[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main Big View Prairie page.]
Just at the end of the season, we started a small savanna restoration project at the entrance to Big View Prairie. Most of the rest of the year we just enjoyed the view.
1/13/2015 A view looking up from the creek to Big View (on the left) and Indian Grass Point (farther back and to the right)
1/24/2015
3/11/2015
7/14/2015
7/15/2015
8/10/2015 Western Sunflower – there’s been a patch of it in the middle of the prairie, but it’s getting bigger
Dotted Horsemint
8/21/2015
8/25/2015
9/21/2015 Great Plains Ladies Tresses – a native orchid that grows on dry prairies
9/28/2015
10/4/2015 The next few photos are ‘before’ pictures of the flat area on top of the bluff, just behind the prairie. It was very overgrown mostly with Gray Dogwood, raspberries and small trees.
10/4/2015 Another ‘before’ photo – Big View Prairie is beyond the big oaks on the right.
10/4/2015 This is the tangle of trees and bushes and old fences just where the path goes out to the Big View bench. We haven’t tackled this yet.
10/4/2015 This is looking out to the point. The tractor broke before we got to this part of the mowing.
10/4/2015 Another view of the brushy way out to the point.
10/5/2015 The view down the path to Big View Prairie, just before we started mowing.
10/5/2015 And the same view just after we finished mowing
10/5/2015 This is the view the other direction – looking out from the top of Big View Prairie toward Western Prairie – after mowing
10/5/2015 This is looking west, across the top edge of Big View Prairie. I cut out a lot of the brushy shrubs and trees, but there’s more to do.
10/10/2015 Praag Valley on a misty – or maybe smoky – afternoon. In the late summer the winds often bring in smoke from fires in the western states.
10/19/2015 More ‘after’ pictures from the mowing. It’s been a few weeks, so the leaves have drifted in and it’s healing a little.
10/19/2015 More of the mowed area
10/19/2015 And more – looking back toward Western Prairie
After the snow came, I scattered some savanna seeds in the mowed area. I had collected all the seeds on our land.
Agastache scrophulariaefolia
Aster novae-angliae
Astragalus canadensis
Hypericum pyramidatum
Solidago flexicaulis
Solidago missouriensis
Solidago speciosa
Zizia aurea