We can use your help

Tax deductible contributions to the Green Ribbon Initiative will be used to support education and stewardship work in the Oak Openings Region.

To donate to the Oak Openings Habitat Protection and Restoration Fund, click here.

To donate to the Oak Openings Carbon Offset Fund, click here.

To make a general donation to the Green Ribbon Initiative, click on the donate button below. These funds will go to:

Stewardship work on private lands.

Educational materials and handouts.

Outreach events, such as Blue Week

Support of the oakopenings.org web site

Midwest Sand Barren

This is an open and dry habitat which is dependent on fire. This habitat is harsh, trees are rare- even absent and sand blowouts are not uncommon. Grasses and sedges are the dominant vegetation including Junegrass Koeleria macrantha , little bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium, purple three-awned grass Aristida purpurescens, low sand sedge Carex rugosperma, slender umbrella-sedge (slender sand sedge) Cyperus lupulinus, and Muhlenberg’s sedge Carex muhlenbergia. Forbs include plains puccoon Lithospermum caroliniense, dwarf dandelion Krigia virginica, flowering spurge Euphorbia corollata, hairy pinweed Lechea mucronata, round-headed bush-clover Lespedeza capitata , wild lupine Lupinus perennis , eastern prickly pear cactus Opuntia humifusa, and gray goldenrod Solidago nemoralis. Sand cherry Prunus pumila var. cuneata is one of the few woody species in this community.