Biocore Demonstration Garden

Biocore Prairie is one of the oldest and longest sustained efforts to engage in ecological restoration in the Lakeshore Nature Preserve. Since 1997, dedicated faculty, staff, and undergraduates from UW's Biocore Program have been working in this field to convert former pasture and cropland to the native tall-grass prairie vegetation that was once much more common here than it is today.

They have faced many challenges, and the work requires annual interventions to suppress the weedy vegetation left over from seedbeds that date back to when the land was used for agriculture. Returning fire to the prairie has been very important to this process, and other parts of the Preserve will eventually benefit from the fire management techniques that are being pioneered here.

This small demonstration garden dates to the early days of the Biocore Prairie restoration effort, and was lovingly hand-planted and tended to maximize the biodiversity of the native plants growing here. It is the creation of Curt Caslavka, who worked with Biocore until he retired from the university. Curt collected the seed, propagated the plants, repeatedly mowed the weeds, rototilled the research plots, and supervised summer care and research projects by students. He still spends many hours tending and helping both the Biocore Prairie and controlling the weeds here to make way for future prairie and savanna. He has contributed untold hours and knowledge to nurturing the Biocore Prairie.

Whereas other parts of Biocore Prairie have been restored only partially, this small demonstration garden gives a good sense of what we hope all this land may look like in the future. If you're interested in learning more about prairie restoration, this is a great place to start.

Read the larger Biocore Prairie article

See an index of video clips of Biocore Prairie instructors and students in action.

To find out more about Biocore and this project, please visit our web site: www.biocore.wisc.edu/biocore .