On a smokey, eerie day, a mysterious group of travelers washed ashore the porch of Hjelm–to no ones surprise of course… it was planned! This week Team Echinacea was visited by St. Olaf Colleges Natural Lands Team, and Student Reserachers from St. Olaf and Carleton College! The guest team was happy to help us out with measuring, and the even bigger goal of finishing ExPt02!
On the first day, we were unfortunately smoked out for a few hours, but that just meant that we had more time to get to know each other and help the new team get a hand on the Visors! After our ice breakers and lunch, we headed out to ExPt02 and got the new group accustomed with our surroundings and Echinacea angustifolia. Our day ended with 36 completed rows!
That eve, the visiting team was so gracious to let us cook them dinner–which was an awesome taco bar. We chatted, gossiped, and schemed the evening activities around the dinner table. That night, we swam, kayaked, canoed, and exercised our entomologist brains.
The next, and final day, we hit the day running, finishing ExPt02–all before lunch! With little time after our meal, we visited Staffanson’s Prairie Preserve and wandered to our hearts content. Finally, we wished our friends goodbye, wishing to have another similar gathering soon.
Overall, we were not sure how well a new team would behave in a new environment doing research on a plant they have little knowledge about, but our expectations were surpassed. The visiting team helped us complete one of our highest priorities for the summer in two days! They were happy and willing to learn in such a short span of time. We estimate that it took ~84 person-hours to complete–which would have taken our 4 person team, approximately 4 days. Again, we thank the St. Olaf Natural Lands Team and the St. Olaf and Carleton Student Researchers for coming to learn about the prairie and helping build this important data set.
Please feel free to read more about Experimental Plot 02 on this website by searching “ExPt02”. Attached is the protocol we used to collect data during during the 2026 field season.
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