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

5/6/2006  I worked on girdling more aspen along the lower edge of the point

Prairie flowers are beginning to come back in some of the areas we’ve cleared.

Blue-eyed Grass

Robin’s Plantain

Violet Wood Sorrel

Purple Milkwort

Leonard’s Skullcap

6/16/2006   The aspens I girdled a few years ago are starting to die now.  These are on the lower part of the point.

6/16/2006   And these are in the woods between the meadow and the point.

When they fall, we cut them up and take them to a pile we’re making in the woods.

8/18/2006   The savanna area is looking very open.  There are still lots of weeds where we mowed.

8/19/2006

8/19/2006

One of the savanna plants that has come back is Purple Joe-Pye Weed.  It grows in shadier, drier places than the wetland Joe-Pye Weed.

8/26/2006  Our brush pile in the woods

8/26/2006

8/26/2006  The edge of Hidden Oaks Meadow – where a lot of the dead aspen are falling.

8/26/2006  The path toward the point – aspens are falling here too.

9/11/2006   On the lower part of the point, Showy Goldenrod is blooming in the cleared areas.

9/11/2006  Showy Goldenrod is blooming in the sunny spots.

9/11/2006   The is the low, very sandy part of the point.   It’s too rocky and sandy to mow, so I’ve been clearing Prickly Ash and Sumac by hand.

9/11/2006  The bench at the top of the point

9/23/2006   A pile of logs on their way to the brush pile

10/8/2006   This is the bottom of the point, looking up from 3 Finger Valley.  This area has lots of prairie/savanna plants including Sweet Everlasting (Gnaphalium obtusifolium), Plantain Pussy-toes (Antennaria plantaginifolia), Pinweed (Lechea sp.), and Hoary Frostweed (Helianthemum bicknellii).

10/8/2006   This is looking the other direction, down the point, into 3 Finger Valley.

11/10/2006  A big snowstorm

11/25/2006  But it melted enough that we could work more on the brush and trees on the point.

11/25/2006  It’s slowly starting to get more open.

12/16/2006

12/28/2006  This is a small hollow on the point where Robin’s Plantain grows.  I cleared a lot of brush out of it by hand, leaving just some stunted Burr Oaks.