I’ve been writing this blog for about eight months now, and it’s been an extremely enjoyable and fulfilling experience. As I’ve told many people, I learn something from every post. I learn by forcing myself to research, justify and corroborate my viewpoints and facts as I write about each subject. I also learn from the many insightful comments and questions you’ve sent back to me through replies to posts, emails, and phone calls.
Stormy sky over a recently-burned Griffith Prairie, north of Aurora, Nebraska. Owned and managed by Prairie Plains Resource Institute, this diverse mixed-grass prairie has undergone extensive eastern red cedar removal and is managed with prescribed fire and grazing.
While writing the blog is fun for me, I’m doing it on work time – - so I have some responsibility to justify the time I spend on it. It’s difficult to measure the effectiveness of something like a blog because although I get some statistics on how many times each post is read, I don’t really have any idea who’s reading it or what they think about it (except when people reply with comments/questions).
I’ve decided that the most effective way to see whether or not the blog is achieving its objectives is to simply ask. So - I’m asking.
Here are my rough objectives for this blog:
1. Provide an interactive and updated source of prairie-related information as a companion to my book on prairie management.
2. Raise awareness and enthusiasm about prairies.
3. Provide a searchable on-line forum for discussion about challenges related to prairie management and restoration.
4. Improve the management and restoration of prairies by providing useful (and sometimes provocative) information and ideas.
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If you have a few minutes this week, I’d love to hear back from you about how I’m doing on those objectives. You can simply reply to this post or you can send me an email (chelzer@tnc.org). Please tell me what you think so far.
- Has the blog changed the way you think about or manage/restore prairies?
- Is the information technical enough? Too technical?
- What do you like most/least about the blog?
- Do you have ideas for future blog post topics? Any other suggestions for improving the blog?
I can’t thank you enough for reading (and responding to) the posts I’ve written so far. I look forward to many more future discussions!
