It is time for our annual prairie-seed-gathering workshop. Prairies are a growing part of our landscape out here. Until 2003, Jim Danky and Christine Schelshorn’s land was under agricultural cultivation, but they decided to turn it back into a prairie habitat after Christine took a workshop at the UW Arboretum. Through their friendship with Steve Glass, they accelerated the restoration work and today the Danky-Schelshorn Prairie is quite mature and ready to share with others. In 2019, they donated the prairie to the Historic Cooksville Trust, which, in 2022, also turned three acres adjacent to the historic village of Cooksville into the Waucoma Preserve prairie with help from partners at Agrecol, the Cooksville Community Center, and other donors. The institute has been coordinating this shared event since its inception in 2021.
Christine and Jim will be on hand to talk about the history and maintenance of the prairie, as well as answering questions about our solar installation. Follow them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danky_schelshorn_prairie/
Workshop Details
In this workshop, we’ll spend time on the prairies collecting seeds and exploring prairie ecology. You’ll learn to collect seeds from various species and will go home with your own samples!
Please wear clothing appropriate for the weather and activity: close-toed shoes, gloves, long shirt and pants, etc. Please bring your own beverage and snack. We will be outside, but in case of inclement weather, we may find a rain date. Please bring along hand pruners or clippers if you have them (we’ll have some on hand, too)
The workshop will start at the Cooksville Community Center (11204 N. Church Street, Evansville, WI 53536) and then move to the Danky-Schelshorn Prairie (261 Wisconsin 138, Stoughton, Wisconsin) (25 min south of Madison) on October 10, from 1:00–3:00(ish) p.m. (rain day is October 17th). It is free, but please RSVP by sending an email to info@lowtechinstitute.org. Space is limited and we will keep a waiting list. Also, participants must fill out this liability waiver. Your RSVP is only complete when the waiver is filled out.
Donations are always welcome to help defray the cost of LTI’s workshops and programming. We are a member-supported organization. You may also support the prairie directly by donating to the Historic Cooksville Trust.
Instructor
Stephen Glass is a certified ecological restoration practitioner at the Restoration Ecology Lab and coauthor of the textbook Introduction to Restoration Ecology. He led the development of the UW-Arboretum’s long-term restoration master plan. Much of his work is centered on developing methods to remove invasive species from native habitats and restored areas. He is a certified fire-management burner and is especially interested in the challenge of restoring disturbed lands in urban environments.
Resources
Here are some links that may be worth reading through from the Tall Grass Prairie Center.