Sedges often remain a mystery for many of us. This year, the Prairie Bluff chapter of The Prairie Enthusiasts had an outing at Abraham’s Woods for the purpose of learning how to ID sedges. This morning workshop was lead by Nate Gingerich and John Larson. [Read more…] about How to ID Sedges
Blog
Think Like a Seed
Our management plan is simple: remove the invasives and increase diversity. One way we increase diversity is by propagating plants and planting them into various areas. How many we plant out in a year varies. It depends on my success rate at getting the native seed to germinate and then how many plants survived the overwintering process. Every year is different. [Read more…] about Think Like a Seed
Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea maculosa)
One section of our land has a large infestation of Spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa). Much like I handled the research for the cool season grass and bindweeds, I did the same with this. Hopefully, this will help others who have problems with this invasive. [Read more…] about Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea maculosa)
Bindweeds
We have discovered two types of bindweed in our plantings – Field bindweed (Convolvus arvensis) and Hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium). This isn’t good news when some researchers have called Field bindweed the 12th and the 10th “worst weed in the world”. (Pfirter, Mitich) Field bindweed has the status of a serious weed in 14 countries and a problem weed in 19 countries. Both plants have the ability to vine up other plants as they grow; making it difficult to control without collateral damage. [Read more…] about Bindweeds
Monitoring and Management—a sensible pairing
This article was written by Beth Goeppinger, WI DNR Naturalist at Richard Bong State Recreation Area. It demonstrates how important monitoring is to our management practices. [Read more…] about Monitoring and Management—a sensible pairing
Bats in Wisconsin
“Bats are important to almost every ecosystem on the planet. They act as natural pest control eating not only human pests but also forestry and agricultural pests, as well as seed dispersers and pollinators for foods we eat every day. In Wisconsin alone, bats provide an estimated $658 million every year in pest suppression services.” [Read more…] about Bats in Wisconsin
Animal, Mineral or Fungi?
What an interesting question to be asking. Well…I was inspired by this beautiful fungus with a horrible name…slime mold.
Going “au naturale”
What is ecological restoration? Some define it as returning the land to pre-settlement conditions, which in Wisconsin is pre-1830. Some define it as unnecessary work because they believe that “nature knows best” and to just let “nature take its course.” If we are to preserve the biodiversity that remains on our planet, we need to expand our definition beyond these archaic and fantastical notions. Perhaps a better definition would be creating habitat that is useable and functional so that a diversity of biota are able to thrive. [Read more…] about Going “au naturale”
Savanna Prairie Planting
Whew!! It’s been 2 years of preparing and planning but the last 12 acres were finally planted on Dec 13, 2014!! This is our third and last planting for the Driftless Prairies! We had hoped this one would go smoothly since the other two did not, but our record remained and we had plenty of stress! [Read more…] about Savanna Prairie Planting
Bio Blitz-ing
I attended my first insect bio blitz last Saturday (26 Jul 2014) at the Erickson Wetlands in Argyle, WI. The Driftless Area Land Conservancy (DALC) is responsible for this fabulous new land legacy which encompasses 220-acres of diverse habitat which contains multiple sloughs and oxbow lakes and over a mile of Pecatonica River frontage. [Read more…] about Bio Blitz-ing
