Stop 8: Big Creek Basin

This is a very small site located on a sharp curve, please be aware of your surroundings and passing traffic if you pull off.

What you see in front of you is oak woodland habitat which surrounds glades and is very important to wildlife and wildflowers that reside in Missouri.  Woodlands may have covered a third of Missouri prior to European settlement.  Early explorer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft noted the openness of the woods and the abundant grasses and wildflowers growing under the oaks.

While settlement was progressing throughout the state, trees in woodlands were harvested and in some cases woodlands were converted to land more suitable for agricultural purposes. As settlers moved in, many of the natural occurring fires were extinguished, which allowed overstocking of trees in remaining woodlands.  Big Creek Basin is an area that the Mark Twain National Forest Ava/Cassville/Willow Springs Ranger District is in the process of restoring to a healthy woodland.

Restoring woodland habitat often begins with thinning the existing woodland canopy and reintroducing prescribed fire to restore the once diverse plant community.  Woodlands have evolved with fire and can withstand periodic moderate intensity burns.  Tree ring studies have determined that in southwest Missouri fires historically occurred about every three years.  Current Forest Service management uses this rotation schedule to emulate historic burn cycles.

Other valuable information used to restore woodlands is government land survey records from the 1830s and 1840s.  These are used to generally interpret the composition, dominance, and relative distances between trees as a means of targeting woodland structure.   

Dominant woodland trees are oaks, hickories and walnuts.  Smaller trees that do well in shade like smoke tree, dogwood, and redbud bring color to the Forest after a long winter. Beautiful wildflowers, grass, and sedges cover the ground and begin to emerge in the spring, blooming through late fall. 

Well managed woodlands provide excellent habitat for wildlife. Species commonly associated with woodlands include white-tailed deer, southern flying squirrel, wild turkey, whip-poor-will, scarlet tanager, red-headed woodpecker, Cooper’s hawk, red bat, three-toed box turtle, northern fence lizard, and eastern gray tree frog.

Harder to find critters like eastern collard lizards make their home in glade habitat but woodlands are essential for dispersing individuals to colonialize other glades in close proximity. 

Adding an array of color to the forest floor are lowbush blueberry, aromatic sumac, New Jersey tea, grape, and Virginia creeper. Herbaceous plants include little bluestem, big bluestem, wild hyacinth, orange puccoon, butterfly weed, blazing star, milkweed, bristly sunflower, goldenrods, asters, and a variety of sedges.