Everyday Environment Podcast

Find out the difference between bison and buffalo...Amy and Darci talk with Dr. Elizabeth Bach from The Nature Conservancy about prairie restoration at Nachusa Grasslands. From reintroducing bison to boosting biodiversity, the conversation explores how science, history, and community come together to restore Illinois’ tallgrass prairie.

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Abigail Garofalo aeg9@illinois.edu, Erin Garrett emedvecz@illinois.edu, Amy Lefringhouse heberlei@illinois.edu 

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Creators and Guests

Host
Abigail Garofalo
As an Educator focusing on Natural Resources, Abigail Garofalo provides training and education to Cook County residents so that they can better utilize the natural benefits the environment has to offer in an urban environment. As an educator, she addresses environmental issues in the area and works on creating a culture of environmentalism through community building. Her background is in environmental outreach and interpretation through experiences with several summer camps, park districts, and the Morton Arboretum. Abigail is responsible for environmental programming in Cook County with an emphasis on conservation landscape programming and environmental education.
Host
Amy Lefringhouse
Amy Lefringhouse serves as Natural Resources, Environment, and Energy Educator for communities in Adams, Brown, Pike, Hancock, and Schuyler counties. West-central Illinois offers so many natural gifts to ponder, enjoy, and explore – the changing seasons, two major river networks that mark the borders and are the very heartbeat of the area, and an unfathomable amount of flora and fauna with which we coexist. From the tiniest speck of soil to the stars shining above, Amy is passionate about revealing these natural wonders to local communities.
Host
Erin Garrett
Erin Garrett is Natural Resources, Environment, and Energy Extension Educator for University of Illinois Extension in the southernmost five counties in Illinois - Alexander, Johnson, Massac, Pulaski and Union counties. In this role, Erin develops and delivers high impact programming to local and statewide audiences to help them develop an appreciation for natural resources and to empower them to make small changes to positively impact the environment.

What is Everyday Environment Podcast?

Everyday Environment delves into the intricate web of connections that bind us to the natural world. From water, air, energy, plants, and animals to the complex interactions within these elements, we aim to unravel the ties that link us to our environment. Through a variety of educational formats, including podcasts, blogs, and videos, we strive to foster a deeper understanding of these connections among the residents of Illinois. Explore more at go.illinois.edu/everydayenvironment.

Hosted by: Abigail Garofalo, Amy Lefringhouse, and Erin Garrett

Amy Lefringhouse:

Welcome to another episode of the everyday environment podcast, where we explore the environment we see every day. I'm your host, Amy Lefringhouse.

Darci Webber:

And I'm your cohost, Darci Webber.

Amy Lefringhouse:

And we're excited today to talk about one of the largest mammals that we probably have in Illinois. Maybe. I don't know. We'll have to see. But we're gonna talk about bison at Nachusa Grasslands.

Amy Lefringhouse:

And today with us, we have Dr. Elizabeth Bach. She is a research scientist with The Nature Conservancy at Nachusa Grasslands. So we are so excited to have you here. Welcome to you, Dr. Bach.

Elizabeth Bach:

Thank you. It's a joy to be here.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Well, we'll start off with really easy questions, and then we'll dive on down into everything. But first, just tell us about your work at Nachusa.

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah. So, my role with The Nature Conservancy, specifically at Nachusa Grasslands, is a research scientist. So I'm fortunate to get to work on the preserve at Nachusa, every day. My role is to both lead some long term ecological research that's happening at the preserve, monitoring our restoration efforts, understanding the ecological interactions happening at the site. And I also support many other scientists who do work at Nachusa Grasslands.

Elizabeth Bach:

So most summers, we have around 30 research projects happening at the preserve. These are led by folks at various universities, including Illinois universities like University of Illinois, like Northern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University, as well as Western and University of Chicago and some other places. Part of our goal at Nachusa Grasslands is to restore the habitat that once covered Illinois, which is a globally critically endangered habitat. Actually, it's it's not only very limited here in the state of Illinois, but there's just not a lot of it left in the world. And compared to other habitats, most of it's already been converted.

Elizabeth Bach:

Our work is set up to restore these native plants and animals into their natural habitat. And when I say the word restore, you might be thinking backwards to the past, but what we're actually trying to do is to set up these plants and animals, for success into the future. We want to see the native flora and fauna in Illinois to thrive not only in our lifetimes, but our children and grandchildren's lifetime as well.

Amy Lefringhouse:

That's awesome. I to go I guess I jumped right in. But tell us where Nachusa is because I was I was fortunate enough last Earth Day, actually, not this year, but last year on Earth Day, I visited Nachusa. But tell us, like, where where where Nachusa is located in the state of Illinois.

Elizabeth Bach:

Absolutely. Great. So Nachusa Grasslands is located in kind of the north central, northwestern portion of Illinois. We are pretty close to the town of Dixon, Illinois. So if you happen to be driving across Interstate 88 between Chicago and the Quad Cities on the Iowa border, you'll see an exit for Dixon, Illinois or Rochelle, Illinois. And if you got off at either one of those exits, you'd find us fifteen, twenty miles north of of that interstate.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Cool. And when you were talking about restoring habitat and critical habitat that, you know, there isn't a lot of, you're are you talking specifically about tallgrass prairie?

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah. Absolutely. So, yes, tallgrass prairie, it's a mosaic, so there's also what we consider savannah habitat, in the mix. So oaks and hickories. So some parts of, Nachusa Grasslands and certainly some parts of Illinois have a little more tree cover than other parts.

Elizabeth Bach:

So they these coexist. And together, that tallgrass prairie and that kind of oak hickory savannah are both pretty critically endangered habitats.

Amy Lefringhouse:

And the acreage there at Nachusa, like, how big are we talking? Because

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Obviously, when we get into talking about bison, they probably need a lot of space. So what are we talking about acreage wise?

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah. So the Nachusa Grasslands Preserve is around 4,000 acres.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Okay.

Elizabeth Bach:

And most of that is is restored or replanted tallgrass prairie. So most of it was former agricultural land that's been converted back into habitat.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Okay. Okay. Thanks.

Darci Webber:

Can you share a little bit about Nachusa like grounds, like how it came to be a preserved space for the environment?

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah. Absolutely. The Nature Conservancy initially purchased, the land that became the the kind of the first part of the Nachusa Grasslands Preserve in the mid nineteen eighties. I mean, this was the result of some local folks out here in our in our neighborhood who knew about some hilltop prairies that hadn't been plowed up. Our landscape up here has a lot of very sandy hilltops with the bedrock pretty close to the surface or exposed.

Elizabeth Bach:

So it's just not very good habitat if or it's not good situation if your goal is row crop farming. And so as a result, these hills may have been grazed or used in other ways, but a lot of those native Illinois plants and birds and insects were continuing to persist on these hilltops. And so that was the initial kind of impetus for the project was to protect some of those hilltops and to replant some of the agricultural land around there to protect and expand that habitat. And this project started with just a couple of hundred acres, as I said, in the mid nineteen eighties. Over the past thirty eight, thirty nine years, the project has grown as as you've learned.

Elizabeth Bach:

So now today, we have over 4,000 acres, and most of that has been replanted into former agricultural land. The soil is very sandy. This is agricultural land that it's not the most productive in terms of row crop production, but it's fantastic habitat. And we've been able to knit together several of these unplowed hilltops with high quality restorations in between to approach what today is kind of a almost a small landscape scale intact habitat that provides space for things beyond just plants and and some of these small insects. We see mammals and reptiles and birds, especially, using this big piece.

Elizabeth Bach:

And that's really unique in Illinois to have thousands of acres of habitat that can really support these animals that need a lot of space.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yeah. That's that's really cool. We we were fortunate enough when I was there to kind of have a guided tour, and we were able to see some of those hilltops on. And if you could imagine on Earth Day, it was like some of the early bloomers were out. So we saw some shooting stars, and we saw prairie smoke blooming. So that was really cool and special to to be there at that time when those things were happen were happening.

Elizabeth Bach:

Fantastic. Shooting star is my all time favorite.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yeah. It's my Yeah. It's my phone background photo. So nerd alert for sure. So that's kinda like the landscape, what's happening and what's been happening and continuing to happen. What about the bison population? So diving into the wildlife kind of thing.

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah. So I'm gonna come out that with, like, again, some broader context and kinda narrow us in.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Perfect.

Elizabeth Bach:

So the tallgrass prairie as an ecosystem is one that's adapted to disturbance. It evolved in the state of Illinois over the past eight to ten thousand years with active management from indigenous peoples who were living across the state. And it was very common those communities and those nations were often using things like fire to modulate the habitat, to attract large grazing animals like the bison or the American buffalo, to clear areas where they could plant intentionally for food production, pull in other game like deer and beaver and that sort of thing. And so it's a habitat that really humans have been a central part of shaping throughout its history here on this landscape, and that continues today and will continue into the future. So as a result, the plants and animals in the tallgrass prairie and here in Illinois, you know, they're used to having periodic fires that come through the landscape.

Elizabeth Bach:

They're used to having regular grazing from animals, including, you know, things that might surprise you, like grasshoppers that eat actually more biomass than the bison do. And the

Amy Lefringhouse:

Cool fact alert. Cool fact alert.

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah. The little there's a lot of them, and they're little, and they they can consume a lot.

Elizabeth Bach:

And so when the project at Nachusa Grasslands began, it was really important to bring those, what we call, those ecological factors back into the landscape. So I mentioned earlier, what we're trying to do is really set up these plants and animals for success moving forward. And that means bringing back the forces that shaped them throughout thousands of years that the systems have assembled. And so prescribed fire has been a really important part of management at Nachusa Grassland since the late nineteen eighties, when the project began, and we continue to use that a lot today.

Elizabeth Bach:

The second component that has been missing from these systems in Illinois is grazing from a large herbivore. And as Nachusa slowly grew in size, you know, it became possible to think about reintroducing this animal that needs a lot of space. That's an animal that likes to live in groups and herds that has really important social dynamics amongst those individuals. So when you're thinking about reintroducing those animals, they need a lot of space, and you kind of wanna bring a a pretty big group of them so that they they can continue to function the way they do in the wild. And so as the project got bigger, that became a more realistic thing to explore. And in 2014, The Nature Conservancy was able to reintroduce bison or American buffalo here to the Nachusa Grants project.

Elizabeth Bach:

The buffalo have access to about 1,500 acres of the 4,000 acres at the site, so about a third of the preserve. And their grazing is helping to modify the structure of the plant community to shift some of those competitive dynamics between those big, tall, warm season grasses that are emblematic of our tallgrass prairie and those flowering forbs like you mentioned, the shooting stars, the prairie smokes, and all those other lovely things that also make the prairie what it is. And so for the past ten years now, we've been able to to have that interaction happening here at scale at Nachusa Grasslands.

Amy Lefringhouse:

It's just a so it's such a cool, inspiring project. I just think of my I just got goosebumps when you were talking about it. Just a neat I mean, it's just neat. A project like this is just inspiring, I think, and I don't know. I just get goosebumps. So

Elizabeth Bach:

That's wonderful. It's really an honor that

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yeah.

Elizabeth Bach:

My job gets to bring me to this space every day. And something that's really important to us at Nachusa is is, again, bringing the the humans, the people are really important part of the system and and how Nachusa approaches its project. And so it's a great community of folks. There's the staff that with The Nature Conservancy, but we have a large team of volunteers. It's the visiting scientists, and we're all working together as a community to restore and, again, just set up these plants and animals to succeed long beyond our lifetimes. Yeah.

Elizabeth Bach:

If this is the right place, I might mention so you mentioned you've come for a visit. Nachusa Grasslands is open to the public, dawn to dusk, every day. We have hiking trails in the units that are outside of the bison area, so people are welcome to hike and explore. We have a great visitor center. And we also have volunteer workdays twice a week on Thursdays and Saturday mornings. So that's another great way to actually get involved with the project and help us restore, just be part of our community. So we really welcome folks to join us in these efforts.

Darci Webber:

Yeah. So diving a little bit more into, like, the buffalo. You use the term buffalo and bison. So are they the same? Are they different?

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah. Those words can really be used interchangeably. The word, buffalo, holds a lot of significance for a lot of indigenous cultures and nations, including those who are the original inhabitants of Illinois. And so it's, you know, respectful of that, giving that word, that voice in that space. So the word buffalo is is absolutely okay, and many people prefer the word buffalo, and that's fine.

Elizabeth Bach:

Kind of the western science world typically uses bison. The Latin name for that animal is Bison bison, the genus and the species, And so that word is also commonly used. And in North America, we typically know that it refers to the same animal.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yeah. That's neat.

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah. So I I will interchange them some. So Yeah. Hopefully, that's not confusing for folks. But yeah.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Interesting perspective for sure. There's that there's that cultural significance of one word, and we're, you know, paying reverence to that. And then also, you know, scientifically make ensuring that we're Yeah. Talking about this the right this the same species because I know why there's other, you know.

Elizabeth Bach:

Right. So so the you know? And this is and speaking with respect to of, like, you know, the kind of western science world is is one way of knowing and acknowledging that there are many ways of knowing. Yeah. And the intent behind kind of having a name like Bison bison is just to help reduce confusion because it's true. You may go to another part of the world and there may be a water buffalo, or there is a bison species in Europe or or even, you know, a musk ox up in Alaska or something. It just helps people, you know, not be confused as we're learning about other people and how they know and the kinds of animals in in their habitats as well.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Sure. Sure. So the unique adaptations for bison. So they they're a different kind of animal. Right? What are those unique adaptations that makes them suitable for living in a grassland ecosystem?

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah. Really great question. So the bison have evolved in North America since kind of this very old ice age era where there were very large bison related animals. You know, over time, they've become what we know today, which is is actually a smaller or a smaller animal than what they would have been in the ice age. But they evolved in these grassland habitat, and they will wander into woodlands and forests and spend time there, but they are really their largest populations, have typically lived in the grasslands of North America across the Great Plains and into the tallgrass prairie.

Elizabeth Bach:

They really prefer eating grass, and so they like to eat those warm season grasses that, really dominate these these tall prairies. You know, they will munch on other things, and there's there's some forbs that they the flowering plants that they like to eat as well, but they tend to really prefer eating grass, and so they tend to spend a lot of time in grasslands. So I guess kind of going in hand with that when you're an animal that eats grass, the buffalo, the way their teeth are shaped and their mouths are shaped, they will clip off that grass kind of at the surface, but leave a little, you know, maybe a half inch or something like that on the ground. And grasses will grow up from that. So if you think about if you mow your lawn, a a lot of times you gotta come back next week and mow it again.

Elizabeth Bach:

Like, it just keeps growing. Right? So when these animals are grazing, that grass keeps growing. So it's not necessarily hurting the grass or, you know, it's not killing the grass. It's, you know, it's just given a little bit of a haircut that grass can keep growing.

Elizabeth Bach:

So there's this relationship where, you know, these animals are eating that nutritious food, especially those early low growing bright green shoots this time of year are super nutritious and and extra loved. And by clipping that off, they can keep it green and nutritious kind of throughout the year. The plant can withstand that. So this is what we call, you know, an at a grazing adapted type plant. It's gonna keep growing.

Elizabeth Bach:

It's storing most of its energy in the roots below ground, which is a whole cool another story. Yeah. And so so a tree where it's storing a lot of its energy in the trunk and the branches, these grasses are storing their energy below ground, and they can keep growing. So as a result, these bison and grasses, they live together really well, and they they gain some benefits from each other through those interactions. The other thing, you know, the buffalo and the bison, they can handle the weather and the climate quite well.

Elizabeth Bach:

In the winter, they grow really thick fur coats that are super insulated. In fact, they're so insulated when the snow falls. Not enough body heat escapes to melt the snow. It's the sun on them that actually melts that snow. So in the winter, when I come into work sometimes, there's a bunch of snowy beasts standing out in the in the grasslands.

Elizabeth Bach:

And as the day progresses and the sun comes out, it'll it'll melt off of them, but it's not their their body heat is very well insulated. And metabolically, they're able to shift things so that in the winter, they're producing heat and conserving that heat. And in the summer, they lose that thick furry coat, which is at springtime is what they're doing right now. And more of that heat escapes their skin, and they're able to handle these hot humid days that are pretty typical in this part of the world. So, you know, their bodies have evolved to handle these very cold winters and and hot summers.

Elizabeth Bach:

And, of course, historically, these animals would have migrated as well. And so they would have followed certain weather trends. They would have followed the greening up of the grass and that sort of thing. In the world we live in today, it's that's those levels of migration aren't really plausible, and and they can handle the conditions. But, yeah, as they were evolving with the grasslands, they would have migrated throughout the year as well.

Darci Webber:

Do the buffalo provide any benefits to the ecosystem itself?

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah. Absolutely. Well, and benefit is an interesting turn of phrase. They absolutely interact with the ecosystem and have and I'm gonna say the word consequences. I don't mean that in a negative way, but just they have impacts.

Elizabeth Bach:

Maybe impacts is a better way to say that. And and I say that because the key point I'm gonna get to, spoiler alert, is that having a lot of different kinds of patchy habitats and interactions is really a good thing for tallgrass prairie. And so part of what bison are doing is, as I mentioned, they're they may be selectively grazing on some of those grasses that can kind of outcompete some other plants, or they create really thick dense stands of habitat. So when some of that gets grazed down and kept shorter, that can change some of the competitive interactions between other plants. So we're seeing evidence that some of those plants grow a little bigger or, you know, set more seed or something like that.

Elizabeth Bach:

Even though it's not actually shifting the overall plant community diversity, it's just shifting kind of the size and the shape of those plants is the best way to think about that, which has impacts for animals. So we're also seeing that by having the the bison on the landscape, it's changing certain things for some insects. So we're getting a higher abundance of ground beetles and dung beetles. The dung beetles really like all the bison bison poop that's out on the range now. We're seeing the diets of these insects change a little bit, which this is like we're going deep now.

Elizabeth Bach:

But Mhmm. You know, a lot of these insects are they will eat seeds and other insects and maybe actually to eat on, leaves or roots or something like that. And so what we're seeing is that with that grazing component, we see a little bit widening of that, which means either they're eating a greater diversity of seeds or they're including some they're including insects and seeds both in their diet, things like that. So what it's showing is that insects are having more choices in their diet and shifting their behaviors and and their you know, how they interact as well. We also see impacts with some small mammals where the bison grazing, again, it's a structure thing, are affecting how these mice and voles are foraging, particularly at night.

Elizabeth Bach:

On nights with full moons, these animals don't forage as much in a grazed area as they do in an ungrazed area, and that's probably driven by fear of predator detection. On a full moon night, it's easier to see a little mouse in a sparse, grazed grassland. If you're an owl or or a coyote or something like that compared to a thatchy Yeah. Taller structured grassland where where you need to have more cover. And so we're seeing these behavioral differences, and there's some implication that that may also be, you know, affecting those those top predators as well.

Elizabeth Bach:

We don't have data or evidence around that, but some really interesting patterns that are that are coming out from around that. We also see some things like we're seeing bison fur that they shed in the spring. We're seeing that get incorporated into birds nests and mouse nests underground. And so it's, you know, it's a material that's been missing for several 100 years that can, you know, influence how these nests support, you know, baby birds that are hatching early in the spring and need to get through cold nights and that sort of thing. So we're absolutely seeing these animals, you know, have an impact, and we're seeing more of those impacts around other animals and less so directly on the plant community.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yeah. That's really neat. And they've been there since 2014, so you've got a decade now, almost over a decade of data that you're able to pull that from. Absolutely. So those are a lot of the impacts. What are some of the some of them positive impacts.

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah. Yeah.

Amy Lefringhouse:

But what are the what are some of the challenges with having a bison herd at the grassland?

Elizabeth Bach:

Sure. So so I kind of mentioned this earlier. Bison are something that need a lot of space, and and they they're a social animal. They they like to be in a herd. There's a lot we don't know, but there's a lot that we're learning about, you know, these social interactions and having, you know, the you know, it's the moms and the babies.

Elizabeth Bach:

It's the sisters. It's the aunties. It's the grandparents. And so having old bison as part of the herd with young bison, the learning that's happening amongst those animals. And so one of the things is there's not a lot of spaces, particularly in Illinois, where there's there's enough habitat where you can kind of bring in a herd that kind of allows for that dynamic age structure and that social interaction that is emblematic of the species.

Elizabeth Bach:

And so that's something that we think about and that, again, we've been learning a lot more about and are more thoughtful about as we do this. So it is a little bit unique in that, you know, having the space to do that. And grazing is certainly something these grasslands coevolved with, but, there's also a lot of great examples of beautiful grasslands in Illinois that are very small. And and grazing, you know, may not be the right thing to put into a very small grassland, and that's okay. There's other great ways that you can mimic that disturbance or support a healthy habitat that's doing great things for plants and insects and and animals in those small spaces too.

Elizabeth Bach:

So by all means, support our small spaces, as well. That in in that it's a challenge. And Nachusa is a very unique example of a place where we could do something like that at a big scale. So it is a challenge. It's not a a one size fits all kind of approach.

Elizabeth Bach:

You know, it is something you know, we've built fences and, you know, have to do that to to keep them in particular areas. They're wildlife, and we consider them wildlife, and we really treat them as wildlife. So we we try to do our work on the preserve in a way that minimizes our interactions or disruptions with the bison. And so we like to have them living their life, the way they want to. So we will you know, we wanna give them a lot of space.

Elizabeth Bach:

We don't wanna get up close to them. The bison area is not open for public visitation. As you mentioned, there are some opportunities to have a tour where we can put you in a truck and safely take you around. Both can learn about that from the website. The goal there is just to keep these wild animals as wild animals and not get them too habituated to being around people.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yeah. Yeah. That's a good point. I hadn't really thought of that. Like, these are we're not treating them or you guys are not trying to treat them as livestock.

Elizabeth Bach:

No. No. Correct.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Or domesticated animals. We're trying to Yes. Provide it as an ecosystem with them included in that wild natural ecosystem.

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yeah. Yeah.

Darci Webber:

When it comes to space, talking about, like, they do require a lot of land. Like, are there other wildlife that they're interacting with, or they kind of on their own?

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah. So so they are, coming back to, I think, something earlier said earlier, they are the largest mammal in North America, and they are also the national mammal for the United States. So they're kind of the big ones. They're herbivores, so they live a different lifestyle. They're mostly eating grass, and they mostly kind of eat all the time and wander around all the time.

Elizabeth Bach:

What you do see, I guess in a sense, like, there's a lot of interactions around them. And so they're not very bothered by other wildlife. We will do this. Just this morning, I saw them and a group of turkeys out, and the tom turkeys were doing their display and gobbling away, and the bison were right there, and none none of them cared. They were all just doing their thing.

Elizabeth Bach:

You know, we see deer and, you know, coyotes even without it being you know, they're just there. They're just neighbors. It's springtime, and it's bison calving season. And so the mamas do get very protective. That's when they're most vulnerable.

Elizabeth Bach:

There really aren't any predators here in Illinois that would go after a bison. But as you go further west, you know, wolves would especially a young bison would take down that. Here, generally, even a coyote is not gonna go for that big of an animal. So they're they don't have too much from the predator realm that they're that they're worried about. What we do see is a lot of animals kind of interacting with those bison for things like, you know, the dung or they'll kick up the birds will swoop around because they as they're grazing, they'll kick up insects.

Elizabeth Bach:

So, again, coming back to if you're mowing your lawn, a lot of times, you kinda see these insects flush up. It's the same thing, and then the birds can eat those insects as they're getting flushed up. So you see a lot of that are birds swooping around as the bison are grazing because they're kicking up these insects. So you see that in terms of their kind of, like, you know, day to day interactions.

Darci Webber:

Your job sounds so fun. You just get to experience all these things outside and watch them. Are there any upcoming projects or other studies related to bison you're excited about?

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah. That's a really great question. So, yeah, my job, I'm describing, you know, all of these great moments that I get to see on the prairie, and I I really value those. But, you know, I I work hard and I I have busy days. And so I am in the field collecting data a lot.

Elizabeth Bach:

And so some of the projects that we have going on at Nachisa, I mentioned we have some long term monitoring. So the ones that I lead are mostly focused around plant community. I have expertise in plants and botany and in soil ecology as well. So the projects I lead are usually in that realm. And so we're looking at with regards to the bison, we have an experiment where we've set up some fences.

Elizabeth Bach:

They're small areas about 10 meters by 12 meters or so. Well, that's not quite right. It's more like 15 by 20 meters is probably more accurate. And they're just little small pockets. The bison can graze around them, but the there's fenced so that the bison can't graze inside of those areas.

Elizabeth Bach:

And part of my job is to collect plant data every third year from these. We call them exclosures as opposed to an enclosure and monitor how that plant community is changing. And we were able to collect baseline data before the bison arrived at Nachusa. So we're also able to see how that community is changing over time in response to other things like climate or or drought and that sort of thing. So we've been collecting those data.

Elizabeth Bach:

I've published the first five years of that data. And so far, as I mentioned, we're not seeing any differences in plant diversity or community structure, but what we're seeing is mostly just differences in the heights of those plants. So we're collecting some additional data and continuing to collect these data to help us understand better what's going on. So I'll be collecting the year 10 data this summer, getting ready next week to head out to do that. We also because this is a restoration project, we also wanna track how our restoration approaches and management are contributing to sustaining and supporting native plants and animals across the preserve.

Elizabeth Bach:

So I also have several areas where I look at the plant community in older restorations, newer restorations, and those hilltops that that were never plowed up and understand how those plant communities change over time and respond to things. And that's helped us tweak our practices around including more plants in our in our seed mixtures and more seed and, really trying to find out what what kinda sets up the most successful planting so that then those animals can come in and and use those resources well. So those are key things that I lead. But as I mentioned, we have a lot of researchers who come out to the preserve that bring expertise I don't have, including a lot of this animal expertise. So I wanna give full credit.

Elizabeth Bach:

A lot of the stories I've been telling you, the mice in the moonlight, that was all led by, Pete Guiden, who was a postdoc at Northern Illinois University, he's now a professor at Hamilton College in Upstate New York. Some of this insect work, was led by a series of graduate students working with Dr. Nick Barber, who also was at Northern Illinois. He's now at San Diego State University. And so they're bringing this great expertise that I don't have, the rest of our staff and our volunteers don't have, so we can keep learning together and to kind of put together that big full ecosystem picture.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Okay. So you have lots of things going on out there in all different in all the different parts of the ecosystem. So not just bison, but every, you know, other other types of things. And you said the bison are just on, like, one third of the preserve, and then there's lots of other things happening too. So that's that's really neat.

Amy Lefringhouse:

What about the local community? How could the local community get involved or just become more educated about the importance of bison and, you know, the grassland ecosystem?

Elizabeth Bach:

Yeah. Absolutely. So this tallgrass prairie ecosystem, as I mentioned, is humans have been part of shaping it for millennia and will continue to be part of what allows this ecosystem to thrive into the future. So the prairie needs us, and Nachusa is a great place to get involved with that. So like I mentioned, we are open to the public. We have hiking trails. We have a great visitor center with a lot of interpretation. Interpretation. So our local community and visitors are are most welcome all the time to do that. We have some opportunities for folks to learn a little bit more through tour or some programming.

Elizabeth Bach:

I'm actually getting ready tomorrow to do a collaborative program with our local park district about using apps to help identify plants and animals in the in in nature, and we'll be doing a hike at Nachusa to try those out. We have a big public event, and I think the timing on this might be a little near miss. It's the third Saturday in September. Every year, it's called Autumn on the Prairie, and it's free. We ask for a donation for parking, but the rest of the event is free.

Elizabeth Bach:

Everyone is welcome. We're prepared to handle a large crowd, and we have bison tours. You can we'll put you on a hay wagon and take you out to see the animals. We'll provide some more information about the animals and their habits and physiology and all that stuff. We have guided hikes, so you can join me or one of our other, staff, volunteers, other researchers, to come learn more about any of these things that I've been talking about today.

Elizabeth Bach:

We'll actually go on a hike, and we'll go look at some plots where we've been measuring this or or try and find some of these other animals that are really important parts of the system. And we've got, you know, tents. Kids can interact with various things. It's really a family friendly event. We have a food truck, so you can buy lunch if you want.

Elizabeth Bach:

So that's another great way. If you just wanna come try us out and learn more, that's a great Saturday to come do that. It's usually a big crowd. So if if crowds aren't your thing, come by some other weekend or or evening when, you know, there might be some other folks around, but it's usually pretty calm and experience the prairie yourself. We also do things like this podcast.

Elizabeth Bach:

We're always happy to share our work, blogs, other kind of publications and and media opportunities to share that. And I feel like I've rambled a little bit here, but at the end of the day, my colleagues and I and and and our volunteers, we all live in our community here in the surrounding area. And so we are part of the community and, you know, take that approach. And and many of our volunteer, you know, most of our volunteers are coming from our local community. We certainly welcome volunteers from further afar.

Elizabeth Bach:

We have folks who may drive an hour or two to to also come help us, and we love having that part of the community too. So we really think about Natusa as a community of people as much as we do about the ecosystem. And what really the commonality is is people who love and care for this habitat. And maybe it's because they literally grew up right here with it in their backyard. Maybe it's because they just have a deep appreciation for a particular plant or animal.

Elizabeth Bach:

Those things bring us together and and motivate us to, do this work to, again, set these folks up or these these plants and animals up for success in the future.

Amy Lefringhouse:

That's really wonderful. Well, it's a wonderful perspective to have about the human community as well as the natural community and just bringing all of that together. That's really wonderful.

Elizabeth Bach:

The other really key thing about the bison is the buffalo as an animal has very deep cultural significance to many indigenous nations and communities across North America. And we've been talking about a lot of these ecological interactions and the plants and the animals, which are all really great. But something that that I and and our colleagues here have really learned over the past ten years is how deeply important these animals are to folks for whom this is their ancestral lands, and it has really brought us to the table and widened our community. And so it's been an opportunity to build relationship with indigenous communities and nations, those with ancestral ties here in in the Rock River Valley in Northern Illinois, but also across the US. And the buffalo have really been what brought that together for us.

Amy Lefringhouse:

That's cool. That's neat. A neat tran like, a neat, I guess, outcome that that comes from this the decision to bring bison onto the property, but but also that connection with those that historical connection, that cultural connection came along with it. Maybe not intentional, but or just maybe it wasn't intentional. I don't know.

Elizabeth Bach:

Well, I would say it was not intentional in those in the early days. And what we have learned and the respect that we have, it has been one of the best and most important outcomes, and and it has it has grown us all as people and and as an organization. Mhmm. And we really have great appreciation to the animal for bringing that and and helping us all grow together and and to build bigger and broader community. Yeah.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Well, we thank you, Dr. Bach, for being with us today and sharing your expertise and sharing your knowledge about Nachusa and the bison community there and all the natural communities that are there that live within the preserve. And we invite everyone that's listening to visit Nachusa and see it for themselves, the special place that it is. So hopefully, we'll see every or you'll see everyone there that come that listens to this podcast. So thank you again.

Elizabeth Bach:

Thank you. I've had a great time.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Well, like every episode, we end the episode with our everyday observation where we highlight the mundane and normal of our environment that is actually really interesting. So this is kind of share time. So, Darci, you wanna share your everyday observation that you've had recently?

Darci Webber:

Sure. Yeah. So outside our office, we have, like, a little garden area. And today, as I was walking in, I was like, oh, we have new yellow flowers that have budded. And I'm just a sucker for yellow plants.

Darci Webber:

I don't know why. I just love them. And so I was looking at it, and it really looks like wild parsnip, which is not good. Like, that's not a fun plant to have. And I was like, just kidding.

Darci Webber:

It's a golden Alexander, so that made me feel a little better.

Darci Webber:

Yeah. So native prairie plants that, we have around our office were fun to find and see. I'm sure they were planted there, but that was good to have around and just to bring a little joy to my morning.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Yeah. Exactly. That's funny. Yellow you're you're a sucker for yellow plants. Yeah.

Amy Lefringhouse:

Sunshine reminds me of

Darci Webber:

And goldenrod. I think it's so pretty.

Amy Lefringhouse:

For sure. For sure. Dr. Bach, what's your everyday observation?

Elizabeth Bach:

Okay. Well, I I'm very fortunate in that my everyday brings me to Nachusa Grassland. So this morning, I was out, and I happened to be near enough to herd that I could take a few moments to watch them. And as I mentioned, we have baby bison this time of year, and they were frolicking, this morning and running around and kinda like you know, one of them would kinda poke the other one, and they'd chase each other. And it was just, incredibly cute and really fascinating observation to watch and and a really great reminder of of kind of of why I and and everyone who works and helps here at Nachusa get up and do this work every day.

Amy Lefringhouse:

So Yeah. It's so unique. It's so neat. Mhmm. Well, thank you for sharing.

Amy Lefringhouse:

I'll I'll share one. This is from a few weeks ago, but I worked at a program, a 4-H program. It was a fishing program. And my daughter attended with with me, and she caught a channel catfish. And she and I both whenever we're fishing, we catch a catfish.

Amy Lefringhouse:

We always love that kind of croaking or we call it squeaking, but I think it's more like a croak than a channel the channel most channel catfish, especially, but some other catfish make that same noise. But it's a noise that they make with, like, their pectoral fins that, like, the girdle of their pectoral fin bones are kind of, like, rubbing against each other, and they make this, like, squeaky it comes out of their mouth. So we thought it was, like, part of their mouth making that noise, but it's actually their pectoral girdle bones that are kind of rubbing together, and they make that, like, squeaky noise. And she just gets so excited about the squeaky little croaking noise that the catfish makes. So that's our everyday observation.

Amy Lefringhouse:

My daughter and I, just that appreciation of, like, just the cool little things that fish fishes, I guess, you know, exhibit and just appreciating that just for what it is. Just kind of a cool thing that, again, you don't see every day. But if you go fishing every day, you could see see those types of things. Cool. So well, thank you everybody for sharing your everyday observation.

Amy Lefringhouse:

And, again, thank you for being here, Dr. Bach. We appreciate you. This has been another episode on the everyday environment podcast. Check us out next week where we talk with Kaylee Smith about fish hatcheries in Illinois.

Abigail Garofalo:

This podcast is a University of Illinois Extension production hosted and edited by Abigail Garofalo, Erin Garrett, Amy Lefringhouse, Karla Griesbaum, and Darci Webber. Marketing and communications are by Emily Steele.

Matt Wiley:

University of Illinois Extension.