EcoStrides

Dock at Ancón, near Lima, Peru

Lost Valley Prairie SNA

This fall I dodged raking leaves at home, but today I spent four hours raking twigs for the Department of Natural Resources. The reward was spending a beautiful autumn day outdoors. After raking down to the bare soil, we spread native grass and flower seeds.

Lost Valley Prairie is designated a Scientific and Natural Area with the purpose of preserving Minnesota’s diversity of plants, animals, and geological features. In this case it is a prairie on top of limestone.

The SNA Program’s goal is to ensure that no single rare feature is lost from any region of the state. This requires protection and management of each feature in sufficient quantity and distribution across the landscape.

Minnesota currently has over 140 SNAs, and wishes to have 500. Although SNAs are open to the public, they are not really parks, as there are no restrooms, trails, or major recreational opportunities. But you can still visit and enjoy the view!

Manchas enjoys a swim in the Chetco River of Alfred Loeb State Park in Oregon. This river is designated a national “Wild & Scenic” river with the intent of keeping it free-flowing. Portions of the St. Croix River in Minnesota/Wisconsin share the same protection.

It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States that certain selected rivers of the Nation which, with their immediate environments, possess outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural or other similar values, shall be preserved in free-flowing condition, and that they and their immediate environments shall be protected for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Congress declares that the established national policy of dams and other construction at appropriate sections of the rivers of the United States needs to be complemented by a policy that would preserve other selected rivers or sections thereof in their free-flowing condition to protect the water quality of such rivers and to fulfill other vital national conservation purposes. (Wild & Scenic Rivers Act, October 2, 1968)

Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, June 21, 2009. And I thought Minnesota winters were long!

Plant it and they will come.

The end of summer is here, so an update is due regarding the native plants garden I started this May. Some species are growing strong, others are just hanging in there. Maintenance consists mostly of saving the little seedlings that get buried under wood chips, plus keeping everything watered.

Great Blue Lobelia

Notes from the field:

• Prairie Blazing Star: The monarch butterflies appeared the first day of the first bloom. If you plant it, they will come.
• Great Blue Lobelia: Blooming strong and the bees love them.
• Cardinal Flower: Blooming bright red. A few white flowers appeared, which can happen.
• Pussy Toes: Spreading nicely.
• Solomon’s Seal: All the stems broke off almost immediately. I wonder if they’ll re-appear next year?
• False Lily of the Valley: I am nurturing just a few leaves the size of my fingernail.
• Columbine: Shriveled up, but now is making a come-back.
• New England Aster: Getting ready to bloom.
• Grasses: Doing well; have bloomed with little tiny flowers.
• Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Bishops’ Cap, and Baneberry: Needed more shade so I moved them.
• Everything else: Slow but sure.

Last week I couldn’t help myself and purchased 21 more plants from the blogger at Urban Natives. I never used to be a gardener, but now I suspect I have found a new hobby.

The wind shakes the leaves of the cottonwood tree like a million tambourines

The waves slap the shore like brassy symbols

The woodpecker taps out the beat like a snare drum

And the songbird carries the melody

In my last post I talked about why to garden with native plants. Well, in an effort to provide food and shelter to wildlife (namely bugs and birds), H and I turned much of the front yard into a native plants garden. To see photos of the yard and all the new baby plants with their common and scientific names, visit EcoStride’s Flickr site.

Here are the steps we took:

1. Learned about native plants and their requirements (Web sites, books, seminars)
2. Drew a plan (It was hard to stick to, but you have to start somewhere)
3. Ripped out lawn with rented sod cutter (You must be very strong to attempt this)
4. Created border with pavers and added bird bath, large rocks and stepping stones (Hardscaping adds interest and improves the overall impression)
5. Shopped for plants (A full day of shopping)
6. Planted trees and shrubs
7. Spread out wood chips (We had wood chips from a non-native tree we cut down)
8. Planted native plants
9. Shopped for plants again to fill in empty spots

May was a busy month of planning and implementing this garden. The portion of lawn we converted to native plants is roughly 450 square feet. If you’re wondering how much we spent on plants (so that you can start planning your own native garden) the answer is $450, so that’s $1 per square foot. We bought 1 small tree, 6 shrubs, and 210 plants. Most of the plants were just little “plugs”. To promote biodiversity we planted 5 species of woody plants, 7 species of grasses, and 39 species of forbs (flowers).

I find it ridiculous that the large, local garden stores sell hardly any native plants. I had to drive 45 minutes for a good selection, which I found at Prairie Restorations and Landscape Alternatives. These companies are committed to native plants and the environment.

Working on such a big project in the front yard can be quite a conversation starter. Neighbors and strangers alike would stop to talk about it. We also found plenty of takers for our old, weedy sod.

I still cannot picture what the yard will look like when these plants grow up, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully next year we can do something similar in the backyard.

Minnesota native plants are those species that grew here naturally before European settlers arrived and began introducing plants from other areas. In the book Landscaping with Native Plants of Minnesota, Lynn Steiner explains the importance of native plants:

Unlike most introduced plants, a native plant fully integrates itself into a biotic community, establishing complex relationships with other local plants and animals. Not only does a native plant depend on the organisms with which it has evolved, but the other organisms also depend on it, creating a true web of life. This natural system of checks and balances ensures that native plants seldom grow out of control in their natural habitats.

Douglas Tallamy, an entomologist, recently wrote a very compelling book, Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants. His research shows that most native insects either cannot or will not eat non-native plants. Most insects are specialists and only eat plants with which they share an evolutionary history. Insects play a very important role in ecosystems. In fact, 96% of birds rely on insects and spiders to feed to their young. To protect biodiversity, we need to restore native plants wherever possible, including in our yards.

Tallamy describes how we have turned our yards into sterile environments:

All too often the first step in the suburbanization of an area is to bulldoze the plant assemblages native to our neighborhoods and then to replace them with large manicured lawns bordered by a relatively few species of popular ornamentals from other continents. Throughout suburbia, we have decimated the native plant diversity that historically supported our favorite birds and mammals.

Habitat destruction is widespread across the state. In Minnesota’s Natural Heritage: An Ecological Perspective, John Tester states that less than 1% of the tallgrass prairie remains. Nearly all of the Big Woods has been cleared for agriculture. Most of the red and white pine stands have been logged. Loss and degradation of habitat has been the primary cause of species becoming rare and endangered. Back in 1989, Minnesota had listed 57 species (plant and animal) as endangered, 49 as threatened, and 181 of special concern.

So little habitat remains for our wildlife, that we need to do what we can, where we can. Even a non-native plant that appears to do no harm is taking space that could be occupied by a native species. Not to mention that non-native plants often become invasive and compete unfairly with the native species.

We often hear that native plants don’t require much watering or pesticides. But the most compelling reason to garden with native plants is that our ecosystems are depending on us. Tallamy goes on to say,

… Gardening has taken on a role that transcends the needs of the gardener. Like it or not, gardeners have become important players in the management of our nation’s wildlife. It is now within the power of individual gardeners to do something that we all dream of doing: to “make a difference.” In this case, the “difference” will be to the future biodiversity, to the native plants and animals of North America and the ecosystems that sustain them.

Erica Marshall of muddyboots.org

I spotted my first Cedar Waxwing—ever. A year ago I had never heard of this bird, and now I can say I’ve seen dozens of them. Yesterday there was a flock of them on my neighbor’s silver maple. Today there was another flock of them on my other neighbor’s green ash tree. The distinctive markings of the Cedar Waxwing include exquisite taupe plumage, light yellow belly, black mask, pointed crest, bright yellow tip on the tail, and red tips on the wings. I plan to add a serviceberry bush to my yard to attract this lovely bird.

I’ve started to become interested in birdwatching—learning the species, being observant enough to find the birds and identifying them by their markings and songs. If that’s not challenging enough—try to photograph them! Spring is a great time for birding because the birds are very active and vocal, and the leaves on the trees have not appeared yet, making it much easier to spot birds.

I sit here at my computer listening to a recording of frog and toad sounds. H gifted me a field guide and accompanying CD of Minnesota reptiles and amphibians. This rounds out my collection of Tekiela’s field guides. Hopefully, this CD will resolve the disagreements H and I have about whether the noises we hear while camping are birds or frogs (or something else).

I usually ignore reptiles and amphibians, because I think they’re gross, but this book and CD should help open my mind.