2024 National Invasive Species Awareness Week:

February 26 through March 1

For everyone reading this, invasive species are likely top of mind many days of the year. However, this week is a special opportunity for the nation to focus attention on the threats that invasive plants and animals pose to biodiversity conservation, economic value of working lands, and land management.

The following links will provide you with opportunities to learn more about invasive species and actions you can take to control invasive plants.

• Many National Invasive Species Awareness Week resources include informative webinars this week.

• Save the date: The Missouri Invasive Plant Council's Callery Pear Buyback event will take place in 15 cities in the state on April 23, 2024 (registration opens March 15).

• Read the winter issue of State of Invasives, the quarterly enewsletter of the Missouri Invasive Plant Council, which MPF administers. Included is information on invasives to treat in winter. Subscribe to the newsletter here.

• Contact members of the Missouri Senate Agriculture, Food Production, and Outdoor Resources Committee to urge their support of SB 1281, which creates provisions to halt the sale of select invasive plants. (A hearing on the bill, scheduled for Feb. 20, was cancelled, but voicing your support is still important.)

• Explore all of the Missouri Invasive Plant Council resources here.

February 28: Missouri Prairie Foundation Webinar: A Primer on Plant Morphology

Puzzled by petioles? Baffled by bracts? Stumped by stigmas? Plants are made up of intricate parts, and they all have names.

Join Dr. Michelle Bowe as she helps you identify plant parts, recognize how they differ in shape, size, and texture from species to species, and learn the language of plant morphology. You will come away with more tools to help identify and appreciate the magnificent world of plants.

Wednesday, February 28 at 4:00 p.m. This free, 30-minute presentation will be followed by a question/answer session. A link to a recording of the webinar will be emailed to registrants. Register here.

Soft Landings Garden Plan: Increase Biodiversity with Trees and Shade Gardens

If you have canopy trees in your yard, congratulations! Native trees, especially oaks, are incredibly important host plants for caterpillars of up to hundreds of species of butterflies and months. Those larvae in turn are essential food for baby birds.

If you have turf under those trees, you can increase the ecological functionality of your yard by creating "soft landings" gardens in the shade of your trees. Native shrubs, grasses, sedges, and wildflowers planted under trees provide habitat for many insects and other creatures throughout their life cycles, as well as help slow and absorb stormwater. You may find this Grow Native! Shady Haven garden plan and Front Yard Formal: Shade garden plan helpful in selecting and arranging plants under your trees. You can also use the "shade" filter in the Grow Native! Native Plant Database to create a list of plants suitable for shady gardens.

No trees? No problem! Last year, horticulturist Scott Woodbury and MPF's Grow Native! program produced a new Transitional Shade Garden plan. In case you missed it, we thought we'd share it again, on the cusp of spring! The plan above (with a larger version available here), provides a design template and plant list for creating "tree islands" with plants that tolerate evolving sun exposure as the trees mature and create more shade. With this plan, you can transform expanses of turf into diverse, beautiful native gardens that add delight to your daily life and important habitat for cherished wildlife. Read the accompanying article by Scott Woodbury here.

Some Missouri cemeteries established before 1890 harbor remnants of old-growth, unplowed prairie. MPF has recently created a ​Cemetery Prairie Protection Working Group, which aims to identify and, working with partners, protect these historic gems in northern Missouri and other parts of the state. 

These “prairie cemeteries” may safeguard the only tracts of unplowed prairie soil within a county and are significant aspects of the natural heritage of Missouri’s communities.

Missouri's neighbor, Illinois, provides a great example of a state that has been successful in preserving many of its cemetery prairies, as showcased in the video Cemetery Prairies of Illinois.

The MPF Working Group seeks individuals interested in helping to identify and preserve intact cemetery prairies, especially in northern Missouri where there is so little prairie left. If you can help, or, if you know the location of any cemetery prairies, please contact MPF Special Project Coordinator Erika Van Vranken at [email protected] or 573-567-0259.

Development of alternative and conventional energy development is increasing in Missouri. Growth of wind and solar energy infrastructure and transmission development is addressing the need for carbon-neutral, domestic energy production. However, many conservation groups and individuals are concerned about the potential, unintended, negative impacts of energy development facilities, transmission lines, and pipelines to the wildlife and remaining, intact habitats of Missouri.

To address this concern, in 2022, an Energy Infrastructure Conservation Siting Work Group, made up of several conservation groups including MPF, created voluntary guidelines for the conservation siting of energy infrastructure. The Work Group operated in a specified lane of protecting Missouri’s wildlife and priority conservation landscapes including remnant landscapes, Landscape Conservation Opportunity Areas, Important Bird Areas, remnant, biologically rich landscapes and other areas of native biodiversity, and bat hibernacula.

MPF and other Work Group members have distributed and continue to share the guidelines to elected officials, county planning commissions, energy companies, the Missouri Public Service Commission, and other groups. You can read the guidelines here. Please share the digital document with others.

You may also wish to read this related article on conservation siting of solar energy facilities from the New York Times, February 11, 2024.

March 13: Missouri Prairie Foundation Webinar: How Plants Work: Plant Physiology in 50 Minutes

Plants convert sunlight into plant tissue, obtain nutrients from the soil, and perform a myriad of other ecological "tasks" upon which all life depends. Join Dr. Michelle Bowe as she breaks down the basics of plant physiology to help us all have a better understanding of the awe-inspiring world of plant growth and function.



Wednesday, March 13 at 4:00 p.m. This free, 50-minute presentation will be followed by a question/answer session. A link to a recording of the webinar will be emailed to registrants. Register here.

Save the Dates: MPF/Grow Native! Spring Native Plant Sales for March, April, & May

More information on each sale, including participating vendors and pre-order details, can be found here. We are seeking volunteers to help with MPF booths at these sales. Please email Hayley Howard at [email protected] if you would like to volunteer at one of the sales listed above.

Photo of flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) by www.HenryDomke.com

Despite the cold, blustery field conditions of the morning birding outing in Pettis County with leader Veronica Mecko on February 18, birds were still out and about for the Great Backyard Bird Count.

At the first stop, MPF’s Drovers’ Prairie, nine birders cut the early morning chill with gloves, hoods, layers, and high hopes of bird sightings. The first species sighted was killdeer—with their characteristic stilt-like legs, white chest with two black bands, brown face with black and white patches and big eyes—hurriedly moving across the bare ground and making the equally characteristic high kill-deer call. As the birding group moved along the fence row, it took careful listening, but the faint, sweet song of an eastern meadowlark emerged between breaks in the wind. Luckily, the GBBC accepts bird songs and sightings. The Merlin application, useful for identifying bird songs, helped confirm what we were hearing. With a couple of bird sightings and more prairie to cover, we headed back toward the parking lot, looking more closely at the bare ground—thanks to a recent prescribed burn—in search of horned larks that Veronica suggested might be around. Sure enough, though perfectly camouflaged, we spotted four horned larks inconspicuously foraging for seeds or insects on the ground. These statewide birds often begin nesting on bare ground or in short grass in February, with the young fledging before spring plantings occur on agricultural fields. Read more here.

Photo of MPF's GBBC participants (L-R) Veronica Mecko, Susan Lordi-Marker, Kurt Hoeper, Carrie Wadlow, Sally Urdang, Luke Meier, and Bob Estes by Hayley Howard. Not pictured: Roxanne Stockdall. Photo of northern harrier in flight over Lordi Marker Prairie by Bob Estes