Indian Grass Point – 2020

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

This year we did projects in several different places on the point.

We cleared brush on the lowest part of the point near Western Road – some work in the spring, some in the fall.  I planted more Wood Lily plugs, most of them on the tip of the point and on the east-facing slope.  I cut and treated sumac on the most open part of the point, and cut and treated brush on both the east and west-facing slopes.  I cut and treated woody stems on the flat top of the point and down into the small remnant on the west-facing slope.

In late fall we cut brush and trees to open up the northern edge of the point, working our way down the west-facing slope.   We made lots of progress – that area is very open now.  But there’s still a thick growth of honeysuckle and other shrubs on the lower slope.

1/31/2020

 

1/31/2020  A view of the point from Radio Road – looking east at the west-facing slope.

 

1/31/2020

 

3/1/2020  Up the path toward the point

 

3/17/2020  East-facing hillside just below the prairie.  I cut and treated brambles and other brush, but there’s a lot left.

 

3/17/2020

 

3/21/2020  We made steps in the path up to the point.  We need to finish this project – the steps help prevent erosion, and make it much easier to walk.

 

4/1/2020  Black Oak on the top of the point after spring mowing

 

4/1/2020  Clearing the lowest part of the point, just above Western Road.

 

4/4/2020  It’s much more open now, but there’s a thicket of honeysuckles left.

 

4/5/2020

 

5/4/2020  Clearing work along Western Road showing the open area with the thicket of honeysuckles beyond.

 

5/16/2020  Wood Betony blooming along the path

 

5/16/2020  Cleared area near Western Road with Wood Betony

 

5/24/2020  Yellow Star-grass along the path

 

5/29/2020  Top of the point with Hoary Puccoon

 

6/1/2020  East facing slope of the point with Balsam Ragwort

 

6/1/2020

 

6/22/2020  Along Western Road

 

6/27/2020  East slope with Harebells

 

7/16/2020  Prairie Coreopsis

 

7/21/2020  East-facing slope – before pulling Sweet Clover.

 

7/22/2020

 

7/24/2020  West-facing slope.  This bottom area was a pile of cut brambles (from when I first cleared this hillside) for a long time.  It’s still quite shaded from below and has brush that needs to be cut, but prairie plants are starting to come back.

 

7/22/2020  This is a flat area on top of the point – west side of the path – that has many prairie plants, but also Queen Anne’s Lace, sumac, Prickly Ash and Honeysuckle.

 

8/10/2020   I spent several weeks here, cutting and treating brush and pulling Queen Anne’s Lace.

 

8/24/2020  The other side of the path – I had cleared this last year.

 

8/25/2020  West side of the path partly cleared

 

9/23/2020

 

9/28/2020  Looking north toward the bench and the Black Oak

 

9/29/2020 October Lady’s Tresses – I found numerous plants while working in the flat area west of the path.

 

10/2/2020  Flat area west of the path after clearing

 

10/9/2020  East-facing savanna hillside

 

11/5/2020  Clearing on the top, and working our way down the west-facing hillside.  Most of what we were clearing was buckthorn, honeysuckle and brambles.

 

11/5 – 11/9/2020  Before and after work on this west-facing hillside

 

11/7/2020 top area that we had cleared in 2019

 

11/7/2020

 

11/7/2020  East-facing slope at lower edge of the open prairie.

 

11/7/2020  East-facing slope below the open prairie

 

11/19/2020  Top clearing project with piles

 

11/21/2020

 

11/26/2020  More sumac cutting on the point

 

12/8/2020  No snow until very late in December, so I worked more on the project next to Western Road.  I was able to remove all of the honeysuckle thicket, and we cut some of the small trees.

 

12/9/2020  From Western Road – no more honeysuckle

 

12/26/2020