Springtime Prairie Walk
Join us in southeast Nebraska on Thursday, May 23, 2024, for a special guided walk as part of the Project’s ongoing Land & Water program series. Details below.
As part of the Rural Reconciliation Project’s ongoing Land & Water program series, we are delighted to host a guided walk later this spring through local tallgrass prairie.
Led by grassland ecologist and creative thinker Theo Michaels — a current postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Resilience in Agricultural Working Landscapes at UNL—we will explore Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center, a 1,160-acre tallgrass prairie sanctuary encompassing native prairie grasslands, wetlands, and wildflowers 20 minutes southwest of Lincoln, Nebraska.
Theo will be joined by other local stakeholders and experts to help provide some brief introductory context to the law, property, and land tenure issues at play around the prairie and the trail system and how they intersect with public land access and use. Then, Theo will lead us on a reflective walk through the prairie, focusing on the ecology of the place during perhaps the prairie’s most exciting season.
Details:
Thursday, May 23, 2024 — 4:30 to 6:00 pm — Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center
Participants should wear closed-toed shoes appropriate for outdoor walking. Long pants (not shorts) and sun protection are recommended; a hat and sunglasses can be handy. Bug or tick spray is not a bad idea, and please also bring your own water bottle.
Spring Creek Prairie is open from sunrise to sunset. The Audubon Center will be closed during our walk, but there is an outdoor bathroom open to visitors.
The Project will provide light and casual post-walk snacks.
RSVP:
Space is limited, so RSVP is required. — Feel free to email us with any questions.
Theo Michaels - Biography
Theo Michaels is a grassland ecologist who studies the impact of human land use on the intimate connections between plants, microbes, and soils. She focuses on how human relationships be directed to support grassland restoration efforts and better land management practices for the benefit of all beings.
As part of these efforts, Theo is interested in cross-boundary collaborations to steward our collective landscapes. Currently a postdoctoral researcher within the Center for Resilience in Agricultural Working Landscapes (CRAWL), Theo graduated from the University of Kansas with her PhD in ecology, and has a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California, San Diego.
For Theo, ecology is just another language in which to listen, read, and understand the intimate stories of our Earth.
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