80AcresOnline

Carbon sequestration is the trapping of atmospheric carbon (carbon dioxide) into some form where it can stay for decades.    Carbon sequestration occurs naturally by the actions of plants, especially long-lived vegetation, and in certain soils, where it’s deposited as slow-decaying organic matter.   Plants use sunlight to convert atmospheric carbon dioxide into the chemical that make up plant material–simple sugars, to start with, then starches and more complex chemicals when added to other nutrients.

Why is this of interest in wildlife management or prairie restoration?    The obvious reason is climate change caused by increasing carbon dioxide levels.    Carbon sequestration by changes in management of both public and private lands is one way to get carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere  and into plant materials.    Many of the things a land manager might do to promote wildlife or restore an original ecosystem (forest or grassland)  will have multiple benefits…including carbon sequestration.

Read the rest of this entry »

A few pictures from a week ago,  May 30, and also from yesterday, June 5, as what’s blooming and in what abundance changes rapidly–especially in the hot, dry weather we’re having.  (We did get 3/10 of an inch of rain.   It barely wet the ground.)

Variegated Fritillary, Euptoita claudia, on Gaillardia

Read the rest of this entry »

Near Meadow: Claspleaf Coneflower and Lemon Horsemint

Read the rest of this entry »

The basketflower, Centaurea americana, looks much like a thistle at first…but the stem and leaves are not prickly at all.    It’s a favorite of Black Swallowtail butterflies (and Giant Swallowtails, if there’s enough moisture for the flowers to last into summer) and many smaller butterflies.  And also other insects.

Beetle flying toward Basketflower already occupied by Black Swallowtail

Read the rest of this entry »

We have no permanent natural water on the place.   But when it does rain, we have a variety of temporary water sources, from the actual creek to the various overflow channels (some of concern because of erosion; others now pretty much “tamed.”)

Read the rest of this entry »

Some grasses should be planted just for the way they look with sunlight slanting through them in the fall.

This is one.  It’s one of the Muhlys, but I don’t know which.

Read the rest of this entry »

An introduction to some more of our “big” grasses, now flowering beautifully after the rain.   Two are climax tallgrasses, and one is (in my opinion) one of the most beautiful grasses in the country and deserves to be used more as a landscape accent.

Meet Lindheimer Muhly (Muhlenbergia Lindheimeri).  All the Muhlys are pretty grasses; some are more striking than others, but Lindheimer Muhly is the queen of the lot:

Read the rest of this entry »

Altogether, we’ve had 10 inches of rain since the big rain started.  Though it’s too late for some things, others have recovered well.

The yellow flowers are two-leaf senna, and the pink is the rose-oxalis that usually blooms in the early spring.

Read the rest of this entry »

Since habitat management is part of wildlife management, restoration of degraded or poor habitat is part of our job as wildlife managers.   The basic concepts were laid down years ago…but the devil’s in the details, as usual.   The July 31, 2009 Science had an entire section on restoration ecology, with examples drawn from around the world showing the benefits, costs, and difficulties in this field.  Especially with the advent of global warming.

Read the rest of this entry »

If land managers had ten thousand years to play with the land, prairie restoration would be a lot easier, even if they had to start with an overgrazed, eroded, compacted, heavily-invaded, polluted mess.  But we don’t.   So some basic principles have been laid down–initially during research on northern prairies–that now govern most prairie restoration projects: physical removal of invasive woody plants by fire (cheap) or various mechanical clearing methods (more expensive) ,  grazing management to interrupt succession, physical disturbance of the soil (discing, for instance) to induce germination of dormant seeds.

Read the rest of this entry »