2020 Restoration Technicians

By Connor Ross
Nachusa Restoration Technician

Anna holds a Blanding's turtle (an Illinois endangered species) hatchling before release.

​It should go without saying that 2020 has been a pretty, let’s say, interesting and hectic year so far. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic delayed the start date for the 2020 crew to the beginning of June also disrupted the scheduled prescribed burns earlier in the year. A diminished burn season, with one of the wettest Mays on record, means that our native vegetation has grown thicker and that the invasives have started to strike with a vengeance. The 2020 crew thus faces some unique challenges, especially as we are a smaller bunch this year, but we have already covered lots of ground and are ambitiously weeding and seeding.

Molly sprays an undesired patch of yellow sweet clover.

​Our main focus these last few weeks has mostly been on controlling invasives. Already, we have been showering king devil, sweet clover, and birdsfoot trefoil with herbicide. Oxeye daisy and the occasional alfalfa plant have been sprayed when convenient, but unfortunately, the late start to the season means that we have been unable to control red clover. Nonetheless, the four of us have traversed quite a bit of acreage; we managed to sweep a full 70 acres for sweet clover on June 5th!

Each prairie smoke seed has a long feathery plume. The crew picked the seeds before they were carried away by the wind.

​Seed collection is ongoing and will increase as the season progresses. Already we’ve collected pussytoes, lots of wood betony, and the lovely prairie smoke! We’ve also learned that an abundant harvest of dwarf dandelion seeds won’t even constitute a handful, prairie ragwort will make you sneeze, and that you need an abundant supply of pantyhose to collect Hill’s thistle seed. The 2020 crew looks forward to collecting as much as we can this summer and dealing with the unique properties of each seed, from bunches of spiderwort that’ll dye your hands blue to the aptly-named porcupine grass seeds that will stab you through your work gloves!

Meet the Crew

​Anna Scheidel is from Westmont, Illinois and earned her BS in biology from Benedictine University in 2017. She is finishing her MS in conservation biology at Illinois State University, studying root hemiparasitic plants at Nachusa. Anna was a restoration tech last summer and leads the crew this year. When she's not typing away at her paper, she's most likely baking or outside taking pictures of wood betony and frogs.

​Matthew Nugent is from Orland Park, Illinois. Matt is currently attending Illinois State University, and will be receiving a BS in crop and soil science as well as a BS in conservation biology at the end of this year. He hopes to continue his career in conservation and is enjoying his current position as restoration technician at Nachusa Grasslands. Matt’s hobbies include hiking, fishing, tending to his prairie garden at home, and just generally enjoying the outdoors.

​Connor Ross is from Grand Detour, Illinois and is thus very excited to help with prairie restoration in an area he knows quite well. He is currently enrolled at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign for a history degree, but plans on adding a minor relating to ecology or conservation, and perhaps geology as well. Connor is excited to continue work in a field he is quite passionate about, and to expand his plant identification skills and learn as much as possible about our native prairie ecosystems. In his free time, his hobbies include reading (David Quammen is a favorite author), drawing, and hiking.

​Molly Duncan is from Polo, Illinois and recently earned her Associate in agricultural science from Sauk Valley Community College. She will be transferring to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this fall to study crop sciences with a concentration in agroecology. Molly is excited to learn more about natural resource conservation and ecological restoration while at Nachusa, and she hopes to apply this knowledge to a future career in research and policy implementation. Her hobbies include hiking, biking, horseback riding, and helping on her family farm.