Earth Day Fairs, Here and There

Last week Fermilab's Environment, Safety & Health Section hosted an Earth Day fair in honor of Earth Day's 40th anniversary.  FNA's table included a live corn snake, which proved a popular attraction.  Fermilab employee Bridgett Thomson let visitors hold her pet snake and answered many questions about caring for such a pet.

Over the weekend, FNA hosted a table at the Bartlett Nature Center's 10th anniversary Earth Day fair.  Held at the James "Pate" Philip State Park, which like Fermilab is home to a remnant prairie plot.  Many of the FNA table visitors were interested in Fermilab generally, including activities for families and scouting groups.  Fermilab's Education office is a great resource for this type of information!

Earth Week Prairie Seed Planting

About a dozen volunteers turned out for the spring prairie seed planting last Wednesday.   Volunteers planted native seed for dry, mesic, & wet prairies in the Interpretive Trail Prairie. Each mix contained several native species. On the higher elevations they planted Canadian milk vetch, prairie cinquefoil, butterfly weed, purple prairie clovers which tend to thrive in dry prairies. Mesic contained about 40 native species including: gray goldenrod, spiderwort, common blue-eyed grass, prairie blazing star. Wet prairie mix had about 30 native species including Riddell’s goldenrod, Sulliavan’s milkweed, swamp aster, cardinal flower and over a dozen species of sedges. 

Thanks to everyone for coming out - we appreciate your help!

Upcoming Events

In anticipation of spring and in honor of Earth Day, FNA has many upcoming events:

April 17 - Habitat Restoration work day
April 21 - Prairie Seed Planting, 11:30 a.m., meet at Margaret Pearson Intepretive Trail, Fermilab
April 22 - Fermilab Earth Day Fair, Wilson Hall Atirum, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
April 24 - Bartlett Park District Earth Day Fair
April 27 - Woodland Wildflower Walk, 11:30 a.m., meet at Margaret Pearson Intepretive Trail, Fermilab
May  4 - Arbor Day tree planting (rain date May 6)
May 15 - Habitat Restoration work day

Please join us!

Seed Collection Volunteers

Ryan Campbell, Fermilab's consulting ecologist, is looking for one or more volunteers who are interested in learning native prairie plants and collecting seed. This seed will be used in an experiment to test how many pounds of seed per acre result in a diverse prairie restoration. The answer to this question will guide future restorations at Fermilab as we take acres out of temporary agriculture. The volunteer(s) are needed 1-2 days a week from May to September. Please email Ryan for more information.