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Today was a busy day for the three of us: Kristen, Alex and I. But we got a lot done! I spent the morning at Staffanson working on Lea’s Liatris and Solidago phenology/harvest while Kristen and Alex did total demo at East of Town Hall. Later they shot a few extra plants at On 27 while I started remnant harvest. I only got through about half of the sites before heading back to the Hjelm House to meet up for lunch. We took a quick lunch and then got back at it. I finished up remnant harvest and then we started a few sling sites. Even with some GPS trouble, we got through seedling searches at KJ’s, NWLF, and ETH.
 Looking for seedlings at KJs.
Today was another chilly day at the Echinacea Project with highs reaching up into the low 60ºs. Tracie and I spent the morning working on harvesting Lea’s Aster Phenology at SPP. Many of the Liatris are finished flowering and ready for harvest, but some of the Solidago plants still have at least another month or two before they will be ready.
 Prenanthes racemosa In the afternoon we spent our time out at Stephen’s Approach working on more seedling refinds. Between Tracie and I, and later also Stuart and Alex it took us about 3 hours to complete 13 focal plants. This is one of the more challenging activities that we do at the Echinacea Project, however, the glory of finding one of last year’s plastic swords or toothpicks is immeasurable.
 Actual seedling refinds map found today. Luckily another map was found for the same site with the correct seedling locations.
Today Lea and the doggies left early in the morning to head back to Chicago. Kristen and I got up a bit later and decided to head for the cities. This was only my second time there, and Kristen’s first! We drove to Grand Ave in St. Paul and walked around looking at all the restaurants and shops there. We ate at a place called Colossal Cafe where we got some fancy grilled cheeses and portobello sandwiches. Once we finished up there, we went to the U to look around.
On our drive back to Andes we talked about how everything we were seeing used to be prairie. Kristen painted a nice picture of how it would have looked without all the trees and roads. After a day saying “uffdah!” so we could feel like we fit in, this was a circumstance for the ultimate uffdah. Would have been cool to see prairie for miles and miles.
Minneapolis, MN
Today was another relaxed Saturday. Each of us at Andes had a number of errands to run including the very important task of getting the doggies groomed and cleaned before heading back to Evanston! Lea took the doggies in to Bark n Bubble in town for an all over spa treatment.
Later in the evening Lea, Tracie, and I celebrated Lea’s last day by enjoying some wine and having a ladies night in.
Today was maybe the best weather day of the summer in my opinion, a nice breeze all day and just below 70 degrees. We took full advantage of the great weather and went to our Landfill remnant to finish doing total demo. We only did total demo on part of the site but, we still visited 687 previously flowering Echinacea and even found some never before seen individuals!
It didn’t take long to finish demo at the Landfill, so we did some miscellaneous jobs for the rest of the morning. In the afternoon we went to Hegg Lake WMA to find any remaining individuals of the treasonous Echinacea pallida. We found three pallida and quickly relieved them of their heads. One of the individuals we found appeared to have aster yellows, a disease that affects many species in the Aster family including E. angustifolia and E. pallida. It is possible that pallida, a non-native, could outcompete the native variety (hence the decapitation to prevent the spreading of achenes). So it is good to know that like our much loved Echinacea angustifolia, Echinacea pallida can get sick too!
 An E. pallida with what appears to be a case of aster yellows.
Today was a long but productive day. We started the morning getting trained in on seedling refinds. Although this particular task can be time-consuming, the pay off is great for data. By revisiting seedlings that were first found between four and seven years ago (and have been found every years since), we are able to better understand what the early life of an Echinacea plant is really like! Ruth, who came out to do fieldwork with us today, explained how the data we collect on these seedlings can be used with Aster modeling, and result in some pretty interesting scientific knowledge. This morning, we did all the seedling refinds at East Elk Lake Road. After lunch, and some delicious chocolate provided by Ruth, we headed out to complete a variety of tasks. Tracie and I went to Staffanson to look at the phenology of my Solidago and Liatris plants. After that, went to twenty different Echinacea plants at eight different sites, and completed plant community surveys within 4 square meters of each plant. We worked until about 6:30, then headed back to Andes for a delicious dinner and some much needed relaxation.
 Recognize this unusual-looking specimen?
Today was Tracie’s birthday! After a morning of individual projects due to rain, Gretel brought out a beautiful cake at lunch that was decorated in flowering heads of anything that was currently in bloom.
Tracie’s Birthday! We also realized that today was the last day of having a full ten people together at the project because Anna won’t be here for the next two days and Gretel and Ashley leave for the summer this weekend. Picture time!
 Team Echinacea 2017 After lunch the weather was still very wet and rainy, so we took the afternoon off. In the evening, the Andes Crew went out to a restaurant called Pike and Pint to continue the birthday celebration. When we returned home there was a lot of bustle in the kitchen to make a massive cinnamon roll cake!
Today we had a productive day! We started the day with staples and re-checks in p1, which as Will remarked today could at times be called, “pool 1”. Indeed, my pants were wet from boot to waist, and it took a few hours to dry off completely. After rechecks, we worked on computer work until lunch. It was at that point that 4 peach day passed and 3 peach day began. We measure days in peaches, Ashley’s peaches to be exact- never Alex’s peaches. It was also at lunch that I received a very clear notification regarding my flogging responsibilities, posted below.
 Look how confusing! After lunch, we spend a few hours working on independent projects. Tracie, Gretel, Kristen, and I headed to NRRX and RRX to work on some vegetation analysis. It was nice having Gretel, the local plant ID expert, help us with the data collection. Kristen also was a great help, she’s learning the Visor skills at lightening speed. Meanwhile, the rest of the team finished demo at RRX, and everyone had some independent project time. An interesting coincidence happened this afternoon- both Wes and I had a question about the identity of the same plant species. We both took photos, and luckily Gretel was able to help. Even with all of Gretel’s great clues about the ID, (“the epithet is a sauce you’ve made”) I couldn’t get it on my own and had to be told the ID!
Overall it was a great day, and I can only hope that the remainder of 3 peach day goes as nicely!
Ashley finds another Monarch caterpillar at Nice Island!
In the morning everyone split up and did separate projects. Tracie and I worked on aphid addition and exclusion. Alex did phenology. Ashley and Anna did demography at Railroad Crossing. Leah and Kristen went to Staffanson. Eventually, everyone came back and we all worked on putting in staples in experimental plot 1 to mark plants that haven’t been found in the last three years. While doing that, Alex found this awesome Black and Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia).
Argipe aurantia in P1 After lunch, everyone went back to P1 for an hour of placing staples. Then Leah and Tracie went out to work on their plant community analysis and Ashely, Will, Kristen, and I went to do demography at Railroad Crossing again. We finished staking all of the plants known to have flowered in the past and then had time to flag all of the new flowering plants. We just need to GPS the new flowering plants before we are done at Railroad Crossing.
Happy Monday!
 Kristen, Ashley, and Will doing total demography
Today was a nice cool and rainy day in Minnesota. I spent the day cooking and hanging out with the dogs while people went out and did various chores for the weekend. Wes played in a very rainy parade, too! We also got Andes all cleaned up and ready for Kristen! Kristen arrived around dinner time and we are all very excited that she’s joining the team this week! It will be nice to have a new team-member for the last third of the summer. All in all it was a nice relaxing weekend day, and the weather was beautiful even though it was very wet.
Rocks in the rain at Andes
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