Approximately half of Rauscher Farm consists of former grazing pastures and hay fields. Management of these areas is based on the guidance of an initial survey by Massachusetts Audubon, commissioned by the town of Clinton in 2010, and further guidance for grasslands included in a subsequent Forest Management Plan.
In brief, grassland management practices of town-supervised volunteers and contractors include:
Establishing Walking Trails that give visitors access to explore these areas. Throughout the growing season, weather permitting, volunteers mow walking trails around grassland perimeters every two weeks to provide access while also preserving the central grasslands as habitat for birds, native bees, butterflies, dragon flies, and many other species of large and small animals and insects.
Annual Field Mowing preserves grasslands from reverting to forest. Mowing is done in October, after Monarch and other butterflies, grassland birds, and other seasonal grassland wildlife no longer need the tall-growth habitat.
Monitoring and Managing Invasive Plant Growth, especially at field perimeters. Mowing perimeter walking trails serves a second purpose of preventing field-edge encroachment. As volunteers mow trails with brush cutting machines throughout the growing season, they also mow into adjoining forest edges to clear and control encroaching growth by native plants, such as Poison Ivy and Greenbrier and non-native invasive plants and shrubs such as Multiflora Rose, Buckthorn, Japanese Barberry, and Asian Bittersweet. Over years of field- edge mowing, native plants, such as such as Dogbane, have emerged from the seed bank in the ground beneath removed entanglements of invasive growth.
