Day one of the field season is done and we are so excited for what is sure to be a summer full of discovery. On our first observation trip, we visited two site, KJs and East Elk Lake.
The KJs field had trees on the edge of the field yet not inside of the field. Inside of the field there was not a lot of diversity within the plants, it was mostly clump warm season grasses. We saw some Stipa grasses in the field which were seeding. There were a few flowering plants, but on the whole the plants were not flowered. There was also some exposed soil and charcoal present, evidence of a burn.
We finished up at East Elk Lake, and the very first thing we noticed was several Echinacea plants! We counted 5 in total in a small stretch along the road. There were quite a few plants flowering in this plot, and the plants were about double the size as they were over at KJs. One stark difference between the two sites was while KJs had an abundance of clump grasses, East Elk Lake did not. This site has an abundance of the cool weather non-native Brome Grass spread throughout the site. There were also trees with healthy green leaves scattered throughout the site.
We are excited to continue to visit these sites and others throughout the season and watch the changes that occur as we creep further into summer!
Emma and Alex
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