I just talked with Stephanie Franklin, who is one of the 'managers' of the prairie restoration site in Nichols Park. She was very enthusiastic about the prospect of some students who could maintain and improve the site (plenty of non-native invasives, like bindweed, reed canary grass, and woody plants like mulberrys and elms). They are just short on manpower, and that has apparently pushed them to hush- hush methods (I'm not supposed to tell anyone this, but to create an incentive to get over there and fix stuff up), like the park district applying pesticides (toxic enough to require a license - not just your usual Roundup). The dead bunches of reed canary grass are the victims.

As a potential future field trip / final project for further permutations of the prairie class, I thought I'd let you know. She also mentioned that they'd love to have it function as a research station. The school next door hasn't proven very helpful, since the kids just get distracted by the butterflies and the rabbit who lives there.

You can reach her at 773.955.3622, or

sngfranklin@earthlink.net. She seemed to prefer the phone number, since there have been problems with her email.

I'll hopefully be meeting with Blair Archambeau this week, as well as Bill Michels from Development (though I hear he just says whatever needs to be said to keep people happy, regardless of actual intention to commit or follow through).

So I'll be on guard. Here's hoping!

best,

dennis fiser [dennis_fiser (at) fastmail.fm] 6/11/07