[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main Sheep Hill Bluff Prairie page.] Mike mowed the prairie twice again this year – mostly to control Queen Anne’s Lace and Common Mullein.  I cut and treated some of the Mullein, and pulled all the Wild Parsnip […]

[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main Sumac Prairie page.] I don’t visit Sumac Prairie often – usually just a few times a year.  It’s difficult to get there to work – it’s a steep climb up from the bottom, or a steep walk […]

[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main Sheep Hill Bluff Prairie page.] These are old photos of Sheep Hill Bluff Prairie – from when it was owned by the Rutschows and was a farm field, until just before we planted it in prairie. The […]

Sheep Hill Bluff Prairie started as an old field on the hillside below Sumac Prairie.  The name comes from the Rutschows, who called the bluff – which we call Sumac Bluff – Sheep Hill Bluff. Here are photos and observations from each year, documenting some of the changes: 2023,   2022,   2021,   1930-2019 […]

[To see more about restoration of other types of remnants, go to the main Restoration of Remnants page] We have 5 large bluff prairie areas that we’re working to restore: Indian Grass Point,   Big View Prairie,   Knife Edge Prairie,   Sumac Prairie,  and  Hidden Oaks Point. The bluff prairies are all on steep south, south-east […]

[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main Sumac Prairie page.] This was an exciting year for Sumac Prairie.  We made several wonderful new discoveries, did more mowing and clearing, and saw the two main prairie areas merge into one. 1/11/2014   2/9/2014   3/8/2014 […]

November 2012 This is the frac sand mining issue I feel the most strongly about.  The hills and bluffs of Buffalo County give our landscape its character, and are one of the reasons so many of us enjoy living and visiting here.  And the animals and birds we see – deer, eagles, trout, turkeys, butterflies, […]

[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main Sumac Prairie page.] This was another year when I worked hard on hand clearing brush on both the steep prairie hillside and the savanna hillside. 1/10/2013   3/11/2013  We had several late season snowstorms, which shortened the […]

Some folks from The Prairie Enthusiasts came out last weekend to help us cut brush on one of our remnant savannas.  It was great fun – a beautiful fall day, and we all worked very hard and got a lot done. The savanna is at the top of a bluff, above our largest remnant prairie […]

[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main Sumac Prairie page.] 1/2/2011 – the start of a new year.  This is one of the areas where Mike and I cleared brush last spring.   2/14/2011 – Sumac Prairie with melting snow cover.  Because Sumac Prairie […]