Prairie Information
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Prairie Information |
Reclaiming our Prairie Heritage can be a Walk in the Park - by Joel Dunnette
Do you like to see a field of mixed native flowers and grasses feeding our senses and wildlife?
Want to help Olmsted County parks have more beautiful and diverse prairies?
You can help make it happen. Some seed can be collected mechanically. But most plants’ seed must be collected by hand. So if we want restored prairies with high diversity, we need to hand collect their seed. And since seed of various species matures at different times, we need to be out there across several months.
But what a good excuse to spend a few hours outdoors! Seed collecting is literally a 'walk in the park' – walking in nature, lots of socializing, and a modest amount of light work. You should dress for walking through prairie vegetation on uneven ground.
The collecting schedule is as follows (in case of damp weather, the session will be cancelled).
Sunday, August 22, 2-5pm: meet at the contact station just inside the park entry
- likely species: Black-eyed Susan, Harebell, sedges, Flowering Spurge,
Leadplant, Prairie Larkspur, minor grassesThursday, September 9, 1-4pm: meet at the contact station just inside the park entry
- likely species: Black-eyed Susan, Harebell, Flowering Spurge, Leadplant,
White Wild Indigo, White Prairie Clover, Side-oats Grama, Thimbleweed, Ground CherrySaturday, September 25, 1:30-4:30pm: meet at kiosk near the boat landing (led by Ruthann Yaeger)
- likely species: LOTS, this is peak time!Thursday, October 7, 1-4pm: meet at the contact station just inside the park entry
- likely species: Lots, still peak timeSaturday, October 23, 12:30 - 3:30pm: meet at office/maintenance building (part of Friends of Chester Woods workday)
- likely species: several, especially asters and roses
If you have questions call Joel at 269-7064.
Even if you cannot make it on the scheduled collection dates, you can still help! Chester Woods and Oxbow parks have developed seed collection guide sheets for about 40 species. Each sheet has pictures of the plant in bloom and in seed, as well as instructions on collection and maps to sites where the species is found in each park. Some experience collecting prairie plant seed is useful, but not required. You can contact the parks to borrow a sheet or two and collect prairie seed on your own!
The Nature Conservancy’s Weaver Dunes preserve also has seed collection trips on 2-3 weekends each month. Weaver Dunes is a large and scenic sand prairie near the Mississippi River between Kellogg and Weaver. It has some unusual plants and animals and can be quite an experience to visit.