Note: Missouri’s plant communities were always shaped by disturbances. These disturbances interacted with complex patterns soil, climate and natural history to create our traditional landscapes.
Some examples of disturbance: Fire, climate extremes, severe weather, disease, predators, and animal grazing.
Also, since the last ice age Native American land management practices often included fire. Essentially our traditional forest, woodlands and prairies have co-evolved with fire as they gradually responded to a warmer climate and reestablished themselves in Missouri.
Traditional Missouri landscape: Forest in a controlled burn area
Fire, as a traditional land management practice, was a disturbance that allowed more light to reach the forest floor, resulting in more diversity.
Traditional Missouri landscape: Forest in a controlled burn area
Forest in a controlled burn area
Even before the introduction of exotic species, land management had suppressed fire in many areas. Fire suppression has caused some native species to dominate to a greater degree than in the past, altering the appearance and diversity of the landscape.
Diverse traditional plant community
Recently introduced invasive exotic species, however, display an overwhelming degree of aggressiveness. Simultaneously, a myriad of introduced horticultural imports are altering our traditional environment well beyond any changes caused by fire suppression. Invasive species infestations severely degrade both burned areas and fire suppressed areas.
Severe Honeysuckle infestation completely covering a creek with thick brush
Many of the images in this website show a traditional Missouri environment where disturbances such as fire have been suppressed. They represent a traditional landscape altered by a non-traditional disturbance regime.
Land managers in recent years have recognized the need to not only to remove invasive species, but also to reintroduce traditional patterns of fire disturbance.
Missouri woodland shaped by fire
Traditional Missouri landscape
Some traditional Missouri Landscapes
Traditionally Missouri has had a wide variety of landscape patterns and conditions
Grasslands and glades transitioned into savannas, woodlands and forests
Also traditional Missouri landscapes can be divided in two categories based on land management practices: fire shaped landscapes and fire suppressed landscapes
Fire suppressed landscape on the left – Fire managed on the right
In the past fire was an important component in the Missouri landscape. Native Americans routinely set fires to remove brush and improve habitats for hunting and gathering
Controlled burn area – Cuivre River State Park
Because of our humid climate and the frequency of the fires, most fires were low intensity and large trees survived the burns
Even a few under-story trees survive in a controlled burn area – Cuivre River State Park
Fire shaped landscapes have been found to have a high degree of plant species diversity
Cuivre River State Park
So when we talk about traditional landscapes, the definition depends which type of tradition is being referred to: A Native American tradition with controlled burns…
Cuivre River State Park
or a European American tradition of fire suppression
Cuivre River State Park – Oak Hickory Forest with a Sugar Maple under-story
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Rock Bridge State Park
Rock Bridge State Park – No Fire & No Honeysuckle (yet!)
Unfortunately, since the time of Columbus, European landscape management has included the unlimited importation of exotic species, regardless of the consequences.
Clogged in Honeysuckle! Why?
Mature Oak/Hickory & Maple forests in Columbia, Missouri before the Honeysuckle invasion has arrived
Notice that you can see all the way to the horizon and the view is clear
Mature Oak Hickory forest
Notice how much of the ground is visible, even within a heavily forested area
Asian Bush Honeysuckle (ABH) is an invasive exotic species that is drastically altering our natural landscape
Infiltrating into our fields, wild lands and forests
ABH seems to thrive in most conditions, although deep shade can slow it down
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Often the only thing that stops it is the mower blade… or pavement!
Jefferson Barracks Park, St. Louis, Missouri.
Asian Bush Honeysuckle (ABH) infestation in Columbia, Missouri
MKT Trail, Columbia Missouri
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A modern walk in the woods
Traditional Missouri Landscapes -Rock Bridge Memorial Park
Rock Bridge Memorial State Park is located in Boone County, Missouri. It is an outstanding example of the natural beauty found in the more rugged parts of the Outer Ozark Border
More specifically, the park is located in the Rockbridge Oak Woodland/Forest Low karst hills (Landtype Association G – white area within the dark green area)
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Unfortunately its location near Columbia, Missouri puts it on the edge of the Asian Bush Honeysuckle invasion
Fortunately, much of the park retains its traditional landscape with pockets of mature Oak Hickory and Maple forests
Within a traditional mature Missouri forest, the canopy keeps the forest floor relatively clear of thick vegetation
In a traditional Missouri woodland, there is a diversity of plants on the forest floor
In a traditional Missouri woodland, the ground is mostly visible and clear
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Areas near streams are often clear of heavy brush and accessible
Without Asian BushHoneysuckle, a variety of details are visible from a distance
Seeing more of the ground
Seeing more of the sky
Even within a cedar grove, the view is clear
The pond is visible and accessible without ABS [Asian Bush Honeysuckle]
Old abandoned fields in Rock Bridge State Park
Since Honeysuckle is only found in scattered locations in Rock Bridge State Park at this time, traditional Missouri landscapes are still available to the visitor
Please consider volunteering to help keep the park clear of Asian Bush Honeysuckle
W
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Thank you for the fabulous pictures reminding us of what a healty forest looks like.
May these picutures inspire people to volunteer to work and eradiicate the invasive species.
Inspiring & alarming at the same time. Hope springs eternal🔥
“Native American tradition with controlled burns” is just as un-natural as fire suppression. They both imply human interference. With increasing CO2 levels, plants grow faster and larger, taking up more CO2. It’s natures way of ‘correcting’ itself. Controlled burns are largely un-necessary, un-natural, and un-desirable….adding more CO2 and contributing to climate change.
It gets complicated doesn’t it? Since the last ice age our forests have burned due to a human influence. They evolved gradually along side humans. Our natural environment here in Missouri is defined this way.
What is happening now is on a whole other level, causing a rapid reconfiguration of habitat and plant and animal communities with in a generation!
In the past fire shaped the landscape, though not completely and not everywhere. I see no possible way, short of a major intervention, that we wont completely degrade our current natural environment in an unprecedented way.
Of course, eventually a new configuration will eventually evolve with all these new species, but it will be drastically different and, I believe, for a long time much less desirable, productive or diverse. Yes nature will correct itself but how much will be lost and what will be the condition of our environment in the meantime?
I use the term “destruction” in the website because it seems obvious that some threshold of disturbance has been breached that can only be described as a degradation of our traditional landscapes and natural communities.
I would much prefer that our big issue was “to burn or not to burn” but instead our impact on the the natural world is on a whole different level.
Thanks for participating in the is blog!
Thanks for curating and posting such an EXCELLENT array of photos of natural and invaded Missouri landscapes. This is a terrific resource that could benefit the Honeysuckle Sweep for Health Habitat, a project of BiodiverseCity STL. Need to know, please the source of this information – and would very much like to talk with the individual responsible.
THANKS – Jean Ponzi, Missouri Botanical Garden
Thank you!!!!! I first noticed St. Louis being overrun by Asian Bush Honeysuckle in the early 90s. I have been making noise about it ever since. The problem with Asian Bush Honeysuckle has only gotten worse… much worse.
I am so glad that more people are starting to react to this ecological disaster right under our noses.
I feel lucky to be old enough to remember walking in St. Louis parks that had forests where you could see the ground under the trees and to the horizon. Now I just hope that we can preserve a few areas of traditional landscapes for future generations.