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Follow the tire tracks from the parking space at EELR north towards the crest of a hill and you will find several piles of yard waste that appear to have been dumped recently. I came across these piles on October 11th while pulling flags from summer experiments. Among the debris are many flowering stems of Echinacea purpurea.    Team Echinacea finished Total Demo today! That was a big undertaking. We visited 2640 locations to search for Echinacea plants in our remnant sites. But we’re not done with our remnants yet. Today we started de-mopup or demopup. In the likely event that we missed a few flowering Echinacea, we revisit each site to do a thorough search. I am not sure if we are as thorough as this AI puppy mopping the floor, but we strive to find the Echinacea Plants that no one else will find.  Let’s consult our total demometer to see how much progress we’ve made. The team has tackled some large sites in the past few weeks. We’ve made lots of progress! We’re about 45% done with all locs.  We are busy with fieldwork here in western MN! Between measuring, floral assessments, emergence trapping, searching for flowering plants, and finishing up our pollen and nectar collections, we have our work cut out for us… We’ve been making steady progress with total demo. As of this morning, we have completed 34% of the locs where we search for echinacea.  We’re making great progress with total demo! 18.9% done.  Total demo has commenced! Team Echinacea began to assess demography of flowering and non flowering Echinacea today! We started at tower, a site with a rich demographic history. We payed special attention to tag 9301- a plant first tagged in 1996. Many members of Team Echinacea have met this plant before. Including me last year. This year, 9301 is basal and has 4 rosettes. I hope it has many more fruitful summers in store. We’ve got 2,640 locations where we will search for Echinacea in 2024. Our work is cut out for us, but after just one morning in the field, we are already 3.75 % done!
 The beginning of flowering for Echinacea angustifolia means it’s time for Team Echinacea to get collect Echinacea pollen and nectar! This project is part of our MN ENRTF funded research to understand fire’s impacts on ground nesting bee habitat and food resources. It’s our second year of sampling and we have made some modifications and improvements to our protocol. This year we are collecting from a total of 62 plants across 12 sites (some burned in 2023, some in 2024, and a few not burned in either year). Where possible, we are collecting from plants that we also collected from last year, which will make for some interesting comparisons. Many plants did not re-flower in 2024, so Wyatt and I bolstered our sample by randomly selecting other focal plants. On Monday, Wyatt and I visited our first flowering focal plants with Grace and Rebecca from NDSU and tested out methods. We learned how to sample immature florets, a new method we are using to assess pollen quantity this year. We also brushed up on nectar and pollen collection.  By Tuesday we were able to train the whole team in on the protocol and start collecting! So far our data sheets have worked pretty well, and we are figuring out ways to improve efficiency in the field. Stay tuned as more of our focal plants begin to flower! Echinacea Project 2024 I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2023 with a B.S. in Botany and Environmental Studies. Since then I’ve worked with the Echinacea Project as a research assistant and lab manager. Pronouns: she/her/hers Research Interests I am interested in processes that impact mortality in plant populations, like woody encroachment. I also get to help manage our demographic database for Echinacea, and I’ve really enjoyed gaining skills in this area. Statement I am from Milwaukee Wisconsin and spent my undergrad years in Madison, WI where I got acquainted with some really special places that sparked my interest in prairies and plants In my spare time I like to bake pies, read books, climb rocks, swim in lakes, and grow my collection of knitting works in progress!  NU Work Study student, Maria, took on the task of xraying Andropongon samples for our project investigating fire’s impact on reproduction in big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii). We were about two samples in when we noticed that either this “lil box” containing samples was either very big or Maria had gotten very small.   Has this happened to anyone before? Members of Team Echinacea are freshly returned from a successful burn outing! We completed five experimental burns during our trip to western MN. A major win for the experimental design of our MN ENRTF funded research on prescribed fire and ground nesting bees as well as for conservation! Here is the scoop: Late Friday night we got to the Hjelm House and were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis. In hindsight, I think this auspicious sighting boded well for our good fortune in burning conditions. On Saturday morning we headed to Torgeson’s to burn the northern unit. Because it was predicted to be a dry day, we got an early start and were ready to burn by 10:45. We got to see lots of spring flora before the burn: pucoons, violets, sedges, pussytoes, etc… These plants will be even happier next year. With help from Lee, the burn went very smoothly. Torgeson’s is a hilly site, so the burn was slope driven and we had a great view. Things are pretty greened up in the area, so the burn was quite smoky. USFWS, who were burning a big restoration right next door must have been burning cattails- look at that thick, brown smoke coming from the other side of the road. Almost like we are having bonfires at neighboring campsites. Cute!  Next we ventured into Grant County. No burning there- and if you’ve been following along that may not be a surprise to you. So it was back to Douglas Co. After lunch the crew headed to hutch to burn the western unit. Another Hilly site. We prepped our breaks and were ready to go! Burn number 2 down! Sunday was a no-burn day because wildfire smoke from Canada was hanging over many counties in MN. A great day to get work done on the porch and venture into Morris to revisit old haunts. We anxiously awaited the next day’s updated report on burn restrictions. Monday morning we got the go ahead to burn in Grant county!! We called in our backups (former team members Daytona and Liam plus a few of Liam’s friends) and headed to Yellow Orchid Hill West to train our first time burners in at a smaller site. The wind was squirrely but our burn was successful and we were just a hop, skip and a jump away from the revered hulze unit. After 3 failed attempts, was this finally our day?  Yes! Drive down highway 55 and you will see for yourself! A hilly expanse of charred earth! A sight for sore eyes after the last burn way, way back in 2003. By this time, restrictions were lifted in Douglas Co. and the crew headed to Nice Island for a final burn before calling it a day and heading back to the farmhouse. Over Jean’s rhubarb cake we envisioned a utopian or maybe dystopian future on team Echinacea where we have a high tech call center and everything is drone operated. We’ll keep you posted on the call center and the rest of the burns we hope to get done this season. |
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