Third Missouri Scientist Showcase Conference Call

Chilton Creek Preserve Fire Study
Doug Ladd, Missouri Director of Conservation Science

Doug Ladd © TNC

This summer, a six-person Conservancy botany crew is descending on the Chilton Creek Preserve to see what’s growing on 250 plots that have been subjected to different controlled burn schedules over the last decade. The survey is part of a joint effort between The Nature Conservancy and the Missouri Department of Conservation to ensure sustainable management of the forests in the Missouri Ozarks.

Located along the Current River in Shannon and Carter counties, Chilton Creek is the Conservancy’s largest Missouri preserve at more than 5,000 acres. Home to more than 700 species of native flowering plants, Chilton Creek Preserve is a living laboratory for testing conservation management strategies on Missouri’s ancient Ozarks landscapes.

Please join us on August 20 for a guided discussion with Doug Ladd, the Conservancy’s director of conservation science in Missouri, to learn more about this study, which will give the Conservancy critical information on the effects of different fire regimes on native plant diversity and quality.

Doug Ladd has been involved with conservation planning and natural area assessment, management, restoration and research for more than 30 years, with particular emphasis on vegetation, ecological restoration and fire ecology. Doug is a research associate at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis and the Morton Arboretum in Chicago. He has written two plant field guides: North Woods Wildflowers and Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers, and is a co-author of Discover Natural Missouri and Distribution of Illinois Vascular Plants.