Breen Prairie Seed Harvest Recap

By Taylor on November 5, 2013 in Blog

Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation volunteers don't let a little bit of cool weather hinder their progress!

On Saturday, October 19, 2013, INHF staff and 18 volunteers gathered at INHF-owned Breen Prairie despite some chilly temperatures. After some hot coffee and refreshments, the group spent the morning harvesting native prairie seed from the prairie remnant located 3 miles north of Monticello in Jones County.

Tylar Samuels, INHF land stewardship specialist, started the day with a lesson to the group about prairie remnants and collecting native prairie seed. Volunteers collected seed by hand from 9 – 11 a.m. Species they collected during that time included prairie cinquefoil, wild quinine, leadplant, gray-headed coneflower and pale purple cone flower. The last hour of the morning was spent distributing the collected seed to other parts of the property to increase native plant diversity.

This fun event drew volunteers of all ages and also included a hike back to a small, remnant prairie.

“It was a beautiful day to walk in a natural prairie. You could see what the goal of the prairie project was by seeing what a natural prairie looked like,” said one of the volunteers.