Scheduled for July 16, Prairie Field Day 2024 will feature several guest speakers and onsite tours of the three prairie projects currently at the station - the remnant prairie, the reconstructed prairie and the Department of Natural Resources prairie seed production project. Nick Howell, superintendent of the Horticulture Research Station, said he is excited to welcome new faces and introduce them to the impact of prairies on the environment. “There's nothing more useful in the environment than prairie for things like carbon sequestration,” Howell said. “Prairies can have a huge part in fixing environmental issues. It’s why Iowa has such beautiful soils. It was all prairie at one point.”
Event attendees will see a piece of prairie remnant at the Horticulture Research Station. Prairie remnant refers to an area of original prairie that has remained relatively undisturbed, rather than a reconstructed prairie created to emulate an original prairie. This area of remnant prairie thrives near the 15-acre lake that spans the middle of the Horticulture Research Station. When the lake was built in the 1950s, the workers managed to avoid destroying the natural prairie.
The event will feature several guest speakers, including:
- Laura Miner, Iowa Prairie Network secretary and Iowa DNR Technician 2 at the Prairie Resource Center
- Brian Wisley, Iowa State University, professor of ecology, evolution and organismal biology
- Tom Rosburg, Drake University, professor of biology and Iowa prairie expert
- Bill Johnson, Iowa DNR, wildlife biologist
- Lisa Schulte-Moore, Iowa State University, professor of natural resource ecology and management and cofounder of Science-based Trials of Row crops Integrated with Prairie Strips (STRIPS) project
- Adam Janke, Iowa State University, associate professor of natural resource ecology and management and wildlife extension specialist.
Registration for Prairie Field Day 2024 closes July 9. Attendees should expect to walk through tall grass and uneven terrain, and long pants and boots are recommended.