I am sorry, y’all, for not keeping up with the weekly Blog on the Team.  It’s been a rough two months trying to stay ahead of everything.  And we’ve done soooooo much!!!!  On September 17th, we hosted YES Prep North Central (Go Trailblazers!!) at Sheldon Lake State Park.  The kids were introduced to the park and got a brief run-down on the restoration work there.  Then they had a chance to get their hands dirty either making seed balls or potting up sprigs.  Kids—ahem, Students—were eager and full… Read More →

Our last class was a bit of a challenge….the Rushes! (family Juncaceae).  Since we didn’t have a large number of different species, it was a good class to cover some other plants like Canna and Thalia. Meanwhile the crew systematically removed the soft rush (Scirpus validus) from the ag ditch at the park.  All the material will be used for the Stormwater Wetland projects.  

Today’s class, while not as lengthy as Cyperaceae, was equally complicated.  Andy guided the class through the family Poaceae, and hopefully everyone left with a little more understanding of grasses. John, Glen and Chatt worked on digging up some Lotus from the education ponds for the Stormwater Wetland program.  The digging was difficult because the roots go far and deep.  60 Lotus plants later they were pleased with their full buckets.  Ray and Dick kept plugging away at the endless seed cleaning.  

This week’s class was the family Cyperaceae….holy moly….it’s a big family and the class is intense, as there are many plants to cover–from bulrushes to spikerushes, and my favs, beakrushes. Gail and Susan worked on potting material up for the Stormwater Wetland program while our sturdy young men (John, Glenn and Chatt) planted out in the ponds–to spite the heat.    

This week’s class focused on the family Alismataceae which includes the Arrowheads and Burheads.  These are so commonly used in all of our restoration work that it is a must to see and learn the individual species. Chatt (with a broken finger and cast) planted 4 buckets (300 sprigs) of Hydrolea with Laura in Pond 17, and thankfully, Gail worked on more seed cleaning (the bags seem never-ending–and we have to collect more!).

Our 2014 Wetland Plant ID class began today!  The students started with an introduction by Ms. Charriss York into botanical terminology and basic botany.  Charriss always does a great job and everyone loves her class.  🙂  This is the first of 5 classes, which will take us into September and past some of the heat of the summer. You just can’t stop the Team!! John, and Glenn ventured out during the class to get some plants (225 sprigs of Rhynchospora corniculata) in Pond 17.  Diane, Gail, Virginia and… Read More →

It was a relatively “quiet” morning working in the annex cleaning seed.  Conversation was lively thanks to Ray, Gail, Dick, Lana and Susan.  🙂  We actually did make a small dent in the seed bags….even if the bags don’t show it!  🙂

Our crew was split into two groups….the Planters went out to Pond 17 and got about 300 plants into the ground (Junucs effusus and Rhynchospora corniculata) in the areas formerly treated for vassey’s grass. Our seeders worked in the annex on the pounds and pounds of seed.  Ray did venture out to collect some Basketflower–as we will want the seed for phase 4 prairie.

While Ray collected the Rhynchospora and Penstemon seed, Dick was working on cleaning more Juncus seed.  We (Lana, Gail and I) focused on getting the buckets sprigged and counted.  We ended up with 363 Rhynchospora sprigs and 139 Juncus sprigs that were collected by the guys last week.  Meanwhile, the guys “cleaned” out Pond 1 at the Park and we now have lots of Hydrolea and other sundry plants to count next week!

    Today was about sprigging some Spiderwort for Mary’s upcoming project.  Lana, Gail and I guessed we had maybe 15 sprigs….well, we were wrong! 49 pots later in the grow-out ponds, we were done and heading in to help Ray and Dick with the Juncus mix seed.  Diggers (Chatt, John E, John H, Glenn) went off-site with Cullen to gather some intermediate zone plants for the “dead” zones treated for vasey’s grass.  Great Job, y’all!