February 2024 Prairie Photos
December 2023 photos of the Florida Orchard Prairie have been added to the box folder.
December 2023 photos of the Florida Orchard Prairie have been added to the box folder.
December 2023 photos of the Florida Orchard Prairie have been added to the box folder.
November 2023 photos of the Florida Orchard Prairie have been added to the box folder.
October 2023 photos of the Florida Orchard Prairie have been added to the box folder.
September 2023 photos of the Florida Orchard Prairie have been added to the box folder.
Jun 2023 photos of the Florida Orchard Prairie have been added to the box folder.
July 2023 photos of the Florida Orchard Prarie have been added to the box folder.
The following is an email sent by John Marlin on May 16, 2023:
As most of you know I am retired from campus and involved in other off campus conservation activities. I will no longer be overseeing the Burrill Hall native planting.
During the pandemic, maintenance at campus native plantings by volunteers was not allowed. This coupled with very dry conditions caused deterioration of several sites including the one at Burrill Hall. F&S bought the woodland wildflowers for the planting and the Entomology Department installed them and provided some maintenance in conjunction with some students.
Department head May Berenbaum has put together an effort to revitalize the planting and has some limited funding for some maintenance of the native plants. F&S plans to make some changes in part of the area and the path is to be restored. Daniel Bush will initially work with the native plants and supervise any students.
In the past weeds removed from the site were placed by the two square concrete benches and I notified Ryan Welch who had the maintenance crew remove them. I assume a similar arrangement can be made possibly with Mr. Dalby as the contact.
This site was quite popular with people walking past and provided a good instructional resource, especially the area near the sidewalk. I hope that this will continue.
John C. Marlin
Dennis Dalby replied:
Thank you John,
It was nice meeting you today to gain some of your tips and input regarding the planting and upkeep of this area. I’ve been working with Ryan Welch and SIB to get this area brought back up to its current level and look forward to its improved upkeep with the discussions that we had today. We’ll be working with Ryan to have a wood chip path added once again and will add a few small plants of our own within the areas that we (MCB) will maintain. SIB will maintain the areas of the native plants. It will look and function much better once all is in place.
Thanks again for stopping by to share your experience,
Dennis
Greetings, Colleagues,
I hope the start of 2023 is going well. I’m reaching out today to send you iSEE Quarterly update for Winter 2022 from the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment.
For more up-to-date news from iSEE, please sign up for our E-newsletter at https://illinois.edu/fb/sec/5031776.
IN RESEARCH
IN EDUCATION & OUTREACH
IN CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY
Thanks for reading, and best wishes for the remainder of the spring semester!
Best,
Madhu Khanna
Madhu Khanna
Pronouns: she, her
Alvin H. Baum Family Chair & Director, Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment
ACES Distinguished Professor in Environmental Economics
Co-Director, Center for Economics of Sustainability
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
1301, W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801
Several students apart of the Sustainability Living-Learning Community attended the 2017 AASHE Student Summit and participated in a Bee Campus USA workshop. These students decided that the University should obtain Bee Campus USA Certification for UIUC. Displaying signage focused on pollinator conservation was one of the requirements for this certification. Four signs were installed, and since their installment UIUC is a part of Bee Campus USA.
Attached is the full report.
Attached is the "Save the Date! March Monarch Meeting" invitation:
Information about how commercial bee keeping functions and its impact to overall bee populations was inquired about by Brent Lewis, Landscape Architect. Below is the response from Adam Donzel, an Assistant Professor in Entomology.
'Hi Brent,
Yeah, there is work on that. Here are links to couple studies about it:
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep32023
https://academic.oup.com/jinsectscience/article/22/1/17/6523145
Basically, yes, there are some stresses involved with migratory beekeeping but sedentary colonies can also have similar issues. In some scenarios, migratory colonies could be healthier as they are moved to areas with good nutritional resources all the time, while those left in place have to deal with times of low food availability. In reality, though, migratory colonies do undergo a lot of stress as they are used to pollinate crops and a lot goes into that - the stress of confinement, heat, exposure to agrochemicals, etc. From a beekeeping perspective, this is calculated into the fees charged for pollination (to some extent at least). Right now, beekeepers charge about $200/hive to pollinate almonds for example (the most lucrative pollination event). Big beekeepers manage 20,000-50,000 hives! "Small" commercial beekeepers usually have 2-5000.
Migratory beekeeping uses about 85% of the managed colonies in the USA (incredible!). One big issue with this is that, if a new pest or pathogen is introduced, it will be spread throughout the country very fast. And in big pollination events, like almonds, hives are concentrated at very high densities, which does present a lot of opportunities for spreading diseases. They do mitigate this to some extent, however, as there are health checks required to move bees across state lines, and almond growers usually require checks of colonies to make sure they are healthy.
Hope this helps - always happy to answer questions when I can!"
From: Alice Berkson
To: John Marlin; James Ellis; White, Morgan
Recipients: jcmarlin@sbcglobal.net; james.ellis72@gmail.com; mbwhite at illinois.edu
Hello -- Now that the Florida/Orchard Prairie Zone has had a spring haircut, would traversing the area to pick up trash be a
good idea
irrelevant
harmful to plants
Just let me know, I can get to it possibly before the weekend, definitely early next week.
Also at least one of the Prairie Zone signs (on a single metal pole) are listing to one side. I straightened out the one adjoining the driveway so I think they are not set in concrete? Should I drop a few stones next to it in an effort to keep it straight? -- Alice
--
Alice Berkson
904 Mayfair Rd.
Champaign, IL 61821-4437
voice 217.356.4829
SpectroClick, Inc:
www.SpectroClick.com
https://www.facebook.com/spectroclick/
Public Service Archaeology & Architecture Program, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
https://psaap.anthro.illinois.edu/
Illinois Assn. for Advancement of Archaeology:
www.museum.state.il.us/iaaa
East Central IL Master Naturalist Program:
http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/champaign/mn/index.html
On Mar 9, 2022, at 5:35 PM, Ellis, James Lee <jellis at illinois.edu> wrote:
Kevin,
Is the Florida and Orchard prairie planting now under your purview at the arboretum?
No, however we help out as needed - brush pick up, shrub cutting. John Marlin is the best source for info about management etc….
Nathan Hudson and I have mowed the prairie in early spring the past few years. I’m willing to do that again in lieu of prescribed fire if desired.
Great, probably due for a prescribed fire.
Let us know if we can assist?
Best,
Jamie
JAMES L. ELLIS
Natural Areas Coordinator
Illinois Natural History Survey
Prairie Research Institute | University of Illinois
1816 S. Oak St. | M/C 652
Champaign, IL 61820
217.244.5695 | 217.649.7230 | jellis at illinois.edu
research.illinois.edu/cna
Join Piatt County Master Gardener Kent McFarland as he explains the importance of having a Mason Bee House in your garden, and walks you through the steps of building one using recycled and natural materials. Registration is required; $15/person, includes all materials.
March 26, 10–11 am • Registration Deadline: 3/18/22 • Greenhouse Auditorium at Allerton Park & Retreat Center
Olivia Warren • Allerton Park & Retreat Center
From: White, Morgan
To: Moore, Meredith Kaye
Hi Meredith,
Where on the portal do you think BeeSpotter belongs? I'm thinking it should be in the Resilience theme, but I'm not sure whether it should be under one of the other projects or just under the main one.
Morgan
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Moore, Meredith Kaye
To: White, Morgan
Hi Morgan,
That’s a good question. In my opinion, it doesn’t seem to fit well with any of the other projects under the resilience theme page. So unless we want to create a new project “support local pollinator projects” (or something of the sort) with the intention of adding additional pollinator projects, I vote for now let’s make it a project under the main theme. Does that make sense?
Thanks,
Meredith
Link to proposal:
https://uillinoisedu-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/fandsamaloto2_ad_u...
Link to BeeSpotter:
The link was updated for the primary Bee Campus USA page and some adjustments were made to links that were not responsive. The following links were added in the Bee City/Campus USA main page:
http://beecampususa.web.illinois.edu/
https://www.facebook.com/Bee-Campus-USA-at-UIUC-228849297661692/
https://www.beecityusa.org/what-is-a-bee-campus.html
A 24" by 36" Bee Campus USA sign will be installed at the corner of Florida Avenue and Orchard Street, by the Florida-Orchard prairie, near Orchard Downs and the Presidents’ House.
The sign includes information about Bee Campus USA, local pollinators, the creation of the prairie zone, and more!
See the attached file to view a digital rendition of the signage.
The following email from John Marlin describes how to remove goldenrod at the Florida & Orchard Prairie and some motivation for doing so.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Marlin
Date: Sun, Jul 25, 2021 at 1:51 PM
Subject: Perfect time to remove goldenrod at Florida Orchard
To: Illinois Master Naturalists
The big rain Saturday evening has left the soil in perfect condition for easily pulling tall goldenrod (see photo) at the Florida-Orchard prairie next to the UI president's house. This is a great time for some independent action to get some hours. Grasp the stem rather low (or several stems if you wish) and slowly pull straight up. You may get lucky and also get 3 feet of rhizome. Pulling the plants now just before they bloom weakens them greatly and prevents seed development. You will often notice several stems in a circular pattern, get them all. If you cannot carry plants away, toss them into the prairie individually. If you cannot pull or bend over, just clip the stem 2 or 3 feet above ground level to weaken the plant and spur competitors.
During he past several years we have pulled many plants along the South and east edges and the first third of the center path, Concentrate on these areas and the first third of the central path. (WE also worked on the North side -- including putting a drop of herbicide on cut stems). This has paid off as the species diversity has improved in these areas. We concentrate on pulling the tall goldenrod near more desirable species like Butterfly milkweed, Bee balm, Culver's root and others. If you walk down the central path, notice how goldenrod dominates about a third of the way down.
There is parking in the UI lots at the Archives (Hort lab) off Orchard at the top of the Hill and at various times on Orchard street North of Florida.
This site along with others including Meadow Brook, Pollinatarium, Arboretum, Lincoln Ave. Residence, Red Oak rain garden, AND homeowner plantings allow bee and other pollinator populations a chance to expand and exchange genetic material. Attached are a recent photo of the south side and an historical poster of FLOR in 2013.
MN's can get credit for this as part of the campus native plant projects.
I sent this BCC to some people who helped in the past and may have some current interest.
John C. Marlin
Morgan White reviewed the following Entomology courses with Professors May Berenbaum and Adam Dolezal:
*During the review, Professor Berenbaum and Professor Dolezal added IB 468 to the pre-existing list of the other courses.