On our bikes, Amy and I crested the hill on Dairy Drive and received a view of the fields below. Somewhere below us would be the Nessman study site. We biked along the road to find the study site and ran into a dairy farm with very cute cows. After some deliberation and consultation of the map, we turned around and arrived at the Nessman Study Site. As Amy looked out over the study site straining her eyes for an Echinacea angustfolia, she noted the large amount of brome present next to the road. She then looked into the field beyond where she observed a distinct line between the brome and another field. Amy said that it is likely that there has been some sort of grazing or agriculture on that field because of the uniform height of grasses and other plants in that area. Out in the field Amy was brokenhearted when she realized that we could only identify invasive plants such as dandelions and Poa. Although there was mostly invasives in the field we could hear and see many birds in the surrounding area. A small bumblebee even joined us as we observed the large field. With her knowledge of geology and construction processes Amy determined that the ditch was caused by the building of the road and that the field had been smoothed out from the undulations of a prairie by agriculture. We then began to ride back and started to see more native species such as the prairie rose which lifted our spirits.
