I was asked to give a small presentation last week to the community stewards that do volunteer work on the site. They asked for an introduction to myself, as this was my first time with them, and a talk about upcoming goals. I figured a 15 min. talk, with a 30 min Q & A would suffice. It's always refreshing to see the passion these volunteers carry with them.
Prairie Chat:
Where does my interest in the prairie come from?
When you immerse yourself in a prairie you can feel so consumed, and yet so relaxed. That's what I love about it. There are absolutely tons of interactions going on. I find so much peace with that. It's like clockwork.
Within the soil we've got billions and billions of microbes doing unseen work that nourishes and stabilizes the soil structure. Above ground we've got everything photosynthesizing, crawling, hopping, flying, slithering, (plants, animals, arthropods, birds, reptiles). That bright thing in the sky is pretty important too.
All of these work in a lock and key sort of way. And I view us in the same way. We have to fit. We have to fit perfectly.
If we do nothing (and not restore what we've already turned into an ag field...), invasives would continue to thrive and block out our native prairie plants that gave us the best soil in the world (roots/climate).
Putting it another way, all species that were here living freely before we showed up, were already adapted to our specific biome. Then we came and shook things up quite a bit. That change we've created was/is very fast according to a plant species that's been around for centuries. They are not allowed enough time to adapt to us. Therefore, we need to embrace that, and be good stewards to the earth.
The other side of the spectrum is doing too much. If we don't keep the integrity of the land, we falter. If we're not precise with our invasive control treatments, we may harm everything we're trying to let thrive. Creating disturbance of any sort will result in favorable conditions for invasives.
If we have the knowledge, patience, identification skills, and passion, then I believe we fit perfectly.
Then I went into our Invasive schedule for the year, and an interesting Q&A session of which I'll detail both later on.
Prairie Chat:
Where does my interest in the prairie come from?
When you immerse yourself in a prairie you can feel so consumed, and yet so relaxed. That's what I love about it. There are absolutely tons of interactions going on. I find so much peace with that. It's like clockwork.
Within the soil we've got billions and billions of microbes doing unseen work that nourishes and stabilizes the soil structure. Above ground we've got everything photosynthesizing, crawling, hopping, flying, slithering, (plants, animals, arthropods, birds, reptiles). That bright thing in the sky is pretty important too.
All of these work in a lock and key sort of way. And I view us in the same way. We have to fit. We have to fit perfectly.
If we do nothing (and not restore what we've already turned into an ag field...), invasives would continue to thrive and block out our native prairie plants that gave us the best soil in the world (roots/climate).
Putting it another way, all species that were here living freely before we showed up, were already adapted to our specific biome. Then we came and shook things up quite a bit. That change we've created was/is very fast according to a plant species that's been around for centuries. They are not allowed enough time to adapt to us. Therefore, we need to embrace that, and be good stewards to the earth.
The other side of the spectrum is doing too much. If we don't keep the integrity of the land, we falter. If we're not precise with our invasive control treatments, we may harm everything we're trying to let thrive. Creating disturbance of any sort will result in favorable conditions for invasives.
If we have the knowledge, patience, identification skills, and passion, then I believe we fit perfectly.
Then I went into our Invasive schedule for the year, and an interesting Q&A session of which I'll detail both later on.
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