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What is next step in reconstruction?


<Hi Gordon,
<
<  What kind of land will the savanna be going on?  Is it more of a mesic 
<savanna or a sand savanna?  Have you picked out species yet?  If you
<(or anyone else on the list is interested) I have lists of recommended
</companion plants for various savanna types.
<
<Chris

Hi Chris,

A response to you and questions to the group:

I will able to start work on reconstructing tallgrass prairie 
on about 22 acres of farmland in east-central Illinois after the 1999
crop is harvested.  I think (I am a very "green" newcomer to this) this 
was mesic/wet mesic prairie, from the original surveyor's notes and 
from just looking at it.  I would like to put a savannah "grove" on it,
(to clarify, this would be in the ballpark of an acre or less, of the 22)
though there were none there originally, from the surveyor's notes.  
We will be taking an additional 2 or 3 acres in the middle of this on
which we plan to owner-build a home.  So it'll be 25 acres in toto.

	My question to the group is this. Is there anything I can/should be doing
now, given it will be 2 and 1/2 years before I will be able to be 
on-site regularly?  I do not have a species list yet, either for the 
prairie itself or for a savanna "grove".  How would I go about developing
such a list for my particular site (half-mile south of Mattoon, 
Illinois)?  Once I have an appropriate species list, how long in advance
should I start contacting potential seed sources?  I have just read that 
I need to avoid atrazine for at least two years before planting prairie
seeds.  We've been alternating corn and soybean crops on this land, and 
it's in corn this (1997) year.  I gather I ought to stick to soybeans in 
1998 and 1999.  Am I right?  Anything else I need to know/do now?

			Thanks! 	Gordon 

Addendum: I live now in Chicago, 3 and 1/2 hours from my land.  There 
are other constraints preventing me from planting sooner, but the 
biggest reason causing me to wait is that I want to be there every day 
to watch this grow and to "baby it".  





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