Crane Wildlife Management Area

The Frances A. Crane Wildlife Management Area in Falmouth, MA is a 2,500 acre property owned by Mass Wildlife that now contains about 400 acres of sandplain grassland. The Crane WMA also contains areas of forest that are now managed as mosaics of tree oaks, shrub oaks, and herbaceous vegetation.

Large areas of the Crane WMA are managed as open sandplain grassland dominated by the warm-season little bluestem grass. These grasslands also contain a high diversity of characteristic sandplain grassland forbs including species of goldenrods (Solidago spp.) and asters (Symphyotrichum spp., Eurybia spp.)

Read this description of how Mass Wildlife has expand the area of sandplain grassland at Crane by mechanical clearing and subsequent mowing, prescribed fire, and management of invasive species. 

Many parts of the Crane WMA are managed as mosaics of scattered oak and pitch pine trees, scrub oak, and herbaceous vegetation such as Pensylvania sedge and other grasses and forbs.