One of the reasons Pleasant Valley Conservancy (PVC) is so scenic is because it is in the "heart" of southern Wisconsin's famous Driftless Area. The rugged hills exist in our…

By late October most of the native species have either turned color or lost their leaves. Anything green now is almost certainly nonnative (bad). This is a great time to…

Upland boneset (Eupatorium sessilifolium) is a Special Concern species in Wisconsin and Threatened in Michigan. As the Wisconsin State Herbarium map shows, it has a narrow distribution in the southern…

This is the time of year when all restorationists are seeding red! This is the best time to seek out invasive shrubs that can potentially cause trouble in a restoration…

I have posted on Canada goldenrod eradication in the past.  My method was a leaf spritz with a low-volume high-concentration of Garlon 4 herbicide diluted in bark oil. [One part…

In the Driftless Area there are many rock outcrops on which plants appear to be "struggling" for survival. If such an area is fairly large it might be called a…

Those following these posts are aware that we have been working hard to completely eliminate sumac from the natural areas Kathie and I manage. Some of the details can be…

We have always had swamp thistle (Cirsium muticum) in our wetland, but this year it is particularly prolific in the part of the wetland we burned this April. The C…

Milkweed bugs feeding on a common milkweed pod The milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus) is specialized for feeding on milkweeds. The principal food of this bug is the milkweed seed, although…

Purple milkweed is one of our signature plants at Pleasant Valley Conservancy, and Kathie and I have been monitoring it since 1999. Originally, only a single purple milkweed patch arose…