ipn winter meeting

Announced:

January 27, 2007

DMACC, Ankeny

 Our annual Central Region Winter Meeting is always a good excuse to get together, but we also work to provide interesting presentations and raise money for a prairie preservation project.

This year's presentations will include Patch-burn grazing, native grass identification, moths and butterflies of the prairie, and a question and answer panel for attendees to field questions about prairie maintenance and establishment.  We will also be once again coordinating a silent auction, with proceeds going toward the purchase and preservation of a prairie fen - more details in the next newsletter.

Patch-burn grazing is a method of combining burn cycles with grazing, mimicking the historic model.  David Engle (Iowa State University) will be presenting information about this technique of prairie management, and has an article in this newsletter that reviews the concept (pg 6).

 Lynn Clark has recently completed an inventory of Iowa native grasses and produced a website for use in identifying grasses: http://www.eeob.iastate.edu/research/iowagrasses/   She will be the more common grasses, and how to make the most out of the new website.

For a repeat treat, Ty Smedes will again be presenting his slide show "Things Worth Saving".  He says he has refined this presentation since we saw it last year, and it was stunning then - so expect to be truly amazed by his photos set to music.

 Negotiations are currently underway to purchase and protect a small, high quality fen in Jasper County, not far from the Chichaqua Greenbelt area.  Total acreage is 31.5 acres; the fen itself is estimated to be 6.5 acres. This site is full of turtlehead (Chelone glabra), swamp lousewort (Pedicularis lanceolata), bottle gentian (Gentiana andrewsii), and many other wetland species.  Auction proceeds will go toward purchase of this fen, which is being processed by the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and is expected to become Jasper Co. Conservation Board property.

More details about the event will be in the next newsletter.  However, if you have any questions or would like to donate to the silent auction (this year we are requesting all donations be "nature related") feel free to contact Lloyd Crim ( lcrim@opencominc.com ), or Inger Lamb (ingerlamb3@mchsi.com, 515.250.1693).