Ioway Environmental

Ioway Environmental Land and Water Department and Ioway Climate Resilience Program for the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska

🌾Join us for a walk in the prairie and community harvest of Háxoje (Prairie Sage) the weekend of fall encampment 🌾
08/27/2026

🌾Join us for a walk in the prairie and community harvest of Háxoje (Prairie Sage) the weekend of fall encampment 🌾

🌼 Curious about the term invasive species? We sure are! Here are some thoughts from our team about this term and how we ...
08/24/2026

🌼 Curious about the term invasive species? We sure are! Here are some thoughts from our team about this term and how we work with these plants within our prairie restoration projects 🌼

✨ The other week we got to immerse ourselves in pyúbraⁿ with our summer youth program! Beebalm (Monarda fisulosa) or pyú...
08/03/2026

✨ The other week we got to immerse ourselves in pyúbraⁿ with our summer youth program! Beebalm (Monarda fisulosa) or pyúbraⁿ in Ioway is a native flower that attracts many bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and humans. Together, with our high school youth, we learned how to identify this plant, drank tea made of their leaves and blossoms, learned about their vital role the prairie ecosystem and finally harvested for medicine. Many thanks to pyúbraⁿ for your vibrant return to our rez! ✨

💨 The Climate Resilience Team had the pleasure of hosting The Boys and Girls Club and Summer youth program for a Háxoje ...
07/23/2026

💨 The Climate Resilience Team had the pleasure of hosting The Boys and Girls Club and Summer youth program for a Háxoje (Prairie Sage) harvest in one of our restoration sites. Together we learned about the ecosystem in which sage thrives, identified some of their plant neighbors and practiced harvesting in a good way.

🌽 Big thank you to Rebekka for making a traditional meal from the corn we grew last year in the Irogre Memorial Garden! We look forward to hosting more community harvests as these plants thrive on our reservation.

🌱 We are so glad to welcome back the abundance of native Sage into our prairie restoration sites. We are asking our Yout...
07/10/2026

🌱 We are so glad to welcome back the abundance of native Sage into our prairie restoration sites. We are asking our Youth and Elders to join us for a special harvest of Háxoje! 🌱

A helpful repost from on why all those beautiful yellow flowers with brown centers in our walking trail and other resto...
06/26/2026

A helpful repost from on why all those beautiful yellow flowers with brown centers in our walking trail and other restoration sites! 🌻

"Did you plant a native seed mix, and now all you have is a field of Black-Eyed Susans blooming and seemingly nothing else?

This is completely normal!

This stage is known as the “Pioneer Flush.” Species such as Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) and Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata) are known as pioneer species because they are quick to establish and typically the first to bloom. It may seem like that is all you have growing, but over time, long-lived perennial natives will take up more space and slowly replace the pioneer flush with greater diversity and complexity. Remember, it can take 3-5 years after planting for most perennials to bloom for the first time.

Establishing a successful native planting from seed is a labor of love and patience. Most folks who have embarked upon the adventure will praise the process: the thrill of discovery and the absolute joy of transforming a space with little to no biological activity into a healthy ecosystem, thrumming with life. ♥️ "

💜 Thistle Removal 💜 🌱 The last couple weeks we have been working hard to catch the thistles before they go to seed! We a...
06/25/2026

💜 Thistle Removal 💜

🌱 The last couple weeks we have been working hard to catch the thistles before they go to seed! We are gathering up the flowering tops and pulling or chopping the rest of the plant down within our restoration sites. Why do we do this?

🌱 We excuse thistle so that our native prairie seeds have space to return and thrive. We are choosing to remove thistle by hand because our goal is to be able to gather food and medicine in these prairies once again and it’s important to us to ensure the safety of these plants for humans, animals, and insects. Manual removal also has lower financial cost than chemical usage.

🌱 There are several different species of thistle that grow on our reservation, the primary one we are chopping back is Musk thistle. Keep in mind we have a native thistle that doesn’t act as aggressive as the other ones tend toward. If you're curious about thistle identification follow the link in the comments!

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