Dan Carter

This is a lot of why I like fall burning. The smothering thatch is gone, but the coarser stems and even many goldenrod, aster, and Joe Pye seeds remain. Fire did burn into the south sides of the oversized shrub willows and silky dogwood, and what didn't top-kill, we'll reset by cutting.

Watching the boy fish

Man, hybrid cattail has destroyed connectivity between so many Midwestern lakes and adjacent wetlands and uplands. Pictured is Utica Lake, Waukesha County, WI with adjacent tamarack fen behind the cattails.

I pulled in the dock at the Bayfield County place. It was only in an inch of water due to drought, but it meant the mucky and sandy shore was growing cool stuff like Rhynchospora capitella.

Fine autumn day to dig a little more red-pine-oak savanna out of the maple-poplar-hazel thicket caused by poor forestry and fire exclusion.

I cut back ninebark yesterday so it wouldn't impinge on the fascist blue spruces next door. I was happy to be a good neighbor. The blue spruce will join our neighborhood's Rhizosphaera needle cast party soon enough.

Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!

Violet coral (Clavaria amethystina...some new work suggest our Midwestern violet cor is not C. zollingeri). A visitor to the Mukwonago River Oak Barrens mentioned seeing this recently. We knew about it, but this year it is indeed very abundant there in wet-mesic sand under oak.

To “Google” used to mean search, but that had faded already. Now it means to lick boot or kiss ass.

Some stewards are operating in a world where this has been learned already, and they tend have success, but quite a few aren't, so this is good to see. This implies things about how old growth works and has worked. It reinforces why some practices are successful and others aren't.

Video on what were doing at the Mukwonago River Oak Barrens up to about six months ago. #prairie #savanna #ecologicalrestoration youtu.be/iYZmadm-rug

A picture says 1000 words.

I like this discussion. For those of us that do what we can at home, it's good. It's very good, in fact, but there are limits. It doesn't approach the importance of protecting and sustaining (burning very often in the dormant season) the remnants. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDVc...

Dewpoints well into the 80s in western Iowa due in part to near peak corn evaporation. Heat indices in spots over 120, and it has two or three hours to get worse.

Several 80F+ dewpoints in the southern half of Wisconsin today. Lisbon Mauston Airport "wins" with a dewpoint of 83F and heat index of 111F just after noon today. #Heat #Humidity #Heatwave

Looking at some Driftless prairies today.

Lake Mead’s kinda low

A long and hot but beautiful day on #prairie and some savanna on the bluffs above La Crosse, WI.

With a minor and not to the point correction that N-fixing bacteria in soil get their energy from organic molecules vs. the very energy intensive breaking of the N2 bond, I loved this talk, given in the context of old growth ecosystems. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gIG...

The enemy brought guns to debate club, so I'm glad that in the case of redistricting Democrats responded in kind for once instead of taking the high ground before being steamrolled.

Full day. The Glacial Prairie Chapter of The #Prairie Enthusiasts got in its last planned burn just under the wire of the impending growing season and just in time for me to meet up with my family at the tail end of #NoKIngs in Waukesha.

Round-lobed hepatica opened up at my place, where it has spread over a little convex area the oak litter blows off of (so it doesn't smother and often doesn't burn when I burn off the leaf litter). Wood betony is emerging, particularly in areas burned in the fall where the soil is a wee bit warmer.

The view in the first image was burned late last October. The view in the second image was burned in February. Both areas get burned every dormant season. Now think like an overwintering #invertebrate. The clumps are Sprengel's sedge. This is a reconstructed #oak #woodland / #savanna setting. #Fire

Good news is good news. ballsandstrikes.substack.com/p/jury-finds...

Become ungovernable.