I need a favor.
I spend quite a bit of time working on this blog each week, but in some ways publishing blog posts is like tossing text and photos into a void. To help me better understand who is reading blog posts and how those posts affect you, I have created a very short online survey that I hope you’ll take. This is a follow-up to a similar survey by Eliza Perry (former Hubbard Fellow) several years ago, but I’ve added a few extra questions.
Your responses will be completely anonymous, so you can be as brutally honest as you like. I’m hoping that your answers will help me make this blog even better, and also help me understand what kind of impact the blog might be having.
Even if you only read this blog now and then, or just skim it to look at photos, please take the survey. If you forward posts to friends or colleagues periodically, would you please forward this survey as well and encourage them to take it?
Please click HERE to take the survey.
THANK YOU for your help.
The Prairie Ecologist 
I just took the survey. I thought it was a good one, and I’d encourage everyone to participate. It’s good for readers to think about why they read, too.
An easy, short and fairly logical one. Just take it
Good survey.
You keep adding new ‘stories’ to your blog and always makes it interesting. I assume you will give us feedback on the survey and what you learned from it.
thanks
I know how you feel, Chris. I, too, blog and often feel like I’m talking to myself. A little feedback is a glorious thing, even when it’s just a simple “well done!”
Off to take your survey now. Oh! And WELL DONE!
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to let you know how important this blog is to me. Your recent photos were incredible, Chris! I don’t always have time to leave a comment but trust me when I say that your photos make my day on days that sometimes seem bleak. Not to get too political, but tomorrow would be on of those days that I will have to take a long walk in my prairie to put things in perspective. Looking forward to your posts, always.
I like seeing and reading about the prairie in Chris’s area of Nebraska. But there are many other varied prairie areas. It would be neat to somehow hear and see more about other prairies around North America as well.
Good Idea Dave. I grew up south central Arizona on the edge of the farmed (plowed) areas and the rolling hill Sonoran Desert areas. People have to get out of their cars and walk around and that is my biggest challenge. You have to take a ‘walk about’ to see the deserts, prairies or the pine barrens I live near in northwestern Wisconsin. How do you get people to get out of their cars and walk around!!!!???
Dave or Chris, any quick ideas how to ‘seduce people’ to get out of their cars? The beauty is there, but it is not obvious to most at least from their cars! Thanks
Good question. To me the best part is getting out of the car once we get there!
put nails in the road!!!!!!!
Chris,
I just found your blog some couple months ago, so I’m new to it. But I really like it and read every new blog since then.
Steve
On Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 7:56 AM, The Prairie Ecologist wrote:
> Chris Helzer posted: “I need a favor. I spend quite a bit of time working > on this blog each week, but in some ways publishing blog posts is like > tossing text and photos into a void. To help me better understand who is > reading blog posts and how those posts affect you, I ha” >
soil health. I guess my survey wont be anonymous after all.
I am also curious about what’s in the soils and affects what happens on top? I support a Northwestern Wisconsin Pine Barrens habitat which to me is similar to the prairie, but we have extremely sandy soils and of course needs fire.
Chris, I forgot to add how much your photography and spectacular closeups create a very different dimension most of us would never see even if at the Prairie site. We can’t get that close, HAH!
Chris…I tried to access your survey, but it wouldn’t open for me…so I’ll add some comments here. I have been reading your blog every week for three years or so. I found it when I was searching for some information on prairie restorations. I live in your sister state, South Dakota…and have always loved the grasslands landscape, and learning more about the ecology of the areas, and life cycles of plants and animals in the prairie environment, large and small. Your photos are spectacular…thanks for including them. I am very interested in your prairie management programs and philosophy. I enjoy reading about other areas you visit, and comparisons from region to region…always interesting. Your entries/photos on the recovery of the Platte River areas affected by the fires of two years ago have really been encouraging. And your photos of sunrises, sunsets, geese, cranes, grasshoppers, bees, and creatures large and small…truly inspiring! I share many postings with my family members…with special emphasis on my grandkids, who love the outdoors. Your intern environmentalists are always contributing special perspectives, and express themselves beautifully. Thank you for all your efforts to open a window onto a beautiful landscape, and educate us all. The more we understand, the more we enjoy, and the deeper our commitment to supporting and protecting the outdoors. Thank you!