Decadeslong effort revives ancient oak woodland

After 34 years of data gathering, three of us have finally published a study of the restoration of Vestal Grove - the bur oak grove in Somme Prairie Grove.

Life Sciences editor Diana Yates of the U. of I. News beautifully summarized and illustrated this technical paper at: 

https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/973552802

The technical paper itself is at: 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0241061

Thanks to lead author Karen Glennemeier for her masterful perseverance over many years, pulling together the elements of a scientifically sound paper. Thanks to the Illinois Natural History Survey's Greg Spyreas for crucial contributions during the last year and for recommending the open source journal PLOS ONE to publish it. 

This photo shows (if you know what to look for) violet wood sorrel, wild strawberry, woodland sunflower, wild bergamot, nodding wild onion, and cow parsnip - just waiting to be counted for the Vestal Grove study.