Category Archives: Prairie Restoration/Reconstruction

Platte River Prairies Field Day – July 13, 2012

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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 to interact with a wide range of grassland experts.  This is an event that is designed for both professional biologists and the general public.  Spend the day with us and learn about prairie species, prairie restoration, and prairie management.

Gerry Steinauer, the state botanist from Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, will talk about prairie restoration and help you learn how to identify prairie plants.

Throughout the day, there will be guided tours of our high-diversity prairie restoration work and fire/grazing prairie management, during which visitors can see the results firsthand and discuss the associated challenges and successes.  We hope this will give people a chance to see some of the many options available for doing prairie restoration and management work and provide ideas that could be adapted to other sites.  The objective is not to promote the specific techniques we’re currently using, but rather to share what we’ve learned along the way, and stimulate discussion among the group that helps all of us get better at prairie conservation.

Tour prairies that are being managed with fire and grazing to enhance their plant diversity and habitat quality. Participate in discussions about the positive and negative impacts of various management techniques on a wide range of prairie species.

In addition, we’ve lined up a number of experts on various topics, including prairie ants, spiders, bees, reptiles/amphibians, plants, invasive species, and wildlife management, and those experts will give field presentations on their topics – and will also participate in the tour discussions.  This will be a great chance to learn how to identify prairie species you might not be familiar with, and also to learn how those species live and interact with each other.  If you’re like me, it’s difficult to learn how to identify tricky species when there isn’t someone there to tell you whether or not you’re guessing right!  Also, there’s no substitute for an in-person conversation with someone who is a recognized expert in their field of study.

Prairie communities consist of thousands of plant, animal, and invertebrate species. Come and meet scientists who can help you learn to identify – and identify with – a variety of these species.  Mike Arduser, from the Missouri Department of Conservation will share his expertise on prairie bees and other insects.

There is no cost for attending the Field Day.   We are grateful to Pheasants Forever and Prairie Biotic Research, Inc.  for helping to cover the costs of the event.  We will have some snacks available, and will keep big jugs of cold water, tea, and lemonade so you can fill your bottles as many times as you need to during the day.  Please bring a lunch with you – we’ll provide places to sit and eat, and might even have a slideshow by some nature photographer or other during lunch time.  In case it gets extraordinarily hot in the afternoon, we’ll have some indoor and shady activities planned as well.

Scheduled events will start at 9am and end at 4pm, but we encourage you to come early and stay late.  Trails will be open all day, so you can feel free to explore the prairies on your own as much as you like.  We would appreciate it if you would let us know if you plan to attend – so we can ensure we have enough snacks and drinks and so we can plan hikes accordingly – but you are also welcome to just stop by.

Click HERE to see the official announcement of this event on our website and to get more information.  Be sure to click on “Show Directions” to get directions to the prairies.  PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BRIDGES NORTH OF OUR PROPERTY ARE OUT, SO FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON THE WEBSITE – DON’T ASSUME YOU CAN GET THERE AS YOU MAY HAVE IN THE PAST.

Here is a list of those people who have committed to help lead tours and/or present information at the Field Day.  We are still pursuing a few more.

Mike Arduser, Missouri Dept of Conservation (bees)

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Bill Beachly, Hastings College (spiders)

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Pete Berthelsen, Pheasants Forever (wildlife management, pheasants/quail)

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Karie Decker, Nebraska Invasive Species Program (invasives)

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Dennis Ferraro, University of Nebraska (reptiles/amphibians)

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Chris Helzer, The Nature Conservancy (prairie management)

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Gerry Steinauer, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission (botany, prairie restoration)

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James Trager, Shaw Nature Reserve – Missouri (ants)

 

Timelapse Photography of a Wetland Restoration

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Last fall, we finished construction on a wetland restoration project along a creek through our Platte River Prairies.  In an earlier post I described some of the issues we had with excess organic matter that mounded up as we filled in the old gravel mine pits.  We ended up spreading that sludge out over a portion of the site, and it looks like it may just degrade on its own, so we’re going to let it sit for a season and see what happens.

Regardless of the sludge, the wetland project is one that I’m very happy with, and I’m really looking forward to watching the plant and other ecological communities establish over time.  I’m also excited to see the shape of the channels and adjacent wetlands change as groundwater and stream flow levels rise and fall through the years.  The project was designed to be dynamic; change is as essential to the future success of the project as any of the wetland construction or wetland seedings we did.

This photo was taken in March, 2012. It's multiple photos stitched together into a panorama. The water was pretty high at the time of the photo, merging together what will be more separate pools and channels when the water levels are lower. The sludge in the distant background of the photo, so the foreground shows mainly bare sand and water - which was planted over the winter with a mixture of locally-harvested wetland seeds.

Because change is such a major emphasis of our project, it fits perfectly into an initiative headed up by Michael Forsberg and Michael Farrell.  The Platte River Timelapse Project is designed to merge art and science by using new technology to showcase the dynamic nature of the Platte River and all that it affects.  We were fortunate enough to become a partner in the project early on, and Forsberg installed a timelapse camera at the site prior to the beginning of the latest construction phase.  That camera takes one photo every hour during daylight hours, and documents the changes that take place in front of it.  The plan is to leave it in place for many years.  Even better,  we hope to have two more cameras up and running within the next several weeks, greatly increasing our ability to tell the story of this wetland.

Here is the timelapse of our project through the end of March.  If your internet service is like mine, the video may be a little jerky the first time through, but if you just click play again and rewatch it after the first time, it runs much more smoothly.  The whole video is only 52 seconds long.  You can see the construction equipment at work as they reshape the topography, and then watch the wildlife response – especially during the spring bird migration.  As the season progresses, the video will be updated with new footage, and we’ll be able to watch the establishment of the vegetation and the rise and fall of water levels.

There are lots of other timelapse videos you can watch on the same website.  As a starting point, I strongly recommend this terrific series from the top of a tower at Audubon’s Rowe Sanctuary, showing the Platte River, sandbars, and lots of sandhill cranes.  During  the first minute or so, the movements of the roosting sandhill cranes are fascinating.  Starting at about 1:30, though, the story becomes the waves of sediment rolling down the channel – very clearly demonstrating the primary role of rivers… to move sediment.

Stay tuned!  I’ll post more video of our wetland project when it becomes available.  In the meantime, they’ll continue to update all of the other footage at the Platte River Timelapse site too, so you can return now and then to see what’s changing.