FWS and Agriculture staff discuss grazing on the Zillmer Prairie. - FWS photo

Staff tour Zillmer Prairie after grazing treatment. - FWS photo

Zillmer prairie after grazing treatment. - FWS photo

2007 marks the second year of a cooperative habitat management project to benefit the Zillmer WMA/Zillmer Prairie WPA in Clay County, Minnesota.

Partners in this effort include: the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA, and an adjoining private livestock producer. 

The Detroit Lakes Wetland Management District is working with the partners to restore and actively manage approximately 630 acres of prairie in the Red River Prairie subsection of Minnesota.

Owners of lands in this location are a combination of federal, state, and private lands.

The Zillmer Prairie Wildlife Management Area is located along the Felton Prairie beach ridge, an area that encompasses, dry, wet and mesic prairies.  The Zillmer WMA was transferred from Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) to United States Fish And Wildlife Service in October, 1990. 

The property was then quit-claim deeded to MN DNR in November, 1991 with the Service as “easement manager” for the tract. 

The Zillmer Prairie WPA is a 12-acre tract adjoining the State WMA   Initially, the Service worked cooperatively with the DNR to reclaim the wetland and prairie habitats on this property that had previously been destroyed when the property was in private ownership and being used as a gravel mining operation. 

In 2006, the DNR fenced both the Zillmer WMA and adjoining WPA to facilitate the use of managed grazing on these units.  Grazing prescriptions have been targeted to decrease introduced cool season grasses, and promote the native grass community.   

Cattle are being rotated on to the federal/state lands to provide these benefits, while at the same time, rested pastures on the adjoining private lands are being managed with prescribed fire through the MN DNR landowner incentive program for prairie species at risk.

Cooperative tree removal, invasive species control, and prairie restoration efforts are ongoing.  This area has numerous species identified as rare, or as species in greatest conservation need: