10/13/2026
Have you recently visited Small’s Nature Preserve or Sibleyville Nature Reserve and noticed some large areas of grass being mowed? Last week, our volunteers began our annual fall grassland management efforts, but you might ask...
"Why mow areas that we’re trying to preserve?!"
Simply put, grassland birds (like Meadowlarks and some Sparrow species) are experiencing significant population declines across the country, largely due to habitat loss. By maintaining these open spaces, we’re doing our part to protect these increasingly scarce and unique habitat types right here in our community!
At Small’s Nature Preserve, this is the first year in nearly a decade that we’ve done targeted brush hogging. The goal of this property is to create a diverse mix of wildflowers, shrubs, mature trees, AND grasslands to provide a variety of habitats for our local wildlife.
In contrast, At Sibleyville Nature Reserve, we’ve maintained grasslands through rotational mowing for more than 20 years. These efforts began in part through a partnership with the NYS DEC's Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP). Under a 10-year conservation easement, we established a mowing schedule that we continue today, mowing one-third of the grasslands each fall to maintain valuable warm-season grass habitat.
Conservation isn’t always about leaving nature untouched, sometimes it means working to intentionally preserve the diversity that makes these places special.
