Welcome to the Prairie Nature Center!

The Prairie Nature Center is a 11 acre tall grass restoration on campus of The Ohio State University at Marion.  This site allows the reader a behind the scene look at the daily happenings of the prairie, often including pictures and videos of our current projects.  If you have any questions or comments we encourage you to post them!  Enjoy!

For the love of Prairie Dock leaves

One of my favorite sights each year is the new growth of the soon to be immense leaves of Prairie Dock. Each spring I’m excited to see the sturdy stems, sand papery texture and distinctive shape of their leaves. Yesterday I had the chance to get up close with a few of the still small leaves. I encourage you to look for them on your next walk through the prairie. These unique, tough leaves will be the only indication of the Prairie Dock plant until the stems and flowers appear later in the summer months. Until then, enjoy these beautifully tough leaves.

In case you missed it- native plants still up for sale

The 2012 Prairie Plant Sale has come and gone- but still a few plants remain up for sale.  If you missed the sale or didn’t buy as many plants as you would like contact Emily at meyer.700@osu.edu or 740-725-6269 to set up a time to look over the plants and pick out a few more!

Click below for the list of

Plants still available!

Prairie Plant Sale- tomorrow morning

Plant sale set up is underway.  Here are some pictures of our progress.  Hope to see you at the sale tomorrow!

Join us on Saturday May 5th for our Native Plant Sale

 

If you have any questions, please contact Emily Meyer at 740-725-6269

Live! Great Blue Heron Nest at Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Enjoy watching a Great Blue Heron nest with 4 chicks and 1 egg yet to hatch.  Amazing footage!

Live! Great Blue Heron Nest at Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

JOIN US! Earth Day celebration- Saturday April 21st, 10 am – 1 pm

Prescribed burn at the Prairie

Last Thursday we held a prescribed burn of the prairie with the help of Mike Broecker of Muskingum Valley Woodland Services and a crew of seven wildfire experts.  The burn will help us to manage invasive species and reinvigorate the native plants as well.  Enjoy pictures of the burn below!

Mike leads the pre burn meeting discussing the burn plan, anticipated weather conditions and desired outcomes.

Let’s suit up!

A small test patch is started to study the fire behavior

Looks like it’ll burn!

The team watches the intial fire and finalizes the plan for this section of the prairie

That’s hot!

More photos of the prescribed burn

Pictures continue to roll in from all of the spectators at the prescribed burn last week.  Enjoy some additional shots below!

Two drip torches sit ready to start the fire. The tank holds a mix of diesel and gasoline. The tip is lit and when tipped downward the torch drops flaming bits of fuel. This tool is used to spread the fire during a prescribed burn.

Jon, prairie employee, and Ron Kuszmaul, OSU Public Safety Supervisor, await the start of the burn

The test fire grows larger

The team manages the flames with rakes, brooms, water sprayers and a leaf blower. Using these tools the team can redirect or put out the fire when needed.

A column of smoke rises perfectly to the sky

Emily works with a broom to put the fire out at the edges

The heat takes your breath away

Emily uses the drip torch to expand the fire around the northern side of this section

Soggy Prairie

Over the last few weeks a very large puddle has developed at the Prairie.  No matter how many sunny, warm days we have the water just seems to stick around.  The puddle stretches from the northeastern portion of the prairie on the gravel driveway and continues south all the way to the entrance to the shelter house.  Yesterday I walked around campus and explored some low-lying areas that typically become puddles in times of wet weather.  Surprisingly these areas were free of standing water.  It seems that a tile which drained the prairie may have been damaged during the summer construction projects.  Another possibility is that the addition of the shelter house and some changes in the grading have left low spots which hold water for long amounts of time.  Regardless of the cause, clearing the very large puddle from the prairie will be added to our spring to do list.

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Water is taking over the Prairie video