This is the time of year for gentians. As poet Emily Dickinson so aptly put it, gentians come with the frosts, although with global warming since Dickinson’s time, it has…

Update Sept 30, 2018 The report below was written on Sept 23. Since then, lots more trees are showing symptoms of bur oak blight. Many are large trees, including some…

Compass plant (Silphium laciniatum), an icon of the tall grass prairie, is one of the first prairie species to disappear upon grazing (see Curtis quote at the end of this…

This link leads to a Power Point that describes succinctly procedures for restoring an oak savanna area. Kathie and I presented this some years ago at a North American Prairie…

At Pleasant Valley Conservancy we have dealt with weeds in our prairie remnants, our restored oak savannas, and in the prairies we have planted in former agricultural fields. Each situation…

We were fortunate that in 1995-1997, before any restoration work had begun at Pleasant Valley Conservancy, several plant species lists were prepared by competent botanists. Later, after Kathie became more…

The Southern Wisconsin Butterfly Association has had its June fieldtrip at PVC for the past seven years. One of the attractions has been the chance to see the Baltimore checkerspot,…

Although Pleasant Valley Conservancy State Natural Area was actually created when Governor Jim Doyle signed the official document in 2007, the dedication ceremony was not held until 2008. Today is…

How important is it to eradicate "all" the bad guys? I posted on this some years ago, but it deserves repeating. One important part of restoration work is planning brush…

 What we call the South Slope is a classic Midwestern bluff prairie. A few years ago (2014) Peter Hartman and crew from the USDA-NRCS came and studied our South Slope…