The Prairie Promoter
2026 Summer Issue
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Upcoming 2026 Deadlines
Fall Issue: Tuesday, July 21
We seek to ensure the perpetuation and recovery of prairie, oak savanna, and other associated ecosystems of the Upper Midwest through protection, management, restoration, and education. The Prairie Promoter includes creative, research-based, and educational pieces that support our mission and highlight the uniqueness of fire-dependent ecosystems and the people who support them.
We include submissions of:
poetry, art, writing, interviews, artistic expression, research or educational pieces, or general information you’d like to share with your prairie community.
- Articles should be between 500 and 1,800 words.
- Photos should be high-resolution print quality and should be shared as attachments (not embedded in a text document). Each photo should have a descriptive caption and photographer credit. Please name the photo file with the photographer’s name and the first few words of the caption.
- Submissions can be sent to Cassidy Coulson at CCoulson@ThePrairieEnthusiasts.org
Past Issues
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- 1987
- 1988
Progress Continues on Thomas Tract
President’s Message
Executive Director’s Message
Management Toolbox
Rattlesnake Rescuer Member Profile: Stephen Winter
Making the Most of Hard to Get Seeds
What a Difference a Year Makes!
Poem: The Burns of Winter and Early Spring
Making the Most of Hard to Get Seeds
Listening to the Land: Reflections from a Wisconsin Prairie
Poems: Where Prairie Birds Still Sing Five Encounters with Grassland Birds
Through the Lens: Capturing the Mukwonago River Oak Barrens
Announcements
Chapter Events & Updates
Welcome New Members!
President’s Message
Acting Executive Director’s Message
In 2026, Find Your Place and Celebrate!
Management Toolbox
Pascha
Monitoring Bat Activity Following Prairie Savanna Restoration
Reason for Optimism: Long-Term Results from Planting Prairie into Live Exotic Cool-Season Grass Sod
April Showers Bring May Flowers
Bobbi’s Migration Journal: A Look at the Southern Driftless Grasslands Through the Eyes of a Bobolink
Book Review: Chasing Wildflowers: An Adventurous Guide to Finding Minnesota’s Native Flowers in Their Unique Habitats
Wealth of the Prairies
2026 Conference Recap
Rare Sand Barrens Ecosystem Preserved in Southeast Wisconsin
Readers Write: More Tuna Please!
A Growing Community
Ecologist’s 2025 End-of-Field-Season Update
Management Toolbox: Mopping and Babysitting Aren’t Just Domestic Tasks!
Considerations for Planting Plugs and Other Vegetative Material
Poem: The Prairie in Four Voices
Poem: Winter on the Prairie
The Return of Our Relatives
Student Researchers and Local Stewards Team Up to Study How Management Shapes Restored Prairies Under Changing Winters
A Prairie Song
Artist’s Connection to the Prairie
Volunteer Spotlight: Gary Eldred
Book Review: Healing Wounds: Giving Back to Nature
Poem: The Prairie Trail Beckons
Erbe Grassland—A Growing Refuge
Management Toolbox: Point of View: Establishing the plant component of a tallgrass prairie restoration using a remnant reference ecosystem model: A case study
Invasives (Poem)
Flagging Tape Dispenser Instructions
Book Review: Sea of Grass
Assessing Ecological Integrity: An Example from Grazed and Ungrazed Nachusa Old-Growth Prairie (with Resources)
The Raccoon (Poem)
Prairie
Coloring Page: Wild Rose
Prairie Games
Agaski Bluff
Prairie Enthusiasm Ignites in the Twin Cities
Management Toolbox – Cutting: A Viable Option to Herbicide?
From Chance Encounter to Dedicated Leadership
Hands and Knees Botany
Dendrotelmata (Poem)
Stability Part Three: Old Growth (with Resources)
RxWalk
Fifty Years of Fire
We’re Listening and Learning
Hahnaman Sand Prairie
Prairie Extraordinaire (Poem)
2025 Conference Recap
Celebrate Nature Near You This Summer (see Summer Events)
Traces of a Prairie
My Prairie Home (Poem)
Movement (Poem)
Management Toolbox: How to prioritize removing invasive species
Ecologist’s 2024 End-of-Field-Season Update
The Evolution of String Trimmers and Clearing
Enthusiasm for Restoration Proves Contagious on Rattlesnake Ridge
The Value of Partnership
Springtime Magic
The Rusty Patched Bumblebee’s Place in Wisconsin
Management Toolbox
Stability Part Two: Grazing (with Resources)
New Site Protected: Newark Rd. Prairie
2023-24 Annual Report
Another Prairie Island Protected
Thomas Wet Prairie
Let Them Be (Poem)
Spring Into Nature Podcasts
Volunteer Profile: Ralph Henry
Stability Part One: Fire
A Journey of Love & Respect
Capturing the Life of the Land
Positive Changes on Pleasant Bluff
The Work of Prairies
A Prairie Ode to Joy
Sheboygan County Woodland Restoration
Converting Turf to Prairie
Landowner Services: Soil Crusts
Hanley Savanna
2023 Spring Conservation Congress
Bergamot (poem)
Change & Persistence Among Prairie Grasses
Thimbleweeds (Anemone)
Old Land, New Eyes
40 Acres of Protected Land
We All Think We can Take the Heat
The Pronghorn Exhibit (poem)
A Rare & Special Place
Becoming A Prairie Enthusiast
Canada Goldenrod
Paying Attention to the Season During Restoration Work
Eliminating Buckthorn Without the Use of Herbicides
Save the Bats!
Coming to Nature
A Prairie & Life (poem)
We All Have Mentors
Skinner Prairie
Moths, Caterpillars & Restoration Remnants
A Landscape for Life
The Long View from Mounds View
Sharing Knowledge from Mounds View
Writing the Land
Buttercups
Can’t Get Sylvan Road Out of My Mind
More Prairie Protected at Erbe Grassland
Beauty in the Eye of the Restorer
MacDonald York Prairie Refuge Easement
Management Plans
Prairies & Bluebirds
Rings of Fire
Putting the “Oak” Back in Oak Woodland Community Park
The Little Prairie That Coule
Bumble Bee Survey
Buckthorn
Seeds
Turkeyfoot (poem)
Picture Perfect Prairies
Learning from the Story of the Savannas
Finding Prairie by Giving Back
Life’s Venture
Eldred in Hall of Fame
Prairie Vegetation Surveys in Southern Minnesota
Intelligent tinkering for the Sauk Prairie
Is it Worth the Effort?
A Kinship with Ash
The Entangled Prairie
All the Pretty Little Native Orchids
Tales from the Field-Benedict Prairie
What’s the Rush? The Grass? The Sedge?
The Prairie Chicken Committees Wrestle with Adverse Trends
Discovering Allen Creek Fen
Natural Heritage Award Honors the Late Kim Karrow
Converting Mullen to Medicine
Managing for Insects Field Trip
How Many Sites Have You Visited
Seek-A Great Tool for Beginning Botanists
Goldenrods
Timber Rattlesnake: Vanishing Blufflands Icon
Reflections on Living in the Moment
Shining Oaks
The Higher Calling of Kevin Clinton
No Limits for Disabled Prairie Owner
Time Does Change Things
Silent Hill
The Moment
You Sure Have Gall
Rekindling Old Flames
Restoration in the Time of COVID-19
Attack Agastache!
Free Prairie Curriculum Ready for Use
A Tale of Two Goats
Purple Milkweed Mystery
New State Moth Reported at high Iltis Prairie
A Case for Planting Conservative Species-A Love Story
Tree of Life
What Kind of Person?
Eldred Art Exhibit
Meinert Prairie
Resilience Frames Prairie Management & (Should) Manage Expectations
Cryptic Insects & Other Mysteries
Member Profile: Tom & Kathie Brock
Nature’s Tollbox-Citizen Science
Nick Faessler Awarded
Foslin Addition
Bur Oak Blight at Pleasant Valley Conservancy
The Value of Ecological Restoration
Woolly Milkweed Needs You
BugGuide.net
Swamplovers Keep Going
Roadside Riches to Ruins
The Prairie Enthusiasts Endowments
Violet Wood Sorrel Blushes Bluff
New Insect Record for Lafayette County
Hanley Savanna’s Deep Roots
Landowner Survey Shows Surprises
Nature Needs Us
Packard: A Prairie Pioneer
Swenson Acquisition
What Does Chapter Staff Do for Us?
Summation of a Seed Season
Iris Drive Prairie
Of Checks, Balances & Seed Production
SER International Standards
Choosing Herbicides
Using Adjuvants
Win Some, Lose Some
How to Save a [Planet’s] Life
Is Perpetuity Forever?
Control Without Chemicals
Make New Friends
Purple Fringed Orchid Study
A Stranger’s Knock
30th Anniversary of The Prairie Enthusiasts
Prescribed Foraging
Conservation Honor: Gary Rathman
Member Profile: Nick Faessler
A Message from the Future
The Species Conservation Project
One Plant at a Time
Historic Plants of Prairie Bluff
Hauser Road Prairie
Volunteers Receive Awards
An Artist’s Eye
The Future of Conservation
Insect Overwintering
Seed for the Future
Dirt-The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth
One Plant at a Time
Lobby for Conservation
What are Prairie-Dependent Insects
Strawberries and Roses
Monitoring & Management-A Sensible Pairing
How to ID Sedges
Are Our Prairie Plantings Working?
Of Surveys, Monitoring & Science
Tom Mitchell Named Volunteer Steward of the Year
Hiding in Plain Sight
Learning About Prairies One Seed at a Time
Wood Lilies at Pleasant Valley Conservancy
To Burn or Not to Burn?
Parrish Oak Savanna Protected
Why Does The Prairie Enthusiasts Matter to You?
Sylvan Road Protected
Nurturing Pollinators: A Prairie Management Priority
Revisiting the John Curtis Dataset: The Importance of Keeping Records & Burning Prairies
Curiosity Leads to Discovery
Seeds of Discovery
New Addition at Military Ridge Prairie Heritage Area
Double Oak Savanna Dedicated
The Buckthorn Baggie
John Shillinglaw Honored
You CAN Take it with You
Looking for a Savanna to Restore?
Protection Progress at Sylvan Road Conservation Area
Interview with Dr. Mark Leach on his New E-Book: Positive Participation with Nature
Feist Prairie Acquired by The Prairie Enthusiasts
Bring Back Pollinators
The First Prairie Lily
Propagating Remnant Populations of Rattlesnake Master
Nurturing Prairie Pollinators
Driftless Land Stewardship Goat Herd Used for Brush Control in Middleton
Endangered Whooping Cranes Grace The Prairie Enthusiasts’ Shea Prairie
Stream & Wetland Restoration at Shea Prairie
Crayfish Take Advantage of Restoration
Mounds View Grassland: An Intern’s Perspective
Thank you, Shirley Ellis
Member Profile: Chris Hughes
1987: A Big First Year for The Prairie Enthusiasts
Citizen Science: Effective Monitoring of Endangered Butterflies, Habitat Requires Your Help
New Discovery in Southwest Wisconsin: Lined Snake Population
1987: A Big First year for The Prairie Enthusiasts
Using Aerial Photography to Track Changes on Your Land
Mueller Prairie Restoration Underway
Field & Stream Magazine Honors Schindle as Hero for a Day
One-Day Standards, Practice Training for Land Trust Baseline Documentation Available
Conservation Organizations Sign MOU to Collaborate on Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan
Three The Prairie Enthusiasts Land Acquisitions Total 137 Acres
1987: A Big First Year for The Prairie Enthusiasts
Unimin Corporation, Conservation Marketplace of Minnesota Many Rivers Chapter Resotre Habitat for Pollinators
Member Profile: Jim “Flapper” Lynch
Seed Collecting Extravaganza 2011
NIPE Restoration Efforts Growing in Acres and Membership
Prairie Notes from the Pioneers
Jewels of Autumn
The Prairie Enthusiasts Acquires Smith Drumlin Prairie
More Rare Plants Found at Mounds View Grassland
Prairie Enthusiast of the Year: Jan Ketelle
Regal Fritillary Farewell
Borah Creek SNA Expansion
Look Out for Prairie Faeries
Joint Venture at Jubilee College State Park
WDNR Sponsors Invasive Species Control
Search for Western Prairie Fringed Orchid
Along The Trail with Bob Lee
Southwest Wisconsin Chapter Acquisition Efforts
Koltes Prairie Protection & Management
An Unlikely Pair
Preventing Nature Deficit Syndrome
Your Membership Matters
A Bucket List Prairie
Land Trusts Changing the Landscape of Conservation
New Prairie Legacy Program
Digging in the Driftless: Our Patchwork Prairie
Research Review: Water Scarcity in a Changing Climate
Postage Stamps Matter: The Importance of Small Prairies
Color Variation in Rough Blazing Star
Tolls & Techniques: Offer to Help
New Chapter Works to Reclaim Kutz Prairie
Accreditation
Compounding Rewards in rural Green County
Citizens Listen and Look for Threatened Birds in the Chippewa Valley
Summer Interns Find Rare Species at Mounds View
Prairie Preservation: An Intern’s Account
Trial Prairie Plantings on Mesic Soil: Preliminary Results
The Prairie Enthusiasts Seed Collecting
Seed Collecting & Cleaning
Remembering a Conservation Leader & Educator
A Botanist Remembers
If You Unbuild It, They Will Come
New Addition to Schurch-Thomson Prairie
Fire Effects on Restoring & Maintaining an Oak Savanna
Stalking the Sweet Grass
The Making of a Prairie Enthusiast
The Prairie Enthusiasts Named Conservation Organization of the Year
Member Profile: Barb & Brad Glass
BioCON: Interactions Between CO2, Nitrogen and Biodiversity
Tools & Techniques: Combating Leafy Spurge at Koltes Prairie
Recovery at Schurch-Thomson Prairie
New Invasive Species of Savanna & Woodland
Regal Fritillaries Rebound at Mounds View Grassland
SNA 591: Borah Creek Prairie
Tolls & Techniques: Classical Biocontrol
Purple Milkweed Success
Purple Milkweed at Kalscheur Oak Savanna
The Prairie Enthusiasts Member Profile: Eugene Woehler
Tools & Techniques: Volunteers Trained on Use of ATVs
Legal Challenge Threatens Green’s Prairie Cemetery
Erbe Grassland: A Clear Horizon!
Biofuels for Water Quality
Spring Green Preserve Update
Tools & Techniques: Easing the Work Load
Bargain Sale Protects More than Sugar River Savanna
Enthusiasts Receive Rock County Easement
Orchid Growers Guild Commends Prairie Enthusiast
Rare Oak Savanna Protected
20 Years at Honey Creek
Tolls & Techniques: Preparing an NRCS Burn Plan
Wetland Restoration Project in Grant County
Natural Cemeteries
Rare Find at Schurch-Thomson Prairie
Tools & Techniques: Painless Brush Management
Friendly Badgers?
The Influence of Biodiversity on Ecosystem Processes
Hill Mustard on the Move in Southwestern Wisconsin
Our Newest Preserve: Black Earth Rettenmund Prairie
Simon Prairie to be Managed by St. Croix Valley Chapter
Another 157 Acres Protected
The Prairie Enthusiasts Give a Piece of Wisconsin Desert to The Nature Conservancy
What a Long, Fun Trip It’s Been-20 Years of The Prairie Enthusiasts
Prairie Enthusiasts Give Conservation Easement on Fourteen Lake Front Lots in Walworth County
Alien Chronicles
The Prairie Enthusiasts Assist Landowner in Protecting Rare Orchid
New Site for Rare Orchid
Birding by Barcode
New Conservation Easement Held by The Prairie Enthusiasts
Erbe Road Grassland Protected by The Prairie Enthusiasts
The Prairie Enthusiasts is a Premier Land Trust
First Wisconsin Collection of Lechea Mucronata (Hairy Pinweed)
Introducing Eric Tarman-Ramcheck
Four Prairie Enthusiasts Receive Leopold Restoration Awards
Schurch, Thomson, Arneson and Zauner: Four Families Making a Difference
The Sites We Save
Rare Plant Makes an Appearance
The Catch of the Day
Protecting a Pocket-Prairie
The Prairie Enthusiasts Protects a Critical Piece of Our Prairie Heritage
The Prairie Enthusiasts’ Conservation Toolkit: Acquisition and Conservation Easements
Savanna & Oak Woodland Restorations are Helping Birds
New Guidelines for Grassland Bird Habitat
Volunteer Spotlight: Tom & Kathie Brock
Experience with Incidental Takes
State Endangered Plant Found at a Nature Conservancy Prairie
Elderberry Prairie for Fun, Food and Fuel?
Philosophy, Conservation, and Prairie Landscape
The Sites We Save
Why Do We Bother to Preserve Nature’s Diversity?
Fire Breaks on a North Dakota Prairie
10th Anniversary Banquet
President’s Message
Effects of Fire on Prairies, The Final Chapter
Report on Washington County
Funding Sources for Prairie Restoration
Our Webpage
Banquet Registration
Chapter News & Events
Damp But Not Discouraged
Financial Summary
Early Announcement: Annual 10th Anniversary Banquet Scheduled
More on the Effects of Fire on Prairies
Grasshoppers-The Exciting Sequel
Insects
Sky Dance
Remembering Prairie in Chicago
Woodstock Revisited
Letters
Chapter News & Events
TPE Annual Meeting
Action Alert! Timber Rattlesnake Protection
President’s Message
Meet Your Prairie Butterflies: Regal Fritillary
The Grasshoppers of Wisconsin ( Orthoptera: Acrididae)
Doing the Right Thing
Wood Lily (Lilium Philadelphicum)
Raptor Rapture
Chapter News & Events
TPE’s 9th Annual Banquet
President’s Message
The Plight of the Honeybees
Grandma Was Right!
New TPE Display
Marbleseed Prairie
The Prairie Insect and Spider Inventory
Midwest Oak Savanna and Woodland Conference
Chapter News & Events
Banquet 1997
President’s Message
Illinois’s Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie: A Model for Partnership and Restoration
Your Wild Neighbors
DNR’s Native Plant Seed Farm Saga
The Forgotten Pollinators
Deer Depredation
The Prairie Reader
Stewardship Grant Finally In!
The Anatomy of Your Mailing Label
Chapter News & Events
Green’s (York) Prairie
Shook’s Prairie
Jug Prairie
Jordan Prairie
President’s Message
Arrow-leaved Aster
New England Aster
Of Bison…And Progress
Chapter News & Events
Blue Mounds Community Conservation Project Receives Its First Grant
NIPE to Host Summer Picnic and Annual Meeting
Prairie Enthusiasts Donate to WHA-TV Auction Fundraiser
President’s Message
Landowner Wetland and Grassland Restoration Field Day
TPE Joins Teaming with Wildlife
How I Became a Prairie Bluff
Smoke on the Horizon
Chapter News & Events
Butterfly Monitoring
Seventh Annual Banquet a Resounding Success
Northwest Wisconsin Chapter Forming
President’s Message
North Dakota Prairie Birds and Wildflowers
Meet Your Prairie Butterflies: Olympia Marble
Of Baptisia, Weeviles, and Alkaloids
Grassland book Reviews
A Lifelong Love Affair
TPE Receives Conservation Easement
TPE Joins Land Trust Alliance
Chapter News & Events
Prairies of Region Face an Invisible Enemy
President’s Message
Land Use Questionnaire Results
Beginnings
Eastern Prairie Fringed Orchid
Asclepias purpuracens
Cream Gentian Salvage
A Day on the Savanna
Proposal for Community-Based Conservation Coordinator
Chapter News & Events
Grassland Restoration Public’s Private Concern
President’s Message
Partnerships in Conservation and Redefining “Small”
Native Prairie Management Guide
Aglinis Aspera
How Sweet it Isn’t: Sweet Clover
A Slinky Problem: Crown Vetch
To Have And to Hold: Conservation Easements
A Conversion Experience or How We Saw the Light
Tales From the City: Of Mice and Men
Chapter News & Events
Sixth Annual Banquet a Smashing Success
President’s Message
TPE Members Receive Awards
Butterfly Surveying Opportunities
Native Landscaping Conference
The Great Envelope Mystery
Muralt Prairie Aniversarry–Remembering “The One That Got Away”
Savanna Indicator Species List
Some Thoughts on Seedlings
Camassia scilloides
A Requiem for the Prairie
Prairie Folklore: Witch Hazel
A Dream Come True
Third Annual Burn School
Adopt-An-Island
Slide Presentation About SCC Restoration Project Prairie and Wetland Restoration Field Day
Chapter News & Events
Prairie Education Continues!
President’s Message
Seed Collection Summary
Notes from the Field
Hank’s Classic List
Echinacea Pallida
Lafayette Inventory Complete
President’s Message
Fun at Yellowstone
Rough Blazing Star: Liatris Aspera
Phone Tree
Notes from the Field
Eat Your Local Alien
Duration a Success
A Half-Acre of Prairie
A Pre-settlement Prairie Description: A Traveler’s View
From the President
Occasional Fires Aid Forest Life
Pale Purple Coneflower
Logo Entrants
Update on SWWPE Projects
Prairie Fires
Buffalo Dusk
Prairie Planting-An Alternative to Herbicide Spraying
Muscoda Garden Club Project
SWWPE Begins Roadside Planting
Seed Collection Sites Catalogued
Roadside Prairies Planned
Plant of the Month: Pasqueflower
Remnant Survey Update
Thanks!
Endangered Species List
How to Find a Prairie
Burn Accomplishments
Our first but not our last! Thomas Wet Prairie
A logo for SWWPE
Free Wildlife Prints
Recipe of the month: Eat the Alien!
Two Prairies Saved
Rare Species Found
Effects of Fire on Spider Distribution in Southwestern Wisconsin Prairies
Conservation Reserve Program
Honey Creek Park-Monroe
Successful Prairie Burns in Janesville
Prairie Plants for Moist Soils
Prairie Plants for Dry Sandy Soils
Progress in Propagating
Prairie Profile of the Month
Spring Burning
A Burning Workshop
Recipe of the Month: Pick and Alien
Early Summer Species to be Collected
Wisconsin Endangered Resources Fund
Who Are Our Directors
Fire Ecology in Southern Wisconsin
Right-of-Way Prairies
Wisconsin Prairie Enthusiasts Formalizes
Conservation Reserve Program
Why Are Areas Burned?
Albany Wetland After the Fire
Avon Bluff After the Fire
Nachusa Grasslands
Threatened and Endangered Plants Found
Rock County Conservationists
Seed Collecting
Prairie Video Tape Project
Roadside Collectors
A Prairie Sunset
Excerpts from “The History of Green County” – 1987
Featured Species: Bergamot
Anatomy of a Grass
