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- Photo of the Week – May 16, 2013
- Join Us For The Platte River Prairies Field Day: July 12, 2013
- Keeping a Low Profile in the Spring
- Photo of the Week – May 9, 2013
- A Prickly Confrontation
- Photo of the Week – May 2, 2013
- Capturing Post-Wildfire Recovery Through Timelapse Photography
- A Dandy Little Predator
- A Prairie Ecologist’s Perspective on Arbor Day
- Photo of the Week – April 25, 2013
- Tuning Into Fire Frequency
- Photo of the Week – April 18, 2013
- The Annual Grassland Restoration Network Workshop – Coming to A Prairie Near You (If You’re Near Columbia, Missouri)
- A Weekend Walk in the Woods
- Photo of the Week – April 11, 2013
- An Ill Wind…
- Is Poison Hemlock Repelled By Plant Diversity? Early Results Say Yes
- Photo of the Week – April 5, 2013
- Why A Warming Climate Is Making This Spring So Cold (… and Last Spring So Warm)
- An Exciting New Discovery – Unless You’re a Bug
Tag Archives: platte river prairies
Join Us For The Platte River Prairies Field Day: July 12, 2013
Come spend a day on the Platte River Prairies! Our annual open house/field day, just south of Wood River, Nebraska, will provide opportunities to hike the prairies with a variety of grassland experts. – Learn about prairie reptiles and amphibians … Continue reading
An Ill Wind…
You know, it’s not hard to grow native plants in a greenhouse. We’ve had pretty good luck over the years… But that assumes that you HAVE a greenhouse. Which we did – until early this morning, when a grain bin … Continue reading
Posted in General
Tagged crew quarters, platte river prairies, roof, shop, storm damage, the nature conservancy
8 Comments
Photo of the Week – March 21, 2013
Last week, I found ant species #23. If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you know that we’re trying to inventory the ant and bee species (and others) in our Platte River Prairies. Our main purpose is to see whether … Continue reading
Photo of the Week – March 15, 2013
I was reminded of this photo while thinking ahead to this weekend. A few years ago, I found these pheasant tracks after spending a morning in one of our crane viewing blind along the bank of the Platte River. This weekend, I get … Continue reading
Lessons From a Project to Improve Prairie Quality – Part 1: Patch-Burn Grazing, Plant Diversity, and Butterflies
We recently completed a large multi-year restoration and management project at our Platte River Prairies. Our specific objectives were to improve habitat quality for various at-risk prairie species and evaluate the impacts of our management on at-risk butterflies – particularly … Continue reading
Posted in Prairie Animals, Prairie Insects, Prairie Management, Prairie Natural History, Prairie Photography, Prairie Plants, Prairie Restoration/Reconstruction
Tagged at-risk species, burning, butterflies, conservation, conservation grazing, conservative plants, fire, floristic quality, grassland, grassland management, grazing, grazing impacts on prairie, grazing prairie, habitat quality, land management, lessons learned, nebraska, patch-burn grazing, platte river, platte river prairies, pollinators, prairie, prairie management, prairie restoration, prescribed fire, regal fritillary, research, state wildlife grant, stewardship, the nature conservancy
13 Comments
Happy New (Dry) Year – 2013
Happy New Year! It sure is nice to start 2013 with some moisture on the ground. Let’s hope we get some more… Ecologically speaking, the biggest local story in 2012 was the dry weather. In fact, our nearest “large” city, Grand Island, Nebraska had … Continue reading
Dealing With a Pervasive Invasive – Kentucky Bluegrass in Prairies
Many of the prairies we manage have pretty degraded plant communities, characterized by low plant diversity and dominance by a few grass species – including the invasive Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis). Our primary objective for these prairies is to increase plant diversity, … Continue reading
Posted in Prairie Management, Prairie Plants, Prairie Restoration/Reconstruction
Tagged blanket, bluegrass blanket, control, controlled burns, grassland, grazing, how to control kentucky bluegrass, invasive grass, invasive species, kentucky bluegrass, measuring success, plant diversity, platte river prairies, prairie, prairie management, prescribed fire, rangeland, suppression
34 Comments
Ants in Restored Prairie – Part 2 of our 2012 Insect Week Results
As promised, here is the second half of the results from our insect week back in July. Back in September, I reported that it appears bees are using our restored prairies much as they do our remnant prairies. That’s particularly important because our … Continue reading
Bees in a Restored Prairie Landscape – So far, So Good
Mike Arduser has (mostly) finished identifying the bees we found during our insect week in early July this year. Though the data we collected during that week was just a first step, the early results are very positive. It appears … Continue reading
Posted in General, Prairie Insects, Prairie Management, Prairie Natural History, Prairie Photography, Prairie Plants, Prairie Restoration/Reconstruction
Tagged bees, conservation, ecological function, ecological restoration, grassland, habitat restoration, nebraska, photography, platte river prairies, pollinators, prairie restoration, restoration, restored prairie, the nature conservancy
6 Comments
