MO-Rocky+Barrens+Conservation+Area


 * =Birding in Missouri=

Greene County
=Rocky Barrens Conservation Area= Willard, Missouri 65781 Rocky Barrens Conservation Area Website Rocky Barrens Conservation Area Map Rocky Barrens Conservation Area Brochure

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Rocky Barrens CA
Coordinates: 37.3134806, -93.4047056 eBird links: Hotspot map View details Recent visits My eBird links: Location life list Submit data

About Rocky Barrens Conservation Area
East of Willard on Route O, then north on Farm Road 105.

This area contains forest, glades, and old fields. This 281-acre area in Greene County is located within the boundaries of the largest Mississippian limestone glade ecosystem in the region. The limestone glade community is characterized by thin, rapidly drained soils, interspersed with rock fragments and dissected by horizontal layers of exposed limestone bedrock. Dry conditions prevail during summer and fall, but extended wet periods occur during winter and spring.

In March 1835, Elias Barcroft, surveying the Rocky Barrens area for the U.S. Government described it as "...very hilly and broken almost naked hills covered with ledges of limestone rocks and also loose falt limestone flint and gravel."

One hundred and fifty years of settlement and changing agricultural practices have changed the region drastically. "Naked hills" are now covered with dense growth of cedars and other trees.

Aggressive non-native plants, including fescue, musk thistle and brome grass, are replacing native plants. Actual glades are now in small isolated areas.

This area was purchased specifically for the protection restoration and management of a small mustard plant called Missouri bladder-pod (Physaria filiformis). The plant, which is on both state and federal endangered species lists, is found only in four counties in southwest Missouri.

The glade system here contains sufficient diversity of characteristic glade plants to allow restoration of that natural community. There is no permanent water on the tract, but several intermittent wet-weather springs produce some flow during periods of heavy rainfall.

Management practices, including prescribed burns and cedar tree removal, are underway on the area to expand and protect this population of bladder-pods. The area is also used as a laboratory for research on this rare plant. From Rocky Barrens Conservation Area Website

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