[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main Indian Grass Point page.]

We did lots of clearing on the top, and cut some of the birches on one side of the point.
In March we cleared lots of the larger shrubs and small trees from the top of the point, just north of the prairie. There are prairie plants growing under the brush, so we thought we’d try clearing it out to see if we can enlarge the prairie area. When we can get the tractor up there, we’ll try mowing away the rest of the smaller brush. We left several small Burr Oaks, some Red Oaks, and some larger Black Cherries. There’s one huge, old oak, and some large Birches. We cut lots of Honeysuckle – Mike cut and I sprayed all the largest bushes, but there are still lots of smaller ones. I went back the next day and worked on them, but there are still more.

We left all the cut brush in a long pile along the west side of the opening.

In April we mowed the whole top of the point, to make the opening much bigger.

In October we cut down about 15 of the smaller birches on the west side of the point.  Now the prairie looks wider, and goes down the west slope, as well as the east slope. It wasn’t too bad – we used the gator to haul the brush into one pile, and then to haul the logs down to the edge of 3 Finger Valley. The piles at the edge of the opening are getting bigger and bigger.

10/12/2003  This is the way the birches looked before we started.

10/12/2003  Cutting and piling the logs in the gator

10/12/2003  Tying the logs on so the wouldn’t slip on the way down the hill.

10/12/2003  Still plenty of birches to go…