Outreach

Workshops

On October 22, 2005, 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.

On January 26, 2006, the KSR Restoration Initiative brought together a number of restoration professionals to attend a workshop for practitioners at KBS. The goals of the workshop were to share information on restoration techniques, build a network of restoration professionals, and identify the information needs of professionals and laypersons. We had 14 participants from various state and federal government agencies, private industry, a non-governmental organization, and a university attend the workshop, as well as a number of representatives from the Biological Survey. The morning was spent listening to six presentations of restoration projects from around eastern Kansas. Roundtable discussions were held in the afternoon on topics such as establishment of tallgrass prairie, prairie management, control of Lespedeza cuneata, and increasing diversity in existing grasslands.

Symposia

On May 12, 2006, a symposium on restoration and ecology was held to highlight the ongoing restoration research and research interests of KU faculty and students. Dr. Jim Bever of Indiana University delivered the keynote presentation on the role of soil microbes in plant communities and restoration.

Tours

On May 18, 2006, the New Generations group toured KSR and the restoration sites. A number of KBS staff and KU students were on hand to discuss the various research projects and land management practices taking place at KSR.

On the Road

Sharon Ashworth presented an overview of the KSR Conservation and Restoration Initiative at the Kansas Academy of Sciences annual meeting at Wichita State University in April 2006 and at the North American Prairie conference at Kearney, NE, in July 2006. A link to the poster presented at each of these conferences can be found under Reports.

Jennifer Delisle presented an overview of the Natural Heritage Inventory databases and the Restoration Initiative at a Corps of Engineers sponsored restoration workshop in Manhattan, KS, in August 2006.