We’ve been burning so much this spring under marginalweather conditions,  that it was a surprise yesterday to have ideal weather for our burns. Not only did we complete our regularly…

Restoration of oak savannas and prairie remnants is usually a complicated and expensive process, but real data on costs are hard to find. From time to time during 20 years…

Sumac can often be a serious invader in prairies and savannas. Although it is regularly top-killed by fire, it reprouts immediately. In addition, sumac root suckers readily, so fire can…

This season we have been doing prescribed burns in fairly cold weather. The dew points have been quite low, so that there was no dew on the grass even when…

The Weather Bureau made no mention of it, but March 2-4 2018 provided unusually good weather for controlled burns, especially for oak savannas. This is quite a bit earlier than…

Yesterday (February 27, 2018) we did the annual burn of the tallgrass prairie on the south slope of Pleasant Valley Conservancy State Natural Area. Because of the extensive bur oak…

Typical open canopy of a savanna. This is a July view of the northwest side of Unit 10. Quite a few methods for measuring a forest canopy cover exist, but…

What's happened to those great fall days that were so perfect for savanna and oak woodland burns? The last several years it has been difficult to find a good day…

As the graph and map show, once we got started clearing the prairie and savanna remnants we kept up a fairly regular pace. Although it isn’t shown on the graph,…

Almost 14 years ago Kathie and I led a field trip to Pleasant Valley Conservancy for the North American Prairie Conference that was held at UW-Madison. Photographer Dennis Connor was…