Hand seeding at reconstructed prairie area
Joshua Crosbie (front) tosses a handful of Indiangrass in an effort to further enhance the prairie reconstruction project near the Churbuck Prairie at Fayette Campus. Fellow conservation management major Nick Houg (back) also assisted with the recent hand seeding.
Upper Iowa University senior conservation management majors Nick Houg of North Liberty, Iowa, and Joshua Crosbie of Robins, Iowa, recently hand seeded the reconstructed prairie, located near the Churbuck Prairie at Fayette Campus. The Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) seed was collected this past fall by associate professor of biology Dr. Jennifer Stoffel’s general botany class.
Nick Houg (foreground) and Joshua Crosbie empty a couple more buckets of Indiangrass seed, while hand seeding UIU’s prairie reconstruction area in Fayette.
The broadcast seeding project was completed to enhance areas where flooding reduced the success of the prairie’s reconstruction. UIU alumnus Isaac Sedlmayr ’15 established the 3.5-acre restoration area as part of his senior project in fall 2015. The project was completed with the assistance of Stoffel, professor of science and Robert L. Fox endowed chair of science Dr. Scott Figdore and Fayette County Conservation. The prairie area now complements UIU’s other existing outdoor classroom spaces that most field science students utilize in their coursework.
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