Restoration of Oak Woodlands at Spring Fork Lake Under Way

Over the course of five days, three members of the City of Sedalia Public Works Operations crew worked to remove invasive and overgrown vegetation that had crowded out native plant growth over 22 acres at Spring Fork Lake as part of a targeted habitat restoration effort.

Diseased trees were removed as well at the lake, located 19 miles south of Sedalia.

The debris was ground down to a fine mulch, according to Public Works Operations manager Justin Bray. He along with Nick Smith and Harley Norton did all the work over five days. Only two were on site at a time, Bray noted.

That is just the start of the project, which is being done in partnership with the Missouri Department of Conservation. The City and MDC have the shared goal of restoring the area to a healthier, more natural oak woodland ecosystem.

According to Mary Lass, Missouri Department of Conservation, the underbrush removal is just the first step in a carefully planned, multi-year restoration process.

Once the site has had time to stabilize, a prescribed burn is planned approximately one year from now. Controlled burns are a proven conservation tool used throughout Missouri to restore native landscapes, she said.

Prescribed fire plays a critical role in oak woodland health. The burn will help:

*Return nutrients to the soil

*Reduce invasive and competing plant species

*Stimulate dormant native seeds

*Encourage stronger, more diverse native plant growth

Spring Fork will be closed during prescribed burns, Bray noted, adding that the City of Sedalia will put out a PSA prior to the burn to let area residents know it’s a controlled burn.

Bray also noted that he sees a lot of wildlife at Spring Fork Lake.

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This natural process mirrors how Missouri’s oak woodlands historically maintained themselves before modern development interrupted fire cycles. By reintroducing these conditions in a controlled, professional manner, land managers can help native species thrive while improving long-term forest health.

The partnership highlights the value of collaboration between local government and state conservation experts, according to a facebook post by the City.

“Public Works crews provide the labor, local knowledge, and ongoing maintenance support, while the Missouri Department of Conservation offers ecological expertise, long-term planning, and science-based guidance. Together, this ensures the work is done safely, responsibly, and with lasting results,” the post said.

“Projects like this not only improve the environmental health of Spring Fork Lake but also enhance wildlife habitat, support biodiversity, and preserve natural spaces for future generations to enjoy,” the City of Sedalia said.

On Friday morning, Bray, along with equipment operator Nick Smith, met with Lass to discuss the progress that has been made so far, and to plan for the future to utilize the 450-acre property (including the lake) to its full potential.

The City will help with its equipment for forestry mulching management.

MDC will perform the bulk of maintaining the lake, and also spray for invasive weeds, and look after the fish habitat.

“Our plan is to make it all the way around the lake, eventually,” Bray told KSIS.

MDC Foresty Assistant Lass explained that “historically, what you see in this region of Missouri is a complex of prairies and woodlands. And woodlands is a middle point gradient between a prairie and a forest. (Prairies = no trees, forest = lots of trees). But as we know, Missouri was shaped by a lot of fire ecology and that changed the way that different habitats have different structures. So, in areas that burn more and have more fire, there will be less trees and a more spread-out structure of those trees,” she said.

“Our main goal at this site is to open it up for pollinators and turkey and deer … it’s rare to find a good intact woodland that‘s being managed, because if you don’t manage it, if you don’t keep fire on the landscape, it’ll return to a dense forest cover situation. And that is good for some species, but to be able to have the highest amount of diversity, it’s good to have woodlands and prairies and forest all together on the same site. And that’s kind of what we see here, because on the other side of the lake, I consider that more of a forest. But if you keep going, we’ve got Paint Brush Prairie,” Lass noted.

“So just thinking of landscape management, we’ve got a lot of really high-quality habitats right next to each other that offer a lot of choices for wildlife species to use,” Lass said.

She added that a long-range forestry management plan has been drawn up by herself, along with David Mann and Jake Willard that spans the next 10 years for the area.

The plan basically give a timeline for when restoration activities will be happening over the next 10 years to get Spring Fork in the condition the MDC is wanting to see.

The long range plan makes sense “because trees are a very long-lived species. It’s kind of hard for us as humans to work with the same schedule that nature does. But in terms of forestry, you kind of have to think pretty far into the future,” Lass concluded.