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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 will 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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Celebrate the completion of here-ing at these upcoming events!
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We invite you to join us for a week of events celebrating the completion of here-ing October 3 through 8. All events are free and open to the public. Remember if you're visiting the labyrinth at the KU Field Station that we encourage you to wear a hat, sunscreen, and closed-toe shoes with long pants tucked into socks to avoid ticks.
Janine Antoni, artist
Joey Orr, Spencer Museum of Art
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October 3: Talk - To Grow an Artwork
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Artist Janine Antoni and Professor of the Arts Carol Becker (Columbia University) discuss the creation of here-ing and its significance to cultural and environmental dialogues. Co-sponsored by the Kress Foundation Department of Art History and the Department of Visual Art.
When: 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 3, 2023
Where: Kansas Union, Malott Room, 1301 Jawhawk Blvd.
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October 5: Talk - Communing with the Land: How the Arts, Ecology, and Architecture Meet Along the Path
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Learn more about the process of creating here-ing with artist Janine Antoni and project members Melinda Adams (KU Geography & Atmospheric Science and Indigenous Studies), Joey Orr (Spencer Museum of Art), Sheena Parsons (KU Field Station), and Keith Van de Riet (KU School of Architecture & Design).
When: 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 5, 2023
Where: Sunflower Outdoor & Bike Shop, 804 Massachusetts St.
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October 6 and 8: Activity - In Honor of the Land
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Join Janine Antoni and other project members for two days of immersive experiences at here-ing. Tweesna Rose Mills from the Shoshone-Yakama-Umatilla Nations will present song, and other activities will involve poetry, stone carving, audiology, and ecology.
This outdoor art experience is free and fun for all ages!
The 2-mile roundtrip path takes about one hour to walk. Elevation change is minimal, but the path is not ADA accessible. We recommend wearing closed-toe shoes with long pants tucked into socks. Bug spray can help avoid ticks. Hats, sunscreen, and water are highly encouraged.
When: 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. on Friday, October 6, 2023, AND 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 8, 2023
Where: KU Field Station, Roth Trailhead, 2055 E 1600 Road, Lawrence, Kansas 66044
For full details and updates, visit the Facebook event hosted by the Spencer Museum of Art.
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October 21: Wild Words Release Celebration
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Join us to celebrate the release of Wild Words, from Humanities Kansas! Stroll through the woods and prairies with restoration ecologist and Executive Director of Native Lands Restoration Collaborative, Courtney Masterson and Megan Kaminski, poet, editor of Wild Words, and professor of Creative Writing and Environmental Studies at the University of Kansas. We’ll learn about the flowers that dot the fall landscape and interact with poems in the collection as guides to fostering relationships of care and reciprocity. Free copies of Wild Words will be available first-come-first-served.
For more details about this event, visit: bit.ly/lplwildwords
Find more information about Wild Words here.
When: 9:30 - 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 21, 2023
Where: KU Field Station, Roth Trailhead, 2055 E 1600 Road, Lawrence, Kansas 66044
What to bring: Water bottle, sun protection, bug spray (if we still have summer temperatures!). Please come dressed in closed-toed shoes and long pants.
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October 22: 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!
October Topic: That's Not a Cottonmouth (rescheduled from July)
Kansas is one of the most amazing places in the United States to find reptiles. Our location in the center of the country means we are home to both Eastern and Western species, and we host a particularly high diversity of snake species. The KU Field Station has a rich history of herpetological research and was the home and research site of Henry S. Fitch, often thought of as the father of snake ecology, for over 50 years.
Dr. Richard Glor, Associate Curator of Herpetology with the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum and Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, will share stories about reptiles and amphibians in our incredible state. Rich will discuss Henry Fitch's remarkable legacy, the most common misconceptions about Kansas reptiles and amphibians, and what new research is telling us about how our state's fauna has changed over time.
When: 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 22, 2023
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: 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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October 28: Baldwin Woods Guided Walk
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It's time for the fall 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, the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and the Kansas Forest Service will lead small groups into the Forest Legacy Preserve, part of the Baldwin Woods Forest Preserve. Tour leaders will share their knowledge about this sensitive ecosystem with a focus on plants, trees, lichens, and fungi. Participants should expect to walk two miles at a slow pace on uneven and undeveloped forest trails.
When: 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 28, 2023
Where: Baldwin Woods Forest Preserve
*More details, including directions and where to park will be emailed to registrants about a week before the event.
To register: email Wendy (wendyholman@ku.edu)
Please note that tours of Baldwin Woods are very popular, but we must limit the number of participants to 50 people.
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October: Volunteer Opportunities
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October 15: Wetland Workday at Haskell Wetlands
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We are partnering up with our friends from the Haskell Greenhouse and Native Land Restoration Collaborative to do some important restoration at the Haskell Wetlands. The Haskell Wetlands were separated from the Baker University Wetlands during the construction of K-10, meaning that runoff from Lawrence is now concentrated in this smaller wetland ecosystem. This is the first community workday in the Haskell Wetlands, and we need your help to restore this area for all of the wildlife who live there. We will focus on removing invasive bush honeysuckle in the wetland restoration area and planting native species. We will provide tools and gloves to those helping out!
When: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. on Monday, October 15, 2023
Where: North Trailhead of the Haskell Woodlands (click here for a map to the site). You may park along S Perimeter Road or Barker Avenue.
What to bring: Closed-toed shoes, long pants, water bottle.
Please RSVP to courtney.king@haskell.edu if you can join us!
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October 30: Woodland Workday at Haskell Woodlands
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We are partnering up with our friends from the Haskell Greenhouse and Native Land Restoration Collaborative to do some important restoration work in the woods adjacent to Haskell Wetlands, and we need your help! The Haskell Wetlands were separated from the Baker University Wetlands during the construction of K-10, meaning that runoff from Lawrence is now concentrated in this smaller wetland ecosystem. Healthy woodlands above the wetlands will filter and greatly reduce the pollution load reaching these sensitive wetlands, improving the health of the wetlands and the species who rely on them.
We will focus on removing invasive honeysuckle to open the forest floor back up to the native species that should be in these spaces. Volunteers are needed to cut honeysuckle with loppers and pile it along the woodland edge. A couple of people will be on hand with chainsaws to remove larger trees. We will provide tools and gloves to those helping out! There will certainly be a chance to visit the wetlands you will be working to protect, and there will be native trees and plants that will need to be planted along the way.
When: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. on Monday, October 30, 2023
Where: North Trailhead of the Haskell Woodlands (click here for a map to the site). You may park along S Perimeter Road or Barker Avenue.
What to bring: Closed-toed shoes, long pants, water bottle.
Please RSVP to courtney.king@haskell.edu if you can join us!
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- November 3 - 5: 50th annual meeting of the Kansas Herpetological Society; hosted by KU
- November 12: Science Sundays - Emerald Ash Borers with Ryan Rastok of the Kansas Forest Service
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We had a wonderful time at Science Sundays in September. We were joined by Kansas City WildLands and Native Lands Restoration Collaborative to learn about the newly created Kansas Native Seed Collaborative, a seed team focused on collecting native and culturally important seeds for protection of natural areas and sustainable food systems. The weather was perfect, and we got out into the prairie to collect seeds together while clouds of migrating dragonflies flew around us.
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We spent a lovely evening with WildRoots, planting a native plant garden at The Ranch with our friends from Native Lands Restoration Collaborative. WildRoots is a collaboration between O'Connell Children's Shelter, the Sunrise Project, and the KU Field Station. WildRoots aims to empower youth by connecting them to nature, while nurturing a deep sense of community and belonging in the process. It was so much fun to see the youth planting and connecting with the plants, including naming some of them, and we can't wait to see this garden grow and expand.
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Dr. Helen Alexander, Professor Emerita at KU, led a two part mini-course focused on local landscapes and plants from the past and present. A group of ten people joined her to learn about about the environmental history (from millions of years ago, to the 20th century) of Lawrence, and the plants and environments that surround us today.
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The Douglas County Extension Master Gardeners hosted a Fall Equinox celebration at the Native Medicinal Plant Research Garden, and were joined by about 75 people who came to enjoy this beautiful space. Those in attendance were treated to a beautiful sunset, and had the opportunity to learn about herbal uses, dyeing with plants, and got to visit the honeybee hives maintained by the KU Beekeeping Club.
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Sheena Parsons, KU Field Station Manager, attended the annual conference of the Organization of Biological Field Stations at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica this month. Sheena and Joey Orr (Spencer Museum of Art) presented a talk titled "Artists as Researchers: Collaboration between the art museum and the biological field station" highlighting the collaboration with Janine Antoni (here-ing) and recognizing further research collaborations as a result.
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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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 There's still time to head out to the KU Field Station to watch sculptors carve the finger labyrinth that will mirror Janine Antoni’s walking labyrinth, “here-ing.” The sculptors will be working until 2pm or so!
Where: Suzanne Ecke McColl Nature Reserve, 2055 E 1600 Road, Lawrence, Kansas 66044
To learn more about this collaboration - http://www.janineantoni.net/hereing
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 Monarch migration is at its peak in northeast Kansas, and fat cats like this one are almost ready to join the crowd heading south! 
Want to learn more about monarchs and their conservation? Visit the Baker University Wetlands & Discovery Center this Saturday and tag some butterflies!
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Come out to @baker.wetlands this morning to tag Monarch Butterflies with @monarch_watch!
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The Blue Sage plants are still blooming, which means you still have time to go look for fuzzy Blue Sage Longhorn Bees along the Rockefeller Prairie Trail! Get out there!
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 Thank you to the Watson Library for sharing copies of Braiding Sweetgrass with us, so that we can share them with YOU!
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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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