This is the third summer that Pleasant Valley Conservancy has hosted the UW Madison Biocore Summer Science Camp. This project, centered on the Wisconsin Heights Schools, has the goal of…

Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis) is now at peak flowering. This intensely blue flower is very attractive, although on a sunny day all the flowers have closed by noon. Cloudy misty days…

Many prairie restorationists are at the moment in the throes of eradicating sweet clover, one of the most persistent and annoying invasive plants. There are two species, Melilotus alba (white…

Many people may not be aware that the UW-Madison Digital Collections has made a great contribution to prairie restoration by making available in digital form ALL of the North American…

In an earlier post I discussed the hemiparasitism of wood betony and how it often acts on prairie grasses. I have now found a similar phenomenon in the related species…

Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) is one of those trees you can love to hate, although because it forms heaps of pretty flowers and a nice perfume, many people love it.…

We have now moved into summer work mode. The photo shows our new group of summer interns together with our "regulars". The only person missing in the photo is Kathie,…

One of the "joys" of spraying buckthorn resprouts is that it keeps your eyes firmly fixed on the ground. While spraying in the savanna I flushed a brown thrasher. Since…

Our great spring burns were very successful in top-killing brambles, and for the past several weeks we have been spraying all the resprouts. Many of the bramble patches have actually…

This is the time of year when lots of prairie (and savanna) plants are just showing above ground. An important skill of the restoration ecologist is the identification of prairie…