Volunteers gather before preparing to remove woody invasive species. Special thanks to the Endres Manufacturing Company Foundation for a grant to purchase the pickup truck used to transport supplies.
Today, a couple volunteers are going to be cutting woody invasive plants along the fire breaks. The fire breaks are what a burn team will use to stop controlled fires from going beyond the area that we want to burn. Prairie burns are a very effective way to remove invasive plants and allow native plants to thrive.
A couple weeks ago, Dane County provided the use of a Fecon mower at the monastery for a period of three hours. Greg Armstrong, director of land management and environmental education, describes this as a “monster of a mower.” He estimates it removed more woody invasive plants in three hours than five people using chainsaws could have removed in a few weeks. It is wonderful having a partnership with Dane County to be able to do restoration work more effectively at the monastery.
The other group of volunteers will be returning to the area where the Fecon mower was used to remove some of the smaller woody invasive plants that were too small for the Fecon mower to remove. This group will also be clearing some of the remains left behind by the Fecon mower, placing these remains in the prairie so they can be burned during an upcoming prairie burn this spring.
- Learn more about upcoming Wisdom Prairie workdays, sponsored by the Friends of Wisdom Prairie.
- Make a donation to support land management efforts and care for the earth initiatives at Holy Wisdom Monastery.
- For more information about land management, contact Greg at garmstrong@benedictinewomen.org, 608-836-1631, x123.