The term "wolf tree" is often used by foresters to indicate ancient open-grown "relic" oaks that have survived in degraded oak savannas. Open-grown oaks are "indicators" of former oak savannas…

There are three fire consortiums (funded by USFS) that offer educational programs (mainly webinars) of interest to Midwest restoration ecologists. The recentwebinar presented by Greg Nowacki dealing with oak ecosystems…

A recent blog post from Chicago about protecting hazel from fire and deer browse brings me to a further discussion of this widespread shrub. Hazel (Corylus americana) is one of…

We were blessed with unusually good weather and 12 people turned up for our December work party. We were delighted especially to have three UW Madison undergraduates who found us…

Yesterday I had an unusual opportunity to see and photograph the downed timber present in our North Woods. There had been a light snow the day before, followed by a…

I have just posted on the Pleasant Valley Conservancy website a new Power Point presentation (converted to PDF), that provides an overview and brief history of PVC. You can access…

This is the time of year when white indigo (Baptisia alba) seed stalks break off and blow away. They act like "tumbleweeds", getting blown across the prairie. The seeds of…

This is the time of year to be thinking about spring burns. We have been burning at Pleasant Valley Conservancy for almost 20 years now, and the program set out…

This post is based on thoughts arising from an extensive blog post of Steve Packard's, which can be found at this link. "Our true natural areas are often tiny remnants…

The new Monarch butterfly initiative of the NRCS is focusing extensively on milkweeds. Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweeds, where their caterpillars grow and pupate. Three species of milkweeds seem…