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Photo of the Week – June 17, 2011
I just returned from a trip to The Nature Conservancy’s Broken Kettle Grasslands in Iowa. Scott Moats, who has managed the preserve for 15 years, is one of my favorite people to work with. His...
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Are Botanists Ruining Prairies?
No, I’m not saying they do. I’m merely conducting a thought exercise, and inviting you to come along for the ride. …No, really – some of my best friends are botanists! And I’m pretty sure they...
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Report from the 2011 Grassland Restoration Network – Part 2: Grassland Birds
The Grassland Restoration Network’s 2011 annual meeting was at The Nature Conservancy’s Kankakee Sands prairie/wetland restoration site in Indiana. This year, we focused more than usual on creating...
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Grandpa’s “Accidental” Prairie Restoration Project
In the late 1950’s, my grandfather bought a quarter section of farmland just southwest of Stockham, Nebraska. At the time, all but about 26 acres of that 160 acre land parcel was in row crops. The...
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Sweet Clover: Ugly but Harmless? Or Dangerous Invasive Species?
Why is sweet clover the target of aggressive control by some prairie managers and largely ignored by others? After talking to a number of people across the Midwest and Great Plains, I think there are...
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Looking for Ecological Impacts? Urine Luck!
I came across a copy of one of my all-time favorite research articles the other day. The paper tells a great story about the kinds of complex interactions that occur between the biotic and abiotic...
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Sunflowers: Staring Me Right in the Face
It’s awfully frustrating when I fail to solve a puzzle - especially when all the information I need is right in front of me. As an ecologist, I’m supposed to be good at this sort of thing....
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Dealing With a Pervasive Invasive – Kentucky Bluegrass in Prairies
Many of the prairies we manage have pretty degraded plant communities, characterized by low plant diversity and dominance by a few grass species – including the invasive Kentucky bluegrass (Poa...
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Lessons From a Project to Improve Prairie Quality – Part 1: Patch-Burn...
We recently completed a large multi-year restoration and management project at our Platte River Prairies. Our specific objectives were to improve habitat quality for various at-risk prairie species...
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Photo of the Week – June 14, 2013
This was an interesting week for observations. Here are some of the things I saw and learned. Our burn from last week is greening up nicely. This photo was taken one week after the burn. We’re...
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Prairie Response to Grazing and Drought
Fire, grazing, and drought are the three dominant forces that shape(d) our prairies over time. Because of the drought we experienced last year, many of our prairies experienced all three of those...
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Sunflowers!
The emotional response you have to this photo will say a lot about your background, experience, and cultural influences. A profusion of annual sunflowers (Helianthus petiolaris) in sandhill prairie at...
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Hubbard Fellowship Blog – Last Day for the Cattle
A guest post by Anne Stine, one of our Hubbard Fellows. (All photos are by Anne) Today (Oct. 1, 2013) the lessee came and got his cattle, as per our agreement. I’ll miss them. It is with some sadness...
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The Kind of Conferences I Learn Best From
Last week, Eliza wrote a nice post about the value of professional conferences, and how much she’s learned by attending several of them during her time as a Hubbard Fellow. It’s great to know that...
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My Own Prairie, For What It’s Worth
A couple years ago, I wrote about the history of our family’s prairie. The prairie is about 110 acres (within a 160 acre farm) and is only a ten minute drive from my house. Most of it was farmed...
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Embracing Unpredictability in Prairie Management
Much of what determines the outcome of prairie management treatments is out of our control. Sure, we can decide when to burn a prairie or set the timing and stocking rate for grazing treatments, but...
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Bison Good, Cattle Bad??
Among some prairie enthusiasts, there seems to be a perception that plains bison are magical creatures that live in complete harmony with the prairie. They eat grasses but not wildflowers, they float...
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Just When I Think I’ve Got Something Figured Out…
I pay close attention as I walk through prairies. I watch for tracks to see what animals are around and I notice which flowers are blooming and which insects are feeding on them. Often, I notice...
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Photo of the Week – March 13, 2014
Here are two photos that caught my attention as I was going through timelapse imagery the other day… In my last post, I showed some timelapse photos from a fenceline at The Nature Conservancy’s...
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Patches of Fire and Habitat
It’s been a difficult year for conducting prescribed fires so far – the wind seems to be blowing even harder and more consistently than in recent memory. And that’s saying something, living in the...
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