Prairie Garden Trust
Occasional Newsletter Vol. 1 No. 3
by Henry Domke

Saturday May 13, 2006

Forest Management Plan Receives $37,000
We have received $37,000 in Federal Funding (via the WHIP program) to pay 75% of the cost of implementing the plan that Carl Hauser proposed. The Prairie Garden Trust board has approved this 5-year project, which eliminates most of the artificial straight lines in the landscape. In addition the plan calls for feathering the edges that separates forest from prairie to recreate a natural gradual transition instead of the abrupt man-made edges. Thanks to Jamie Coe for suggesting this and managing it.

Landscapes Over Time
After years of discussing documenting the changes that are occurring at the Prairie Garden Trust a project has finally started. Thanks to Missouri Department of Conservation forester Josh Stevens for suggesting it. There is an associated website: http://web.mac.com/hdomke/iWeb/Land%20Over%20Time/Home.html

Floristic Survey
Botanist Jennifer Grabner has started a year-long project to inventory of the plants on the Prairie Garden Trust and associated properties.

Efforts to Control Exotics
Warren Taylor and Laura Marshal have located and killed all the large Autumn Olive on the property. However, it has become clear that there are thousands of young plants that will need to be controlled. The issue of coping with invasive exotic species is likely to be a significant part of our work for the foreseeable future.
The list keeps getting longer. Here is some we are dealing with: Autumn Olive, Serecia lespediza, Reed Canary Grass, Dandelions, Multiflora Rose, Shrub Honeysuckle, Winter Creeper, Fescue, European Starlings, English Sparrows and soon (?) Feral Hogs. I'm not sure this is a battle we can win but it is a battle worth fighting.

Birding News
The 27th annual spring bird walk was held on Saturday April 29th. Despite the rain and wind, a dozen people were able to identify 35 species of birds that morning. Other bird news: a Great Egret was seen perched among the 20 actives nests at the Great Blue Heron Rookery along Hiller’s Creek. A Hooded Merganser was seen emerging from a nesting box at the swamp.

Tree House Project
Bernard Ewigman and Nick Kelsh plan to spend several days in mid-June to start construction on a tree house next to the Swamp. This has been a long-term fantasy. Bernard (who now lives in Chicago) and Nick (who is now in Philadelphia) were the key people behind the construction of the sauna that was built next to Henry and Lorna’s barn in 1978.