Digging through my files, I ran across this nice map of the restoration history of Pleasant Valley Conservancy I prepared back in 2014. It's out of date but still useful.…

It is still January, but it is not too early to think about spring burns. Right now is a good time to get more fire knowledge from the great webinars…

When we started restoration work at Pleasant Valley Conservancy in 1997 (almost 20 years ago), most of our savanna areas with calcareous soils were solid buckthorn. I remember those days…

I’ve posted on this before but it doesn’t hurt to repeat it. Restoration work, especially of oak savannas, results in lots of downed timber. Although good logs can be turned…

After a quite rainy autumn, the weather turned very favorable and we had a successful burn of our oak woodland on Thursday November 10, 2016. This has been one of…

Although we often have trouble getting satisfactory prairie burns done in the fall of the year, this year has been an exception. The prairie grasses have all cured early and the…

The fall weather this year has provided good conditions for small prairie burns. See my post for a general discussion of fall prairie burns. Walking Iron Prairie, part of the…

Why is it so hard to get a good prairie burn in the fall? Update 11-1-2016 See bottom of this post ****************************************************************** It would be nice if prairies could be…

This has not been one of our better years for fall color. The last half of September was cold and rainy, and it has only been in middle of October…

Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) is a common invader in the early stages of prairie or savanna restoration. It can't compete in well established native areas, but comes in quickly on bare…