Accidentally caught a great documentary on tallgrass prairie

[EFerrari]

restoration last night -- through a LinkTV affiliate. I had no idea this was happening, let alone that research is being done on how to change out traditional agri practices for one modeled on the perennial, deep rooted, interdependent prairie system. :wow:



Here's the site they recommended: http://www.tallgrass.org/links.html

[0007]

1. Link tv and free speech tv is the only way to go for real news. And no commercials either.

I only hope that many will click on the tallgrass.org link.

[kestrel91316]

2. Ecosystem restoration (wetlands, riparian, prairies) is a passion

of mine.........

Farmers are starting to realize that marginal, hard-to-farm land is best left to nature. The environmental "services" provided by a functioning piece of land are priceless.

[Mendocino]

4. Have you read "A Sand County Almanac"

by Aldo Leopold?

A how-to-not mess up the environment handbook.

[kestrel91316]

11. I read it 20 years ago, but need to have another look.

[EFerrari]

14. I can't tell you how fascinating this piece was to me.

I helped "landscape" a trashed piece of land my mother acquired in the foothills. Ignorant as I was / am, it was amazing to work with the county Master Gardener to try to restore it.

Catching that documentary was the coolest thing I've seen or been introduced to in a very long time.

[Mendocino]

3. I've replanted about a third of my yard so far...

..with native prairie plants: asters, wild mint, blazing star, lupines, blue stem etc. They need little or no watering, attract butterflies and hummingbirds and don't need to be mowed. Within a year I hope to have the yard 2/3's native.

[Kolesar]

5. Is that "no till" farming?

One of these days, I am going to get on top of that concept.

[EFerrari]

6. I don't remember that term being used. It sounds really

interesting, though. :)

[TwilightGardener]

8. No-till means planting without turning over the previous year's crop residue, and

using that residue as cover to prevent wind erosion.

edit--at least that is my understanding, I could be wrong and often am.

[TwilightGardener]

7. I have a few books on that, been interested in tallgrass prairie for some time--

good special on PBS about it a couple years ago. Hope they re-run it.

[Kolesar]

9. Your local library may have a DVD video of the program

My library stocks episodes of PBS "Nova".

[htuttle]

10. I worked on restoring one of those when I was in college (in the '80s)

They'd found most of the native species they were looking for on the railroad right-of-way that cut through the field station. The railroad had been put in very early in WI history so that land had never been tilled and still had native plants growing around it.

Then we burned it each year to kill off the imported plants that had invaded. When it all flowered in the spring, it was breathtaking. There were a few bur oaks growing on the land, too. I haven't seen it in over a decade, but I hope their plan to extend it to the whole field station continued on track.

[eppur_se_muova]

12. K&R Very cool! Book rec:"Prairyerth" by William Least-Heat Moon

http://www.amazon.com/PrairyErth-Deep-Map-History-Tallgrass/dp/039592569X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-9163599-8697762?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189014778&sr=1-1

[EFerrari]

13. Thank you! I'm currently living in the concrete jungle and

working with Urban Forest but plan to move to a rural area once I've finished my degree. Reference appreciated. :hi:

[Kolesar]

15. America's Lost Landscape--the Tallgrass Prairie--KCTS TV

I just saw it on public television. It was wonderfully written. I especially liked the historical development of the Sauk and Fox indigenous people.

http://www.channel9store.com/prodinfo.asp?number=441000

AMERICA'S LOST LANDSCAPE: THE TALLGRASS PRAIRIE tells the rich and complex story of one of the most astonishing alterations of nature in human history. Prior to Euro-American settlement in the 1820s, one of the major landscape features of North America was 240 million acres of tall grass prairie. But between 1830 and 1900 -- in the span of a single lifetime -- the prairie was steadily transformed to farmland. This drastic change in the landscape brought about an enormous social change for Native Americans. In an equally short time their cultural imprint was reduced in essence to a handful of place-names appearing on maps.

The extraordinary cinematography of prairie remnants, original score and archival images are all delicately interwoven to create a powerful and moving viewing experience about the natural and cultural history of America.

Time: Approx 60 Minutes on one DVD