Lion's foot (Prenanthes alba) is a nice savanna species that pops up in unpredictable places. Other common names are white lettuce, or rattlesnake root. It is monocarpic, which means that…

It is a little late in the season, but any one doing restoration work will find useful the Weed Garden at the UW Experiment Station at Arlington, Wisconsin. I usually…

The spring burn that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service carried out on the wetland in our area (only part of which is owned by Pleasant Valley Conservancy) had dramatic…

With kind support of Madison Audubon Society, we have set up 11 bluebird houses. Kathie has been monitoring them carefully and has just compiled her report for the year.Bluebirds occupied…

Yesterday we had a unique group of visitors from the UW-Madison Botany Department. It was a delight to have such a knowledgeable group visiting Pleasant Valley Conservancy. I did not…

For some years now we have been hearing about the good work that Sibylla and Bob Brown have been doing restoring Timberhill Savanna in southcentral Iowa. We hope someday to…

Yesterday, Kathie and I visited Nachusa Grasslands, a major prairie restoration site of the Nature Conservancy (TNC) in northern Illinois. This was an open house for resource managers in Wisconsin…

Driving in rural Dane County west of Verona, Kathie and I were stunned to see several old fields that were being taken over by sumac. The photo here shows a…

As those following these posts know, we have been battling buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) for many years. In the early years, we eradicated lots of large buckthorn shrubs (really small trees)…

Last Thursday (8/19) we had a nice visit from a class of students from Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, near Spring Green, Wisconsin. This was a class…