[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main Knife Edge Prairie page.]
This year I girdled more of the trees around the edges of the Knife Edge Prairie – the wide, flat top of the bluff. I also had to re-girdle many of the birches I had done a few years ago, because they had grown over the old cut.
Another project was cutting and treating small brush – mostly aspen suckers and Gray Dogwood – also in the flat part of the prairie. We mow that area every spring, but it doesn’t ever seem to reduce the number of stems of these two species. I’m experimenting with cutting and treating those stems in a fairly large area – since I can’t tell where the clones start and end. I’m hoping that, over time, I’ll have some effect.
1/1/2016 Indian Grass Point on the left, the Knife Edge Point behind on the right
1/3/2016
1/3/2016
1/3/2016
1/29/2016
1/29/2016
2/22/2016
4/16/2016
4/21/2016 Blooming Pussytoes
4/22/2016 Newly mowed prairie
4/22/2016
4/25/2016
4/25/2016
4/25/2016
4/25/2016
5/31/2016
5/31/2016 Newly girdled Black Walnuts
6/2/2016 Re-girdled birches
6/22/2016 I discovered a large section of the west-facing hillside that was covered with Spiked Lobelia.
6/22/2016 Spiked Lobelia
6/22/2016 Prairie Larkspur on the sandy part of the point
7/16/2016 This is along the point, an area where we did a little clearing last year, and girdled the walnuts that were shading it.
9/2/2016 White Lettuce
9/5/2016
9/10/2016
9/16/2016 Aspen and Gray Dogwood sprouts
9/17/2016 Another spot with lots of Aspen and Gray Dogwood
9/16/2016 Aspen and Gray Dogwood has been treated in the foreground, but not in the back.
9/16/2016 Another spot after cutting Aspen and Gray Dogwood
9/18/2016 Area cleared of aspen and dogwood is on the left; uncleared on the right.
9/17/2016 Another part of the prairie, with a lot less Aspen
9/20/2016
10/15/2016
10/15/2016
10/17/2016
12/28/2016
12/31/2016