Why are trees cut on WPAs?
Many species of wildlife including bobolinks, meadowlarks, Henslow’s sparrows, mallards, and blue winged teal need large blocks of grassland habitat to nest and reproduce successfully. Trees provide habitat in the form of cover, nesting and perching sites for predators that were originally not found on the prairie, such as raccoons, red-tailed hawks and great horned owls. These predators are especially adapted to prey on grassland birds and their nests. Recent studies have shown that the nests of grassland birds are three times more likely to be destroyed by predators if they are within 60 meters of a tree. Large areas of St. Croix, southern Polk county and portions of Dunn County were originally native prairie and very few trees except in scattered stands of oak savanna. Restoration of small areas of this treeless landscape will benefit many species of grassland dependent wildlife.
