Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to map the presence of invasive plants throughout the country? Fortunately, there is! EDDMapS is a web-based mapping system for documenting invasive species and pest distribution. It is fast, easy to use, and doesn't require Geographic Information Systems (GIS) experience.

Launched in 2005 by the Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health at the University of Georgia, the program has expanded to include the entire U.S. and Canada. Professionals and citizen scientists can help control invasive plants by documenting observations of invasive plants to EDDMapS.

Rebekah Wallace, EDDMapS Coordinator & Bugwood Images Coordinator at the University of Georgia, will offer a free training via an MPF webinar on Wednesday, May 22 at 4:00 p.m.

Free. Register here. A link to a recording of the training will be sent to all registrants.

MPF will hold its last spring native plant sale of the year on Saturday, May 25 from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at host Mother's Brewing Company, 215 S. Grant Avenue, Springfield, Missouri. A wide variety of native wildflowers, grasses, sedges, shrubs, and trees will be available for sale from three Grow Native! professional members: Grass Roots Garden Center, Ozark Soul, and Gaylena’s Garden.

In addition, MPF will be giving away free native plants—one per household, first come, first served—while supplies last.

Shoppers can stroll through the sale and purchase plants from each vendor. Shoppers can also pre-order plants and have their orders ready for pick up at the event. Find pre-order information here. Vendors will donate a portion of plant sale proceeds to benefit MPF's conservation work. Shoppers are encouraged to bring boxes or crates to transport their purchases home.

Peruse the grownative.org website to find inspiration and resources to create native plant shopping lists. (We have several fall native plant sales planned for you—stay tuned!)

Photo above of purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea) by Carol Davit

Register for 13th Annual MPF Prairie BioBlitz

Join us for the 13th Annual MPF Prairie BioBlitz and National Prairie Day June 1 and 2. After an introduction to MPF's Shelton L. Cook Memorial Meadow at 2:00 p.m. on June 1, join one of many study groups to search for and document butterflies, bees, plants, small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and much more.

Following an afternoon on the prairie, enjoy a potluck dinner and after-dinner presentation on Dark Skies under a big tent on the prairie, followed by stargazing and nocturnal insect observation. Pitch a tent if you wish, and spend the night under the wide-open prairie sky. Several study groups will continue on Sunday until noon, including early morning bird watching.

This event is free, but registration is required. Learn more and register here.

May & June MPF Guided Hikes

MPF will host upcoming hikes on several of its old-growth prairie properties (and a U.S. Forest Service fen) to help participants discover the beauty, science, and importance of prairie and other native grasslands from experts in the field. All free of charge!

Please see the individual event pages linked below for details, including registration:

May 21: Spring wildflower walk with Jerod Huebner at MPF's Snowball Hill Prairie at 5:00 p.m. *Full*

May 28: Spring wildflower walk with Jeff Cantrell at MPF's Linden's Prairie at 5:30 p.m.

June 22: Prairie Tour and Bumble Bee Atlas Training with Doug Helmers and Amanda McColpin at MPF Pettis County prairies

June 29: Ozark Karst Fen Hike with Kyle Steele and Mike Leahy

Photo of prairie larkspur (Delphinium carolinianum) at Schwartz Prairie by Carol Davit

New Grow Native! Gardens of Excellence Inductees

Three additional sites have been inducted into the Grow Native! Native Gardens of Excellence program, which showcases native landscaping styles in the lower Midwest. The three new sites are in Missouri and include locations in Columbia, Sedalia, and Springfield. These join the 25 sites in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, and Illinois that have been inducted into the program since it launched in 2021.

All Grow Native! Native Gardens of Excellence sites are open to the public, consist of at least 90% native plants (excluding cultivars and nativars), and are at least three years old with an established maintenance schedule. Most sites are free; some charge an admission fee.

The newly inducted gardens:

–Mayor’s Native Plant Garden at City Hall (701 East Broadway, Columbia) is a small native garden that is highly visible to the public, containing prairie- and glade-adapted plants and featuring a colorful array of blooms that brighten up a south-facing wall of office windows. The garden demonstrates a site stewarded for wildlife in a busy downtown district, and will be part of the Grow Native! Gardens of Excellence Open House on June 8; see details about this event below.

–Missouri Department of Conservation Sedalia Office (200 Limit Ave., Sedalia) showcases a native garden that mitigates stormwater while providing for pollinators and other wildlife. Adjacent to the Missouri State Fairgrounds, many thousands of visitors pass by during the fair each year, and throughout the year, the community enjoys seeing the flowers and pollinators and how a native garden can be a welcoming addition to the grounds of a state office building.

–The Watershed Center Rain Garden (2400 E. Valley Watermill Rd., Springfield) is a native garden that has provided countless “nature moments” for staff and visitors to the Watershed Center. The garden is maintained with a distinct mulch border, while the native plants, including water-loving plants like buttonbush and mallow, are allowed to grow naturally within the planting, mitigating stormwater runoff and letting water recharge the aquifer.

Photo above of the Mayor's Native Plant Garden at City Hall by Danielle Fox

New Grow Native! Gardens of Excellence Inductees

MPF, its Grow Native! program, and the Missouri Invasive Plant Council (MoIP), administered by MPF, are now accepting nominations for MPF awards (Prairie Pioneer, Prairie Professional, Prairie Communicator, Prairie Volunteer, and Prairie Landowner); Grow Native! awards (Grow Native! Ambassador Award, Native Plant Pioneer Award, Native Plant Protector Award); and MoIP Invasive Plant Action Awards (Individual Citizen, Individual Organization, and Individual Professional Awards, Collaborator Award, Researcher Award).

One need not be a member of MPF to be nominated for an award. Current MPF board members are not eligible to receive an award. If you nominated someone in the past who was not selected for an award, we encourage you to renominate that individual. All nominations must be received by June 15, 2024. MPF intends to present awards at in-person events this summer and fall.

Questions? Call 888-843-6739.

Webinar presenter Angella Moorehouse will share the results of her recent study, which was established to look at flower-visiting insects as a community. From 2018 through 2023, she annually surveyed pollinators and their plant associations on 30 protected prairie, wetland, and forest natural areas in west-central Illinois with photographic documentation.

The goals of the survey are to establish baseline species lists of potential pollinators, determine flora associations, assess the impacts of invasive species, find specialist pollinators associated with rare community types, evaluate insect preference for high-quality remnants, and obtain new ideas to guide management for the benefit of the pollinating insect communities.

The free webinar, to be held via Zoom, will include a presentation and a live question-and-answer session. The webinar will be recorded and a link to the recording will be sent to all registrants, as well as posted to our YouTube channel.

Wednesday, June 5 at 4:00 p.m. Register here.

Seed collection is a vital component of MPF’s prairie reconstruction projects.

We use carefully collected seed from our remnant prairies to establish prairie plantings, which increase habitat for grassland birds and many pollinating insects, improve watershed health, increase carbon storage in soil, and buffer prairie remnants.

Please consider joining us for an upcoming volunteer seed collection opportunity on MPF prairies on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, where you can contribute firsthand to the expansion of prairie plantings in Pettis County.

The seed collection event will be from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (noon) and will likely take place at MPF's Friendly Prairie or Lordi Marker Prairie. Approximately 10 volunteers are needed. Once registered, volunteers will receive directions and additional instructions for the workday.

Wednesday, June 5, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Register here.

Photo of seeds collected from an MPF prairie remnant for a reconstruction project by Scott Lenharth

MPF Job Opening: Event & Communication Coordinator

MPF and its Grow Native! program seek an assertive self-starter who enjoys a fast-paced work environment and event coordination, and takes the initiative to carry out a wide variety of event and communication coordination tasks as part of a motivated, congenial team.

This full-time (or three-quarter) time position is modified from an existing position. For the detailed job announcement, including the list of job duties, qualifications, salary, benefits, and application information go here. Applications will be accepted through June 6, 2024.

Board members Doug Helmers and Jane Haslag volunteering at the MPF booth at a Missouri FFA convention. Photo by Carol Davit

June 8: Grow Native! Gardens of Excellence Open House

The Grow Native! Native Gardens of Excellence program is offering its first-ever Open House event on June 8, 2024, to showcase excellent native gardens in the St. Louis, Kansas City, and mid-Missouri areas. Attendees will be able to view the gardens with many native wildflowers at their peak and learn about the numerous benefits of native plants, including ecological function, beauty, and contribution to a sense of well-being. Each site will have a representative on hand to provide information to visitors, answer questions, and explain the various attributes and stewardship techniques that are used at the site. 

The following gardens are scheduled to participate: in the St. Louis area, Main Street Garden in St. Charles, Pilot Plot in Granite City, and South Grand Business District in St. Louis City; in the Kansas City area, Kaw Point Park Gardens in Kansas City, Kansas; and, in the mid-Missouri area, Southern Boone County Public Library in Ashland, Mayor’s Native Plant Garden at City Hall in Columbia, and the Native Plants Outdoor Laboratory at Lincoln University in Jefferson City. Registration is not required, and the event will proceed, rain or shine, except in cases of potentially unsafe weather conditions. Cancellation due to severe weather will be at the discretion of each individual site.

We encourage homeowners, native plant enthusiasts, land managers, gardening groups, and landscape professionals to plan a visit during this open house event to learn more about a garden from its caretakers. You can also visit all 28 Native Gardens of Excellence anytime throughout the year during their regular open hours; information is included for all 28 sites at the Native Gardens of Excellence web page, which also provides a link to a Native Gardens of Excellence nomination form.

June 28: Grow Native! Professional Certification Test in Columbia

The Grow Native! Professional Certification Program (GNPCP) provides a consistent professional credential in the use of native plants for landscaping in the lower Midwest.

As a native plant professional, when you become GNPCP credentialed, you are recognized by your peers, potential clients, employers, and the public as a native plant professional who has attained a generally accepted level of knowledge in native landscaping areas including botany, ecology, design, installation, and maintenance. Many agencies and organizations have indicated a need for certification to streamline their hiring processes and recognize the added value of certification. See a list of all the Grow Native! Certified Pros who have passed the GNPCP certification test to date.

There is still time to register for the upcoming testing opportunity on June 28 at the University of Missouri General Services Building in Columbia, Missouri. The regular registration period for the June 28 test will close, with payment due, on May 31. 

Additional tests are scheduled for August 9, 2024, at the Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center in Kansas City, Missouri, and December 13, 2024, at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri. See all the details about the GNPCP including registration instructions and other specifics about the upcoming tests, as well as the study guide and CEU requirements, here.

Photo of native landscape professionals tending a bioswale by Michael Kilfoy (Studio X)

The 2024 Missouri legislative session ended on May 17. Unfortunately, Missouri House Bill 2412 and Missouri Senate Bill 1281, to prohibit the sale of five invasive plants, are now dead because they were not scheduled for votes on the House floor or the Senate floor.

While this is disappointing, it is not unusual. On a positive note, both bills passed unanimously out of their respective committees in the House and Senate, and both generated much media coverage and overall awareness among Missourians about the threats that invasive plants pose to Missouri's native habitats, working lands, land management, and outdoor recreation.

The Missouri Invasive Plant Council (MoIP), administered by MPF, advocated for the passage of these bills, with the MoIP Chair, Vice Chair, and Council members providing testimony at public hearings.

MoIP will encourage the sponsors of the 2024 bills to sponsor similar bills in the 2025 legislative session and will be ready to provide input if requested.

Many thanks to all who contacted your elected officials in support of HB 2412 and SB 1281. We will be in touch in the 2025 legislative session.



Photo above of burning bush (Euonymous alatus) invading a forest in Barry County, Missouri by Carol Davit

The location of MPF’s 13th Annual Prairie BioBlitz on June 1 and 2, 2024 is MPF’s Shelton L. Cook Memorial Meadow in Barton County, near the town of Golden City, Missouri. This old-growth, unplowed 302-acre property contains 185 acres of a highly diverse upland dry-mesic chert prairie with a prairie swale (both are S2 natural communities of concern) and 95 acres of woodland.

A July 7, 1997 plant list for the prairie documents 399 native species, with an average native Coefficient of Conservatism value of 4.31 and 54 remnant-dependent plant species, including the federally listed Mead’s Milkweed (Asclepias meadii). 

Known animals of conservation concern at the site include the prairie mole cricket (S3) and northern crawfish frog (S3). Upland sandpipers and short-eared owls have been documented at the site, along with numerous other grassland birds. 

The Missouri River Bird Observatory conducted breeding bird surveys at the site in 2013, 2017, 2019, 2022, and will again this year. The Institute of Botanical Training conducted floristic integrity reports for Cook Meadow in 2022 and 2023.

MPF accepted the donation of Cook Meadow from the Missouri Chapter of The Nature Conservancy in 2021. Since then, MPF has conducted annual burns over portions of the site and carried out assertive restoration projects. In 2023, contractors removed 20 acres of invasive brush, including from a 13-acre swale. The most recent prescribed fire included burning through two-thirds of the woodland portion of the property, as the first of many steps MPF is taking to help restore it to a more open, historical condition.

For directions, links to bird and plant survey reports, and to learn about the Shelton L. Cook Memorial Meadow iNaturalist Citizen Science Project see the Shelton L. Cook Memorial Meadow Prairie page. 

Bruce Schuette took the photos above at Shelton L. Cook Memorial Meadow: at top is prairie plaintain (Arnoglossum plantagineum) and pale purple coneflowers (Echinacea pallida); and above is paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea) and wood betony (Pedicularis canadensis).