Dear Colleagues,
I would like to update you on happenings with the KSR Restoration Initiative.
On October 22, the Field Station hosted a successful workshop on prairie plant identification and seed collection. We had 12 adults and 6 children out collecting seeds in the Dogleg Prairie before getting rained out. The rain prevented us from collecting seeds in the Rockefeller Prairie, but the participants were very enthusiastic despite the weather and collected quite a few bags of desirable species for the seed garden and other restoration projects. Everyone was very pleased to take home their own bag of prairie seeds and expressed interest in doing this again next year. Jennifer Delisle put together an extensive packet of information on preparing and planting native forb seeds. Caleb Morse, Bernadette Kuhn, and Quinn Long were on hand to identify plants and answer any questions.
We continue our series of workshops with a workshop in January for restoration practitioners. We are inviting participation from a number of federal, state, and local agencies. The goals of the workshop are to share information on restoration techniques, build a network of restoration professionals, and identify the information needs of professionals and laypersons. I will send you more information on this workshop as it develops.
In other news, there is now a "Tallgrass Prairie Conservation and Restoration Initiative" brochure. It is available now in hardcopy, and will be made available on a future project website. Also, the seed garden has been dug behind the lab building and will be planted this winter. Tree and shrub removal throughout the designated restoration sites will begin in earnest over the next two months.
Thank you for your continued interest. If you have any questions or would like more information, please feel free to contact me.
Sharon