Our survey last week suggested that September 10-12 were better for more people, but plenty said these dates were not their top choice. The top topics people chose were habitat restoration lessons learned, weed management strategies and science and monitoring. Most respondents were resource managers.
Our planning team has met a few times already and we will update you during the winter.
Photo by Charles Larry Main unit prairie. Looks like weedy Canada goldenrod to me. Not all that glitters is gold.
Bill Kleiman, Julianne Mason, and Mike Saxton publish this blog. Bill's daytime job is director of Nachusa Grasslands with The Nature Conservancy. Julianne works for the Forest Preserve District of Will County. Mike Saxton works for the Missouri Botanical Garden at their Shaw Nature Reserve. We are looking for guest authors on various topics of grassland habitat restoration. Contact us with your ideas.
Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I wanted to share something I’ve learned as well. I have about 110 species on a small mostly prairie restoration near northwest Chicago and my most utilized plant insect-wise is Canada goldenrod. I see the largest variety of insect types as well as different species within each group. It is different than tall goldenrod which I found less utilized, which blooms a little bit later and lasts a little bit longer into fall and has other characteristics which I believe do differentiate the two. The Canada Goldenrod is definitely what I would consider a keystone species based on my own experience. I know that it’s something that spreads quite a bit if given the opportunity but I have heard that once an area is established that that’s not a problem. I am concerned that some people are working to try to apparently eradicate it from many natural areas which I think is a huge mistake in regards to the negative impact it would have on the ecological community as a whole.
I also heard from a prairie expert that we don’t need to worry about it in areas with good native competition. But I don’t think you meant we should never control it. If the site goals include grassland birds, goldenrod must be controlled to preserve structure over a large enough area that birds want to nest in. It also should be controlled, at least temporarily, when lack of competition allows it to suppress natives. Many of our natural areas are degraded, so the decision to control goldenrod in such areas may be different compared to high quality ecosystems.
I made the mistake of cutting brush clones in a remnant & not controlling goldenrod afterwards. Goldenrod shaded out natives trying to colonize the patches, created a haven for invasive weeds & broke up bird habitat. Now I wack goldenrod at peak bloom in these patches for a few years & natives are colonizing the patches nicely.
The soon to be released coarse-level monitoring protocol for assessment of oak openings by Wisconsin DNR considers Solidago canadensis, altissima & gigantea as degradation indicators, noting that clonal goldenrods have been documented to be aggressive & outcompete smaller statured species over time.
I watched goldenrod invade a closed canopy woodland from an adjacent old field for years. It utilized bare ground patches but wouldn’t invade sedge populations. Since the woods was degraded with few sedges & a canopy opening project was planned (which would increase sunlight & accelerate the goldenrod spread), I started to control it.
A local village cleared buckthorn from a woodland & I visited it 5 years later. It was solid goldenrod & nothing much else-a dead ecosystem.
Interesting, thanks for your reply. The location I have seen being cut down is not being managed in this way, so it is someone doing it illegally. The goldenrod there, I think it was Canada (C.) It was certainly very well controlled in that ecosystem, it was not extensive, well-spaced, delicate curving bloom-heads (not a botanist, learning when I have time 🙂 ), few stalks per plant. I haven’t worked on a larger restoration. I see what you are saying about the out-competing in disturbed habitats for sure. I question though whether people are currently discerning between C. and tall. I had the opportunity to work v. closely digging out many tall by hand, seeing how the rhizomes behaved, smelled (very strongly like a terpene), etc. It so far SEEMS to be very different in behavior than the C. which forms more circular clumps and has not outcompeted anything in my small restoration. The tall appeared to be using chemical inhibition to succeed and neighboring plants seemed to be impacted. The appearance of the blooms is very different to my eyes, and the # and diversity of insects utilizing them also is very different. Bloom time was 2 wks apart (tall 2 wks later approx.). Small observational study. I wish I was linked with a Univ. and could do more! I tried but no one was interested in my idea at that time (not about goldenrod directly but insects more).
It gets heavy soldier beetle, locust borer, and bee, and gall insect action, but really not much more insect use than the more conservative goldenrods of prairies, savannas, and woodlands. It also probably benefits from still being so common that its specialist insects are also still common. Canada, tall, and giant goldenrods all benefit from the chronic thatch build up in under-managed (not burned often enough) open communities (their rhizomes easily emerge through it) and chronic degradatory disturbance on most of the rest landscape (seed dispersal ability and rhizome elongation make it very opportunistic), so they’ll all be around for a long time no matter what we do or don’t do, and that’s a good thing relative to them not growing abundantly in old fields and along roadsides. …and a modest amount in a prairie, savanna, or woodland isn’t bad either, so long as other ecological processes remain intact.
grassland restoration network 
Hi Bill,
Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I wanted to share something I’ve learned as well. I have about 110 species on a small mostly prairie restoration near northwest Chicago and my most utilized plant insect-wise is Canada goldenrod. I see the largest variety of insect types as well as different species within each group. It is different than tall goldenrod which I found less utilized, which blooms a little bit later and lasts a little bit longer into fall and has other characteristics which I believe do differentiate the two. The Canada Goldenrod is definitely what I would consider a keystone species based on my own experience. I know that it’s something that spreads quite a bit if given the opportunity but I have heard that once an area is established that that’s not a problem. I am concerned that some people are working to try to apparently eradicate it from many natural areas which I think is a huge mistake in regards to the negative impact it would have on the ecological community as a whole.
Suzanne
I also heard from a prairie expert that we don’t need to worry about it in areas with good native competition. But I don’t think you meant we should never control it. If the site goals include grassland birds, goldenrod must be controlled to preserve structure over a large enough area that birds want to nest in. It also should be controlled, at least temporarily, when lack of competition allows it to suppress natives. Many of our natural areas are degraded, so the decision to control goldenrod in such areas may be different compared to high quality ecosystems.
I made the mistake of cutting brush clones in a remnant & not controlling goldenrod afterwards. Goldenrod shaded out natives trying to colonize the patches, created a haven for invasive weeds & broke up bird habitat. Now I wack goldenrod at peak bloom in these patches for a few years & natives are colonizing the patches nicely.
https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2023/06/irruptions-of-aggressive-species.html
Natives can replace goldenrod but only at some sites. Goldenrod can pave the way for other invasives.
https://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-battle-of-aggressive-sunflower.html
The comments make an excellent point that temporary control of sunflower/goldenrod can give natives a jump start towards repelling invasion on their own.
The soon to be released coarse-level monitoring protocol for assessment of oak openings by Wisconsin DNR considers Solidago canadensis, altissima & gigantea as degradation indicators, noting that clonal goldenrods have been documented to be aggressive & outcompete smaller statured species over time.
I watched goldenrod invade a closed canopy woodland from an adjacent old field for years. It utilized bare ground patches but wouldn’t invade sedge populations. Since the woods was degraded with few sedges & a canopy opening project was planned (which would increase sunlight & accelerate the goldenrod spread), I started to control it.
A local village cleared buckthorn from a woodland & I visited it 5 years later. It was solid goldenrod & nothing much else-a dead ecosystem.
Interesting, thanks for your reply. The location I have seen being cut down is not being managed in this way, so it is someone doing it illegally. The goldenrod there, I think it was Canada (C.) It was certainly very well controlled in that ecosystem, it was not extensive, well-spaced, delicate curving bloom-heads (not a botanist, learning when I have time 🙂 ), few stalks per plant. I haven’t worked on a larger restoration. I see what you are saying about the out-competing in disturbed habitats for sure. I question though whether people are currently discerning between C. and tall. I had the opportunity to work v. closely digging out many tall by hand, seeing how the rhizomes behaved, smelled (very strongly like a terpene), etc. It so far SEEMS to be very different in behavior than the C. which forms more circular clumps and has not outcompeted anything in my small restoration. The tall appeared to be using chemical inhibition to succeed and neighboring plants seemed to be impacted. The appearance of the blooms is very different to my eyes, and the # and diversity of insects utilizing them also is very different. Bloom time was 2 wks apart (tall 2 wks later approx.). Small observational study. I wish I was linked with a Univ. and could do more! I tried but no one was interested in my idea at that time (not about goldenrod directly but insects more).
It gets heavy soldier beetle, locust borer, and bee, and gall insect action, but really not much more insect use than the more conservative goldenrods of prairies, savannas, and woodlands. It also probably benefits from still being so common that its specialist insects are also still common. Canada, tall, and giant goldenrods all benefit from the chronic thatch build up in under-managed (not burned often enough) open communities (their rhizomes easily emerge through it) and chronic degradatory disturbance on most of the rest landscape (seed dispersal ability and rhizome elongation make it very opportunistic), so they’ll all be around for a long time no matter what we do or don’t do, and that’s a good thing relative to them not growing abundantly in old fields and along roadsides. …and a modest amount in a prairie, savanna, or woodland isn’t bad either, so long as other ecological processes remain intact.