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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS FIELD STATION
Kansas Biological Survey &
Center for Ecological Research
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This is the monthly newsletter for the University of Kansas Field Station community.
Each month, we share details about upcoming public programs, volunteer opportunities, and highlights from the month before.
Newsletter archives can be found at https://biosurvey.ku.edu/ku-field-station-newsletter.
Please email wendyholman@ku.edu if you have questions or would like more information.
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April 24: Applications due for Ecosystems of Kansas Summer Institute for 6th - 9th grade science teachers!
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Please share with all of the teachers in your lives!
The Ecosystems of Kansas Summer Institute is an immersive three-day program that empowers and inspires secondary science teachers with hands-on learning experiences. The Summer Institute was developed to support and inspire educators. We value the work you do every day to teach and care for your students. Our main goal is to provide an experience that will leave you feeling appreciated, refreshed, and retooled for your next academic year.
Join like-minded teachers to learn more about Kansas ecosystems, interact with researchers, and develop curriculum that links current research to NGSS standards - AND get paid while you do it!
Deadline to apply is April 24, 2024.
For more information and to apply, click here!
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April 13: Spring Tour of Baldwin Woods
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It's time for the spring guided tour of the Baldwin Woods Forest Preserve, a tract of the KU Field Station located near Baldwin City, Kansas. In 1980, the entire Baldwin Woods area was designated as a National Natural Landmark because it is recognized as a “significant example of the natural heritage of the Nation.” Due to the sensitivity of this ecosystem, it is not open to the public outside of limited guided tours in the spring and fall of each year, and scientific studies are done with as little disturbance as possible.
Ecologists from the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology will lead small groups into the Breidenthal Biological Reserve, part of the Baldwin Woods Forest Preserve. Tour leaders will share their knowledge about this sensitive ecosystem with a focus on plants, lichens, and fungi. Participants should expect to walk 1-2 miles at a slow pace on uneven and undeveloped forest trails.
When: 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 13, 2023
Where: Baldwin Woods Forest Preserve
*More details, including directions and where to park will be emailed to registrants before the event
What to bring: Closed-toed shoes, long pants, a water bottle, a walking stick if needed.
To register: email Wendy (wendyholman@ku.edu)
Please note that we must limit the number of participants to 50 people. There are no bathrooms on site!
For more photos from the 2022 spring tour of Baldwin Woods, please click here.
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April 14: Science Sundays
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Science Sundays talks cover a variety of science topics, including research happening at the Field Station. Talks are free and open to everyone, but may not interest younger audiences. These talks are intended for members of the general public who want to learn more about science. You do not have to be a scientist to attend! Please RSVP to Wendy Holman (wendyholman@ku.edu) as registration will be capped at 40 each month. It also helps us plan for seating and snacks!
April Topic: Ticks!
Tick encounters are one of the less pleasant parts of life in Kansas, especially when we know that they can spread diseases to humans. If you have spent much time outside, you have probably met lone star ticks, black-legged ticks, and American dog ticks, all of which can carry diseases that affect humans. Marlon Cobos, a postdoctoral fellow with KU's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department and the Biodiversity Institute, will present his research on ticks, covering topics from their seasonal abundance to disease-carrying potential. We will discuss some tips for staying safe while enjoying the outdoors during tick season. Join us to learn more about the lives of these ubiquitous little creatures!
When: 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 14, 2023
Where: KU Field Station, Armitage Education Center, 350 Wild Horse Road, Lawrence, Kansas 66044
What to bring: A mug for tea/coffee to help us reduce waste.
Please RSVP to Wendy (wendyholman@ku.edu) as space is limited.
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April 14: Wild Foraging & Seeding: Focus on Garlic Mustard (Part 1)
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SUN | Apr 14 | 9:30–11 AM | Lawrence River Trail
Join KU Field Station, Native Lands Restoration Collaborative and Lawrence Public Library in exploration of a local woodland in search of garlic mustard, an invasive species threatening native biodiversity. This yummy herb is easy to ID, nutritious and a great fresh ingredient to keep in the fridge.
For this part of the series, join us for a morning hike to gather garlic mustard! We'll be helping the land heal from our foraging by adding native woodland grass seeds as we work. This will be a fun, family-friendly gathering! Parking location to be determined, along the Lawrence River Trail.
To attend both parts of this two part series, you must register for each event separately.
Click here to register for Part 1: Wild Foraging and Native Grass Seeding: Focus on Garlic Mustard.
Questions? Ask Terese: twinters@lplks.org
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April 15: In the Kitchen: Cooking with Foraged Garlic Mustard (Part 2)
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MON | Apr 15 | 6 – 7:30 PM | KU Field Station: Armitage Education Center
Join KU Field Station, Native Lands Restoration Collaborative and Lawrence Public Library in exploration of a local woodland in search of garlic mustard, an invasive species threatening native biodiversity. This yummy herb is easy to ID, nutritious and a great fresh ingredient to keep in the fridge.
For this part two of the series on garlic mustard, we'll gather at the KU Field Station's Armitage Center to learn how to use the herb in your favorite recipes and add a few new ideas to your cookbooks! Local chef and expert in cooking with wild and foraged foods Raven Naramore will guide us through handling, storing, and cooking with garlic mustard.
Want to participate in part two of this series but didn't attend part one? No problem! We'll have extra garlic mustard on hand for those without.
To attend both parts of this two part series, you must register for both events separately.
Click here to register for Part 2: In the Kitchen: Cooking with Garlic Mustard.
Questions? Ask Terese: twinters@lplks.org
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April 25 and May 15: Woodland Plants in Spring
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Join EJ Jamison (Kansas Forest Service) and Helen Alexander (retired faculty, KU) to learn about the deciduous forests of eastern Kansas. Lawrence lies in the prairie-forest ecotone, the climatic transition zone between the eastern deciduous forest and the tallgrass prairie, making our forests unique as the easternmost extent of this forest type. This two-part series (each session lasting 1.5 - 2 hours) will take place at the Fitch Natural History Reservation, a site with a variety of kinds of plants and habitats. These sessions will complement each other, so it is important that participants attend both sessions. Our focus will be on the ecology of woodlands, learning to identify common woodland plants, understanding the history of landscape change, and observing changes in the plants between the two sessions. Participants can expect to walk at a slow pace for approximately 2 miles along a gravel driveway and uneven woodland trail with some elevational change.
When: Session 1 - Thursday, April 25th at 5:00 p.m.; Session 2 - Wednesday, May 15th at 5:00 p.m.
Where: Meet at the Suzanne Ecke McColl Nature Reserve, 2055 E 1600 Road, Lawrence, Kansas 66044
What to bring: Closed-toed shoes and long pants treated with tick repellent (picaridin or permethrin); water bottle; your curiosity!
Please register by emailing Wendy (wendyholman@ku.edu) as space is limited.
*These programs are dependent on weather and may need to be cancelled or postponed due to wind or rain. Wendy will e-mail registrants to confirm or cancel the program if necessary.
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April 27: KU Field Station Visitors' Day
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Join us for the first public Visitors' Day in over 20 years to tour the restricted-access research areas of the KU Field Station!
Members of the public will be welcomed "behind the scenes" at the KU Field Station to visit ongoing research projects in areas that are not normally accessible to the public. Stations will be set up along a ¾ mile gravel "Research Road" that travels from the Armitage Education Center to the Frank B. Cross Reservoir. Visitors will be able to walk at their own pace and talk with researchers who will be stationed along the road, ready to share their research with visitors.
Feel free to walk the entire road, or just part way. It's up to you! Locally grown teas from native plants will be available to keep you refreshed and hydrated along the way.
Limited edition 75th anniversary shirts will be available for sale while supplies last!
When: Saturday, April 27, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Where: KU Field Station, 350 Wild Horse Road, Lawrence, Kansas 66044
What to bring: Shoes made for walkin'!
No need to RSVP, but please check our social media pages for updates in case of inclement weather.
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April: Volunteer Opportunities
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April 9: Native Medicinal Plant Research Garden Spring Clean-up
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Do you love to garden and want to learn more about human relationships with native plants? Join Lisa Castle, Ethnobotany and Plant Ecology Researcher, and Kelly Kindscher, Senior Scientist with the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research, to help prepare the KU Native Medicinal Plant Research Garden for spring!
Volunteers will learn alongside Lisa and Kelly as they remove last year's dead stalks and mulch the beds with fresh wood chips. This spring maintenance will keep the gardens looking fresh and encourage the wildflowers to bloom in the mulched beds. Kelly will provide a short overview of the research happening in the gardens and highlight some of ethnobotanical importance of the plants growing there. This is a great opportunity to connect with like-minded people and enjoy this unique space.
Please RSVP to Wendy (wendyholman@ku.edu) so that she can communicate any changes with you before the event. We will go ahead if it is raining lightly, but will reschedule if the weather decides that we must!
What to bring: garden gloves (if you have them; we have extras), water bottle, work clothes.
When: 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Where: KU Field Station, Native Medicinal Plant Garden,1865 E. 1600 Road, Lawrence, Kansas 66044
The KU Native Medicinal Plant Research Garden is open to the public from dawn to dusk and is a great place to learn about native plants and their uses, as well as enjoy demonstration and community gardens, and see research in action.
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Project FeederWatch: Count Wintering Birds for Science!
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You're invited to FeederWatch Wednesdays (and Thursdays)!
Are you retired? Do you work from home? Do you have a flexible schedule and can work anywhere with an internet connection? Are you a birder, or just interested in learning more about birds? Come join us to count the birds that visit our feeders from the field station living room while you enjoy the cozy fireplace and a hot drink!
Please let Wendy (wendyholman@ku.edu) know if you would like to join so that we can make sure the count is happening and the coffee is hot! Some counts may be rescheduled due to scheduling conflicts and staff are not always onsite.
For more information about Project FeederWatch, visit feederwatch.org.
When: Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 8:30-10:30am, November - April; pending availability of bird counters.
Where: KU Field Station, Armitage Education Center, 350 Wild Horse Road, Lawrence, Kansas 66044
- Please email Wendy (wendyholman@ku.edu) if you need directions!
What to Bring: Binoculars (if you have them)
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A new building is on the way at the KU Field Station! This 60 x 70ft structure was funded through a National Science Foundation Biological Field Station and Marine Lab infrastructure grant that was awarded at the beginning of the pandemic. Construction faced delays due to pandemic-related budget and supply chain challenges, but progress is now back on track! This building will create a bay for soil sterilization (a necessary part of ongoing research projects), as well as provide covered outdoor spaces to store soil prior to sterilization, reducing the use of plastic to keep soil dry prior to sterilization. It will also provide additional lab and workspace, along with storage for fire rigs and other equipment that have been stored in a research greenhouse due to limited building space.
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The Rockefeller Prairie is burned every 3-5 years as part of the general stewardship plan for this prairie, and this year was a burn year! Special attention was paid to signage and the bee hotel to ensure that they weren't damaged as the fire moved through. It's going to be a beautiful year on this prairie!
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Volunteers joined us to spread seeds from 30 species of native prairie plants into a field in the Suzanne Ecke McColl Nature Reserve. This post-agricultural field has been completely overrun with Johnsongrass, a noxious weed. The middle ear of here-ing, an environmentally embedded artwork by Janine Antoni, winds through it. With the help of volunteers and our partners, we have been working to steward this public space with more intention. Seeds of many of the species were collected by volunteers at the KU Field Station or grown by our neighbors at Maggie's Farm. |
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Science Sundays is back! Danny Ibanez, a KU mammalogy graduate student, kicked off the 2024 series of talks with an engaging presentation on the diversity, behavior, and ecology of bats. Thank you to everyone who came out to learn with us!
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Not on social media? No problem.
Here are a few of our favorite photos from the past month.
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 Checking mammal traplines at sunrise! 
KU mammalogists are hard at work completing their monthly survey of woodland and prairie habitats at the KU Field Station. The data they collect will help scientists to better understand the connection between disease prevalence, population size, and seasonal changes in weather. This month, they detected five species of small mammals, like this little White-footed Mouse [Peromyscus leucopus]. With spring gearing up, mammals are on the move!
  : Dianna Krejsa, KU Mammalogy Collection Manager
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 Snakes are waking up!
Featuring: Common Garter Snake
This snake was found basking in the sun just outside of the hole where he spent the winter, cozy below the frost line. On the first warm days of spring each year, a group of males can be found waiting around the entrance to this hibernaculum for the first female to emerge so that their spring courtship can begin. In late summer, females will give birth to 4-85(!!) live young.
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 Volunteer opportunity! Help us grow a new public prairie!
Come spread seeds to add more than a dozen species of native plants back into the post-agricultural field where we have been focusing restoration efforts. Last month, a wonderful group of volunteers helped us remove Johnsongrass rhizomes to help prepare the ground for this reintroduction of native seeds that will help return the field back to a diverse prairie like it once was. Restoration is a process, and we hope to engage you in this community effort along the way.
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 Spring blooms are here! 
Prairie pussytoes [Antennaria neglecta] are one of the first prairie plants to bloom each spring, making them an important early nectar source for pollinators. They are the host plant for American Painted Lady caterpillars, and our friends at the Anita B Gorman Conservation Discovery Center in KCMO have already seen females laying eggs on the low growing leaves!
This plant makes great ground cover, as it seems to thrive on neglect and spreads in dense colonies. Prairie pussytoes are dioecious, meaning that male and female flowers grow on separate plants. A patch of pussytoes is usually made up of either all female or all male plants.
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Keep in touch with the KU Field Station!
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University of Kansas Field Station Mission:
To foster scholarly research, environmental education and science-based stewardship of natural resources.
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