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.

Testing shows confounding results. A late spring application of clethodim on mature Reed Canary Grass did not work, but then a second round of clethodim did work.

Posted on July 24, 2025 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

By Bill Kleiman This is an update on an earlier post. It is good to do simple monitoring or testing to see if a weed treatment you are using works. I will describe the simple way I tested a herbicide … Continue reading →

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When to mow sweet clover to control it

Posted on June 19, 2025 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

By Bill Kleiman Yellow and white sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis and M alba) are on the invasive weed list of many natural areas managers. The plants are biennial, so on year two they bolt, bloom, and produce a lot of … Continue reading →

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Testing shows confounding results. A late spring application of clethodim on mature Reed Canary Grass did not work, but then a second round of clethodim did work.

Posted on June 5, 2025 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

By Bill Kleiman This is an update on an earlier post. It is good to do simple monitoring or testing to see if a weed treatment you are using works. I will describe the simple way I tested a herbicide … Continue reading →

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Spring beauty, spring clean up and biological pollution

Posted on May 1, 2025 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

By Bill Kleiman Spring beauty are one of the early wildflowers to come up in our oak woods. They are crazy beautiful making us thankful for spring.  Spring cleaning. Above is old junk dumped in a ditch that we are … Continue reading →

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Nachusa Grasslands Prescribed Fire Program Annual Report

Posted on April 17, 2025 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

By Bill Kleiman Below are a few highlights of our annual report. You can read the entire report with many more photos here: nachusa_grasslands_annual_fire_report_2024_2025_opt.pdf The bottom line: I have been walking around units we have burned this year to see … Continue reading →

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Trailering UTVs for fire work

Posted on April 3, 2025 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

by Bill Kleiman Is the trailer above a CDL setup? My daughter was telling me about how they need a Commercial Drivers License, CDL, to haul two UTVs on one trailer to their prescribed fires. I told her that there … Continue reading →

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Fire Breaks make or break you

Posted on February 14, 2025 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

By Bill Kleiman February is not the ideal time for us to prepare fire breaks. Frozen ant mounds are hard to mow. The mowed vegetation does not dry well if you want to rake and blow it. A tractor with … Continue reading →

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Save the Date! Grassland Restoration Network Workshop

Posted on January 23, 2025 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

September 10–11, 2025 Join us in Lawrence, Kansas, to share insights from grassland restoration work, research, and outreach while experiencing this unique ecotone region. Small remnant prairies in eastern Kansas host exceptional levels of plant diversity, and the combination of … Continue reading →

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Knife vs Hammer brush mulcher

Posted on January 2, 2025 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

By Bill Kleiman The last year we purchased a knife mulcher and have been comparing it to our 15 year old hammer mulcher.  This post is to compare knife vs hammer mulchers for these expensive attachments.   Link to a … Continue reading →

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Nachusa Grasslands hiring

Posted on December 5, 2024 by Grassland Restoration Network blog

We have upgraded our job description and increased the job category. So skip last weeks posting. Here is the text. Nachusa Grasslands Restoration Ecologist (CP VI) – 55997 – The Restoration Ecologist develops, manages, and advances conservation programs, plans, and … Continue reading →

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