Dr. Robert F. Betz, a conservation hero and prairie champion passed away at 84 this  spring. Bob Betz was a War World II veteran and biochemist by training. He was a professor of biology at Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, where in addition to biochemistry, he taught ornithology, plant taxonomy, and plant geography. Many of his students are now professional biologists in the natural areas field.   

Dr. Betz was the key architect in the establishment and restoration of the 1,200- acre Fermi Lab Prairie at the National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia Illinois. Earlier restorations were developed by transplanting actual prairie plants from threatened sites, a much more laborious process that has been replaced by direct seeding. Betz developed the technique of using succession to restore prairie by beginning with seedings of early successional prairie species, followed by those of later successional stages. The Fermi- Lab was one of the first to consider bison as a management tool (http://www.fnal.gov/pub/ about/campus/ecology/prairie/index.html).

Dr. Betz was equally famous for his remarkable discovery that Pioneer Cemeteries could be the very best places to look for original, undisturbed prairies in Illinois and Indiana. Bob conducted an exhaustive inventory to find these prairie gems. He could often be seen crawling around the back lots of mowed cemeteries where he coined the phrase looking for “Bonsai Prairie Plants”. Bob taught many of us how to identify these bonsai prairie plants even if they were mowed to within an inch of the soil surface. Bob is credited with finding scores of these pioneer cemeteries in Illinois and Indiana, many of which are now protected. To protect his prairie finds, he developed a one-man prairie preservation society through Northeastern University, including a sign and plaque for each of the prairies.

“Dr. Betz spent numerous days seeking out cemetery prairies in Indiana. He told me he deliberately had at least one of his daughters attend a university in Indiana so he would have time to spend in Indiana. One time Dr. Betz made a trip to Lake County to meet the owner of what is now “Biesecker Prairie Nature Preserve”,  

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Janice A. Duquesnel^1* and Henry T. Smith²,³

Lignumvitae Key Submerged Land Managed Area (LKSLMA) encompasses 4,050 ha surrounding the islands of Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park, Indian Key Historic State Park, and Shell Key Preserve State Park in Florida, USA (Florida Department of Environmental Protection 2000). LKSLMA is managed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Park Service. It covers two management zones, Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park and Lignumvitae Key Aquatic Preserve and falls within the boundaries of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Of the 4,050 ha of submerged land, seagrass habitat coverage consists of approximately 3,400 ha with the remaining 650 ha comprised of hardbottom, composite, and unconsolidated habitats (FDEP 2000, Engeman et al. in press). Seagrass beds are an important component of the submerged habitats in the Florida Keys ranking among the highest in biotic potential of any natural community worldwide (Zieman and Wetzel 1980). Seagrasses remove suspended sediment from the water column, stabilize sediment via their root structure, provide an important ecological function to the offshore

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