Upcoming Prairie Events Celebrate Our Prairie Heritage

White Prairie Clover (photo by Randy Williams)

 



Stone State Park is a great place to see native prairie plants - especially in late summer.  Few people visit the far north side of the park.  Mt. Talbot State Preserve was established in 1989 to protect some of the most outstanding prairie remnants in our state. 

Purple Prairie Clover (photo by Randy Williams)

 

Two upcoming events celebrate our prairie heritage-

 



Sioux City's Prairie Past and Present - Iowa Prairie Heritage
September 8, 2013 2pm
Sioux City Public Museum, 607 4th St, Sioux City, IA

Using photos and information from the museum archives, early images of Sioux City will be shown giving a glimpse of the Loess Hills and the prairie that vegetated much of the area.

Iowa Prairie Heritage Week Prairie Walk at Mount Talbot State Preserve
September 9, 2013 6:30pm

To celebrate Iowa Prairie Heritage Week, join Dianne Blankenship and other prairie enthusiasts as we hike the main ridge of the beautiful Mount Talbot State Preserve. Located on the north edge of Stone State Park, access is from Talbot Road.

This will be a fairly leisurely walk along the ridge of this Loess Hill prairie in search of late-blooming prairie wildflowers. Access will be impossible if Talbot Road is muddy and the field trip will be cancelled. Check back at this calendar. for updates.

Directions: As you approach Stone Park on Memorial Drive, turn right onto Talbot Road and travel north and then west. Watch for the sign for the preserve on the left, south.
If approaching from Hwy. 12, turn onto Talbot Road north of Stone Park, and the preserve will be on the right, south side of Talbot. Again, if the unimproved part of Talbot Road is muddy, the field trip will be cancelled.

Turtle Lake Fish Habitat

The River City Anglers and Friends of Stone Park had a volunteer work day on June 29th to improve habitat for fish and improve angler's success.  This time of year, aquatic vegetation can make it more difficult to fish from shore at Turtle Lake.  In fact, most ponds in Iowa have an abundance of vegetation in mid-summer.

The pond is stocked with Grass Carp which help with some of the problem.  However, the Anglers wanted to do more.  The two groups worked together to install some landscape fabric in 3 places along the shoreline.  The fabric was topped with small rocks.

The fabric will keep down rooted vegetation along shore.  The pea gravel will attract spawning panfish.  Young anglers will be able to see the panfish from shore and have a greater chance of catching fish!

Funding for this project came from a Toyota Every Day Event Grant.  Future plans call for volunteers to install benches, a fishing information kiosk, and underwater fish structure.  The fish seem appreciative and are using the area already!

Volunteers add rock to the top of fabric one bucket at a time.

Thanks for Mayhem at Stone State Park!

Children's Miracle Network and the Friends of Stone Park were proud to sponsor the Mayhem 2013 event at Stone State Park.  Thank you to all who slogged through the mud to benefit Children's Miracle Network.  Thanks to the sponsors, the volunteers, and all the participants for making the event a success!  I hope you all had fun.

 

Mud is actually good.

I actually look forward to next year.