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- Blowing Against the Wind?
- 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)
Tag Archives: prairie management
Tuning Into Fire Frequency
HOW OFTEN SHOULD PRAIRIES BE BURNED? It’s a question prairie ecologists and managers have been wrestling with for many years. Unfortunately, research on the impacts of fire management is somewhat limited and often contradictory. Much of the best research has … Continue reading
Posted in Prairie Animals, Prairie Insects, Prairie Management, Prairie Natural History, Prairie Plants
Tagged bowles and jones 2013, burning, controlled burn, eastern tallgrass prairie, fire frequency, frequency, grassland, how often prairie fire, how often should prairies burn, konza prairie, marlin bowles, prairie, prairie management, prescribed fire, repeated burning, research, tallgrass prairie
13 Comments
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
Killing Small Trees in Prairies – A Helpful Tool
One of the greatest challenges of prairie management, especially in small eastern prairies, is managing the invasion of small deciduous trees. Most prairie species (plant and animal alike) thrive best in open treeless habitats. Encroaching trees can fragment large prairies into smaller pieces, … Continue reading
Posted in Prairie Management, Prairie Plants, Prairie Restoration/Reconstruction
Tagged controlling trees, grassland, how to control invasive trees, how to kill trees, how to kill trees in prairie, invasive species, invasive trees, prairie, prairie management, range management, suppressing trees, trees in prairies, woody plants
20 Comments
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
Regal Fritillary Butterflies in Burned and Grazed Prairie
We’ve been conducting field surveys of regal fritillary butterflies for the last three years. During that time, we’ve learned a lot about how those butterflies are responding our prairie management and restoration work. So far, there are two overwhelming lessons … Continue reading
Posted in Prairie Insects, Prairie Management, Prairie Natural History, Prairie Photography, Prairie Restoration/Reconstruction
Tagged butterfly, cattle grazing, controlled burn, fire, fire and insects, fire impacts on insects, managing prairies, patch-burn grazing, prairie management, prescribed fire, production, rare butterflies, regal fritillary, response of butterflies to fire, tallgrass prairie, viola sororia
7 Comments
Platte River Prairies Field Day – July 13, 2012
PLEASE JOIN US for a Platte River Prairies Field Day on July 13, 2012. The day will include a range of activities, aimed to introduce relative newcomers to what prairies are all about and to allow more experienced prairie biologists/naturalists a chance … Continue reading
Posted in General, Prairie Insects, Prairie Management, Prairie Natural History, Prairie Plants, Prairie Restoration/Reconstruction
Tagged ants, bees, demonstration, field day, grassland restoration, open house, plant identification, platte river prairies, prairie management, reconstruction, spiders
1 Comment
How Should We Manage Small Prairies?
Prairie management can be complicated, regardless of how big a prairie is. Managing small prairies, however, is especially challenging, and it can be difficult to know how to set appropriate objectives – let alone how to achieve them. Living in … Continue reading
Posted in General, Prairie Insects, Prairie Management, Prairie Natural History, Prairie Photography, Prairie Plants, Prairie Restoration/Reconstruction
Tagged bison, grassland, habitat fragmentation, how to manage small prairies, patch size, prairie chicken, prairie chickens, prairie conservation, prairie isolation, prairie management, rare butterflies, rare insect, remnant dependent insects, small prairie, stewardship, tiny prairie
25 Comments
Looking for Ecological Impacts? Urine Luck!
I came across a copy of one of my all-time favorite research articles the other day. The paper tells a great story about the kinds of complex interactions that occur between the biotic and abiotic components of an ecosystem, including … Continue reading
Posted in General, Prairie Management, Prairie Natural History
Tagged bison, cattle, effects, effects of urine, grazing, livestock, plant community, prairie, prairie ecology, prairie management, urine
10 Comments
A Skeptical Look at Mob Grazing
Mob grazing is attracting a lot of attention lately, especially among people who are fans of other intensive rotational grazing systems. Usually, mob grazing is an extreme form of rotational grazing, in which high numbers of cattle are grazed in very small … Continue reading
Posted in General, Prairie Management, Prairie Plants
Tagged accumulation of organic matter, benefits, building the soil, cattle, cell grazing, fire, grassland, lack of research, livestock, management intensive grazing, mob grazing, negative impacts, organic matter, prairie, prairie management, pros and cons, research, rotational grazing, savory, soil carbon, soil impacts
82 Comments
