From August to December 2021, our Friends of Nachusa Grasslands bloggers have been busy documenting their restoration experiences and insights. The Nachusa Grasslands Bloghad posts written by six authors: Becky Jane Davis, Connor Ross, Luke Fannin, Elizabeth Bach, Dee Hudson, and Charles Larry. Our blog coordinator is Dee Hudson, with the assistance of Erin Rowland and Ron Searl, and our editor is James Higby.
Learn about Nachusa from a variety of perspectives. Read excerpts from each post or click the titles to access the complete articles.
For several years, I’ve been trying to start butterfly monitoring with the Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network (IBMN). Everything finally came together this year. Recently I did my first butterfly monitoring at Nachusa Grasslands. Butterfly monitoring consists of counting butterflies by species, in a specific route, throughout the season. This first year, I need to identify only 25 species of butterflies. Forty years ago, I could identify more than that, but I'm a bit rusty.
So, I walk at a regular pace, scanning the area, left and right on the trail, spotting butterflies. As I see one, I identify it and mark it on my field report. When I’m finished, I enter my findings in the database. It sounds easy and straightforward but my first time out, I identified about half. The rest were noted as “unknown butterflies,” so I have some learning and growing ahead of me.
By Becky Jane Davis
Nachusa Grasslands Butterfly Monitor
August 2021
Rebounding from the unusually short 2020 field season, the Nachusa restoration crew hit the ground running in 2021. It’s amazing what you can do when you have a couple extra weeks and a full crew on hand!
Meet the Crew – read biographies of each restoration technician.
By Connor Ross
Nachusa Restoration Technician
August 2021
Nachusa has experienced several ups and downs in 2021. COVID-19 continued to bring challenges and require flexibility. We celebrated the opening of our new equipment barn, but we also grieved the loss of naturalist Wayne Schennum. Wayne conducted plant and insect surveys at Nachusa throughout his long career and was actively working on a survey of leaf beetles prior to his passing this summer. Amid this uncertainty, the Nachusa science community managed to accomplish a lot.
40 scientists conducted research at Nachusa in 2021.
We have a new science space at Nachusa! The space includes a refrigerator, chest freezer, drying ovens, -80° C freezer, sink, counter space, and an outdoor porch working area. The science space is adjacent to the new seed-processing space. We are excited to welcome scientists into this shared space in the 2022 field season!
Volunteers helped cross-pollinate Eastern Prairie Fringed Orchid flowers in June. This cross-pollination, both within the Nachusa population and among other populations. We hope this cross pollination will increase seed production.
Nachusa scientists published 14 peer-reviewed scientific publications. Each publication is a major accomplishment, often the result of years of work. Congratulations to all authors! You can view a full list of all Nachusa scientific publications. Read on for an overview of this year’s findings.
By Elizabeth Bach Ecosystem Restoration Scientist at Nachusa Grasslands December 2021
Grass-eating, or graminivory, as it is called by scientists, is a strange behavior. At the outset, grasses, at least compared to the many plant foods that humans consume regularly, look unappetizing; they are tough to chew, they are full of fibers that make them difficult to digest, and they are often covered in dust and sand from growing close to the soil surface. But for many mammals, ranging in size from tiny voles (20-24 grams) all the way up to gigantic white rhinoceroses (2400 kilograms), grasses are dietary staples, and these so-called “grazers” (grass-eating mammals) are pivotal in Earth ecosystems. Nachusa Grasslands is home to one of North America’s most important grazing mammals, the bison (Bison bison), which eats grasses in most months of the year. But if grasses are such difficult foods to eat, how do bison–let alone any other mammals–eat them?
As it turns out, bison have a few tricks up their proverbial sleeves as it pertains to eating grasses. For starters, bison are ruminant mammals, which means they have highly specialized stomachs that allow them the ability to regurgitate and then re-chew partially digested plant foods. Think of how a domestic cow eats; the cow first swallows a bite of food but then proceeds to regurgitate that bite of food and chew it again, and again, and again… until finally those food particles are small enough to pass through the rest of the digestive system. With each subsequent swallow, foods are bathed in stomach juices teeming with bacteria, which also help to weaken the structural integrity of fibrous foods and liberate nutrients. This digestive trick is incredibly helpful for bison, as it allows them to digest grasses in a way that humans cannot.
Thelma Carpenter Prairie's Showy Goldenrod and Little Bluestem
Regal Fritillary, a State-Threatened Species
Rough Blazing Star and Goldenrods
Loading Planters with Seed
Crew Planting
Whooping Cranes
Majestic Oak
Rime Ice
Stone Barn Savanna
Rime Ice and the Visitor Center
Winter Ice
By Dee Hudson and Charles Larry
Nachusa Grasslands Volunteers
December 2021
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