Field notes on grassland and shrubland restoration, written for the people who specify, permit, and manage this work.
What a reference model is, and why it is not a photograph of the past. Why a seed mix that looked ideal on paper produced a stand of annual sunflower. How a little bluestem seedling spends its first summer building roots while the surface shows almost nothing. Which forbs pollinators select when offered a choice. Why ravens follow transmission lines across open country. What a soil test reveals about a pasture’s history before anyone offers an account of it. How a prairie planting shifts between year two and year five, and which species arrive on their own once the door is open.
Posts are grounded in field work and in the literature, with sources named. Limits are stated, since three seasons on one site supports a hypothesis and a portfolio tests it
Topics range from practical to strange. Why a seed mix that looked ideal on paper produced a stand of annual sunflower. How a little bluestem seedling spends its first summer building roots while the surface shows almost nothing. Which forbs pollinators select when offered a choice. Why ravens follow transmission lines across open country. What a soil test reveals about a pasture’s history before anyone offers an account of it. How a prairie planting shifts between year two and year five, and which species arrive on their own once the door is open.
Every post shows the data behind it: seeding rates and what established, species that persisted and species that dropped out, soil results, and monitoring across multiple growing seasons. Limits are stated, since three seasons on one site supports a hypothesis and a portfolio tests it.
