What's good for a prairie? A big wet snow right after a burn! A big wet snow brings down lots of moisture but causes no soil erosion. As the snow…

It's hard to believe that the very cold February and early March changed into a perfect season for early spring burns. As the map shows, we almost completed our planned…

This interesting research was carried out at Nature Conservancy natural areas in four States: Loess Hills (Iowa); Glacial Ridge (Minnesota); Nachusa Grasslands (Illinois); and Kankakee Sands (Indiana). In all of…

Just returned from Dubuque where Kathie and I attended the 2015 Midwest Fire Conference: "Keeping Fire Working for the Land". This was organized by the Tallgrass Prairie and Oak Savanna…

Our goal at Pleasant Valley Conservancy is to ensure the long-term survival of one of the most endangered habitats on the earth, the oak savanna. Many of the bur oaks…

I've posted on leaf blowers before, but this deserves repeating. One of the most useful pieces of equipment for prescribed burns is a heavy duty leaf blower. We have two…

Oak savanna restoration is a long-term and expensive activity, but the results are worth it. Because it takes so long for a restored savanna to be established, careful long-range planning…

Many woody plants that are rhizomatous produce dormant buds on their roots that are capable of forming new shoots when apical dominance is eliminated. These new shoots may be called…

The 2015 Midwest Fire Conference at Dubuque, Iowa, is an event important to all landowners in the upper Midwest. This conference has been organized by the Tallgrass Prairie and Oak…

Buckthorn (Rhamnus catharticus) is a calciphile and proliferates primarily in areas where the soil is rich in calcium and magnesium. In the Driftless Area of Wisconsin, soil calcium is derived…