MPF: Protecting Prairie & Promoting Native Plants |
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Grow Native! Native Gardens of Excellence |
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MPF's Grow Native! program announces a new program: Grow Native! Native Gardens of Excellence, featuring plantings of native plants in designed, well-maintained gardens and in other native landscape plantings in the lower Midwest that are open to the public and at least three years old.
The gardens and landscape plantings selected and showcased in this program are not limited by size, scope, or professional involvement. Some have been designed by landscape architects or designers while others are informal, seeded landscapes, and some are professionally maintained while others are maintained by volunteers.
The Grow Native! Native Gardens of Excellence sites are located in a variety of settings ranging from multi-acre plantings associated with commercial properties; to formal, urban gardens; and even small community plots.
All sites in this program share two attributes: each has been carefully planned and is regularly maintained. Both of these attributes are fundamental to ensure the long-term functioning and appearance of any native planting. Read more here, and peruse all the inaugural sites featured in the program. Many thanks to Grow Native! volunteer Erica Ballard who coordinated many aspects of this new program.
Below:
--New! Grow Native! Pollinator Garden "Menu" Card
--July 7: Grow Native! Master Class: Pondscaping with Scott Woodbury
--July 16: FINCA Tour at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, MO
--July 16, 17 & 18: Kansas City Monarchs baseball games--buy tickets & support MPF
--July 21: MPF Webinar: Prairie Strips for improved soil retention, water quality, and habitat creation with Timothy Youngquist
--July 24: Dedication of MPF's The Rae Letsinger Prairie near Sarcoxie, MO
--Save the dates: August 20: MPF Virtual Annual Dinner & more summer events
--Prairie Postcard: MPF's Stilwell Prairie in its summer glory
Wishing you well,
Carol Davit,
MPF Executive Director, & the MPF Team
Pictured above is the Prairie Garden Trust in New Bloomfield, MO—a Grow Native! Native Garden of Excellence. Photo by www.HenryDomke.com.
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Grow Native!'s new "menu" card above helps you select a combination of plants that will provide what native bees and other pollinating insects look for in your garden: pollen and nectar. The plants included here exhibit a variety of flower colors, shapes,
sizes, and bloom times that will attract pollinators to your garden throughout the growing season.
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July 7: Grow Native! Master Class: Pondscaping with Native Aquatic Plants with Scott Woodbury |
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Small ponds and water gardens attract birds, dragonflies, frogs, salamanders, turtles, and the predators that eat them, like red-shouldered hawks.
Learn which plants grow in water and just beyond the water’s edge in ponds with permanent standing water.
Scott will show you how to manage duckweed, algae, invasive species, pond leaks, and soil erosion.
The master class, to be held via Zoom, will include 50 minutes of instruction with at least 10 minutes for a question and answer period via chat. A recording of the webinar will be available only to those that registered. One CEU for landscape architects will be available.
Cost: free to all MPF dues-paying members and Grow Native! professional members, or $15 for non-members. Register here.
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Friday, July 16: FINCA EcoFarm Tour at Lincoln University |
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Due to the popularity of the FINCA EcoFarm Tour at Lincoln University in Jefferson City on Thursday, July 15, a second tour has been added on Friday, July 16 from 10:00 until noon.
Free. Limited to 25 people.
For more details and to RSVP:
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Kansas City Monarchs & MPF: Attend the Game July 16, 17 or 18 and Benefit Conservation
MPF to sponsor butterfly garden at Legends Field
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The Kansas City Monarchs baseball team will play at Legends Field, Kansas City, KS July 16-18. During this "Conservation Weekend" at Legends Field, MPF and other conservation groups will be highlighted and can receive a percentage of ticket sales. Buy tickets for weekend games using MPF's code: MPF, and MPF will receive a percentage of ticket sales to support our prairie conservation work. Buy tickets to the games here.
On July 17, MPF board members and staff will have a booth at the game, giving away free butterfly milkweed plants to the first 200 guests. MPF is also sponsoring a butterfly garden to be planted later this year at the ballpark. If you are interested in volunteering to help maintain the future garden, contact us at info@moprairie.org.
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Wednesday, July 21: MPF Webinar: Prairie Strips for Improved Soil Retention, Water Quality, and Habitat Creation with Timothy Youngquist
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Prairie strips use native grasses and wildflowers to control erosion, filter water, create habitat, and much more within row crops. Iowa State University Agricultural Specialist Tim Youngquist will discuss details about the design, installation, and maintenance of the prairie strips conservation practice with corn and soybean crops.
This 30-minute webinar, to be held via Zoom, will be followed by a question and answer session. The webinar will be recorded, with a link to the recording sent to registrants and also posted to our YouTube channel.
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Saturday, July 24: Dedication of The Rae Letsinger Prairie |
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MPF will dedicate The Rae Letsinger Prairie in Newton County, near the town of Sarcoxie, MO, on Saturday, July 24, 2021 at 2:00 p.m.
The public is invited to this free afternoon event. RSVP online here or by contacting us at info@moprairie.org or 888-843-6739.
In May 2020, the Missouri Prairie Foundation purchased this 68-acre prairie, which is part of the historic Sarcoxie Prairie, for the purpose of preserving its biodiversity in perpetuity and making it available for the public to enjoy.
The property is named for the late Rae Letsinger, whose sister Joan Letsinger purchased naming rights to honor her brother. Though not trained as an entomologist, Rae became an expert in Lepidoptera (especially moths), and through his lifetime accumulated one of the largest private insect collections in Missouri, specializing in moths of southwestern Missouri, with more than 22,000 specimens of more than 1,400 species.
Following remarks, dedication, and light refreshments under a tent, guests will have the opportunity to join a guided tour of the prairie led by Missouri Prairie Foundation Vice President of Science & Management Bruce Schuette.
Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) funding awarded to MPF allowed for this prairie acquisition. NRDAR award funds, administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, were made available as a result of a NRDAR settlement with ASARCO, a lead mining and smelting company whose operations caused environmental damage while it operated in southwestern Missouri over the last century.
Pictured above is the late Rae Letsinger with some of the thousands of butterflies and moths in his collection. Photo by Pete Bradshaw.
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--Thursday, August 12 and Friday, August 13: 7:00 p.m. Tour of Lincoln University’s Outdoor Native Plant Laboratory. Jefferson City. Free. More details and RSVP here.
--Friday, August 20: MPF's virtual Annual Dinner, with a special guest speakers an original song in honor of Missouri's Bicentennial, prize drawings, award presentations, virtual dedication of MPF's Polson Loess Bluff Prairie, and a concurrent silent auction.
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On June 11, I had the opportunity to visit MPF's Stilwell Prairie near Nevada, MO. Just two hours south of Kansas City, this 376-acre prairie is rich in prairie plants and wildlife. Many prairie plants were blooming, including those pictured here, taken in the northeastern portion of the property along the ridgetop overlooking the Little Osage and Marmaton river valleys
--Carol Davit
Photos above, from left, of butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), Sullivant's milkweed (Asclepias sullivantii), and goat's rue (Tephrosia virginiana) were taken at MPF's Stilwell Prairie on June 11, 2021.
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The Missouri Prairie Foundation respectfully acknowledges that the land we work to protect was the homeland of a diversity of Native American nations prior to European-American settlement. The land in our care continues to have cultural significance for the Ni-U-Ko’n-Ska (Osage), Nyut/\achi (Missouria), Asakiwaki and Meskwaki (Sac and Fox), Báxoje (Ioway), Kaw, and other Native American nations. We are mindful that these nations had a significant role in shaping the landscape and that they continue a sacred relationship with the lands we protect. We recognize and appreciate their contributions to the cultural heritage of this region and to the history of North America. We honor them as we protect the ecological integrity of the lands in our care. |
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Newsletter content ownership: Missouri Prairie Foundation.
You are receiving this message because you are a Missouri Prairie Foundation member, supporter of Missouri's prairies, and/or interested in native plants. If you are not a member, please join us! Member support is vital to our outstanding prairie protection efforts. E-mail us at info@moprairie.org, call us at 1-888-843-6739, or visit us at www.moprairie.org. Please forward this message to other prairie supporters. If you do not wish to receive these periodic messages, please unsubscribe below.
Carol Davit
Executive Director, & the MPF Team
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Missouri Bicentennial Alliance member |
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For State Employees: #8426 |
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Missouri Prairie Foundation
PO Box 200
Columbia, MO 65205
(888) 843-6739
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