Fall Harvest Dates Set

Though the prairie is in its blooming glory, plans for the fall harvest are underway. Volunteer harvests are scheduled for October 3 and October 31. More information.

Butterfly Walk

Tom Peterson will lead a butterfly walk this Thursday afternoon. Beginning at 4:30 p.m., the walk will step off from the Margaret Pearson Interpretive Trail (at outbound Pine Street). Possible butterflies include gray commas, who fly at the woods' edge in the late afternoon; swallowtails who may be nectaring on the bee balm and thistles; skippers could be in the prairie.

Please plan for mosquitos and mud, too!

Upcoming Volunteer Workday

On Monday, August 10 at 9 a.m., volunteers will meet at the Fermilab Science Education Center. Courtney & Julie will coordinate the collection of dark green bulrush (Carex annectens and Carex lanuginosa).

Summer Activities: Plant Maintenance & Enrichment

Courtney & Julie have also been helping fight off reed canary grass:

Prairie Cord Grass plugs were transplanted around 2 different Reed Canary Grass patches to see if Prairie Cord Grass would be a good, natural competitor to minimize the spread of Reed Canary Grass. The perimeter of the patch as well as each Prairie Cord Grass plug location were recorded with the GPS so the patches can be monitored in the future.

Teasel heads were cut off and plants were sprayed with herbicide to prevent their further spread.

Photo: reed canary grass; orange tape represents plantings of cord grass; cord grass pictured below.

Summer Activities: GPS Documentation

Another post from Courtney & Julie:

We pollinated and took GPS locations of Michigan Lilies around the site (on left). We will go back in the fall to collect some seed pods from these plants so they can be spread into new areas.

Turtlehead populations have been counted and GPS coordinates have been recorded so some butterflies that feed on turtleheads can be acquired from the Peggy Notebaert Museum.

GPS locations of blooming species have also been recorded throughout the summer so they can be found and seed collected later in the season. The GPS coordinates will also aid in finding these species in the upcoming years.

Summer Activities: Seed Collecting

(A post from Courtney Gill, 2009 Robert F. Betz Intern, and Julie Allen. Courtney & Julie have been busy all summer with various restoration activities, from seed collection and pollination to GPS documentation of species location.)

Recent species we've been collecting include prairie sundrops, meadow anemone, white wild indigo, belwort, white baneberry, jewelweed, broad-leaved puccoon, white trillium, pale-spike lobelia, marsh vetchling, smooth yellow violets, indian plantain and some sedges.


Thank you to the volunteers who have helped us collect bicknell's sedge, spiderwort and red bulrush this summer!

Pictured, left to right:

Courtney, Mohammad, Nino, Julie, Josh, Judy, Jacques