Restoration
Restoration
Our Restoration Work
We work to restore native plant communities on the Clifton Institute’s 900 acres, and we advise private land owners and government agencies on how to restore the lands they manage. By eliminating non-native plants and planting native species, we rebuild degraded habitats which allows declining plants and animals to recover and thrive. We use our research on native plant communities and declining birds to guide our restoration work and the advice we give. We continue to refine our methods and advice based on the results we observe at the Clifton Institute and at participating properties around the region.
Our grasslands on the left and our shrublands on the right.
Prioritizing Land Management to Help Declining Species
The Clifton Institute’s 900-acre property is half fields of different successional stages and half forests. Our priority species, all of which are either declining or listed as rare, are as follows:
- Grasslands: Eastern Meadowlark, Grasshopper Sparrow, American Kestrel, Swarthy Skipper, Elliott’s Bluestem, and Pasture Thistle.
- Shrublands: Field Sparrow, American Woodcock, Yellow-breasted Chat, Prairie Warbler, Box Turtle, Hoary Edge, Coral Hairstreak, Synanthedon richardsi (a clearwing moth), and Southern Crabapple
- Forests: Kentucky Warbler, Wood Thrush, Jefferson Salamander, Climbing Milkvine, Prickly Gooseberry, and Bashful Bullrush
Our overall goal is to maintain high quality examples of each successional stage and forest type found on the property. We do this by controlling non-native plants, implementing appropriate disturbance (burning, mowing, grazing, and mechanical removal of invasive shrubs), and planting native plants that we grow ourselves.
As valuable as our 900-acres are for these declining species, the property is even more valuable as a demonstration of best practices for grassland, shrubland, and forest management.
Restoration Actions
There is no land management silver bullet. Each method has pros and cons:
- We use prescribed fire because native grasslands in our region were maintained historically partly by fire. So, many native plants benefit from burns, but some non-natives do as well.
- Cattle have some negative effects on the landscape, even when they are managed well. But our native grasslands are adapted to bison grazing, and some declining species such as American Kestrels and Grasshopper Sparrows select cattle pastures above all other habitats.
- We minimize the use of herbicides whenever possible, we are testing the effectiveness of different organic alternatives, and we present all management options to landowners. But organic alternatives such as discing and solarizing with plastic also have significant downsides (carbon release and killing soil microbes), so the choice of method is not clear cut. Some invasive plants that we are fighting (e.g. Chinese Lespdeza) cannot be controlled at scale with organic methods. Finally, the costs of organic methods make them inaccessible to some landowners.
Prescribed burn in our shrublands in early 2019
Local-ecotype Plant Propagation
Separate from the Virginia Native Seed Project, we propagate native plants to distribute to landowners and to use in our restoration projects and gardens. Each year we collect seeds of 70+ species of native plants. We store seeds for native meadow plantings and we grow seedlings; each year we sell around 1,500 plants. We focus our propagation efforts on herbaceous perennials and grasses and shrubs with an emphasis on species that are not available from commercial seed sellers.
Volunteers help to clean seeds for our native plant propagation program.
Our Gardens
Thanks to the generous support of the Warrenton Garden Club, we were able to install a native plant garden at the farm house in the fall of 2018. The garden serves as habitat for native animals and it allows us to teach visitors about the value of native plants right off of our front porch. Most programs at Clifton start at the farm house so the garden engages visitors as soon as they arrive. We also have a garden that is made up of 100% local-ecotype plants are native to Fauquier County grasslands.
Summer campers learn about the plants in our native plant garden
Get Involved
We are always looking for volunteers to help with our restoration work. We rely on generous people to help us with control of non-native plants, propagating plants, and maintaining our gardens. If you’re interested in helping out, you can find upcoming volunteer days on our calendar. Thank you!
Volunteers help remove invasive Multiflora Rose from around our vernal pools.
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