Recent Posts
Spring Burns and A Collection of Restorationists
Now, in the middle of a March blizzard, is the perfect time to report on our first two days of spring burns. In addition, the obvious question to think about today is: what do you call a collection of restorationists? You know—a murder of crows, a scurry of squirrels, a parliament of owls, a charm…
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The Boardwalk: History and Some Repair after 15 Years
A boardwalk is a walkway made of boards (strictly speaking) that makes possible foot traffic over wet, soggy ground. The first boardwalk in the United States, and the world’s longest, according to Wikipedia, is in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It opened along the beach in 1870 and is over five and a half miles long.…
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The Composites
The guys and gals circle and join hands, fluff out their colorful petticoats. The crew in the center clump tightly together to form an inviting and nutritious landing pad for pollinators. The Composite Family has over 23,000 species and is considered the most recently evolved group (along with the orchids, I would add). Getting together…
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Sweet Clover
This has been a good year for sweet clover. That’s not to say there are walls of it everywhere at Pleasant Valley and Black Earth Prairie, as in the years I remember from 2005-2010. But even after “clearing” section after section, five foot flowering plants, even eight-foot giants, seem to elevate out of nowhere overnight,…
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Small Things, and Things Beyond Measure
“Things happen at Pleasant Valley Conservancy, but sometimes things just are. Many small things are big, many big things are just many small things. Some big things can’t be measured.” (Unknown) I know you are eager for another of Susan’s Rules, but today there are no rules. THE VERY SMALL One morning last week, while…
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Weeds, but not only
Last week was typical of my early May schedule: searching for garlic mustard and creeping bellflower. Weeding rules #1 and #2 were strictly followed. They are: see other stuff, and listen to bird sounds. We burned the north woods and unit 19D this year, so the weedy sprouts are mostly very small. I’ve been pulling…
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Fire Weather
We’ve finished our burns for the season. On March 12, we began by lighting along the upper edge of savanna units 8 and 10, and we then pretty much allowed the fire to burn slowly down the steep south slope goat prairie. A mostly south wind helped slow the fire’s descent through the dry grasses.…
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Hi
Thanks for putting this report together. We are going to continue our cattail control at Wildland.
Mark and Sue
That’s great. Challenging work…