I am reviewing the 20-year history of burns at Pleasant Valley Conservancy. Every year I have kept careful notes of each burn, and have written a narrative afterward, with a…

Oak savanna restoration involves a lot of delicate removal of invasive trees and shrubs. (I refrain from using the word “logging”, which has connotations of habitat destruction.) The long-term goal…

This post is based on 20-years work restoring oak savannas and tallgrass prairie remnants at PVC. During that period, we were able to obtain a lot of experience on the…

Brambles (genus Rubus) may be native but they are generally undesirable in a prairie or savanna. This post is based on over 20 years of restoration work at Pleasant Valley…

This year, apparently for the first time, a small number of our bur oaks have acquired bur oak blight, a relatively new bur oak disease. The disease is shown in…

One of the important parts of our savanna restoration work has been the removal of a large number of black walnuts (Juglans nigra). Although black walnut is considered a cash…

Old-field thistle (Cirsium discolor) is a favorite plant of pollinators and birds. Goldfinches love them, and many wait until the thistle plant is mature (late August or early September) to…

Kathie and I have been leading a Labor Day (1st Monday in September) field trip at Pleasant Valley Conservancy since at least 2002, possibly a year earlier. (I have sign-up…

When the first oak savanna burns were done at Pleasant Valley Conservancy in 1998 they were unsuccessful. The fire moved a few feet away from the drip torch line and…

This is Part 2 of the saga of how we turned our small backyard from scrawny lawn to lush open oak woodland. Access Part 1 with this link. Kathie and…