2006 Report of the Director
James
Woodworth Prairie (JWP) of
Dennis Nyberg, Department of Biological Sciences
Highlights of 2006
Frank
Mayfield, who was given access to prairie for photography, started sending PDFs of plates he created for each plant species. His
plates have 3 or more photos of the species at different stages of development.
Hopefully, you will have access to these plates soon through the Woodworth
website. Frank also took scenes through the seasons and of the fall burn. The
white lady’s slipper did not bloom which I attributed to the 2005 drought. At
the end of 2006 the
Research
1. Wyatt Gaswick continued to study the ephemeral wetlands at Woodworth. Seven wetlands have been named: MILWAUKEE SWALE (MIL), CENTER, SOUTH FENCE, RAINPOST, SOUTHEAST, PARKING LOT and NORTHEAST. The latter 3 wetlands hold water infrequently. None of them normally have water in June, July, August or September. While MIL has the deepest water when full sometimes CENTER still has water when MIL is dry. Wyatt has found no special invertebrate species in the short hydroperiod wetlands, instead the invertebrates found in the smallest wetlands are all found in the bigger ones at JWP.
2. Janet Mrowka, a student at NEIU who would like to go to graduate school in entomology, began a study of the ants at JWP. She has found most of the species on our old ant list. Janet will study mound turn-over in 2007.
3. Five species that had not previously been detected at JWP were detected in 2006: BROMUS COMMUTATUS, CARDUUS NUTANS, Penstemon digitalis, VERBASCUM BLATTARIA &
MORUS ALBA. The single native species is common in many natural areas. A couple of individuals showed up in the center of the preserve. The four non-native species are common exotics.
4. The new grid monuments have all been placed. The grid system project is finally done except for completion of labeling.
5. Vegetation changes along grid lines were used to delimit the boundaries of each of the wetlands except NORTHEAST.
6. I continued the project recording the first, peak and last day blooming of each plant species. In this project I also develop a record of which species are detected (or not) in each year.
Management
1. On 1 April the east half was burned and on 5 Nov 06 the southeast quarter of the prairie was burned. The fall burn was not very complete.
2. Only a single individual of
the 24 planted Asclepias meadii survived.
3. I was pleased with the results digging out buckthorn and I continued that technique.
4. Staff focused attention on
removing the non-native yarrow,
5. Two prairie lilies were hand pollinated and caged with hardware cloth. Seed was collected from 2 pods and that seed was hand planted in the fall.
6. Special attention was given to the prairie side of the home that removed all shrubs on their side of the north fence (line 12). This area had a lot of buckthorn which were girdled or cut and herbicided.
7. I continued to devote attention to eliminating non-native species and diversifying the garden planted around the IC. A patch along the entry way that was dominated by Silphium was dug up and will be planted in 2007.
8. Alishia and Suzanne, from UIC, volunteered to help me with management and I got help raking fire breaks and collecting seed.
Education and outreach
The spring potluck was held on
10 May. It featured a visit from Bernice Popelka, who
played a major role in saving Woodworth as prairie. Bernice has decided to
write a book about the successful effort to save the prairie and she has
visited from
Building and grounds
Diverse minor electrical
problems were fixed by a UIC electrician. The phone didn’t work again. I plan
to encourage UIC to get rid of the land line.
Effort details
From