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SOUTHWEST CHAPTER 2007 ACCOMPLISHMENTSIn addition to our usual Field Trips, Work Parties and Celebrations (we urge you to check the website and join us in 2008) 2007 has been a year of collaboration, cooperation, consultation and joint efforts with other local conservation minded groups. In 2007, our chapter: • assisted the Bureau of Endangered Resources with the preliminary survey of a eight goat prairies in a 500+ acre potential addition to the Snow Bottom State Natural Area. • collaborated with the Nohr Chapter of Trout Unlimited and Pheasants Forever to re-vegetate over a mile of the stream bank portion of their project to reconnect the Blue River and the Big Spring branch with their respective floodplains. • provided the impetus and the location information to the DNR and DOT for moving a snowmobile trail from a sensitive area containing two endangered and one threatened species on one of their joint Prairie Protection Projects. • partnered with the Driftless Area Land Conservancy, Bureau of Endangered Resources, Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection in an attempt to purchase a 400 acre farm with some 300 endangered Prairie Bush Clover (Lespedeza leptostachia)and 125 known additional native species. SWPE has monitored and managed portions of this site since 1989. The project has been reduced to a more manageable 170 acres by excluding the buildings and cropland while retaining all of the prairie area. We have picked up an additional partner Mississippi Valley Conservancy. The prospects look good that the site will be purchased by MVC, managed by South West Chapter with the title eventually transferred to The Prairie Enthusiasts. • Wilhelm (in Plants of the Chicago Region, 1994) indicates that: "Areas with I values (Floristic Quality Indices) higher than 35 posses sufficient conservation and richness to be of profound importance....areas registering in the 50's and higher are extremely rare and of paramount importance". The Floristic Quality Index for this site is 41. • educated participants on one of our joint Field Trips as to the identification and habitat of a rare and a not so rare prairie orchid. This resulted in one of the participants finding a new population on his property for the endangered October Ladies Tresses (Spiranthes ovalis var. erostellata). This is the second new Wisconsin site for this orchid in two years. Previously there was only one site known in the entire state. • facilitated the availability of the new standard for field guides of Wisconsin flora; Black and Judziewicz
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