This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

re: Welcome!

>Christopher:
>Chicago?  You work for Wolfram in Chicago?  I thought Wolfram was just
>down the
>road here in Champaign-Urbana--when I saw "Wolfram" I was getting ready to
>invite you to join in the Champaign County Audubon's prairie restoration
>project at Meadowbrook Park in Urbana!

He's in Champaign most of the time, don't let him fool you.

>	We have been doing a prairie restoration (or re-creation if you're a
>purist on terminology) at Meadowbrook for a number of years, mostly a
>couple of
>acres at a time.  Last summer, with the aid of an ISTEA grant, the park
>district expanded the prairie by about 30 acres!  Needless to say at the
>moment
>almost all that can be seen is foxtail but when it's burned in spring,
>hopefully the new little prairie plants will show up.  We have regular work
>sessions for weeding, etc.
>		--Helen Parker
>		  President, Champaign County Audubon

The Meadowbrook Park is lovely. I was there one sunset last summer and saw
many, many types of birds, even in its current state. The sounds were
wonderful too. Frogs were croakig, bats were swooping, bugs were chomping.
Neat.

I lived in Champaign until last month, in a house with a very shady yard
that I tried to put in native species if I could. However, I now live in
(in an apartment, of all things) Austin, Texas, on the border of
prairie/desert/forest/hills. It's a real geographical intersection. I'm
interested in ideas for native plants for a SMALL yard with alkaline soil
and a clump or two of live oaks, which, I am sad to report, were badly
damaged this week by an ice storm that rivals the famous Valentine's Day
ice storm Champaign-Urbana had in 1990. The house is yet to be built, so I
get a clean slate. I am not going to test the soil until after the house is
built, since they always seem to rearrange soil so much in grading lots.

About me, my background is in linguistics, but now I am an at-home mother
and web site manager for various nonprofit organizations. I love reading
garden books and digging, though! Right now I am birdwatching. I see a type
of wren I have never seen. Nice that the apartment is in a grove of trees!
Must go look up the bird...

Sue Ann Kendall
Austin Texas
sak@lalecheleague.org






---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PRAIRIE.
References:
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index