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Mossy Glen Preserve research project

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Fall hikers visiting Mossy Glen State Preserve will enjoy colorful blue asters and yellow goldenrod species. Autumn is also a good time to look for Dutchman's Pipe – white flowering plants that survive by parasitizing soil fungi. (Photo submitted)

By Caroline Rosacker

Research biologist Dr. William Norris, Professor of Biology at Western New Mexico University in Silver City N.M., has spent the last 26 years conducting a research project at Mossy Glen State Preserve, an 80-acre paradise located six miles northwest of Edgewood in Clayton County. 

The nature reserve features a rugged forested area along the Silurian Escarpment. In 1978, the area was donated to the Iowa Conservation Commission by Mildred Hatch in memory of her father, Charles A. Hesner, and her uncle, Henry Hesner. In 1979, the area was dedicated as a biological and geological state preserve.

Dr. Norris was educated at Lake Superior State College, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., earning a Bachelor of Science degree in biology, and Iowa State University earning a Masters and PhD in botany – connecting the dots to his interest in northeast Iowa. "With immediate family in Michigan, Wisconsin and Missouri, I return to the Midwest almost every year to visit them and to work on this and several other ongoing research projects in central and northeast Iowa," said Norris. "In addition, I conducted my graduate research, a study of bird communities in northeast Iowa forests, between 1994 and 1996. I have continued several research projects in several of these forests through the present, including a study of the flora of Mossy Glen State Preserve."

Mossy Glen diversity

Mossy Glen's uniqueness inspired a deeper interest. "I chose to do a botanical inventory of Mossy Glen because of its high diversity of native plant species, and also because it protects a remnant of native forest vegetation," noted Norris. "I have visited the preserve almost every year since 1994, with the exception of 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions."

"Mossy Glen is special because of its deep, rugged topography which provides habitat for a variety of native plant species with different habitat requirements such as forested ridgetop, tree-covered slopes, bottomland forest, streamside plants, etc.," he listed. "A perennial, spring-fed creek runs through the length of the preserve, which attracts a variety of birds, mammals and insects – including yellow jackets, with which I had a brief painful encounter in July. It is also a favorite destination for mushroom hunters."

His in-depth research will prove to be invaluable to future generations, including scientists studying the long-term effects of climate change on forest vegetation.  "For this study, I have walked across all corners of Mossy Glen and regions in between to visit all the various habitat types in the preserve at different times of year," reported Norris. "I collect at least one plant specimen of each plant species that I encounter that has a population of at least ten plants, taking a photograph of the plant if there are less than 10 plants in the population. These specimens will eventually find their way into the Ada Hayden Herbarium at Iowa State University. Eventually, if I also record the habitat(s) in which I find each plant species in my field book. The results of the study will be published in a scientific paper available to future botanists interested in the Mossy Glen flora."

Continuous seasonal beauty

Each season offers visitors to the area a diverse selection of plant species. "I have learned that Mossy Glen has approximately 330 plant species within its boundaries. The flora is composed of greater than 85% percent native plant species," commented Norris. "In the spring, one encounters hepatica, spring beauty, Dutchman's breeches, Squirrel Corn, False Meadow Rue, Toothwort, and dogtooth violet. By mid-summer, these have given way to dozens of other native wildflower species including wood mint, germander, green-headed coneflower, touch-me-not and columbine to list just a few. By fall, colorful blue aster and yellow goldenrod species become the most conspicuous wildflowers at Mossy Glen. Autumn is also a good time to look for Dutchman's Pipe – white flowering plants that survive by parasitizing soil fungi."

Multiple fern species have also taken up residence in the vast green-space. "Mossy Glen has a particularly high diversity of fern species. For example – Bulblet Fern, Woodland Fragile Fern, Lady Fern, Maiden-Hair Fern, Goldie's Fern, Silvery Glade Fern, Slender Cliffbrake, Broad-Beech Fern and Rattlesnake Fern," said Dr. Norris. "'Fern Glen' or 'Fern Hollow' would have been an appropriate names for this preserve. But, Mossy Glen it is  – and there are plenty of mosses in the preserve!"

Invasive species

In addition, invasive species are crowding into the pristine area. "The Mossy Glen flora is not entirely natural," he told The Press. "Non-native garlic mustard is firmly established in the herbaceous flora here as it is in most other northeast Iowa forest preserves and parks. Stream-side vegetation includes non-native reed canary grass, which is invasive in wetlands statewide, and many agricultural weed species such as sweet clover, bull thistle, alfalfa, velvet leaf, common mullein, motherwort and many others that have washed in from the surrounding crop fields."

Welcome change

Dr. Norris has been a resident of southwest New Mexico, often referred to as "The Land of Enchantment," for the past 20 years. He has greatly enjoyed teaching his university students about the plants and birds within the 3.3 million acre Gila National Forest that is surrounded by open rangeland and Chihuahuan Desert. "Southwest New Mexico is a very different landscape than Iowa for sure," he pointed out. "There are plenty of plants – cacti, yucca, agave, juniper, pinon pine, Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, depending on where you are, but the underlying background in almost all of the above habitats is brown, whether it's the pine-needle covered floor of a Ponderosa Pine forest, or brown soil trampled by cattle in rangeland habitat."

Mossy Glen offers a welcome change. "When I visit Mossy Glen once or twice a year to conduct field work for this study, I am initially overwhelmed and invigorated by the dense, almost blinding emerald-green vegetation which is easy to take for granted when you live in Iowa," he remarked. "While walking through forests in the preserve, I literally can not see my feet because they are immersed in dense green vegetation. I always make a point to walk slowly so that I don't trip over numerous downed logs. So much green! I took it for granted when I lived in Iowa in the 1990s, but I don't now!"

Birdwatcher's paradise

A wide variety of feathered-friends also inhabit the state preserve. "Mossy Glen is also a mecca for bird life. During one morning there in mid-June of this year, I watched a Louisiana waterthrush flitting around a moist vertical rock wall while a pileated woodpecker pounded on a dead tree trunk above the cliff, the sound muffled by gurgling water of the stream," he shared, "I recall that on this particular morning it was cool within the deep canyon of this preserve, but when I walked out at noon and hiked up a farm lane providing passage through surrounding green crop fields to my car, I was  immediately greeted by stifling heat and humidity. It was as if I had passed from one world to another!"

Spooky spectre

Circulating Mossy Glen ghosts stories add to the allure of the remote area. Ghosts Pearl Shine, who was convicted of killing her husband to acquire his possessions and farm for herself and her lover; Lucinda, a beautiful young woman living in a secluded cottage who took her own life when her beloved did not return her feelings, and a gentleman peddler who was ambushed and beaten to death by locals while passing through the area, are all reputed to inhabit the area. "Mossy Glen is known for its ghosts, but I have yet to encounter one, but I am always on the lookout!" he said. 

Group collaboration

Dr. Norris has spent many hours throughout the years at Mossy Glen working alongside fellow Iowa botanists, William "Bill" Watson - Botanical Consultant; John Pearson - Ecologist, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and Deborah Q. Lewis - Curator, Ada Hayden Herbarium, Iowa State University, who share his enthusiasm for the preserve. "I am especially grateful for the hospitality and friendship extended by Scott Gritters, Kevin Hanson and Karen Osterkamp, past and present caretakers of the Guttenberg Fish Hatchery, who over the past two decades have facilitated my use of the bunkhouse (above the aquarium) as headquarters for this study of the Mossy Glen flora," said Norris with gratitude. "I have learned and greatly appreciate that Scott, Kevin and Karen are as enthusiastic and passionate about fish, biology, conservation, education, sport fishing, etc. – as my colleagues and I are about plants.

"I can not wait to return to Mossy Glen and Guttenberg next spring and summer to continue and wrap up this fascinating study," he concluded.

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