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…

It is estimated that 70% of the plant flora of temperate regions exhibit clonal growth, including many invasive species (both native and nonnative). An understanding of clonal growth patterns is…

Although we are still pulling a few sweet clover plants, it is time to start thinking about seed collecting. Of course, we have been collecting seeds of "early" species since…

We have been inclined to think that the invasive plants we have to deal with in restoration ecology are nonnative, but it turns out that most of the clonal species…

As part of last week's North American Prairie Conference, I had a chance to visit the facilities of the Tallgrass Prairie Center at the University of Northern Iowa. This Center…