We have a 125 acre homestead in southern Missouri's Ozarks. Approximately 5 acres is
pond, another 20ish is old and poorly maintained pasture (lots of not-grasses, only managed by
cattle and horses), and than the remaining 100 acres is approximately 20 year old forest, the
land had a very intensive harvest in the early 00s, which left mostly young
trees and unmarketable trees behind. I've started working with the MO conservation department to get into a few programs for restoring the woods to health and restoring them to savanna -- which is what all of the Ozarks used to be prior to the late 1800s when the demand for
wood to fuel the railroad stripped the land bare. We also have a few acres of glade spread out through the property -- including a very low producing pasture we call the "crap pasture".
My goals for the pasture land is to create seasonal pastures that have all-year forage for our herds (perhaps not the horses, they're snowflakes), and to create savanna that is hyper-productive. For pastures my vision is to select large shrubs and trees that are very hardy and tolerant of having
roots stepped on as well as being grazed over. I'd like to plant these species on the edges of the pastures and then also in the middle of the pasture, essentially creating a "doughnut" of grasses between the trees. In the winter pasture(s) I might lean heavily onto non-grass forage, likewise with the late-summer pastures when we get our season drought time.
My goal for the wooded area is largely to restore it to savanna, which will help promote wildlife, particularly this will help the wild turkey populations which are in decline for a variety of reasons. A savanna is a wooded area that has a heavy herbaceous undergrowth and approximately 10 to 30 percent tree cover. Much of the Ozark savanna is traditional eastern pines, oaks, and hickory. I would like to select foods for this biome that are hardy
enough to withstand
deer, occasional grazing from goats/sheep/pigs, and are generally valuable for human consumption.
Honestly, for the glades, I just want to have some level of productivity. Glades are fairly rocky, often with exposed bedrock. Soil is pretty limited in these areas. Trees are generally stunted and there is little herbaceous growth. I'm sure I could just let some blackberries and dew berries run wild here, but I'd like to maintain some of the glade's natural charm if I can.
A bonus for plants in all these areas is if they are fire tolerant. We use fire very frequently out here for maintaining land, the
native species are all very tolerant of and even dependent upon (like eastern pine) fire. It's a great means of controlling parasites as well and helping the herbaceous undergrowth to get a chance to grow through the leaf mould.
Any one doing something similar or have some resources on this sort of area? We have one or two acres right in the vicinity of our home where we plan to put up a more "normal" food forest, but these ones are a bit trickier for me to come up with good plantings for.
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