Author Archives: Grassland Restoration Network blog

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About Grassland Restoration Network blog

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.

Fire, Rubus and Geranium

Posted on December 26, 2019 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

By Bill Kleiman In a closed canopy oak woods we have been doing annual fire for a long time.  The Rubus allegheniensis, common blackberry is slowly fading in stature and density, while the wild geranium, G maculatum, has become abundant.  … Continue reading →

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Wild Parsnip. Is it invasive or just a weed?

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

By Bill Kleiman, The Nature Conservancy at Nachusa Grasslands Pastinaca sativa, wild parsnip lives two years, with flower and seed set on year two. Every June you will find us mowing it somewhere on the preserve, as this is when … Continue reading →

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Prescribed fire pumper units

Posted on December 12, 2019 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

by Bill Kleiman, The Nature Conservancy, Nachusa Grasslands At Nachusa Grasslands we use several vehicle mounted water sprayers on our fires.  We call them “pumper units”.  Photo above is a crew about to start their test ignition.   You don’t see … Continue reading →

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The Way of the Warrior Sedges

Posted on December 5, 2019 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

By Kevin Scheiwiller of Citizens for Conservation As many practitioners know, wetlands can be one of the most frustrating and resource demanding areas to restore. Countless wetland plantings have shown a large flush in native diversity in the first few … Continue reading →

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Planting prairie #97 with the full monty

Posted on November 28, 2019 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

By Bill Kleiman, The Nature Conservancy The photo above is from this season of  a 2010 planting, our 97th at Nachusa Grasslands.  There is a lot of gayfeather and white indigo. Harder to see are the thimbleweed, coreopsis, lupine, various … Continue reading →

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Propagating false toadflax, Comandra umbellata

Posted on November 21, 2019 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

by Bernie Buchholz, Steward at Nachusa Grasslands Bastard toad flax (Comandra umbellata) is a hemi-parasitic plant prominent in most of the remnant prairies at Nachusa Grasslands.  It is known to lightly parasitize most all of its neighbors.  Despite collecting thousands … Continue reading →

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Baseline vegetation survey linked to photos

Posted on November 14, 2019 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

By Bill Kleiman For a recently protected tract I developed a baseline vegetation protocol that seems doable, statistically sound, understandable, and visual. First I created numbered sequential random points.  There is a way to get GIS to randomize these points … Continue reading →

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Seed drier

Posted on November 7, 2019 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

by Bill Kleiman, Nachusa Grassland Project Director Updated April 2025 At Nachusa we hand harvest with scissors and buckets several thousand pounds of seed from a few hundred species of plants.  When we bring in our seed it typically needs … Continue reading →

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2019 Illinois Prescribed Fires Summary

Posted on October 31, 2019 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

July 2018 through June 2019 Summary of Illinois Prescribed Fires Accomplished By Bill Kleiman with map work of Dave Holman Our Fire Council map of Illinois Prescribed Fires Accomplished highlights our fire community on one interactive map. Below, the speckles … Continue reading →

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Adding seed

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

by Stephen Packard [Editor’s note:  For four decades Stephen Packard has been restoring a wide variety of sites.  His comments are notable, and blogposts are great.  I had asked Stephen for advice.   On a new acquisition, we are about to … Continue reading →

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