Hi Everyone,

Here are several opportunities I wanted to alert you to:

First, we will be hosting a Plant Identification Field Day at our Platte River Prairies on Thursday July 6, 2017.  The day will run from 9am to 2pm, and will include several experts leading concurrent hikes through various habitat types (mesic and wet/mesic prairie, Sandhills prairie, and wetlands) and helping participants identify the plants seen there.  This will be a fairly informal day, and you can choose the habitats on which you want to focus.  Please bring your own lunch, and feel free to come and go as you like during the event.  The event is free and open to anyone, and will take place at The Nature Conservancy’s Derr House.

Directions to the Derr House: Take exit 300 off of Interstate 80 (Wood River, Nebraska) and head south for two miles.  Immediately after following a sharp curve in the highway, turn right to continue south on a gravel road and you’ll see the sign for The Nature Conservancy’s Platte River Prairies.  Park in the lot near the sign.

Second, a few weeks ago, I presented a webinar through the Natural Resources Conservation Service entitled Using and Fire and Grazing to Maintain Productive and Ecologically Resilient Grasslands.  I discussed what ecological resilience is and how it relates to prairies, and talked about various ways prescribed fire and grazing can be used to manage prairies for biological diversity and resilience.  If you’re interested in this topic and have 45 minutes to spare, a recording of the webinar is available for anyone to watch at this link.

Finally, I will be presenting another webinar on June 22 at noon CST in conjunction with Saskatchewan’s Native Prairie Appreciation Week.  This webinar will be entitled “All The Little Things” and is basically an appreciation of the small creatures and natural processes that make prairies work.  It will be mainly photographs and stories about prairie natural history.  You can register for the webinar live by following this link, though space is limited.  I’m not sure if there will be a recording available afterward.

I hope to see you on July 6!