Man, hybrid cattail has destroyed connectivity between so many Midwestern lakes and adjacent wetlands and uplands. Pictured is Utica Lake, Waukesha County, WI with adjacent tamarack fen behind the cattails.
Dan Carter
@prairiebotanist.com
Ecologist of Midwestern fire-dependent ecosystems & volunteer land steward @ Mukwonago River Oak Barrens. Opinions mine. Among them is the need to stop viewing grasslands, savannas, & woodlands through a productivist lens. Ban AI. He/Him
Ancient grasslands, once destroyed, don’t grow the same plant species back www.nature.com/articles/d44.... We already knew this. There are whole organizations founded on this and which are aware of the mechanisms.
Ancient grasslands, once destroyed, don’t grow the same plant species back
Recovering secondary grasslands have taller plants that can quickly absorb light and nutrients.
nature.com
I pulled in the dock at the Bayfield County place. It was only in an inch of water due to drought, but it meant the mucky and sandy shore was growing cool stuff like Rhynchospora capitella.
Fine autumn day to dig a little more red-pine-oak savanna out of the maple-poplar-hazel thicket caused by poor forestry and fire exclusion.
I cut back ninebark yesterday so it wouldn't impinge on the fascist blue spruces next door. I was happy to be a good neighbor. The blue spruce will join our neighborhood's Rhizosphaera needle cast party soon enough.
Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!
Violet coral (Clavaria amethystina...some new work suggest our Midwestern violet cor is not C. zollingeri). A visitor to the Mukwonago River Oak Barrens mentioned seeing this recently. We knew about it, but this year it is indeed very abundant there in wet-mesic sand under oak.
To “Google” used to mean search, but that had faded already. Now it means to lick boot or kiss ass.
WIRED@wired.com · last mo.After Donald Trump’s executive order demanding the name change, Google is the first major online maps provider to flip the switch. www.wired.com/story/google...
Some stewards are operating in a world where this has been learned already, and they tend have success, but quite a few aren't, so this is good to see. This implies things about how old growth works and has worked. It reinforces why some practices are successful and others aren't.
Lars Brudvig@lars-brudvig.bsky.social · last mo.New from @ashishnerlekar.bsky.social @llseedsull.bsky.social me and many others: Grassland destruction causes shifts in plant traits that persist during recovery www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... eeb.msu.edu/news/why-anc...
Video on what were doing at the Mukwonago River Oak Barrens up to about six months ago. #prairie #savanna #ecologicalrestoration youtu.be/iYZmadm-rug
Mukwonago River Oak Barrens Background and Land Management Approaches
YouTube video by Dan
youtu.be
I like this discussion. For those of us that do what we can at home, it's good. It's very good, in fact, but there are limits. It doesn't approach the importance of protecting and sustaining (burning very often in the dormant season) the remnants. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDVc...
How Prairie Fires Restore Water to Soil & Why Prairies Need to Burn
YouTube video by Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't
youtube.com
We burned this fen in February for the 1st time in memory. The footprint of flowering Parnassia glauca (grass-of-Parnassus) extends farther away from the marl/gravel flats into the sedges this year, and Rhychospora alba (white beak-rush) is blooming, which I have never detected on previous visits.
Lordy, I read some comments on a political site I used to frequent much more often, and folks are hot mad that #Hong might win the WI Democratic primary. They talk about young voters supporting her, but I've gone with "electable" voting my whole life and
Dewpoints well into the 80s in western Iowa due in part to near peak corn evaporation. Heat indices in spots over 120, and it has two or three hours to get worse.
Today it was generally in the upper 80s to around 90, there was a stiff breeze, heat index peaked in the mid-90s, but was generally in the low 90s. Wednesday is supposed to be "water day" at day camp. Kids told me they didn't do it, because they stay inside if the heat index is above 90! 90!?
I was out working to prep the remnant prairie along the wetland edge at the Mukwonago River Oak Barrens to be in an autumn burn unit and I found Hypoxis hirsuta peaking through the thatch. I’ve looked for it four years in this spot and only now found a couple flowering plants.
With a minor and not to the point correction that N-fixing bacteria in soil get their energy from organic molecules vs. the very energy intensive breaking of the N2 bond, I loved this talk, given in the context of old growth ecosystems. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gIG...
The Amazing World of Wild Plant-Soil Interactions with Justin Thomas
YouTube video by Arkansas Native Plant Society
youtube.com
Minimum of 26.3 Fahrenheit. No damage to the tender oak leaves, which in past years seams to happen in the 24-26 range if the freeze isn't too long in duration and its not windy. Actually, of the hundreds of native species at our place, hairy ruellia is the only one that was zapped.
The enemy brought guns to debate club, so I'm glad that in the case of redistricting Democrats responded in kind for once instead of taking the high ground before being steamrolled.
Accountability for biodiversity outcomes in conservation is very important, and I agree with much of this wholeheartedly, but much of effective site-based conservation is grassroots and already overburdened by the need for administration for grants... www.researchgate.net/publication/...
(PDF) Open letter: The need for a site‐based biodiversity standard measuring and certifying impacts from nature‐based projects
PDF | Despite growing investment in restoration, weak accountability and poor biodiversity monitoring mean many projects fail to achieve ecological... | Find, read and cite all the research you need o...
researchgate.net
Will the conservative margin in Waukesha County be less than 10%?! When we moved here it was a 70-30 place. Slowly, surely. Ozaukee seems to have flipped. WOW are just now Ww. Frankly, I look at my neighbors, my community, and I'm amazed, but I'll take it!
Round-lobed hepatica opened up at my place, where it has spread over a little convex area the oak litter blows off of (so it doesn't smother and often doesn't burn when I burn off the leaf litter). Wood betony is emerging, particularly in areas burned in the fall where the soil is a wee bit warmer.
The view in the first image was burned late last October. The view in the second image was burned in February. Both areas get burned every dormant season. Now think like an overwintering #invertebrate. The clumps are Sprengel's sedge. This is a reconstructed #oak #woodland / #savanna setting. #Fire
Good news is good news. ballsandstrikes.substack.com/p/jury-finds...
Jury Finds Afroman Songs Mocking Ohio Cops Too Hilarious to Be Illegal
Here is what happens when cops cross a professional entertainer with plenty of time, a sizable social media following, a sense of humor, and a smooth baritone
ballsandstrikes.substack.com