[To see photos and stories about Maple Ridge in other years go to the links on the main Maple Ridge page.]

This year we did a little clearing on some of the remnant prairie spots on the south-facing side of the ridge.  The prairies are very overgrown, and look like they’ve been that way for a long time, so it will be interesting to see what comes back.

3/13/2015  This is the way the prairies looked before we started.  I had done a little hand clearing last year –  just enough to see that there was too much for me to make much progress by myself.

4/2/2015  View into the prairie area from the path we made through the woods.

4/2/2015  Another of the small prairie spots

4/4/2015  This is part way through the project

4/5/2015  Lots of cut brush

4/5/2015  This is a panorama shot of the area we worked on.  Click to see a larger version.

4/5/2015  Looking from the north side of the ridge, back up Center Valley to our house.

7/17/2015  The cleared area in mid-summer

7/17/2015  Definitely some successes – Butterfly Milkweed and Leadplant are coming back.

7/17/2015  More of the prairie opening

7/17/2015  This is the overgrown path along the top of the ridge.  The square on the tree is one of our trail cameras.  We didn’t get very interesting photos from it, and it was a long way to go when the batteries needed changing, so we eventually removed it.

Cylindrical Blazing Star

On September 22,  I set up lights outside the Brossman’s trailer.  It was the first time I’d tried mothing at Maple Ridge.  I saw lots of moths – more than I found at my regular lights on the garage.  So I’ll try again – earlier in the season – next year.  Here are a few of the ones I saw.

Ipsilon Dart

Mother Underwing

Maple Spanworm