Restoring native oak woodland in West Des Moines

The community of West Des Moines is coming together to restore native oak woodland at Brown’s Woods, a popular 486-acre nature preserve that sees 178,000 visitors a year. Over 600 native oak trees have been planted across the first 100 acres. The restoration of native oak woodland promises to bring broad ecological benefits to the nature preserve, increasing plant and animal species diversity and reviving a majestic tree notable for its ability to absorb climate-damaging carbon.

Bringing the community together to nurture the environment

Led by Drake University and Polk County Conservation, the Brown’s Woods Restoration and Oak Regeneration project is a joint effort among community leaders, civic partners, the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER), private companies like Microsoft, and local community volunteers, including students. In addition, the team is collaborating with experts at Iowa State University and indigenous communities in the Brown’s Woods area to share knowledge and management expertise.

The public-private partnership is part of a broader collaboration between Microsoft and SER to implement standards-based ecological restoration projects in communities hosting Microsoft datacenters across the world. SER is contributing technical and field support, while Microsoft provided funding for the project through its Community Development Fund as well as local volunteer support by Microsoft datacenter employees. According to SER, the investment by Microsoft has helped to accelerate the Brown’s Woods project from 10 years to 2 years.

Giving the native oak a fighting chance against invasives

Brown’s Woods nature area is under extreme pressure from invasive species and fast-growing shade-tolerant trees alien to the ecology of the area. A dense and understory of shrubs and weedy tree species like hackberry, basswood, silver maple, and black cherry has emerged in Browns Woods. This invasive understory threatens the native oak population by preventing the trees’ regeneration: shaded from the sun, acorns fail to germinate and oak seedlings struggle to get adequate sunlight for growth. Their invasive competitors, meanwhile, thrive in these shady conditions and continue their rapid spread. Left unchecked, the invasive understory will prevail. Without a new generation of oaks growing to replace the older trees, these majestic native trees—and the plant and animal ecosystem that depends on them—will disappear.

In addition to the breakdown of the native ecosystem, the loss of oaks carries an environmental cost. Trees play a crucial role in combating climate change through their ability to capture and store carbon from the atmosphere. The process of carbon sequestration is essential for reducing greenhouse gases in the environment. Oak trees absorb many times more carbon than softer-wood species like the invasive trees gaining ground in Brown’s Woods’ understory. The silver maple tree, for example, stores an average of 0.67 metric tons of carbon dioxide during its lifetime compared to an average oak, which stores about 5.17 metric tons over its lifetime—that’s about 87% less carbon sequestered per tree. (SER)

To combat the destructive spread of invasives, the Brown’s Woods Restoration and Oak Regeneration project is taking the following restorative actions:

• Removing invasive shrubs and trees to increase the amount of sunlight that reaches the forest floor and encourages oak seedlings to germinate, survive, and grow.
• Planting native understory and mid-story trees and shrubs, including oak saplings, with the help of community volunteers.
• Restoring historic controlled burn practices to prevent the regrowth of invasive plant species.

In total, the project aims to restore 100 acres of oak forest. The restored forest will in turn boost native plant and animal species diversity. According to scientists leading the project, Brown’s Woods has the potential to “go from an area with 150 to 200 species to one that sustains 300 or more species, including 3 to 4 endangered bat species.” The regeneration of oak species will also lead to a net increase in the carbon stored. To track the carbon benefit over time, Drake University students are putting in place pre-regeneration and post-regeneration carbon budgets for the site.

Beyond the ecological benefits, the oak restoration project at Brown’s Woods is already growing community and connecting people to their environment. Volunteer planting events allow community members to learn about the forest and participate directly in stewardship of the land. Field trips to the site for high school students teach youth about ecological restoration, forestry, and plant identification. The Brown’s Wood oak forest restoration is a living demonstration of how people can come together to create a more sustainable future.

Microsoft is proud to collaborate with the Society for Ecological Restoration to deliver standards-based ecological restoration with the Drake University and Polk County Conservation in West Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa. Learn more here.