My name is Amanda Slagel, and I am a 4th year in the college. I grew up on a small farm that is exactly 100 miles south of Chicago. I miss the country and the open space so much when I am in the city. I was looking for a bio topics class to take, and am so excited to see a class offered on prairies! The small town I went to school in was once all prairie, and now there are just bits and pieces of prairie there. My school district is actually called "Prairie Central!" My family takes a vacation every year, and whenever we misbehaved as children, my dad always threatened that our vacation would just be to Weston, IL to see the prairie grass. (Weston is only 15-20 minutes away, but has a 5-acre prairie called "Weston Cemetery Prairie") I also often went to Wildlife Prairie Park near Peoria, IL with a group of my cousins as well. In other words--I have a great appreciation for the country and the prairie, since I grew up there--and I am really interested to learn all of the biology surrounding it! I guess I have just taken the prairie for granted since I have lived in/near it; therefore, I don't know much at all about the state/condition of prairies in the US. Out of this course, I am hoping to learn more about the basic biology of the prairie ecosystem, and learn what I can do in order to help with the conservation/preservation of the remaining prairies!

Links to my other wikis:

Conservation/Restoration Project

Naturalist Guide

Endangered Species Project

Final Paper