Bill's Blog
Pioneer a Prairie
Prairie Plains is launching a new approach to its longstanding work in the ecological restoration of prairies and wetlands. We have always wanted to be able to “give away” prairie restorations and to use the process of restoration as a fulfilling way to involve and educate people. The process of harvesting and planting prairie and wetland seeds, along with horticultural aspects of growing greenhouse seedlings to plant in a garden, seed production plot or planted acreage is inherently a learning-by-doing process. It is a wonderful vehicle for involving volunteers, students, interns and other interested people in the study of natural sciences such as botany, wildlife and plant ecology, horticulture, and land management. In the Prairie Plains context it is also a way to put ecological restoration – a growing worldwide concern - into a new context of human relationship building, service and community development. The impediment to giving prairie away is that there is a cost of staffing such a program. Program administration, harvesting and planting of seeds, and developing a long-term stewardship follow-up program to manage the prairies all takes funds.
by Bill Whitney on 27-Apr-07 11:27
Marketing Prairie Plains
Prairie Plains needs to remain financially sustainable at its current level of staffing in order to be able to offer the programs and services it now offers, much less entertain significant program expansion. We know that we want to involve many more people in our mission. The Prairie Plains Education Center now in progress will be an important tool to do this, and with slight modifications in our present activities we’ll be able to make good use of the building. For example it will ultimately give us the potential for expansion of programs like SOAR, to expand our regional visibility and the number of people benefiting from our work.
by Bill Whitney on 29-Mar-07 14:26
Moving a Barn
On Saturday, February 10, 2007, as I and a number of volunteers cut cedar trees at Griffith Prairie, it was difficult for me not to keep looking to the west against the cold and blowing snow to see an enormous barn roof sitting atop its new foundation. This was the culmination of 27 years of thinking about a place along the Platte River where people could gather to learn and enjoy prairie bluff surroundings. As envisioned in 1980 it would become a place for children to explore nature, as well as a gathering place for information and discussion about natural resources and regional community development, among many other things. The design would fit the landscape and feel good to be around. We don’t know yet how the building will appear when finished, but it was our architect, Lee Schriever, who responded at being applauded by the audience upon his introduction at the groundbreaking, that maybe we’d better wait to see the finished product before clapping. Based on the design of the Sands barn and its new foundation, it looks very good at this point. Of course there is much to do to see this vision for the center completed. We still have to raise more money for the building and to develop more programs. But the center is now tangible.
by Bill Whitney on 07-Mar-07 10:14
Bill chewing his cud
As I take tentative first steps into the blogosphere I’m reminded of two bloggers from the past in Polk, Nebraska - Norris Alfred and Alice Wilson. Both were friends and were very important influences during the first years of Prairie Plains Resource Institute (Prairie Plains Journal #11, 1995, contained tributes to Norris and Jim and Alice Wilson). Since blog is a recent invention (derived from the two words “web log”) they wouldn’t have recognized the term, and admittedly today’s blogging isn’t exactly the same as running a letterpress newspaper. But, in principle it isn’t that much different from Ben Franklin tacking up a broadsheet in Boston or Philadelphia more than two hundred years ago...
by Bill Whitney on 06-Feb-07 09:37
