The Sandplain Grassland Network (SGN) Steering Committee made a trip on June 3, 2022 to the Albany Pine Bush at a time when the sundial lupines (Lupinus perennis) were blooming and the Karner blue butterflies (Lycaeides melissa samuelis) were flying. Pine Bush Conservation Director Neil Gifford and his staff hosted the visit. Gifford explained the successes the team has had with using repeated fire to create and maintain a mosaic of barrens habitat from closed woodlands to very open mixed scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia) and forb and graminoid dominated mixed shrub-grasslands.

The day before, Mass Wildlife Habitat Program Manager Brian Hawthorne and Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program Prescribed Fire Manager Caren Caljouw guided the group for an afternoon tour of the Montague Plains Wildlife Management Area. Scientists William Patterson, III and Glenn Motzkin, who have worked extensively in the Plains for more than three decades, joined and helped to explain the geological setting and human and natural history of this inland barrens.

Albany Pine Bush Conservation Director Neil Gifford (center right) hosted the Sandplain Grasslands Network Steering Committee on a tour that highlighted the use of fire to manage a mosaic of woodland and shrublands habitats in the 3,350 acre preserve that is ten miles from Albany, NY. Gifford joined the SGN Steering Committee in February 2023.

Evidence of recent fire in creating a shrubland mosaic in the Montague Plains, which lies on an inland delta of Glacial Lake Hitchcock in the Connecticut River Valley town of Montague, Massachusetts.

Written by Chris Neill, Woodwell Climate Research Center