Happy Solstice!

New study: backyard mosquito sprays lead to insecticide levels high enough to kill pollinators, and sprays travel easily into neighboring yards. stacksjournal.org/article/ande...

It’s going to be 60 degrees warmer today than two days ago. That’s a lot of degrees.

Great article by @danamilbank.bsky.social on hidden eastern grasslands and the organizations helping to discover, conserve and restore these high-diversity carbon sinks. Gift link, so there should be no paywall. Mentions www.segrasslands.org, cliftoninstitute.org, and others. wapo.st/4pSK2Y2

Boy, retraction is the thing these days. After years of critique, a foundational 25-year old paper on the safety of glyphosate herbicide has been pulled. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 1/2

With the first snowfall of the year happening today, I mowed a last-second fire break in my prairie last night in the dark. This will set me up for an April fire next spring on 1/2 the site. It will be the first fire for the restoration.

Kind of an interesting picture. This is the view out my bedroom window of the northern lights from last night.

WOW wowoweoeo wow #northernlights

More evidence dispelling the seed bank myth that falsely leads practioners to believe that it's an insurance policy against distruptive disturbances to old-growth communities--disturbances that often deliberately prescribed. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Holy smokes, the #northernlights were dancing tonight.

It was a good day to make #prairie today. A good sized one too: 200+ acres. We’ll finish seeding over the next couple days.

Good luck, and I’ll see ya in the spring! I’ve been moving all the Pasque flowers that I grew in a raised bed on my patio and into my #prairie restoration. They did excellent this year - biggest ones I’ve grown yet. Some have a shot at flowering in year 2.

New paper led by former post-bac researcher Isabelle Turner, with @chriscatano.bsky.social: Seeding density alters the role of soil moisture in structuring plant abundance during prairie restoration onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Few pics of the #moon from last night.

I remember when 60° used to be the day time high in October. Now, it’s the overnight low temp. 👀

Hill’s thistle (Cirsium pumilum var. hillii), one of our native thistles, found blooming on a native prairie hillside today. Spectacular plant.

The algorithm that controls my ‘thumbprint’ radio on pandora should be studied. Soooo good. 🎶🎸🥁🎵

Pretty sweet #prairie hill full of dotted blazing star (Liatris punctata).

I’ve been picking #prairie seed a lot lately. Today, I filled up this cup with downy gentian seed pods.

Tonight’s #prairie restoration view is a bit different. This is a baby snapping turtle that I found crawling away from the prairie and towards the river. Since my dog was very interested in it, I decided to bring it down to the river myself and let it go.

The island that banned hives: can honeybees actually harm nature?

It’s always a treat to see blooming Pasque flowers. And extra fun when you find one in the fall - seen this little guy today. #prairie #nativeplants

This is a hell of a sign. Just look at that patina.

I seen this today. Would love to hear this story.

Psst… tonight’s #prairie restoration view.

I’ve seen fringed gentian plenty of times, but I have never picked it for seed… until now. This seed will find a new home on a #prairie restoration a few miles away. #moreprairieplease

You see a lot of bottle gentian with 1 ring of flowers, sometimes 2 rings, occasionally 3 rings, but 4 rings is worthy of a picture. #prairie

What else did I mow around this year? This is a Lindley’s aster (Symphyotrichum ciliolatum) that I spotted this spring when it was just a couple inches tall. Kept mowing around it and here it is at peak bloom. Just a spectacular splash of color.

When it’s in bloom, it’s super easy to find! But when it’s time to find that seed pod, incredibly difficult. Why? It gets eaten! Deer get most of the blame, but I suspect ground squirrels too. Wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum).

My big beautiful showy goldenrod growing in my yard. I don’t know how old it is. I first noticed it two summers ago and decided to mow around it to see what it was. It bloomed last year and this year it’s even bigger.

Never. Never will I find a better shade of blue. This flower stops me in my tracks every single time. Downy gentian (Gentiana puberulenta). #prairie #nativeplants

And just like that, it hasn’t rained in 3 weeks. 👀

Growing on top of the hill in my #prairie restoration - amongst the ragweed - is a little bur #oak. Maybe my grandkids will take their high school senior photos under neath it someday?

The #prairie restoration view is ever changing, and it tells me that summer is fading fast.

We’ve got a video for tonight’s #prairie restoration view. Watch them all dance. Can you hear the crickets!?

Tonight’s #prairie restoration view is from my patio. This little raised bed is full of 2 month old Pasque flowers and prairie smoke. I’ll dig them out of here later in the fall and plant them in my prairie.

I’ve found white versions of rough blazingstar (Liatris aspera) before - normally just one plant - but there were a couple dozen white ones at this location. Pretty cool!

My new paper is out! 🧪🦠 Seven years later: native AMF inoculation improves grassland restoration successional stage, floristic quality index, and diversity, while suppressing weeds: academic.oup.com/femsle/artic... Why microbes matter in restoration 🧵

Looks like a great paper, & by two good friends at Brown. Plant centered, botany first herbivore research, not the same old story! Classic ANOVA. Turns out there's often more variation within species than between species. Congrats to Tyler, Rebecca & Hannah et al. scitechdaily.com/dna-evidence...

Geez. Tonight I find pretty obvious evidence of someone trespassing into my prairie restoration to take presumably senior pictures. WTF is wrong with people.

I have found that if you take a little extra effort to push porcupine grass seeds into the soil, you end up with a lot more porcupine grass. These three seedlings showcase the result. As opposed to chucking them into the air and letting nature sort it out… which is, admittedly, a lot easier!

Tonight’s #prairie restoration view is big bluestem.

🌿 Most of Bell Bowl Prairie, an 8,000-year-old remnant in Rockford, IL, was removed in 2023. Before its loss, 20 truckloads of soil were moved to Cedar Cliff Nature Preserve. See how its plants are rebounding and what it means for prairie conservation: wildones.org/lessons-from...

Tonight’s #prairie restoration view includes a sleepy guest. (Rough Blazingstar, Liatris aspera)

An all white prairie onion. Usually these are pink. #prairie #nativeplants

Wow oh wow. Tonight’s #prairie restoration #sunset view.

Not every night is a slam dunk great photo of my #prairie restoration, alright. But, this one was the most interesting.

Tonight’s #prairie restoration view.

Tonight’s #prairie restoration view. (the red dot is the sun)

It’s time.