And then there were four

We had the smallest crew of the season yet today with Lea’s departure and Stuart still being in Chicago. Nevertheless, James, Scott, Will, and I managed to get a few things done today. We had a late start after flash flood warnings in Douglas County until 9:30. We made the best of the wet conditions and did some weeding of thistle and bird’s foot trefoil in p1. After things had dried out a little, we split up and harvested heads in the remnants. We reconvened for lunch. In the afternoon, Will and I went to Staffanson to harvest the ‘sppBonus’ plants, which are a sample of plants that have flowered in both burn and non-burn years that we harvest in addition to our regular remnant harvest. We found all of our target plants, which was a little trickier than anticipated because so many of the heads on the west unit had been toppled by weevils or grazed. Meanwhile, Scott and Jame went to Landfill and On27 to finish up harvest there. Once they finished, they met Will and I at Staffanson to work on total demo. We estimate that we are about halfway done with all demo at Staffanson. It is a big job! Fortunately, by now we are all experts and, also fortunately, the mosquitoes were not quite as bad as they were on Friday. That’s good because between the rest of demo and Lea’s phenology project we’ll be spending plenty more time there in the coming days!

Jame and friends