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ErythroniumNewsletter of the Iowa Native Plant Society vol. 18 no. 2 December 2012
Table of ContentsLeaves from the President’s Notebook ...............page 2IPN Region 5 Winter Meeting ............................page 3Annual Meeting Minutes ....................................page 5Grant Reports ......................................................page 7Membership Form ......................................... back page
Frost Aster, Our Most Unappreciated WildflowerBy Carl Nollen, [email protected]
It is truly the last rose of summer. Not botanically, of course, but figuratively.
Symphyotrichum pilosum, formerly Aster pilosus, commonly known as frost aster or hairy aster, blooms so late that it is passed by as a wildflower. Garden-ers yank it, not knowing what kind of weed they are pulling. This species will grow in bluegrass sod, but it will be mowed. And so, what survives will be found in prairies, ungrazed spots in pastures, or any other forgotten or ignored places.
Some of us may remember Erma Bombeck’s 1976 bestselling book, The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank. In 2010 I had an entirely new septic system installed, and I decided to let the former lawn grow wild to see what would come.
That summer the rain came down in many inches and the ditches for the laterals became canals overflow-ing with rain water. Weeks passed before dirt could be filled in. Last summer’s growth was unremarkable. This year, my beautiful wasteland of “my weeds” was dominated by frost aster, mares tail (Conyza canaden-sis) and Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis). Growing tall and thick, they became a garden remark-able by fall.
After the frost had killed other flowers, the frost aster remained blooming. I walked through my little plot to find hundreds of bees and wasps of many species crawling all over the white panicles. This experience was the highlight of Indian summer for me. Beauty is there for those who seek it.
You can find many pages written about our wild asters in Honey Plants of Iowa, by L. H. Pammel and Charlotte M. King, Iowa Geological Survey Bulle-tin no. 7, Des Moines, 1930. “Whoever visits in the field or woodland a group of asters during the period of full bloom witnesses a scene of interesting and beautiful activities, opening his eyes to the myriad
inter-relationships in nature. No more lovely sight may be found than the insect visitors busily at work upon a softly-brilliant mass of aster bloom on a bright September day.” The origins of specimens in the Iowa State College Herbarium are listed, along with a full black and white photo of a frost aster. A more recent book, my favorite wildflower book because it is so comprehensive, is Wildflowers of Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Region, 2nd ed., 2009, by Merel R. Black & Emmet J. Judziewicz, University of Wisconsin Press. Here are 20 species of Symphyotrichum cov-ered in color.
Frost aster is an excellent cut flower. After that, it lasts for months as a dried flower.
There is another possible use. Botanist Pauline Drob-ney has been seen wearing them as hair pieces on her braids.
from: Britton and Brown’s New Illustrated Flora, 1952
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President:Linda Scarth1630 Wildwood Drive, NECedar Rapids, IA 52402-4724319-366-6817, [email protected]
Vice President:Open
Secretary/Treasurer:Peter HoehnleIowa Valley RC&D920 48th Ave., Amana, IA [email protected]
Representatives-at-large:Dianne Blankenship737 Buckwalter DriveSioux City, IA 51108-9506712-255-3447, [email protected]
Lloyd Crim1750 140th Street, Boone, IA 50036515-432-5026, [email protected]
Rose Danaher1302 Glendale, Ames, IA 50010641-919-3783, [email protected]
Pauline Drobney11302 W 125th Street S, Prairie City, IA 50228, [email protected]
Connie Mutel2345 Sugar Bottom Rd NE, Solon, IA 52333319-624-3798; [email protected]
Issues/Action Committee:Jane Clark9871 Lincoln Ave, Clive, IA 50325515-223-5047, [email protected]
Newsletter/Historian:Deborah Q. LewisDept. EEOB, ISU, Ames, IA 50011-1020515-294-9499, [email protected]
Newsletter Layout:Lisa [email protected]
Printed on recycled paper.
Leaves of the President’s NotebookTaken by surprise when asked to run for president of the INPS, I
thought about it for several hours and then with some trepidation, said yes. For starters, I am not a botanist, but a photographer who admires native flora and fauna and the specialists who study them and who teach the rest of us. Some of our (my husband, Bob and me) best images have been made while following the people who really know what may still be found here in Iowa. We hope that our images are ambassadors for the native plants here and wherever else we find them.
I am of the opinion that people have to know and be moved by something to care for and protect it. The INPS exists not only to lead in protecting native plants and their environments but to lead others to admire, find pleasure and want to insure resources are applied to these efforts. Those of us who find it hard to imagine a world without the beauty and ‘environmental services’ of native plants often have a story or memory of when we became aware of our admiration for some aspect of nature.
Among my early memories are going with my father to cut some pussy willow wands along small creeks in early spring, near my hometown in north-central Wisconsin when I was perhaps 4 or 5 years old. Later my treks to the back of our small farm were to crawl through the fence to sit on my ‘island’ in a neighbor’s woods. It was a regrowth of birch, maple and other small trees interspersed with small boggy wet areas. My ‘island’ was a hummocky area among three trees. In early May the mayflowers – rue anemone, spring beauty, hepatica, occasional trilliums – were in full bloom. I would sit on a hummock surrounded by what I thought, as a dreamy preado-lescent, was the most beautiful place on earth. A few years ago, on my final visit to the farm, I also went up to the woods to admire (and photograph) the fall color of another generation of regrowth woods. Change sometimes is more of the same.
There are also recent stories of discovery and pleasure which we need to tell one another and the rest of the world. The stories of deg-radation, abuse and exploitation of the natural world are so common and have dulled people’s responses. Stories of hope, successes and renewal are in short supply. We need some of those also.
An influential recent memory is from the Loess Hills Seminar about five years ago. It is a variation on the advice to “stop and smell the roses.” We were walking on a steep hill from which the cedars had been removed a few years before. I remember my surprise and de-light when I found the first green milkweed (Asclepias viridiflora) I had knowingly ever seen. The cream, pale old rose and green flowers looked like bouquets of tiny Grecian pillars. I had to hurry to make a few images when I heard someone call that the group was moving on.
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One of those images made it into Deep Nature: Photo-graphs from Iowa a couple of years later. It remains a favorite.
My hope is that I can encourage INPS members to influence the future by remembering the past. What lit a spark or planted the seed that began your interest in native plants and their companions? Send me an email with your anecdote and with your permission they will find a place in the next newsletter. Stories tie genera-tions and colleagues together.
Linda Loos Scarth
Iowa Prairie Network Region 5 Winter MeetingWhen: February 2, 2013 – doors open at 11, first
presentation starts at noon, wrap-up by 5PM
Where: Ankeny Campus, Building 7, Des Moines Community College
Cost: free admission
More Info: www.iowaprairienetwork.org, [email protected], 515.250.1693
This annual event will once again feature a silent auction fundraiser: proceeds from all sales and dona-tions will go to support for the State Preserves system. Two prairie preserves (selected by the Iowa Depart-ment of Natural Resources) will benefit from develop-ment of new management plans and follow-up onsite work (scrub and invasive species removal), all funded by the silent auction donations. This is a great fit for the Iowa Prairie Network’s mission to “learn about, teach about, enjoy and protect” prairies.
Important note: if you would like to donate new or gently used nature-themed items to the silent auc-tion…thanks! But please let us know ahead of time; we often have a logjam of people bringing in items at the start of the day. If we know prior to the event we can have your item entered in our database, making for a much more streamlined process.
We will also have some presentations and displays. We are still firming up the agenda, but will have a review of the accomplishments of Living Roadway Trust Fund and the Integrated Roadside Manage-ment Program (triggered by the retirements of Steve Holland and Kirk Henderson) and a session on the common questions and problems encountered when establishing prairie. The latter will have a follow-up display area for attendees to visit, covering topics like developing seed mixes, invasive species, prescribed fire, etc. Our large display area will have displays from numerous fellow Iowa conservation organiza-tions, photographers, a book sale area manned by volunteers from the Neal Smith National Wildlife Area bookstore, and much more. Join us for a winter day of prairie camaraderie.
Have You Paid Your 2013 INPS Dues?Native plants may be hibernating, saving their energy
for a beautiful show next year. Before you settle in for the winter, please renew your membership (or join) the Iowa Native Plant Society. A membership form pdf is linked to this INPS web site:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~herbarium/inps/docs/membershipform.pdf
Currently, basic membership dues remain at $10. However, if you prefer to receive a printed copy of the newsletter in the mail, we are requesting a voluntary contribution of $5 to cover these costs. This will allow a greater percentage of our dues income to go toward the INPS Grant Program and other INPS projects for education, habitat protection, research, etc. Also, please know that any contributions above-and-beyond your dues will be put to good use in these projects – thank you!
Send your dues and any contributions to:Peter Hoehnle,IA Valley RC&D,920 48th AveAmana, IA 52203
Remember that your membership supports the INPS Grant Program, among other activities!
Leaves of the President’s Notebookcontinued
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Need a Holiday Gift Idea – Give Books/Publications on Iowa Natural HistoryIf you are looking for a holiday gift idea, consider
giving a copy of one (or all!) of these publications, which are available from the University of Iowa Press: Deep Nature: Photographs from Iowa, photos by Linda and Robert Scarth, text by John Pearson (see note about this book below) Forest and Shade Trees of Iowa by Peter van der Lin-den and Donald Farrar or any of these by Thomas Rosburg: Trees in Your Pocket, Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie, and Wild-flowers of Iowa’s Woodlands Note that Tom’s Trees in Your Pocket, one of the fold-ing, laminated guides, is hot-off-the-press! Check out the other “In Your Pocket” guides, as well!
Or add them to your own holiday “wish list”! (If any recent natural history publications were missed here, accept our apologies, and we’ll be happy to announce them in the next issue of Erythronium.)
Deep Nature: Photographs from IowaEd Alverson, an employee of The Nature Conservan-
cy in Eugene, Oregon, wrote a very positive review of Deep Nature: Photographs from Iowa, the beauti-ful book featuring the photography of Linda (INPS President) and Bob Scarth and the written text John Pearson. The review appeared in Natural Areas Jour-nal volume 32, issue 4; if permission is granted and space allows, we’ll reprint the review in the next issue of Erythronium.
INPS Award to Diana HortonDiana Horton was honored at INPS’s 2012 Annual
Meeting with a special award: an extended grant to fund burns at Rochester Cemetery in east-central Iowa. INPS is now funding a total of three years of such burns - one year through a grant application submitted by Casey Kohrt and Pete Kollasch, and two more years of funding for the same in Diana’s honor. Diana, Casey, and Pete have all been instrumental in restoring and maintaining the vegetation at the cem-etery, which is one of the best remaining savanna rem-nants in the Midwest. Diana also wrote a flora of this prime natural area and a landscape history of the area.
Many know Diana as the one who established (in 2004) and maintains the INPS listserve - one of our premier efforts. But Diana is also a charter member of INPS and served as its treasurer from 2001-2005. She has been passionate in defending Iowa’s natural areas and native flora, and she has trained students in the same passion for the nearly 30 years that she was teaching at the University of Iowa, where she is now an emeritus professor of botany. Diana, a plant taxonomist specializing in bryophytes, was curator of the UI’s herbarium from 1983 to 2004. She has been generous in sharing her expertise and in fostering a love and respect for our native plants. Thank you for all you have done, Diana! We hope that this award in your honor helps you realize the esteem we feel for your fine efforts!
List of Prairie CemeteriesI have compiled a list of cemeteries in Iowa and
Nebraska that have native prairie plants in them. Some are excellent, some only have a few plants. Cemeteries can be visited without permission, making it a lot eas-ier to visit. The list contains the county, nearest inter-section and GPS lat/long coordinates. A quality rating is available for some, at least the ones I have visited. I rated then from 1 to 10 (very few make 9). I have at least two more to visit and will take more input from you. The list is up to 50 and in Excel format. Contact me if you would like a copy. Glenn [email protected]
Deep Nature: Photographs from Iowa, by Linda and Robert Scarth, essays by John Pearson
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INPS Annual Meeting MinutesJune 23, 2012President Brian Hazlett called the meeting to order
during the lunch break, between field trips at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge.
Twenty eight people attended the business meeting. Several more participated in the morning walks.
Connie Mutel reported on the grants programs. She announced the current recipients and also described the new Restore Iowa! grant and its first recipient. She also announced that Diana Horton is being honored by having the grant for the burning of parts of Rochester Cemetery extended for two more years of burns than requested in their grant application.
Dianne Blankenship then reported on INPS finances and membership since the treasurer was unable to at-tend. Dianne also told about the website, noting that Liz Blankenship Aderhold posts the information from several board members and that Dianne collects pho-tos from field trips and posts events on the calendar.
Deb Lewis reported on the newsletter and costs of mailing. A discussion followed regarding encourag-ing even more people to receive e-newsletters instead of having them mailed. There seemed to be general agreement about this, and members indicated a will-ingness to pay more for membership and to have members receiving printed announcements pay a higher membership fee.
Dianne asked about the thank you notecards that people receive for renewing their membership or for joining. She suggested that people could simply receive an email confirmation instead, but those who receive mailed notices would still need to receive a mailed confirmation. Linda Scarth suggested that cards just be mailed to new members, and that seemed to be a very good idea.
Connie mentioned that there has been some con-fusion about the INPS listserv – about whether it comes automatically with membership and also, that some people have had difficulty getting onto it. With changes in membership fees, there will be new bro-chures created, so more detailed information about the listserv will be on the new brochure and it can also be updated on the website. The treasurer information also needs to be updated on the membership brochure. People were encouraged to take some of the existing
ones and disperse them to good locations.
The input from the discussions will be used by the board to make final decisions as to any changes.
Brian let all know that he was stepping down as president and that Linda Scarth had agreed to take on that role.
Dianne thanked Brian Hazlett for serving as president since May of 2006, noted the many steps forward that INPS had made during his tenure, and presented him with a certificate of appreciation. She then introduced Linda and noted her history with INPS and more gen-erally her photography of native flowers and her book with her husband, Robert, and their blog.
The meeting was adjourned and, since a prairie re-construction and sedge meadow restoration had been visited in the morning, a savanna restoration was the field trip for the afternoon.
Pauline Drobney and Karen Viste-Sparkman were great hostesses at Neal Smith NWR and provided much useful information as leaders during the field trips.
Respectfully submitted by Dianne Blankenship
Eryngium yuccifolium, rattlesnake-master, from INPS annual meeting and field trip to Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, photo by Jen Dixon
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It is time to set up 2013 field trips and events!The Iowa Native Plant Society sponsored many field
trips in 2012. We hope to hear from members about field trips they would like to offer or attend in 2013.
This is a summary of the 2012 field trips and INPS supported events. Fortunately, most of the field trips were before the full impact of the heat and the drought was evident.
April 14 - Oak Hickory Woodland in Crawford County led by Glenn Pollock
Iowa Wildflower Week (IWW) – May 6-12
Rochester Cemetery Garlic Mustard Pulls in Cedar County – several were announced on the INPS calen-dar on the website
May 8 – Stone State Park Carolyn Benne Trail in Woodbury County led by Dianne and Bill Blankenship
May 11 – Ledges State Park Lichen Trail and Wood-land Trail in Boone County led by John Pearson and Bill Zales
May 12 – Hamilton-Tapken Prairie in Jones County led by Larry Gillett, Ray Hamilton, and Michele Olson
May 17 – Ada Hayden Heritage Prairie in Story County led by Deb Lewis
May 19 – Daubendiek Prairie in Chickasaw County and a private savanna in Howard County led by Laura Jackson
May 24 – Doolittle Prairie Walks in Story County began and were repeated on June 28, July 26, and August 23 and all led by Lloyd Crim
June 1-3 – the 36th annual Loess Hills Prairie Semi-nar in Monona County with many sessions led by INPS board members and members with support from INPS
June 9 – Hayden Prairie in Howard County led by Mark Leoschke
June 23 – INPS Annual Meeting and Field Trips at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Jasper County led by Pauline Drobney and Karen Viste-Sparkman
July 14 – David Gossman’s remnants and restora-tions in Jackson County led by David Gossman
September 15 – Remembering Dorothy Baringer (Prairie Visit) and Woodland Trail Hike with Don Far-
rar at the Iowa Arboretum in Boone County (for Iowa Prairie Heritage Week – September 9-15)
Thank you to all the people who made the 2012 field trips possible and also to those who attended.
Please email your requests for and offers of field trips for 2013 to Dianne Blankenship. Also, email any announcements about field trips or events related to Iowa’s native plants so they can be placed on the calendar on the website, and check the calendar often!
INPS sponsors Iowa Wildflower Week in May. This year the dates are April 28 to May 4, but wildflower events held close to that week will also be included in the publicity. The aim is to have many events all over the state, introducing new people to an appreciation of wildflowers and nature in Iowa. The Loess Hills Prai-rie Seminar will be held May 31 – June 2, 2013. Iowa Prairie Heritage Week, sponsored by the Iowa Prairie Network, will be held during the week of September 8-14 in 2013.
Dianne Blankenship [email protected]
Apply for INPS Grants NowThe end of the semester approaches, and thoughts of
field work may be fading. But the spring will be here soon. INPS would like to help you with your efforts to bolster Iowa’s native plant populations. Please con-sider applying for one of our two types of grants.
Our “Small Grants,” which provide funds to assist with:- Land acquisition - Inventory, restoration, management of natural areas
(but not prairie reconstruction)- Research - Training and education
Or our new “Restore Iowa!” grant program, which is focused on getting Iowa’s youth out to work on ecological restoration efforts.
Basic information for both grant programs can be found in the INPS website, under “Grants”: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~herbarium/inps/grants.php
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. The applications are due by January 15. Thanks, I’m looking forward to hearing from you! Connie Mutel, INPS grants chair
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INPS’s first RESTORE IOWA! grant, awarded in 2012:INPS was very pleased to award our very first Re-
store Iowa! grant this past year. In coming years, we hope to see additional applications with creative ideas for getting Iowa’s youth involved with the land and with restoration efforts.
Bog Restoration at Indian Creek Nature Center ($1000); Beverly A. Grindeman-Adams (Metro High School) and Indian Creek Nature Center, Cedar Rapids
The Iowa Native Plant Society grant allowed Metro Alternative High School to partner with the Indian Creek Nature Center and incorporate land restoration work as the primary focus of a bog restoration and ser-vice learning class. Class members came to the Nature Center once a week throughout the spring semester and worked to restore an area that was once an ancient bog and oak savanna. They learned about how inva-sive species are negatively impacting Iowa woodlands, how erosion and soil compaction are devastating to soil quality and plant growth, and how too much shade limits the diversity of the plants and animals that can thrive in an area. The students primarily focused on clearing barberry, multiflora rose, and honeysuckle shrubs from the area. The students had a lot of fun and they developed a much better idea of what hard work is, and how important caring for the land is. They also helped identify larger inappropriate trees to be cut. Because of their work, a volunteer team from General Mills was able to come into the area and cut out those
trees. The students also stabilized a sandy, eroding ravine in the area. The majority of the grant money was given to the students (juniors and seniors) in the form of scholarship aid for college. Three new loppers were purchased to allow all of the students to work at the same time.
Reports on 4 “Small Grants Program” awards made in 2012:Prescribed Burning at Rochester Cemetery 2012
($500); Casey Kohrt and Pete Kollasch
Rochester Cemetery is a well-known ecological gem in Cedar County in East-Central Iowa. It is an active cemetery and a White-Oak Savanna. Management of the cemetery in the past has been with two mowings per year. A number of invasive species threaten the diversity of the cemetery. Control has been done by hand pulling, mowing, and cutting and spraying. Pre-scribed fire is a tool that has recently been made available with permission from the Cemetery Board of Trustees. The INPS grant will allow us to get pre-scribed fire done in select areas in the cemetery.
On November 27th, 2012, prescribed burns were conducted on three units at the cemetery, for a total of about two acres. The burns were performed by EarthView Environmental, LLC. Participants were Chant Eicke as burn boss, along with two of his em-ployees who volunteered their time, Hollis Weber and Reid Stamer, along with Friends of Rochester Cem-etery members Pete Kollasch and Casey Kohrt. The three areas burned were all on the south side of the road. They include the big open prairie to the west (in
Indian Creek Nature Center bog restoration project, photo by Beverly Grindeman-Adams
November prairie burn at Rochester Cemetery Prai-rie, photo by Chant Eicke
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the swale), the southeast corner of the cemetery, and the west end of central hill. The central hill had been burned previously and half of it was selected to burn again to assess the effects of repeat burning. One is-sue the trustees were concerned about is that after the first burn there was a flush of Ambrosia trifida, which was then mowed in mid summer. Informal monitor-ing of these three sites will continue next year.
Evaluation of Techniques for the Restoration of Sedge Meadow Vegetation ($500); Jennifer Ander-son-Cruz and Dr. Arnold van der Valk
This project addresses a longstanding problem with wetland restoration and mitigation projects in the Upper Midwest, the failure of sedge meadow com-munities to develop. Our main project goal is to develop practical guidelines for establishing sedge meadows using seeds. To this end, an experimental study is being done of major abiotic (soil moisture, planting time) and biotic (seeding schedule, seed den-sity) factors, which affect seed germination and thus the establishment of sedge meadows from seed.
For each factor, there are two treatment levels. Al-together, there will be eight treatments replicated five times. An experimental unit (replicate) will consist of a mesocosm filled with sterilized wetland soil and planted with a sedge meadow seed mix. The meso-cosms will be arranged in a randomized block design on an Iowa State University irrigation farm near Ames. Each mesocosm will be connected to the farm’s water supply system. The vegetation in each mesocosm will be monitored using cover estimates and shoot counts, and at the end of the study the mesocosms will be harvested to measure biomass. A workshop on sedge meadow restoration will be held in the last year (2015) of the study for personnel from private and public entities involved in wetland restoration planning and implementation.
The INPS provided funding to purchase mesocosms for the soil moisture treatment of this study, while the Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS), North Central Chapter of the SWS, ISU Lois H. Tiffany Scholar-ship, and Environmental Protection Agency provided funding for the remainder of the study. Currently, the mesocosm complex is being assembled and seed is being cold-moist stratified prior to spring planting.
We would like to extend or most sincere thanks to the INPS for your support and we look forward to sharing updates throughout the study.
Trio of BioBlitzes at Iowa Wildlife Center ($500); Marlene Ehresman
The Iowa Wildlife Center (IWC) rehabilitates native Iowa wildlife; teaches about Iowa’s wild lives and wild lands; and trains wildlife assistance providers. We were awarded $500 from the Iowa Native Plant Society for our “Trio of BioBlitzes” project. We are extremely grateful!
IWC will create a stewardship plan for WildWay, our 75 acres near Ledges State Park. We have begun restoring parts of the savanna and woodland by re-moving undesirable trees and will eventually restore wetland and prairie. Knowing the species present on the site now will help us make better management decisions.
A BioBlitz is a family-friendly 24-hour race to find as many species as possible in various taxonomic groups (ex: birds, plants, fungi, insects, mammals) that live in a certain area. For each BioBlitz, we sought team leaders who would bring their equipment and expertise about a particular taxonomic group to the event. These “Specialists” would lead “Taxon Teams”, made up of people with knowledge that ranged from a little to a lot, into the field to find and identify species. About 50 people registered for each of the events. Dr. Thomas Rosburg, Drake University Biodiversity Center, was integral to the success of the project through both his collaboration during the plan-ning stages of this event series and during BioBlitzes 2 and 3 by bringing his expertise as leader of the Plant Taxon Team.
While our species list is not yet complete, the Taxon Teams identified at least 222 species at BioBlitz 1, 311 species at BioBlitz 2 and over 300 species at BioBlitz 3. At BioBlitz 2 alone, Dr. Rosburg and his curi-ous Taxon Team found and identified over 200 plant species, including some uncommon ones. A few of the plant species found: Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), Round-headed Bush Clover (Lespedeza capitata), Ladies’-Tobacco (Antennaria plantaginifo-lia), Creeping Fragile Fern (Cystopteris protrusa) and Water Star Grass (Heteranthera dubia).
Reports on Small Grants Programcontinued
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The Vascular Flora of Anderson Prairie State Preserve (Emmet County, IA) ($500); Thomas Ros-burg, Philip Bice, Aubrie James
Anderson Prairie is a 200-acre preserve located near the northwestern margin of the Des Moines Lobe land-form region just northwest of Estherville in Emmet County. It was dedicated as an Iowa state preserve in 1984. The prairie supports a wide variety of prairie habitats (both remnant and restored) ranging from dry, gravely hilltops to wet swales and marshes as well as upland and lowland forests.
Anderson Prairie was identified as one of the state preserves in need of a floristic inventory by the Iowa State Preserves Board in 2012. A site-wide floristic inventory is the primary goal of the research summa-rized in this report. More specifically the objectives include: Collection of vouchers of plant species ob-served for verification, preparing maps that delineate vegetation types and locations of priority plant popu-lations, preparing a list of all vascular plant species currently present with comments on abundance, listing all priority plant species, utilizing the Iowa Coeffi-cients of Conservatism to assess floristic quality, and preparing a technical paper and paper for publication that focuses on the flora of the Anderson Prairie State Preserve.
Field work was conducted on March 30 to April 1, May 5 to 9, June 15 to 19, August 11 to 15, and Sep-tember 14 to 16. There are a total of 379 accessions (including some duplicates). Approximately 216 spe-cies have been verified by either Dr. Thomas Rosburg or Dr. William Norris. Field maps have been produced that delineate the extant plant associations.
Identification of plant vouchers is ongoing. When completed, their identity will be checked and verified by Dr. Rosburg. Maps of the plant associations will be digitized in GIS. Data compilation and summary, text and table preparation and creation of figures will get underway in the next couple months and will contrib-ute to the final report.
Linking to Native Plant InformationSometimes it is more productive to go to a particular
web site than to depend on a search engine to find the most useful sites. The INPS expects to add a page of useful links to the web site.
I have been collecting sites and sorting through the multitude of ‘favorites’ we have saved on our comput-ers over the years. The dead links have slowed me down. Many of them are dead because the agency or organization has restructured its directories and file-names. I decided this would be a winter job for which I am asking for help from all INPS members and friends. Please send me any links that you find useful and think others will also.
Here are a few examples of ones that may be useful to you. They have been for me.
VTree ID – Virginia Tech Dept of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/factsheets.cfm
Recommended Plant Lists – The Prairie Landscapes of Iowa (Inger Lamb) http://prairielandscapes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=70
Celebrating Wildflowers – US Forest Service http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/
Ecosystem Valuation http://www.ecosystemvaluation.org/default.htm
Illinois Wildflowers http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/index.htm
Invasive Plant Atlas of the United States http://www.invasiveplantatlas.org/index.html
Linda Loos Scarth, [email protected]
Fiery Friend of the ForestAuthor, natural historian and INPS board member
Connie Mutel wrote a wonderful article about burn-ing to improve oak woodland health in the September/October issue of Iowa Outdoors. In the article, she describes both the why and the how of successfully burning her oak woodland and the work of the burn crew that helped make it possible. Also, on the INPS website, there is a link to a video of Connie’s No-vember 2011 woodland burn. Check out both of these resources!
Reports on Small Grants Programcontinued
Membership Form Name:
Address:
City, State: Zip code: County:
Phone:
Email Address:
Membership categories and dues: $10 Member, please add $5 for receiving newsletter by US Post
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Send with your dues to: Peter Hoenle, IA Valley RC&D, 920 48th Avenue Amana, IA 52203Additional information or special interest for member directory entry
____Check here if you do not wish to have this information published in the INPS member directory.
The INPS mailing list is never distributed to other organizations or companies. Dues are payable on a calendar year basis from January 1 to December 31. Please use this form for changes of address.* Annual contributions over $10 are tax deductible. Iowa Native Plant Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organi-zation.
NEWSLETTERIowa Native Plant Societyc/o Deb LewisDepartment of EEOBIowa State University340 BesseyAmes, IA 50011-1020
