[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main Pine Point Prairie page.]
In January and February, Erik and Beth from Kule Region Forestry worked for several weeks on the savanna area above Pine Point Prairie – thinning out the trees and cutting brush.
In October, we asked Erik to come back and mow down the brush that was growing in the area that used to be a pine plantation. The pines were cut in 2002, the brush that grew up had been cut, but because the stumps were still sticking up too high to allow Mike to mow, the brush was starting to come back. Erik mowed with a ‘mulcher’, that grinds up everything in its path, including the old stumps, and the honeysuckles that hadn’t been cleared yet. Now I can finish planting that area with prairie and we’ll be able to mow to keep the brush under control.
1/16/2022
1/18/2022 Erik and Beth working on the savanna just above the prairie. The big pine tree at the eastern edge of the field used to have a double trunk. During one of the winter storms one of the trunks broke. The tree is still growing, but now it looks a bit lopsided.
2/6/2022
3/24/2022 The savanna above the prairie is much more open now.
5/18/2022
6/5/2022
6/9/2022
6/28/2022
7/26/2022
7/26/2022
7/26/2022 There’s a wide stripe of Reed Canary Grass at the bottom of the slope – between the hill prairie and the lower wetter prairie that blends into the sedge meadow.
7/26/2022 The lower part of the hill, with the line of Reed Canary Grass, and prairie/sedge meadow below.
7/26/2022 This is actually the south end of Pat’s Prairie, but it shows the large White Pine at the east end of Pine Point Prairie. The pine used to have a double trunk, but in one of the storms last winter one of the trunks broke off, so now it has a single, slightly off balance trunk.
7/26/2022
9/3/2022
10/14/2022
10/28/2022 Erik’s ‘mowing’ work along the top of the prairie, just below the savanna
10/28/2022 The western end hadn’t been cleared, so it was a dense honeysuckle thicket. Erik used his machine to mow it down. He left a few of the larger trees – mostly oaks.
10/28/2022
10/28/2022
10/28/2022 Farther away view of the former honeysuckle thicket
10/28/2022 Mowing through the remains of the pine plantation. The brush in this area had already been cleared, so this mowing is to remove resprouting brush and the old pine stumps.
10/28/2022 This shows the line between the older prairie area – planted in 2003 – to the left of the mowed strip, and the brushy area that Erik is mowing on the right.
10/28/2022 Erik still mowing while the sun goes down
10/29/2022 Mowing is finished
10/29/2022 Finished mowed area – no stumps!
11/20/2022
12/18/2022
