptly named sand lovegrass.

We meander up and down the rows, looking for Sherman traps (image 2) to refill with seed for tomorrow’s critters. By the morning, a furry little creature could have wandered into the lengthy steel field, in search of meals, and a door will snap shut, trapping it till it’s discovered, measured, after which launched again into the prairie.

Mike Schrad is a retired wildlife biologist who has volunteered at Platte River Prairies for the final 10 years. Mike collects small mammal knowledge on this website, serving to us to know the creatures that use it and the way our administration impacts them.

As he works, Mike is fast to level out what he notices.

Notes for Context:

In March of 2024, the Ord’s Kangaroo Rat, or the k-rat, was formally recorded on Platte River Prairies for the primary time. Ok-rats are well-named, balancing on robust hind legs and hopping by way of tall grasses like little or no kangaroos (although nonetheless greater than the small mammals Mike goals to catch in his traps). You may inform a kangaroo rat is current by the lengthy s curves its tail leaves within the sand round its burrow entrance.

Mikes profession as a wildlife biologist continues to tell his perspective and his work on our sandhills, offering the protect with a greater understanding of what’s in our prairie. In flip, Mike has realized so much himself and finds that he’s extra assured within the subsequent technology of ecologists.

Half 2: Surveying Small Mammals

Location: The location East Dahms at Platte River Prairies the place the unique small mammal survey was achieved

What began as a one-time survey has grown right into a undertaking that spans ten years and has recorded over 450 small mammals. As we set traps, Mike tells us how it began.

Notes for Context:

Small Mammals Talked about:  Plains pocket mouse (Perognathus flavescens)

What this research provides us is an understanding of what small mammal species are utilizing our the Derr Sandhills. Of them, Mike is especially within the plains pocket mouse. Maybe most notable for its fur lined cheek pouches (or pockets, if you’ll), the pocket mouse feeds primarily on seeds which they’ll retailer of their pouches, and later in seed caches separate from their nest burrows.

Plains pocket mice could be divided into two subspecies, an jap and a western subspecies, which could be instructed aside by slight variations of their fur coloration. Of the 2, the jap plains pocket mouse is much less widespread, and is listed as a tier one species within the Nebraska Pure Legacy Challenge.

Considered one of our previous Hubbard fellows, Jasmine Cutter, has a terrific piece concerning the plains pocket mouse HERE.

Notes for Context:

• Dr. Keith Geluso: Professor of Biology on the College of Nebraska Kearney
• Tier One Species:  Species most in danger for extinction

Small Mammals Talked about: Prairie Vole (Microtus ochrogaster), White-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus), Deer Mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus), Plains Pocket Mouse (Perognathus flavescens), Hispid Pocket Mouse (Chactodipus hispidus), Northern Grasshopper Mouse (Onychomys leucogaster)

Northern grasshopper mice ARE actually neat. They’re territorial animals, and in contrast to a majority of mouse species, grasshopper mice are carnivorous, consuming primarily bugs. Along with being a terrifying predator (when you’re a grasshopper), grasshopper mice are recognized for his or her howl. The mice will throw again their head and let loose a high-pitched whistle.

Mike and the Platte River Prairies group have an thought of what’s right here, however that’s only the start of the story. To start out, Mike wants sufficient knowledge to show that his findings are correct. Within the meantime, what we’ve ended up with is a door that’s been opened to a complete lot of questions that take their very own analysis to reply.

One instance of analysis that’s stemmed from Mike’s work is a  analysis undertaking  by a previous Hubbard fellow, Jasmine Cutter.

Mike shares one other instance with us.

Notes for Context:

• Pit tags: a microchip that may be planted below the pores and skin of an animal, permitting us to trace the place the animal is at utilizing GPS.

Small Mammals Talked about: Deer Mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus), Plains Pocket Mouse (Perognathus flavescens)

Half 3: Restored Prairie

Location: The restored portion of the Derr Sandhills website at Platte River Prairies

The Derr Sandhills is made up of each restored and remnant prairie. Remnant prairie has by no means been plowed and by no means existed as one thing apart from grassland (no less than within the final a number of hundred years). It might be crushed up, over-grazed, overwhelmed with invasive species, but it surely has all the time been prairie.

Restored prairie however, has been basically turned into one thing that isn’t prairie. On this case, a corn area. In consequence, the seed financial institution is misplaced, soil vitamins and hydrology could change, and the prairie can’t return to precisely what it was earlier than. That doesn’t imply it will probably’t be restored to a terrific prairie. As Mike Schrad will inform you, it’s simply completely different.

This website was restored in 2001. Right here on the restored website, the grass is taller and thicker. On a lot of it, you must dig by way of 1 / 4 inch of previous grass to get to the soil. So, what have we discovered on this restored website?

Small mammals talked about: Plains Pocket Mouse (Perognathus flavescens), Deer Mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus)

“Why?” is a query Mike asks typically.

Half 4: Remnant Prairie

Location: The remnant portion of the Derr Sandhills website at Platte River Prairies

If you happen to have a look at a satellite tv for pc picture of the Derr Sandhills, you may simply make out the place the previous crop area was and the circle that an previous pivot irrigator as soon as drew across the fringe of it. To the south of the restored sandhills is the remnant sandhills, noticeably hillier, and as Mike says, “simply completely different”.

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Notes for Context:

• Remnant Prairie: Prairie that has by no means been plowed
• Restored Prairie: Prairie that was plowed (for instance, for cropland or housing growth), however later replanted again right into a prairie

Mike and I stood within the remnant prairie, overlooking the restored portion. There’s a line simply seen between the 2 sections the place the group of plant species adjustments. From the Indiangrass and large bluestem within the restored prairie to the sand lovegrass and little bluestem within the remnant, the 2 completely different plant compositions complement one another each visually and ecologically. Analysis by earlier Hubbard fellow, Anne Stine, confirmed native bees utilizing each elements of the prairie as they hunted for pollen.

Mike compares the restored, the place the vegetation was taller and thicker, to the remnant.

Notes for Context: We use cattle grazing as a administration instrument on our prairies. Cattle is usually a nice substitute for bison, including disturbance to the prairie and serving to us handle our invasive species. Mike refers cattle’s function in creating completely different vegetation constructions (like tall and dense or brief and sparse) throughout the prairie. Our aim is to have a wide range of vegetation constructions (which we name “habitat heterogeneity”) in order that the prairie can host many various species with completely different wants.

This summer time, the Derr Sandhills have been grazed for the primary time in a number of years.

• Chris Helzer: Director of Science and Stewardship for Nebraska TNC. Chris has spent a lot of his profession at Platte River Prairies

Mike shares a few of his findings from the sandhills and the way they simply hold elevating extra questions.

Half 5: From a Mouse’s Level of View

Location: The Derr Sandhills 

That is what Mike notices within the prairie –

These mosaics that Mike factors out are areas of patchwork construction. Some tall grasses with dense thatch, some sparser grass with naked floor beneath it, some naked sandy mounds, pushed up by pocket gophers as they tunnel underground.

Mike is a powerful supporter of seeing from the attitude of his small mammals and encourages others to do the identical. Wanting by way of the eyes of a small mammal, these mosaics could make an enormous distinction. It impacts how straightforward it’s to maneuver, to cover, to remain heat.

Identical to folks, different animals want various kinds of areas. Locations the place they really feel secure, locations they’ll discover meals. And similar to completely different folks have their preferences, so do small mammals. By having numerous habitat throughout our prairies, we are able to be certain extra species have the habitat and construction they like.

Small mammals Talked about: Western Harvest Mouse (Reithrodontomys magalotis), Prairie Vole (Microtus ochrogaster)

In contrast to grasshopper mice, western harvest mice (R. magalotis) are fairly tolerant of their neighbors. Like Mike says, they typically nest above floor, comparable to on the base of clumps of grass.

Prairie voles could be distinguished from the opposite critters Mike captures by their stout snout and brief tails.

Even with a watch to the bottom, small mammals can shock Mike.

Small Mammals Talked about: Plains Pocket Mouse (Perognathus flavescens)

Half 6: Strip Mines and Sandhills

Location: the location Dahms East at Platte River Prairies, the place we use open gate grazing

You would possibly bear in mind this clip from the start of Mike’s interview –

That have continues to form Mike’s perspective throughout his volunteer work at Platte River Prairies and of the worth of his analysis.

In his previous profession, Mike was occupied with how human exercise that drastically modified the panorama, would affect animal species, and what could possibly be achieved to verify these species persevered regardless of these enormous disturbances.

Notes for Context: Mike talks about sage grouse strutting grounds. Also called leks, these are areas the place male grouse collect to carry out for females. They inflate and deflate sacks of air, making a bubble-like sound in an endless show in hopes a hen will select to mate with him. Grouse could be extraordinarily devoted to a lek website, returning to the identical website 12 months after 12 months. Study extra HERE.

Recreating a panorama after mining and watching a prairie after a season of heavy grazing could appear vastly completely different, however the comparability is obvious to Mike. We’re nonetheless altering the panorama and the way we go about doing that impacts which critters will thrive right here.

Notes for Context:

• Chris Helzer: Director of Science and Stewardship for Nebraska TNC. Chris has spent a lot of his profession at Platte River Prairies
• Brome Grass: A genus of grass, lots of that are invasive to Nebraska

On a website that hasn’t seen a lot disturbance within the final a number of years, Mike is worked up to see what the approaching grazing will deliver, though he hopes to keep away from the inconveniences.

Notes for Context: Mike refers to a brand new grazing approach. This method is known as “open gate grazing” and is a manner for us to create that habitat heterogeneity that can enable many various species to thrive right here. You may find out how this grazing system works HERE.

• Cody Miller: Protect supervisor at Platte River Prairies