The Prairie Promoter

2024 Spring Issue

Become a Contributor!

Next deadline is May 1, 2024!

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 Sarah Barron at sbarron@theprairieenthusiasts.org

Past Newsletters

Click to view past newsletters

Spring-2024

Another Prairie Island Protected
Thomas Wet Prairie
Let Them Be (Poem)
Spring Into Nature Podcasts
Volunteer Profile: Ralph Henry
Stability Part One
A Journey of Love & Respect
Capturing the Life of the Land
Positive Changes on Pleasant Bluff

Spring-2023

The Work of Prairies

A Prairie Ode to Joy

Sheboygan County Woodland Restoration

Converting Turf to Prairie

Summer-2023

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)

Fall-2023

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

Spring-2022

A Landscape for Life

The Long View from Mounds View

Sharing Knowledge from Mounds View

Writing the Land

Buttercups

Summer-2022

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

Fall-2022

The Little Prairie That Coule

Bumble Bee Survey

Buckthorn

Seeds

Turkeyfoot (poem)

Picture Perfect Prairies

Learning from teh Story of the Savannas

Spring-2021

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

Summer-2021

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

Fall-2021

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

Spring-2020

Time Rattlesnake: Vanishing Blufflands Icon

Reflections on Living in the Moment

Shining Oaks

The Higher Calling of Kevin Clinton

Summer-2020

No Limits for Disabled Prairie Owner

Time Does Change Things

Silent Hill

The Moment

You Sure Have Gall

Rekindling Old Flames

Fall-2020

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

Spring-2019

A Case for Planting Conservative Species-A Love Story

Tree of Life

What Kind of Person?

Eldred Art Exhibit

Meinert Prairie

Summer-2019

Resilience Frames Prairie Management & (Should) Manage Expectations

Cryptic Insects & Other Mysteries

Member Profile: Tom & Kathie Brock

Fall-2019

Nature’s Tollbox-Citizen Science

Nick Faessler Awarded

Foslin Addition

Spring-2018

Bur Oak Blight at Pleasant Valley Conservancy

The Value of Ecological Restoration

Woolly Milkweed Needs You

BugGuide.net

Swamplovers Keep Going

Summer-2018

Roadside Riches to Ruins

TPE Endowments

Violet Wood Sorrel Blushes Bluff

New Insect Record for Lafayette County

Hanley Savanna’s Deep Roots

Fall-2018

Landowner Survey Shows Surprises

Nature Needs Us

Packard: A Prairie Pioneer

Swenson Acquisition

What Does Chapter Staff Do for Us?

Spring-2017

Summation of a Seed Season

Iris Drive Prairie

Of Checks, Balances & Seed Production

SER International Standards

Choosing Herbicides

Using Adjuvants

Summer-2017

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

Fall-2017

30th Anniversary of The Prairie Enthusiasts

Prescribed Foraging

Conservation Honor: Gary Rathman

Member Profile: Nick Faessler

A Message from the Future

Spring-2016

The Species Conservation Project

One Plant at a Time

Historic Plants of Prairie Bluff

Hauser Road Prairie

Fall-2016

Volunteers Receive Awards

An Artist’s Eye

The Future of Conservation

Insect Overwintering

Winter-2015

Seed for the Future

Dirt-The Ecstatic Skn of the Earth

Spring-2015

One Plant at a Time

Lobby for Conservation

What are Prairie-Dependent Insects

Strawberries and Roses

Monitoring & Management-A Sensible Pairing

Summer-2015

How to ID Sedges

Are Our Prairie Plantings Working?

Of Surveys, Monitoring & Science

Fall-2015

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

Spring-2014

To Burn or Not to Burn?

Parrish Oak Savanna Protected

Why Does TPE Matter to You?

Sylvan Road Protected

Nurturing Pollinators: A Prairie Management Priority

Revisiting the John Curtis Dataset: The Importance of Keeping Records & Burning Prairies

Summer-2014

Curiosity Leads to Discovery

Seeds of Discovery

Fall-2014

New Addition at Military Ridge Prairie Heritage Area

Double Oak Savanna Dedicated

The Buckthorn Baggie

Winter-2013

John Shillinglaw Honored

You CAN Take it with You

Looking for a Savanna to Restore?

Spring-2013

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 TPE

Summer-2013

Bring Back Pollinators

The First Prairie Lily

Propagating Remnant Populations of Rattlesnake Master

Fall-2013

Nurturing Prairie Pollinators

Driftless Land Stewardship Goat Herd Used for Brush Control in Middleton

Winter-2012

Endangered Whooping Cranes Grace TPE’s Shea Prairie

Stream & Wetland Restoration at Shea Prairie

Crayfish Take Advantage of Restoration

Mounds View Grassland: An Intern’s Perspective

Spring-2012

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

Summer-2012

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

Fall-2012

Conservation Organizations Sign MOU to Collaborate on Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan

Three TPE Land Acquisitions Total 137 Acres

1987: A Big First Year for The Prairie Enthusiasts

Winter-2011

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

TPE Acquires Smith Drumlin Prairie

Spring-2011

More Rare Plants Found at Mounds View Grassland

Prairie Enthusiast of the Year: Jan Ketelle

Regal Fritillary Farewell

Summer-2011

Borah Creek SNA Expansion

Look Out for Prairie Faeries

Joint Venture at Jubilee College State Park

WDNR Sponsors Invasive Species Control

Fall-2011

Search for Western Prairie Fringed Orchid

Along The Trail with Bob Lee

Southwest Wisconsin Chapter Acquisition Efforts

Koltes Prairie Protection & Management

Winter-2010

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

Spring-2010

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

Summer-2010

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

Fall-2010

Summer Interns Find Rare Species at Mounds View

Prairie Preservation: An Intern’s Account

Trial Prairie Plantings on Mesic Soil: Preliminary Results

Winter-2009

TPE Seed Collecting

Seed Collecting & Cleaning

Spring-2009

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

Summer-2009

TPE 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

Fall-2009

Regal Fritillaries Rebound at Mounds View Grassland

SNA 591: Borah Creek Prairie

Tolls & Techniques: Classical Biocontrol

Purple Milkweed Success

Winter-2008

Purple Milkweed at Kalscheur Oak Savanna

TPE 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-20008

Spring Green Preserve Update

Tools & Techniques: Easing the Work Load

BNargain Sale Protects More than Sugar River Savanna

Enthusiasts Receive Rock County Easement

Orchid Growers Guild Commends Prairie Enthusiast

Rre Oak Savanna Protected

Summer-2008

20 Years at Honey Creek

Tolls & Techniques: Preparing an NRCS Burn Plan

Wetland Restoration Project in Grant County

Natural Cemeteries

Fall-2008

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

Winter-2007

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

Spring-2007

What a Long, Fun Trip It’s Been-20 Years of TPE

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 TPE

Erbe Road Grassland Protected by TPE

Summer-2007

The Prairie Enthusiasts is a Premier Land Trust

First Wisconsin Collection of Lechea Mucronata (Hairy Pinweed)

Introducing Eric Tarman-Ramcheck

Fall-2007

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

Winter-2006

Protecting a Pocket-Prairie

TPE Protects a Critical Piece of Our Prairie Heritage

The Prairie Enthusiasts’s Conservation Toolkit-Acquisition and Conservation Easements

Spring-2006

Savanna & Oak Woodland Restorations are Helping Birds

New Guidelines for Grassland Bird Habitat

Volunteer Spotlight: Tom & Kathie Brock

Experience with Incidental Takes

Summer-2006

State Endangered Plant Found at a Nature Conservancy Prairie

Elderberry Prairie for Fun, Food and Fuel?

Fall-2006

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

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