#but getting the native plant habitat established is taking up 100% of the time and energy I have for gardening

[fiftysevenacademics]

Tomatoes my wife grew and basil that I grew (cheese and olive oil we bought at the store)

[sciencespies]

The World's Marvellously Freaky Carnivorous Plants Are in More Trouble Than We Knew

https://sciencespies.com/nature/the-worlds-marvellously-freaky-carnivorous-plants-are-in-more-trouble-than-we-knew/

The World's Marvellously Freaky Carnivorous Plants Are in More Trouble Than We Knew

It’s hard to fathom that carnivorous plants exist. When Charles Darwin first described how a Venus flytrap worked, calling it “one of the most wonderful [plants] in the world”, some people simply didn’t believe him.

Today, just as we’ve come to appreciate the gruesome nature of these remarkable predators – which can capture and eat flies, rats, salamanders, or the droppings from shrews - they’re now fast disappearing.

The first systematic assessment of carnivorous plants around the world has found a quarter of all known species are at risk of imminent extinction.

“Without urgent action, we stand to lose some of the most ecologically unique, evolutionary interesting, and horticulturally-celebrated species on the planet,” scientists warn. 

As of January 2020, researchers have described roughly 860 species of carnivorous plants in total, and while habitats vary, these plants are usually found in wetlands.

Unfortunately, wetlands are also some of the most vulnerable to clearing, logging, and climate change, which puts the future of carnivorous plants at odds with human development and our emissions.

In recent years, pitcher plants and Venus fly traps have received more interest from scientists and the public, but their conservation status in many cases is unknown.

In 2011, a review of carnivorous plant species found habitat loss from agriculture, the collection of wild plants, pollution, and changes to natural systems were the biggest threats. At the time of the research, however, only 600 species had been described; comprehensive data were available for only 48 species. 

In the years since, we’ve come to understand carnivorous plants a lot better, and the implications have scientists concerned. 

If nothing changes, climate predictions suggest nearly 70 percent of modelled species will be adversely impacted by climate changes. By 2050, several species are expected to lose 100 percent of their potential range.

The first conservation examination since 2011 now shows us well on the way to that reality.

Compiling full or partial data from all known species, researchers found carnivorous plants were most diverse “in some of the most heavily cleared and disturbed areas of the planet,” including Western Australia, Southeast Asia, the Mediterranean, Brazil, and the eastern United States.

In the end, the authors say eight percent of all species (69 species in total) are critically endangered, 6 percent are endangered, 12 percent are vulnerable, and another 3 percent are near threatened.

“Globally speaking, the biggest threats to carnivorous plants are the result of agricultural practices and natural systems modifications, as well as continental scale environmental shifts caused by climate change,” says botanist and ecologist Adam Cross from Curtin University in Australia.

“In Western Australia, which harbours more carnivorous plant species than any other place on Earth, the biggest threat remains the clearing of habitat to meet human needs, resulting hydrological changes, and of course the warming, drying climate trend that affects much of Australia.”

Even if these plants could flee from human development and the effects of climate change, many have nowhere to go. Carnivorous plants are highly specialised, and as such, many species occupy very specific niches. 

This extreme restriction means many carnivorous plants are moving towards the edge of extinction in a rapidly changing world.

In the current global analysis, at least 89 species are known from only a single location. Worldwide, almost a quarter of all species are facing three or more existential threats, including global climate change, the clearing of land for agriculture, mining and development, and illegal poaching. 

While the plucking and selling of precious carnivorous plants is illegal in most parts of the world, in economically deprived areas it’s hard to stop black markets from popping up. The study authors say these trades remain an “open, tolerated secret”.

“Everyone has mobile phones and the internet for eBay, so there’s a massive trade in the world of rare plants, and it gets bigger and bigger every year,” one naturalist explained to the BBC in 2016.

“People in Europe and North America want specifically different ones, which drives people to go up the mountains, rip them out and bring them back to sell locally and internationally.”

So hungry are carnivorous plant collectors, they will sometimes pay US$1,000 for a single plant. It’s not unusual for requests about the plants to roll in to researchers and photographers within days or even hours of a new photograph reaching the internet. All the authors of the present work have experienced such requests for these rare plants.

There have even been tragic instances when entire populations have been poached within days of their discovery. 

While Venus fly traps are popular among collectors, tropical pitcher plants were found to be the most at-risk from poaching, especially in Malaysian Borneo, Indonesia, and the Philippines, which all rank in the top six worldwide for most critically endangered carnivorous plants. Brazil is number one, with 13 species facing critical extinction.

To prevent these plants from disappearing in the near future, scientists say we need to take immediate action.

“Conservation initiatives must be established immediately to prevent these species being lost in the coming years and decades,” argues taxonomist and field botanist Alastair Robinson from Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in Australia.

“Urgent global action is required to reduce rates of habitat loss and land use change, particularly in already highly-cleared regions that are home to many threatened carnivorous plant species, including habitats in Western Australia, Brazil, southeast Asia and the United States of America.”

The cultivation of rice and oil palm are destroying habitats in Southeast Asia, while logging and development in Australia encroaches on native flora. In fact, Western Australia’s ‘wheatbelt’ has one of the highest rates of habitat clearance on the planet.

In South Africa, extreme drought has left many wetland ecosystems unusually dry, and high intensity and frequent fires in Brazil are wiping out precious wilderness when humans don’t get there first.

One region in Brazil is said to harbour at least 70 species of carnivorous plant. It’s also headed towards ecological collapse thanks to climate change, which is expected to remove up to 82 percent of suitable habitat by 2070.

But all is not lost. Scientists say if we can shift our attitudes and actions as a global community, shutting down the illegal market of carnivorous plants and implementing better development regulations, we could save at least some of these species.

Carnivorous plants are pioneers, the authors say, and when they are exposed to wet soil, they stick to it like a fly in a trap, producing large quantities of seeds to colonise new areas.

“Thus, while suitable habitat remains and natural ecological processes can be maintained, there is hope for [carnivorous plants] to survive (in) the Anthropocene,” the authors conclude.

The study was published in Global Ecology and Conservation. 

#Nature

[carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory]

A Pittsburgher Undertaking Native Tree, Shrub, and Forest Restoration on a Small Budget

Our guest blogger notes that he has no formal training in gardening or botany which perhaps makes this an even more inspiring story. In the past two years this one individual (with the help of a friend) has planted 1,500 native trees and shrubs as well as numerous native forbs on about 15 acres of his own property and that of willing neighbors. His goal is to attract pollinators such as native songbirds, butterflies, moths, and other insects. His plans include planting at least 500 more native trees and shrubs each upcoming year. We invited him to share his experience, written in his own words, on this ambitious endeavor as part of a blog series inspired by our new exhibition We are Nature: Living in the Anthropocene.

Motivation

My parents taught me bird watching starting from my preteens. I finally saw my first pileated woodpecker (Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina) at age 14. Canoeing through the Okefenokee swamp in southern Georgia/northern Florida in the spring, we would see brilliant yellow/orange-ish prothonotary warblers flitting some 20 feet away among the knees of towering cypress trees and also the flocks of honking sandhill cranes overhead. One of my daughter’s middle names is Dendroica for the warblers. The other daughter is named after the tallest tree species (if I am pressed, I am not sure if it is for giganteum or sempervirens; my father calls her “little twig”). And my son is named after the last name of the most famous modern biologist. This project for me is about giving back. I am no expert about what I am contributing here. I welcome corrections and comments. The other motivation is that this project is doable with not much money, and anyone could do this. If you do not have the land, find a willing neighbor/friend who does, and start planting natives and removing invasive plants on their property.

Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania are marvelous ecological areas and the birth areas of noted environmentalists such as Rachel Carson and Edward Abbey. We get plenty of rain, even in the summer, which means we do not have the droughts observed in other parts of the country. Western Pennsylvania is riddled with creeks, which are ample places to plant native trees and shrubs that will never have to be watered as the creek riparian zone will take care of them. We also have clay soil (I know I will swear about the slate rocks when digging holes with a posthole digger by hand), which holds moisture and minerals. Lots of things can grow here. Because of topography, there are many places where houses cannot be built, so there is ample space for native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers.

Pittsburgh National Park

We can think of Pittsburgh as “Pittsburgh National Park,” and the city already supports a huge biomass of bird populations such as the thousands and thousands of crows wintering here each year. If we would just plant lots and lots of flowering trees such as the dogwoods and redbuds and hawthorns and shrubs such as northern bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica), we could increase the habitat to attract more beautiful songbirds such as rose-breasted grosbeaks, cedar waxwings and scarlet tanagers to spend more of their time here. I grew up in the Piedmont area of North Carolina, and every spring we would be greeted with the explosions of the dogwoods and redbuds that are endemic in the woods. The same could be done here with our hillsides that are refractory to building houses but not to populating them with dogwoods, redbuds, serviceberries, and hawthorns.

Growing native plants in large clusters

I am no expert on native plants and have consulted with many people as well as just Googled information. Somewhere I had read of a research study in which the authors determined that the planting of 250 wild flowers of one species was necessary to get another butterfly species to appear. A guiding principle is to identify multiple high wildlife value specimens, and then plant lots and lots of each of those species. (I should note that most wildlife management principles state that diversity is better than lots of one species; in my case I am promoting clusters of diversity). If we all wanted to purchase watermelons, but the markets would only keep a few in stock, we would eventually stop making plans to go to a market with the purpose to get a watermelon. And if a bird encounters not one serviceberry tree, but instead a forest of 300 serviceberry trees, we may instead have enticed a flock of these birds. For example, I have observed a flock of cedar waxwings rushing back and forth among a cluster of black cherry trees to eat the fruit. A solitary tree would get less activity. With sufficient establishment of native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers, we may entice birds to nest in the area. The Powdermill Nature Reserve (part of Carnegie Museum of Natural History) Bird Banding project has documented the precipitous decline of songbirds, with some declines as much as 70 percent over the last 50 years. We can repopulate our yards and our woods and our cliffs along the rivers and highways with native species that will restore habitats and help stabilize the populations of the songbirds that are left and perhaps even help grow them. 

Early in this project I was fortunate to get a state of Pennsylvania biologist on the phone, and he emphasized that I should concentrate on plant species that use lots of water as these species will generate lots of biomass. With the drainage creek behind by house, I am inspired to plant along its sides every step of its 1000 feet. I am on 2 acres plus. I also have multiple agreeable neighbors on similar or larger acreages, and all these neighbors have acres of woods that they leave alone and have allowed me to remove the invasive trees, shrubs, and grasses and plant the hundreds of native trees, shrubs, and forbs. I am inspired by the biologist at Indiana University who mowed an old overgrown field in Bald Eagle State Park to set back succession to an earlier stage of growth. The mowing was done in wide strips so that as those areas grew back they could mow additional areas. In the following spring he was able to observe several pairs of nesting golden winged warblers, a songbird species that has had a precipice decline in the last 50 years. While I do not expect such spectacular success, one can use the Allegheny County population data from eBird to gauge which songbird species we may be able to attract to nest in the area. In the woods behind my house, I have seen wood thrushes and hooded warblers sporadically each year. Perhaps the growing of a smorgasbord of native trees,  shrubs, and forbs will entice them to lengthen their stays. 

Bambi

One white tailed deer consumes 200 pounds of leaves and twig matter each month, roughly a ton per year. Typically, when one sees one Bambi, there are another 4 browsing within 50 feet, which is the equivalent of 5 tons of leaf and twig destruction each year. As a gardener, I think of Bambi as rats with long legs. While Bambi has evolved to eat everything, they have yet to develop a taste to eat galvanized steel. For this reason, metal cages are used to protect any plant at risk for Bambi. We have made metal cages from half inch mesh hardware cloth, chicken wire and 16 gauge welded wire fencing. Cages range from 1 foot high to 2 foot high, to 3 foot high to 6 foot high with diameters of 6 inches (18 inch linear fencing made into a cylinder) and 8 inches (24 inch linear fencing made into a cylinder). I am not planning to remove the cages. If I had more funds, the cages would be typically 8 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet in diameter as is done at the Pittsburgh Botanical Gardens as well as at Nine Mile Run in Frick Park. 

507 trees and shrubs planted in November 2017 

In November 2017, we planted

100 northern bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica) seedlings, one to two feet in lengths (www.coldstreamfarm.net)

100 Norway spruce (although it is not a native, Norway spruce is recommended by the Penn State Extension, and I hope to someday attract crossbills which also fly over to Norway) four-year transplants, 12-15 inches in height with 12-15 inch long roots (Mussers Nursery, Indiana County, PA)

100 red-twig dogwood (Cornus sericea; www.coldstreamfarm.net) two to three foot in length seedlings

102 two to three foot long pagoda dogwood stakes (Cornus alternifolia; www.wholesalenurseryco.com/product/pagoda-dogwood-stakes/)

100 eastern white pine four-year transplants, 12-15 inches in height with 12-15 inch long roots from Mussers 

5 black willows from Mussers

Soon after planting, 4 inch by 6 inch rectangles of paper were folded over and then stapled in place over the terminal buds of the white pines to protect them from winter browsing by the deer 

In spring 2017, I got 300 six-year eastern white pine transplants (Mussers Nursery) that had roots of 2 feet in length. It took me multiple weekends and after work hours that spring to manually posthole the holes for these six-year transplants.  Rotting in the basement while waiting to be planted, at least 100 trees did not survive the planting process/the summer. 

I learned my lesson. I purchased a gas-powered auger with a 6-inch diameter by 30 inch long bit from Home Depot online. The 6-inch bit is much easier to dig with than the 8-inch bit. My volunteer and I and the gas-powered auger were able to dig over 100 30-inch deep, 6-inch diameter holes in just a couple of hours. This time we got four-year white pine transplants with only 15-inch length roots and planted them the same day we picked them up. The eastern white pines will grow to 100 feet and the spruce trees should grow to 50 to 75 feet. It is like planting an ‘instant forest’.  Half inch mesh two-foot hardware cloth cut into two foot sections to prepare cylindrical cages were used to protect the red-twig dogwood seedlings. Each cage was buried about 4 to 6 inches to prevent deer and weather from knocking over the cage.  I purchased 4 rolls of 100 feet by 6 feet of 14 gauge welded wire fence (Deacero Steel Field Fence 6 ft. H x 100 ft. L (7745)) from Ace Hardware, and what with shipping cost a total of about $500. We made 50 cages from each roll using tin-snips.  102 cages were used for the planting of the pagoda dogwood cuttings. About 12 inches of these 6 foot cages were submerged into the hole to prevent deer and weather from knocking them over. Native dogwoods other than the common flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) were chosen because of the flowering dogwood’s predilection for Anthracnose, a fungal infection that can make the tree look ugly and potentially die. The pagoda dogwoods were planted in moist soils, and the tall cages should protect them from the deer and allow the dogwood to eventually achieve 20 foot heights. 

The costs for planting in November 2017 The 100 spruce, 100 white pine and 5 black willows from Mussers cost $341 plus the cost of gas driving to pick them up. The 100 red-twig dogwood ($146 plus shipping) and the northern bayberry ($172 shipping included) were from Cold Stream Farm. The 102 pagoda dogwood stakes shipped from a Tennessee wholesale nursery were $187. The 200 foot of 2 foot hardware cloth to make the 100 cages for the red-twig dogwoods was about $140. And the pagoda dogwood cages cost about $250. 

So the cost of planting 507 trees and shrubs was about $1250 or about $2.50 total per plant which overall is economical. Labor is considered to be voluntary and is not included in these calculations. On the other hand, I am still living in my old unfixed house with my ancient toilets of which one takes 20 seconds to flush and is relegated only to flushing liquids. In 2015 when I got the house, I had repair insurance for the first year though I was unable to convince a plumber that a toilet that took 20 seconds to flush needed to be replaced under that home repair insurance plan. My skimping on fixing my old house allows me the funds to plant a forest that will live for ages. 

Invasive plant garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) removal With garlic mustard, I like to pull the first years of this biennial plant whereas others suggest pulling the second year flowers and leaving them to dry and die and decompose. Rosettes are hand pulled and can be left to dry out and die. First year plants including the entire root can be pulled after rains that softened up the grounds. The removed plants are placed in the crooks of tree branches to allow the garlic mustard to dry out and die and decompose.  

Example future project: American woodcock project One section of the woods is fairly open with a couple of acres of privet with moist soil and the idea is to replace the privet with alder (300 alder seedlings can be purchased from Mussers Nursery for $150 total) to improve the area to possibly attract woodcock so that the birds have space for their mating dances and space to look for earthworms. We have a heavy duty hand weedy-shrub pulling device (Pullerbear) which can be used to pull invasive shrubs such as privet, multiflora rose, and Japanese barberry out of the ground.  

Some sources of information on the web 

Landscaping for Birds - A go to website from Cornell Ornithology.  I use this website to help decide which classes of trees and shrubs to plant in mass. 

Beechwood Farms - Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania. Beechwood Farms has an excellent native plant nursery. 

eBird - (dates and populations and locations) of birds in Allegheny County from ebird.  

PSU Extension Lawn Alternatives - One of many excellent sites from Penn State Extension. 

Garden Planner Dripworks - Where I get my drip irrigation supplies. 

Prairie Moon - This is where I purchase about a hundred-dollars of native forbs and shrub seeds each January. 

Howard Nursery - Inexpensive trees and shrubs that can be ordered each January through early March from Howard Nursery. Presently have been getting grey dogwood and smooth alder seedlings from them. Recommended to order in January as soon as the website opens as they run out. 

Musser Forests - Mussers Tree Nursery. Being only about a 75-minute drive from Pittsburgh. 

Cold Stream - Cold Stream Farm wholesale nursery. Relatively inexpensive source for northern bayberry, dogwood shrubs, buttonbush seedlings and more. 

Audubon Native Plants - Audubon native plants database. For each plant, there is a listing of which native birds are attracted. 

Wildflower - Wildflower database

This blog series depicts Pittsburghers and their commitment to improving the local environment to celebrate our new exhibition, We are Nature: Living in the Anthropocene. Each blog features a new individual and explains the ways in which they are helping in areas of sustainability, conservation, restoration, and climate change. This blog was written in the author’s own words. Any opinions in this blog are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent that of the museum. 

[metawitches]

Over Labor Day weekend 2017 (the 1st weekend in September) we visited Saguaro National Park and stayed in Tucson, AZ. We’d waited until September to take this trip in hopes of avoiding the worst of the summer heat, but Mother Nature had other ideas, so we were out with the cacti and lizards in the 100˚+ heat after all. Luckily, we are desert dwellers, so we knew how to prepare, and you can usually get a pretty good view of the National Parks without going far from your car.

We drove from Albuquerque to Tucson, since we’d never been that far south in New Mexico. Interstate Highway 25, which runs north/south between  and Las Cruces, NM, about 40 miles from the Mexican border, also roughly follows El Camino Real from Santa Fe NM south to El Paso, TX. El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail was created by the Spanish conquistadors and colonists when Juan de Oñate led an expedition north from Mexico City to what is now Santa Fe, NM. The route formalized older footpaths and trade routes of the native peoples.

For the next 300 years, El Camino Real was the only wagon road into New Mexico and the Southwest, bringing thousands of colonists, missionaries and supply caravans from Southern New Spain into newly established Spanish towns that dotted the Rio Grande. The trail facilitated the introduction of horses, cattle, European agriculture and irrigation systems, exotic flora, and many cultural practices that still flourish in the region today. (From El Camino Real at nps.gov )

Someday, we’ll do the El Camino Real route justice and visit historic and interpretive sites in order, but for now, we stop here and there whenever we drive on part of it, and imagine what it was like.

From I-25, we turned west onto I-10, which took us all the way to Tucson. We encountered a border patrol stop not far west of Las Cruces. All cars were required to slow down so that they could see the passengers in the car. They only stopped cars when they didn’t like the look of the people inside. In a state that’s 48% Hispanic, at a spot that’s about 25 miles from the Mexican border. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about who gets pulled over. 😡

Finally we reached our hotel, after an 8 hour drive (with stops). We stayed at the Lodge on the Desert, a gorgeous old 1930s hacienda that’s been updated into a 100 room boutique hotel. The grounds are landscaped with native desert plants and beautiful flowers, fountains, and a pool. The rooms have features such as Mexican tile, kiva fireplaces, and Spanish-Colonial style furniture. The complementary hot breakfast buffet can be enjoyed inside or outdoors in a courtyard with a fountain and fireplace. My only complaint is that the fixtures in the bathrooms were all built for giants, from the height of the sinks to the shower head. Everything else was lovely, especially the hardworking staff.

Saguaro National Park is made up of two separate districts, about 30 miles apart, on either side of Tucson. The Rincon Mountain District is on the eastern side, and the Tucson Mountain District is on the western side. Both parts of the park have scenic driving loops and visitor centers.

We started on the first day with the Rincon Mountain District. The visitor’s center is small, but it does have a few nice displays, and an orientation video. The park service staff is friendly and helpful. That’s been my experience at every national park, monument, wildlife refuge, etc., so it’s not unusual, but still nice. The driving loop has a large number of interpretive signs that explain what you’re seeing and the ecology and history of the area.

The saguaro are plentiful in this half of the park, but younger than in the western half. There were some major freezes in the 20th century that killed many of the saguaro in this section. I loved it though. It’s fascinating to see and read about the life stages of the saguaro. They tend to sprout under the shade of nurse plants, such as palo verde, making a pretty picture as the saguaro grows as large as its nurse plant. Sometimes a palo verde will be nursing several saguaro.

The east side was full of butterflies, especially huge butterflies. It was also grassy and flowery. We didn’t see much wildlife, other than the butterflies, probably because of the heat, but it was a beautiful and informative drive. Overall, I liked this half better on this trip, partly because this side of the park was much less crowded than the west side.

The west side is where the full grown saguaros live. The visitor’s center is bigger and fancier. There’s a very short interpretive trail just outside with the most common native plants labelled. That was the only trail we walked, because of the heat. There are also water bottle refill stations at both visitor centers.

The driving loop was unpaved (as of the weekend we were there- that could always change). It looked like it might have been bulldozed out recently, so maybe they’re planning to pave it. They weren’t any interpretive signs along the drive. We did see more birds, pollinators, lizards, and small mammals on this loop, despite the road being busier.

Metamaiden was especially taken with the full grown saguaros reaching for the sky. She liked the western district better.

After we left the western half of the national park, we stopped at the nearby Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. This wonderful place is a combination zoo, aquarium, botanical garden, natural history museum and art museum. The museum is dedicated to encouraging “people to live in harmony with the natural world by fostering love, appreciation, and understanding of the Sonoran Desert.”

85% of the museum is outdoors, so be prepared for the weather, but shade is readily available. The museum covers 21 acres with 2 miles of paths through various desert habitats, animal exhibits, art installations, and educational exhibits. It’s eclectic, fascinating, and fun. There were gorgeous flowers and giant butterflies everywhere. Hummingbirds get an aviary all to themselves.

Other highlights include the small aquarium, with its display of cute little garden eels; the otters, which can be viewed from above and underground; and the walk-in aviary with native birds such as a mother quail leading her babies across the paths. We only had time to see about a quarter of the museum. You could probably spend most of a day taking in the exhibits and attending the special live programs.

There are also restaurants and gift shops scattered throughout the grounds, and a bookstore near the entrance. The gift shops feature unique items, including regional arts, crafts and foods, many by Native American artists. The bookstore carries all of the books from the museum’s own ASDM Press, and many others on the human and natural history of the region, including books for children.

I was able to replace a book that I’d loaned out many years ago, Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey, which is just what it sounds like- stories of female pioneers from 1840-1870 taken from primary sources, which I highly recommend. I also bought a second book, The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman, the true story of a 13 year old Mormon pioneer girl who was captured by Native Americans in 1851, assimilated into a tribe, traded back into European society at age 19, and ended up the wife of a wealthy Texas banker. Her chin was prominently tattooed while she was still a teenager with the tribes.

There were many other interesting sights to see in and around Tuscon that we couldn’t get to in just a weekend, so I have no doubt we’ll return someday. The largest rose bush in the world in the world, in Tombstone, AZ, won’t elude me forever.

  El Camino Real: A Little History and a Few Photos

These were taken at and near a rest stop near Socorro, NM. Notice there are almost no trees for shade, but the ground is covered with spiky, spiny desert scrub that’s 2-4 feet high (about .5-1 meter). Imagine walking through that day after day in the blinding 100 degree heat, sometimes in winds of 20-30 miles and hour, no shade or rain in sight. The Rio Grande River is nearby, at least, but there were also hostile Native American tribes for parts of the journey. I am always in awe of what immigrants of all eras go through on their journeys.

This was the year 1598, years before the British established settlements in any part of North America.

  Saguaro National Park- Rincon Mountain District: Cactus Forest Drive

This is the portion of the park that’s on the east side of Tuscon and was much less crowded when we were there. The saguaros are younger in this section than in the western part of the park. I included photos of the sign that explains the history behind the difference. We enjoyed seeing the mighty Saguaros during all of their life stages. It’s a bit like watching Groot grow up.

  Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens)

Tucson in the Distance

Engelman’s Prickly Pear Cactus

Looking Back Toward the Visitors Center

Ocotillo and an Important Warning

Tortoise Xing

Chainfruit Cholla Cactus

Fishhook Barrel Cactus

Palo Verde Nursing a Young Saguaro

Where Have All the Sagauros Gone?

  Saguaro National Park- Tucson Mountain District

These first three are views from the drive to the park. ☟

Zebra-tailed Lizard (Callisaurus draconoides)

Saguaro skeleton.

This one has leftover flower remnants/seed pods on top of its arms.

Potential nest holes.

  Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Click on any photo to enlarge.

Garden Eels. They are about as thick as a finger and up to 16 inches long.

Red Bird of Paradise, with and without butterflies.

Hummingbirds in the Hummingbird Aviary.

Passionflower and nest on cactus arms.

Dinosaur to Bird Evolution metal sculpture at the entrance to the Walk-In Aviary.

Birds in the aviary: (Clockwise from top left) Gambel’s Quail, Northern Bobwhite (2), Great-tailed Grackle, Steller’s Jay (2)

Otter and beaver, from above and below.

Sleeping Beaver. It was a long, busy day.

Sunset over El Camino Real on the drive back to Albuquerque.

Tucson, AZ and Saguaro National Park Weekend Trip Over Labor Day weekend 2017 (the 1st weekend in September) we visited Saguaro National Park and stayed in Tucson, AZ.

[usfwspacific]

Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge Offers Respite for Wildlife, People

By Amy Veneziano

Amy, a Pathways Student Trainee with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Regional Office in Portland, details her recent experience at Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

Not far from Portland, as the roads climb up and away from the Columbia River Gorge, lies another version of the Pacific Northwest. In this Northwest, volcanoes rise from high prairie, cattle graze open range, and hawks survey miles of forest and field for their next snack.

It’s on a fine fall day that Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge in south-central Washington becomes a destination for this explorer.

Take a hard turn north at White Salmon and follow two-lane highways for about 45 minutes to find the refuge, which lies on about 7,000 acres in the Glenwood Valley, hemmed in by eastern Cascade Range slopes and Mount Adams. The refuge was established in 1972 to preserve and restore habitats for a variety of birds, including ducks, geese and swans.

Elk forage in the marsh for most of the year while breeding greater sandhill cranes are spring and summer residents.  Oregon spotted frogs are largely inactive during the coldest part of winter, but begin breeding in the chilly wetland waters soon after the ice begins to thaw.

Visitors can check out the Whitcomb-Cole Hewn Log House, one of a handful of pioneer log homes still standing in Klickitat County. The first European homesteaders arrived in the area in the 1870s and built  the Whitcomb-Cole cabin in 1891. It bears the marks of generations of human hands, including faded Roosevelt-era newspaper insulation plastered to the walls. The cabin feels at least 15 degrees cooler than the sun-drenched countryside, which must have been a boon in the hot summers. Now located just past the refuge headquarters and on the National Register of Historic Places, it’s easy to imagine a time when the little building was shelter against the harsh Cascade elements.

Pioneers were not the first to discover the potential of this place. The Klickitat people, members of the present-day Yakama Nation, called the prairie “tahk” and they collected camas bulb, hunted, fished, and harvested berries and other plants in the plentiful valley. Archeological evidence shows human activity on the lakeshore from 11,000 years ago.

Outside the cabin, antique farm equipment tells the story of hard work and challenging circumstances in this corner of the world. The valley’s wetlands were partially drained by early settlers, who saw potential for hay and pasture. Those enterprising efforts drove out native species, including the sandhill cranes. One pair of cranes came home in 1979, and today there are about 30 nesting pairs on the refuge. In spite of human habitat modification, the refuge remains home to the healthiest of Washington’s three populations of the federally threatened Oregon spotted frog. After several hours in the refuge, we only get close enough to one person to say hello, when a departing hunter points out a golden eagle sunning itself above the camas prairie.

Much of the refuge is reserved for the creatures native to the foothills, with some of it open to hikers, wildlife watchers, hunters and anglers. The Willard Springs Trail is a gentle loop with a wildlife viewing platform and view of Mount Adams, the aforementioned springs trickling into the prairie at the far end of the loop. Sandhill crane colts are visible from the platform in spring, but in fall the field is empty to the untrained eye. The aspen abutting the prairie and Cold Springs Ditch on the east side of the loop give way to coniferous pine and fir on the west side, with  Douglas’s squirrels chattering their indignation at the human interruption. Though an easy walk, the path is not stroller- or wheelchair-friendly. 

Conboy Lake doesn’t just conserve the land for flora and its inhabiting fauna — including seven amphibian, 10 reptile, 40 mammal, and 165 bird species; it’s also a connection to the rural character of this part of Washington. Lolling cows in open range are common in the area, family apple orchards pocket the valleys, and neighbors hunt the refuge for waterfowl to land on their dinner table. The small towns of Trout Lake and Glenwood are nearby, but beyond those the nearest population of any size is Hood River, Oregon – 33 miles by car and home to almost 8,000 people. Portland and Vancouver are about 90 miles west, and Yakima lies 100 miles northeast.

Public lands, open sky, and a resonant quiet make Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge an ideal escape, whether for a sandhill crane or a city-weary weekend warrior. Find out more, including the hours and driving directions, at https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Conboy_Lake/.

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/united-states-of-america/can-humans-help-trees-outrun-climate-change/

Can Humans Help Trees Outrun Climate Change?

By Moises Velasquez-Manoff

Illustrations by Andrew Khosravani

April 25, 2019

SCITUATE, R. I. — Foresters began noticing the patches of dying pines and denuded oaks, and grew concerned. Warmer winters and drier summers had sent invasive insects and diseases marching northward, killing the trees.

If the dieback continued, some woodlands could become shrub land.

Most trees can migrate only as fast as their seeds disperse — and if current warming trends hold, the climate this century will change 10 times faster than many tree species can move, according to one estimate. Rhode Island is already seeing more heat and drought, shifting precipitation and the intensification of plagues such as the red pine scale, a nearly invisible insect carried by wind that can kill a tree in just a few years.

The dark synergy of extreme weather and emboldened pests could imperil vast stretches of woodland.

So foresters in Rhode Island and elsewhere have launched ambitious experiments to test how people can help forests adapt, something that might take decades to occur naturally. One controversial idea, known as assisted migration, involves deliberately moving trees northward. But trees can live centuries, and environments are changing so fast in some places that species planted today may be ill-suited to conditions in 50 years, let alone 100. No one knows the best way to make forests more resilient to climatic upheaval.

These great uncertainties can prompt “analysis paralysis,” said Maria Janowiak, deputy director of the Forest Service’s Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, or N.I.A.C.S. But, she added, “We can’t keep waiting until we know everything.”

In Rhode Island, the state’s largest water utility is experimenting with importing trees from hundreds of miles to the south to maintain forests that help purify water for 600,000 people. In Minnesota, a lumber businessman is trying to diversify the forest on his land with a “300-year plan” he hopes will benefit his grandchildren. And in five places around the country, the United States Forest Service is running a major experiment to answer a basic question: What’s the best way to actually help forests at risk?

Some worry about the unintended consequences of shuffling plants and animals around and that the approach will become widely adopted. “Moving species is the equivalent of ecological gambling,” said Anthony Ricciardi, a professor of invasion ecology and environmental science at McGill University in Montreal. “You’re spinning the roulette wheel.”

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It is also complicated. On Lake Michigan, one adaptation planner trying to help the Karner blue butterfly survive is considering creating an oak savanna well to the north, and moving the butterflies there. But the ideal place for the relocation already hosts another type of unique forest — one that he is trying to save to help a tiny yellow-bellied songbird that is also threatened by warming.

In other words, he may find himself both fighting climate change and embracing it, on the same piece of land.

Rhode Island: Swapping In Persimmon

One humid day last fall, Christopher Riely hiked to an 8-foot-tall wire fence in the forest. “It’s amazing how high deer can jump,” he said, unlocking the towering gate.

Mr. Riely helps manage 20 square miles of woodland for Rhode Island’s largest water utility, Providence Water. Inside the five-acre enclosure, among the native oaks and pines, he had planted southern trees including persimmon and shortleaf pine — species better adapted to hotter, drier conditions. And they were thriving.

Mr. Riely is particularly delighted by the Virginia pine, brought in from a nursery nearly 400 miles away in Maryland. “For New England, this is quite incredible growth,” he said, pointing to a young tree now taller than he is. It suggests that climate has already changed enough in Southern New England for some mid-Atlantic species to survive.

Bringing in southern trees may be one solution. But it won’t help, he has discovered, without first dealing with the deer. They ate many of the young trees he planted outside the fence, and are a major reason the hardwood forest has difficulty regenerating.

As a cautionary tale, Mr. Riely looks to the forest collapse that struck near Denver some years back. Conditions in the Rockies differ substantially from those in Rhode Island; still, he calls it “a water supplier’s nightmare.”

In the 1990s, dry spells, insects and disease began killing trees there. In 1996 and 2002, ferocious fires tore through. Then the rains came. Flash floods carried dark, ash-filled silt and debris into Denver’s reservoirs, clogging them.

So in 2010, Denver Water began replanting the mountainsides, making the forest more drought-resistant by spacing trees farther apart and reducing competition for water. Opening the forest canopy allowed other kinds of plants, which also prevent erosion, to grow as well.

Failing to plan for the changing environment was a costly lesson, said Christina Burri, Denver Water’s watershed scientist. A big part of what she does today, she added, is “convincing people about the benefits of being proactive.” Planning ahead, she said, is much cheaper than reacting to catastrophes.

Minnesota: The ‘300-Year Plan’

For someone who makes his living selling wood, John Rajala leaves a lot of trees on the land. It’s part of what he calls his “300-year plan” to deal with climate change.

His family business in northern Minnesota, called Rajala Companies, owns 22,000 acres of northern pine and hardwood forest. He harvests the wood and mills it into flooring, siding and roof beams.

One cool day last fall, he proudly showed me around his land near the headwaters of the Mississippi River, a gently rolling forest of straight eastern white pines, quaking aspen and the occasional flaming red maple. The old “legacy trees,” as he calls them, will reseed the forests with good genetic stock.

“That’s a thousand-dollar tree, and we’ll never cut it down,” he said, pointing to a majestic, century-old white pine.

Mr. Rajala’s planning for climate change is unusual in his profession. “The more careful thought about climate change just isn’t being done” by many industrial-scale companies that manage forestland, said Chris Swanston, who heads the Forest Service’s N.I.A.C.S.

One reason, he and others say, is that so much timberland is owned by real-estate investment trusts and other financial vehicles, which are geared toward short term profits.

Industrial foresters might plant one or just a few tree types, to make harvesting and management easier. Mr. Rajala has embraced a different approach. “I want to accelerate as fast as I can the diversification of species,” he said. Even if some species do badly in a warmer tomorrow, he thinks, others will flourish.

Unlike Mr. Riely in Rhode Island, Mr. Rajala is not willing to introduce nonnative species — yet. But he’s sculpting the forest to make it more resilient.

Birch, a cool-weather tree valued by cabinet makers, isn’t doing as well as it used to. So Mr. Rajala keeps the tree only on north-facing slopes, where it’s naturally cooler.

On south-facing slopes, he is selecting for red oak and maple, two native species projected to do better in a warmer future.

His strategy has required shrewd marketing. Because he leaves many of his best trees standing to reseed the next generation, the wood going to his mills is often imperfect, particularly if it’s aspen or birch, which have started showing signs of climate stress.

Mr. Rajala’s new sales pitch? Imperfection adds character.

Chippewa National Forest: Grand Experiment

One of the most ambitious studies of how to help forests is happening near Mr. Rajala’s land. Launched four years ago by the Forest Service, the project set out to scientifically test the best approach to helping woodlands adapt. With five sites around the country, the study is perhaps the largest of its kind in the world.

In Minnesota, the Forest Service planted 274,000 seedlings over an area roughly 60 percent the size of Central Park. It is testing four approaches: passively letting nature take its course; thinning and managing mostly native trees along traditional lines; growing a mix of native species but with some coming from 80 to 100 miles to the south; and the most radical one, bringing in nonnative trees from warmer, drier areas in nearby states.

The nonnative trees include ponderosa pine from South Dakota and Nebraska, and bitternut hickory from southern Minnesota and Illinois. So far, the pine is doing well.

Conditions may not be optimal for the trees now, but “the idea is to get them established now for 30 years in the future,” said Brian Palik, a forest ecologist with the Forest Service’s Northern Research Station, who oversees the Minnesota site.

Lake Michigan: Where to Put an Oak Savanna?

On Lake Michigan, climate change threatens both the Kirtland’s warbler and the Karner blue butterfly. And saving one may complicate preservation of the other.

As recently as 2009, the Indiana Dunes National Park hosted one of the country’s healthiest populations of the endangered Karner blue. By 2015, they had mostly disappeared.

“I’m pretty sure they’re not in Indiana anymore,” said Christopher Hoving, an adaptation specialist with Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources.

Karner blues inhabit only pine barrens and oak savannas, rare habitats of wildflowers and grasses interspersed with trees, that occur in poor, sandy soil deposited by ice age glaciers. Mr. Hoving and his colleagues think the only way to save the southern populations of Karner blues may be to create a new oak savanna at the northern edge of Michigan’s lower peninsula, where similar soil occurs.

But there, Mr. Hoving’s project to save the Karner blue may collide with his efforts to save the Kirtland’s warbler. In the same place he’s thinking of creating an oak savanna, he is also trying to prevent a dense jack pine forest (which the warbler needs) from retreating north.

The region probably has enough room to host both ecosystem types, he said, at least for a while. But “it’s a high-risk proposition,” he said.

His two projects embody the odd mixture of sunny pragmatism and clammy anxiety inherent in the very idea of humans moving life-forms around to save them from problems caused by humans.

In academia there is no consensus on assisted migration. Dr. Ricciardi, the McGill University professor of invasion ecology, calls it a “techno-fix” that fails to address the “root cause of endangerment or ecosystem erosion” — in this case, climate change.

Not everyone agrees with Dr. Ricciardi. Jason McLachlan, an ecologist at the University of Notre Dame, once spurned the idea of assisted migration, but his views have evolved as the current predicament has sunk in. He concedes Dr. Ricciardi’s point about the unknowable risks of moving things around, but counters that doing nothing is also “extremely risky.”

His broader critique is that classic conservation science risks failure today because it assumes the world is static — and if the world ever was static, it clearly isn’t anymore. Consider the Endangered Species Act, he said, a bedrock of modern conservation. It aims to return species to their original habitat.

But what if they’re now ill-suited to those areas?

To deal with the coming upheavals, our very concept of nature and the meaning of conservation needs to become more fluid, Mr. McLachlan said. “We don’t have a philosophy of conservation that’s consistent with the changes that are afoot.”

For more news on climate and the environment, follow @NYTClimate on Twitter.

[thebestintoronto]

Tourist Office Toronto

WHAT TO DO

Sundown over Toronto, CanadaWith a populace of 2,930,000, Toronto is the largest city in Canada. It is additionally known as the "Queen City". Dynamic, cosmopolitan, exciting as well as international, Toronto is made up of 6 formerly separate municipalities, each with its own distinctive background and identity.

It is advertised as one of the most multicultural cities worldwide, with over 200 distinctive ethnic beginnings represented amongst its populace.

Although the city is difficult to go to in a motorhome, you can most definitely remain a few days prior to pick up a Motor Home service in Toronto. Ideal of both globes!

THE SHORES OF LAKE ONTARIO

CN TOWER

Toronto CN TowerThis 553-metre-high concrete communications tower, developed by Canadian National train company in 1976, defines the Toronto sky line. The top levels are reached by among 6 high-speed glass-fronted lifts. Delight in a breath-taking view as you race upwards at 22 kilometres per hour to a height of 345 metres, virtually the elevation of the Realm State Structure!

The LookOut deck supplies breathtaking views of the city as well as the bordering area. On the level listed below, experience the clear Glass Floor, with a sight 342 metres right down! Created for you to have a good time on it, you can stroll or creep across it, rest on it and even jump on it. Will you attempt? Or appreciate the view from the globe's highest possible revolving restaurant, 360 Restaurant. Bookings are required.

Open up daily from 9 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

RIPLEY'S FISH TANK OF CANADA

Located at the foot of the CN Tower, this massive 135,000 square foot fish tank takes you on a true undersea journey, via different habitats from worldwide, where fascinating sea creatures reside in greater than 5 million litres of water! You will have the opportunity to check out various galleries consisting of Canadian Waters, with a section on the fascinating biodiversity of the Great Lakes, the Rainbow Coral Reef of the Indo-Pacific Sea, Dangerous Shallows, the Exploration Centre as well as its interactive exhibitions, Ray Bay, Planet Jellies, as well as the "Curious Creatures" display, which will certainly present you to the life of reporter, adventurer, explorer, draftsman as well as fantastic enthusiast Robert Ripley (1890-1949) in addition to lots of curious creatures from the four corners of the world.

Open up daily from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., yet closes previously once in a while for personal occasions.

HARBOURFRONT FACILITY

Toronto Island MarinaToronto's highest possible concentration of cultural and leisure offerings is located at the Harbourfront Centre. This 4-hectare waterside park supplies a variety of occasions and also tasks year-round on its quays and also in its converted terminal structures.

The Harbourfront Centre homes marinas, cafés, dining establishments, craft and also antique stores, workshops, sophisticated property facilities, gardens as well as eco-friendly rooms.

THE TORONTO ISLANDS

Downtown Toronto from the islandsThe Toronto Islands, with their majestic old trees, smooth yards, marinas as well as sandy shores, supply remarkable views of midtown Toronto along some 6 kilometres of shoreline.

Centre Island has a theme park, a beach, as well as many cafés and also dining establishments. Discover the more rustic beauties of close-by Algonquin Island and also Ward Islands along kilometres of walking and also biking routes.

ONTARIO LOCATION

Bird's-eye view of Ontario PlaceThis ultimate household destination includes a waterpark, pedal boats, bumper boats, flume trips, mini-golf, helicopter trips, a kids's village and numerous restaurants. The website extends across three man-made islands, full with shallows as well as marinas, along the Lake Ontario beachfront.

The Cinesphere, a 600-seat IMAX movie theatre, has a bent display that is six stories-high. The cinema reveals 3D films throughout the year.

DOWNTOWN

TORONTO RULE FACILITY

The dark glass towers of the Toronto Dominance Center were the first major structures to be integrated in Toronto's monetary area, among the largest business areas in North America. Some 21,000 people operate in the complicated, which likewise acts as headquarters as well as company offices for a variety of significant Canadian services.

HOCKEY HALL OF POPULARITY

The Hockey Hall of Fame, TorontoThe Hockey Hall of Popularity is the largest hockey gallery worldwide. Along with learning all about hockey as well as discovering the world's biggest collection of hockey memorabilia, you will certainly have the chance to participate in a variety of on-site tasks. The original Stanley Mug, dating from 1886, gets on display in the Great Hall, housed within the historical previous head workplace of the Bank of Montreal.

Open up in high period Monday-Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. as well as Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. In low period, Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., as well as Sundays from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT

Toronto City HallToronto Town Hall was the sign of Toronto up until the construction of the renowned CN Tower, as well as stays one of Toronto's best understood sites. Constructed in 1965, its curved twin towers surrounding a white disk-like council chamber are a suitable icon of a contemporary and vibrant city.

100 Queen Street West, Toronto

EATON CENTER

Toronto Eaton CentreThe Toronto Eaton Centre is Canada's supreme shopping location, with over 230 stores, restaurants as well as services. It is the largest shopping centre in Toronto.

Numerous travelers from all over the world see the Centre each year to admire its style and also its urbane environment.

Open up Monday-Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO

Invite to one of the largest art galleries in North America! Its 45,000 square metres of area house a sublime collection of almost 95,000 works, consisting of Native and also Canadian art, European, modern-day, contemporary and also African art, digital photography, prints and also drawings, a 380,000-volume collection & archives collection, as well as the Thomson Collection, a present of 2,000 European as well as Canadian jobs from Ken Thomson's personal collection.

Open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:30 to 5 p.m., Wednesdays as well as Fridays from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday-Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

BATA FOOTWEAR MUSEUM

If you enjoy footwear, this fascinating gallery is a must! The displays mirror over 4,500 years of history via greater than 1,000 footwear and also shoe-related items chosen from a collection of over 13,000 artefacts. Emphasizes include a pair of 16th century Italian platform shoes, a collection of footwear from a few of the earliest worlds in the world, an extensive collection of Indigenous North American as well as circumpolar shoes, an array of star shoes from the similarity Elton John, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and far more.

Open Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays as well as Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and also Sundays from twelve noon to 5 p.m.

ROYAL ONTARIO GALLERY

This remarkable museum, generally called the ROM (Royal Ontario Gallery), is the biggest gallery in Canada. It is home to a first-rate collection of 13 million artworks, cultural objects and also natural history specimens displayed in 40 gallery and event spaces. There's also a location reserved for kids. It's best to grab a map when you arrive to intend your go to, as the H-shaped gallery has no less than 5 floors!

Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. between July 1 and the initial Monday in September. Closed on Mondays in reduced period.

CASA LOMA

Constructed in 1914, Casa Loma was the delicious residence of financier as well as former soldier Sir Henry Pellatt. Every year, over 350,000 site visitors trip Casa Loma and the spectacular estate gardens. The stunning 98-room "castle" features a terrific hall, a sunroom, a library, secret passages and much more. A tunnel attaching the manor to the stables houses a picture display on the "Dark Side of Toronto", while the stables display a collection of classic cars from the very early 1900s. The on-site BlueBlood Steakhouse serves dry-aged steak as well as delicious fish and shellfish.

Open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

NEARBY

ONTARIO SCIENCE CENTRE

Because 1969, this temple of science has actually been inviting site visitors of every ages to explore the greater than 500 interactive activities in its 8 exhibition halls. It provides a wide array of science workshops, presentations and shows, in addition to an IMAX cinema, a dining establishment and cafés.

Open up Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and also Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

TORONTO ZOO

The Toronto Zoo's mission is "attaching people, animals and also conservation scientific research to fight termination": with more than 5,000 animals belonging to 450 species from worldwide, you might claim they're doing their component. The zoo is separated right into seven different geographic regions, each showcasing pets and plants from that area of the world: Africa, the Americas, Australasia, the Canadian Domain Name, Eurasia Wilds, Indo-Malaya, as well as Tundra Trek. There are likewise opportunities to fulfill a few of the animals as well as their caretakers, a Children Zoo and also Sprinkle Island theme park, a zipline ... Something to please every person!

Open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (until 7 p.m. in summer season).

OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES

Excursion of the CN Tower

Eat in the sky in Toronto

Led tour of Toronto

WHERE TO EAT

SEVEN LIVES ($).

This small restaurant in Kensington Market is tremendously prominent for its renowned and also scrumptious tacos. The taco menu features a variety of options such as meat, fish, shrimp, octopus, as well as for vegetarians, mushrooms as well as cactus, all accompanied by homemade salsas. Their trademark recipe is their Gobernador taco with house-smoked tuna, barbequed shrimp and also cheese. They likewise offer a tasty seafood ceviche served with tostadas as well as a dish of the day. As there is often a schedule and also there is no real seating location, you can enjoy your meal while strolling with the marketplace.

Open up Wednesday-Sunday from noon to 8 p.m.

AMSTERDAM BREWHOUSE ($$).

The Amsterdam Brewing Co. has been making its own beers considering that 1986 and also you can taste them at their dining establishment, the Amsterdam Brewhouse. The cook interacts with their makers to produce recipes that are prepared not only utilizing their beers, but additionally with components that are utilized in the developing process. The unpretentious pub-style menu attributes wood fired pizzas, burgers and also sandwiches in addition to meat, pasta, fish and tofu recipes. In the summertime, you can sit on their massive balcony overlooking the huge Lake Ontario and also appreciate your beer.

Open up daily from 11:30 a.m.

MOMOFUKU NOODLE BAR ($$-$$$).

When New york city celebrity chef David Chang determined to transplant his well-known noodle bar to Toronto, it was an instant success. Momofuko Toronto is a 6,600 square foot 3-storey restaurant complex including 3 restaurants (Momofuku on the very beginning, Daisho and also Shoto on the third flooring) and a cocktail bar. Momofuku is a cafeteria-style restaurant with lengthy communal tables. Must-try food selection things include the hen buns, ginger scallion noodles, Hong Kong egg, rice cakes, mackerel, chicken wings as well as rice dessert.

Open daily for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Open evenings Tuesday-Saturday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. and also Sunday-Monday from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m

. THE GABARDINE ($$-$$$).

The cook and his team cook up a storm of timeless dishes motivated by great old made home cooking. The menu uses a series of appetizers such as cozy olives, chicken liver paté, beer and cheese rarebit and also devilled eggs, salads, 5 types of sandwiches and a choice of main dishes consisting of the well-known macaroni and cheese, risotto, fish of the day, chicken casserole, and soft corn tortillas with Atlantic cod. The Cape is committed to using local, lasting, natural components whenever feasible.

Open up Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Offering breakfast from 8-10 a.m., lunch from 11:30 -3 p.m. and supper from 5-10 p.m. Open up some Saturdays.

RICHMOND TERMINAL ($$-$$$).

This dynamic midtown restaurant is constantly dedicated to providing scrumptious food with a concentrate on great ingredients as well as cozy hospitality. Cook Carl Heinrich devises meals such as smoked cheese perogies with cauliflower cream, Brussels sprouts and rösti; Terminal hamburger with homemade rolls, garnish as well as rosemary french fries; two-way duck with wonderful as well as sour rutabaga as well as roasted cabbage; braised bunny fettuccine with oyster mushrooms and butternut squash; and also crispy tofu stir-fry with spicy soy vinaigrette, seasoned mushrooms as well as hazelnuts. Mouth-watering!

Open daily from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

360 THE DINING ESTABLISHMENT AT THE CN TOWER ($$$-$$$$).

360 deals delicious market-fresh Canadian cuisine at an elevation of 350 metres! Appreciate a glass of Canadian white wine as you admire a special 360-degree panoramic view of the city. Open up for lunch as well as supper; reservation is advised. Access to the Search and GlassFloor is free with the acquisition of a prix fixe!

Open daily for lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. as well as for supper from 4:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

CANOE ($$$$).

Found on the 54th flooring of the TD Financial Institution Tower in Toronto's economic district, Canoe provides stunning sights of the city as well as creative local Canadian food created by the cook. The food selection, from delicious foie gras to grilled-to-perfection meats to magnificent fish and shellfish, is merely prepared as well as place on. The preferences are nuanced, shocking as well as textured. And, thanks to a presentation that is gallery-worthy, constantly charming to admire. The solution is unpretentious as well as expert.

Open Monday-Friday for lunch from 11:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and also for supper from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

WHERE TO SLEEP?

Germain Maple Leaf Square.

Hilton Toronto.

Bond Place Resort.

Strathcona Resort Downtown Toronto.

Chelsea Hotel Toronto.

CELEBRATIONS SCHEDULE.

TORONTO JAZZ CELEBRATION.

Days: June 18 to 27, 2021.

Created in 1987, the Toronto Jazz Celebration offers an impressive schedule of over 1,500 musicians, including some of the greatest jazz celebs in the world. Today more than 500,000 jazz fans come together every year over the 10 days of festivities to go to one or more of the 350 performances held all throughout the city.

SATISFACTION TORONTO.

Days: end of June 2021.

Toronto's Satisfaction Week is one of the premier arts and also cultural celebrations in Canada. It is not unusual that the event is an unqualified success, every year: presence of over a million individuals, street celebration, live home entertainment, street fair, outfits, Pride Ceremony, and also a lot more ...

TORONTO CARIBBEAN CARNIVAL.

Days: late July/ early August 2021.

Canada's biggest city is house to this abundant celebration of Caribbean songs as well as culture, including steel bands, a King and also Queen competition, shows as well as music boat cruise ships. The festivities culminate with the magnificent carnival ceremony. The biggest Caribbean event in North America.

The post “ Tourist Office Toronto ‘ was first seen on Authentik

Naturopath Toronto - Dr. Amauri Caversan, ND

[dylanatkins-me]

Project Proposal

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iniOtp3VJwLOMsKZylzvlw92aZN2YOudq_SHTLImW2g/edit?usp=sharing

Our team is proposing a research trip to Jocotoco reserves in Ecuador to record bird species unique to the area. Birds such as the Andean hummingbirds and the neotropical birds endemic to the cloud forest. We will be recording and archiving bird sounds in order to effectively understand and appreciate the soundscape these endangered species inhabit.

Background of site and ecoacoustic significance

The Jocotoco reserves are run by an Ecuadorian NGO established to conserve the environment of the region as well as endangered birds unique to the region. This land is purchased by the NGO and then managed as ecological reserves which are also a refuge for ecoacustic researchers to explore and archive the soundscape. The Foundation has so far established 11 reserves, spanning more than 40,000 acres of land. The reserves protect the wildlife, facilitating the safety of the environment which wasn’t also once a promise. With nearly 800 species of birds, the Jocotoco reserves are among some of the most biodiverse regions in the world. Unfortunately, 50 of these species are considered to be globally threatened as their population has suffered in part to historical disputes between neighboring countries. More and 100 of these species are specific to the region, emphasizing the importance of their preservation. While the main focus of the Foundation is preserving the endangered birds, all habitats of the region are protected under these reserves. Including fauna and flora unique to the amazon region.

The amazon rainforest of Ecuador is one of the largest tropical forests on earth. Its proximity to the Andes mountains results in many different altitudinal tiers which has facilitated the development of many different bird species as well as other diverse plants and wildlife. Also home to indenginous tribes have maintained their way of life for centuries. The reservations and national parks play a big role in protecting this landscape as it is also home to large deposits of much sought after oil reserves. Their presence restricts the oils accessibility and ensures the preservation of the landscape (www.laselvajunglelodge.com).

Material and methods for sampling and data archiving

We plan to use Zoom VR recorders to capture the sound of the landscape. The three of us will each carry two of these, one as a backup. And will all be recording in each site we visit. The Zoom VR is a 4 channel recorder. To play back the audio, we will use the Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones. Each of us will carry two, one as a backup. We will be recording on 64 gigabyte Sony TOUGH-G series SDXC UHS-II cards capable of withstanding 72 hours of full water submersion at a depth of 15 feet. As well as being robust enough to take up to 180 newtons of direct force and fully dust resistant. Our audio files will be stored on portable SSD drives, however and to ensure the security of the files. We will be using a Samsung 500GB 860 EVO SATA 2.5" SSD for this. Each of us will have two 64 UHS-II cards with us and two SSD drives. To transfer the audio files from the UHS-II cards to the SSDs we will use the 14” Dell Latitude 5420 Rugged. Coming with an 8th Generation Intel Core i5-8350U Processor 500GB of SATA hard drive space and 8GB of RAM. Also featuring swappable dual batteries as to extend its work capabilities. Designed to be used in hazardous environments, the computer is drop tested as high as 3 feet. We will also use the computer as a portable workstation to process and edit the audio file on the move. This will save us time after the field recordings when we would typically do this work. The Zoom VR recorders come with software to utilize its multi-channel functionality and 3D sound experience. We will also be using Adobe Audition to edit the audio files. This will be downloaded onto the computer for practical use.

Other than recorders, we will be bringing a Sony Alpha A7 III camera to also document our experience in ways beyond audio files. This will aid in communicating the results of our trip as another describable media to be presented. This is a remote region of much biodiversity. Having a visual reference for the area as well as the wildlife to be encountered adds another dimension of reference which would have otherwise been overlooked. Our source for the camera includes a camera bag, spare batteries, a battery charger, a memory card, and a lens cleaning kit. The lens we will be using is a Sony FE 24-70mm. Favored for its versatility, the lens has a f/2.8 maximum aperture to capture wide shots as well as zooms for more distant encounters. The enclosure of the lens is dust and moisture resistant to ensure its survival in the cloud forests where it is known to be rainy and unpredictable. Also coming with an easily detachable visor guard to ensure the clarity of shots even in sunny conditions.

Given the high precipitation of the region, our team will be using a set of GORE-TEX branded shells and pants to stay dry. Both patagonia branded, the set will enable us to continue working regardless of the weather given their ability to repel water and debris. To protect our gear, we will be using REI 32 liter waterproof backpacks, capable of keeping our essentials dry in any condition other than full submersion. We plan to purchase our boots at the markets in Quito. This is where many ecoacustic researchers get their boots from and will reduce the load of luggage for our international flights. The criteria for these boots are to be water resistant and go beyond our ankle.

Region of field work

The Jocotoco reserve is in the Amazon region of Ecuador. To the East, the Amazon continues into Peru, and to the East is the Andes mountain range. Thanks to the network created by other ecoacustic researchers, tour groups, reservations, and wildlife research facilities, the reserves often have lodging and food for visitors and researchers to use. There is a network of roads connecting the reserves that we will travel on. Our tour guide will drive us to our destinations. Some areas are not accessible due to the possibility of land mines. These areas will be avoided with the help of our guide and the reserves.

Health & safety concerns

Concerns for the trip mainly derive from the tropical nature of the region. With many hills, some mountains from the Andes, and the persistent precipitation which is a consequence of the air moisture colliding with the Andes mountain range which causes a collision and downfall of the water. As to not face the brunt of the environment, we plan to travel in the Winter months which experience less precipitation than the Summer and Spring months. To protect our equipment, we have carefully selected gear capable of withstanding moisture and even some instances of full submersion. This is insurance that our audio files and equipment will be protected. However, we still plan to carry backups of our more critical gear. This is why we are taking 6 total Zoom VR recorders as well as 6 pairs of headphones for playback listening. Archiving our data is another way to protect the files as recorders can be broken or even robbed from us. Having two SSD hard drives as well as a rugged computer with 500GB of SSD hard storage will give us multiple outlets to save our files on. The audio recorded in the excursion is critical to the trip, keeping them on multiple devices dramatically decreases the likelihood of it being compromised. All of our equipment will also be stored in ALPS Mountaineering Torrent dry bags. These are made of waterproofing material and will add extra protection to gear that is not moisture resistant such as the camera, SSD drives, headphones, and Zoom recorders. Spare batteries for the recorders, camera, and laptop will also be brought to ensure the functionality of the equipment even in such a remote region.

To protect ourselves from the weather, we will use patagonia GORE-TEX shell jackets and pants. This is critical given the strenuous nature of the trip. Keeping our bodies protected will ensure our resilience to continue recording and traveling throughout the trip. As mentioned, we will purchase water resistant boots from the markets in Quito, providing our own hiking soles to save our feet from the unpredictable landscape.

We also plan to consult a health care professional about the suggested vaccines for the region. Mosquito borne diseases such as typhoid, hepatitis A + B, yellow fever are much more likely to be contracted. The vaccinations will be had before our departure to Ecuador.

The Joco Tours group will be guiding our excursion. They have extensive knowledge of the region, its history, and the travel destinations for recording and lodging. They are also official partners of the Jocotoco group - a foundation devoted to the preservation of the landscape and Jocotoco reserve. Given their knowledge, the chances of getting lost on the back country roads are less likely than if we were to travel alone. Spanish is the primary language of Ecuador. While no one on our team speaks spanish, we will still be able to communicate with locals via the translator accompanying us on the tour. All travel, except international, will be coordinated by the tour group. Their connection network spans this area, leaving them to be the most qualified people to lead the travel aspect of the trip. This ensures our safety as the Ecuadorian Puruvian border has a dark history of conflict. Today, there are over 100,000 landmines in some fields of the region. With their expertise, avoiding these areas will be much more likely given their native experience and historical understanding of the region.

Timeline of the project

We plan to go in early December of 2020 to avoid the rainy season. Giving us another 9 months from the submission of this proposal from when we would leave. With this time, we will continue to do preliminary research of the region and specific reserves that we will be visiting. Also during this time, all of our travel plans will be double checked with one of the Jocotoco Tours representatives to ensure we have properly communicated the purpose of the trip as well as itinerary specifics. After this, we will continue to develop our methods of recording and gather all of the supplies needed for the trip. All devices, gear, and clothing will be checked for quality assurance. This gives us time to rectify a faulty item before we leave. Emphasizing the state of the recording and data archiving equipment as these are the most important items to bring for the excursion. All SSD and UHS-II cards will be tested. The tour will span 11 days and span 5 national reserves and wildlife parks.

To archive our data files, we will transfer the audio from the UHS-II cards to the hard drive of the computer at each site once we have finished recording. The files will then be copied and saved to the two portable SSD drives to ensure the safety of the files. Photos from the camera will also be saved with this method. To process the files, we plan to use the Adobe Audition software. This is a very versatile program that will enable us to edit, compress, and combine the audio files. This program will be downloaded on our site laptop to enable us to work on the files remotely. Having this ability will dramatically decrease the time spent after the excursion on processing the data. Other applications we will have at our disposal are Audacity and the Zoom VR software. Following the end of the trip, data will continue to be processed as we do not plan to be able to go through all of it remotely, only a portion of it.

Forecasted budget

To proceed with the trip as we have exactly planned it, we would need approximately $17,500.00. This covers all expenses that will need to be covered for our team of three. Please refer to the budget breakdown spreadsheet for specifics. $7,200.00 of this will go directly to the tour group leading the excursion. This covers lodging, food, all domestic travel, entrance fees to the reservations, and the translator. This group is an affiliate partner of the Jocotoco reserves and a portion of their profit will be donated to the preservation of the reserve. The flight to Ecuador will cost $1,554.00, this is for the three of us and includes the trip back to the United States. The technology needed to record, archive, and process the data will cost us $4,335.00 and includes backup recorders, headsets, UHS-II cards, and SSD drives to ensure the safety of the audio files and recording ability. The camera set up will cost $4,274.00 and includes the camera, the lens, as well as a series of different cases, cleaning kits, and spare batteries. Archiving the environment in ways other than purley audio will extend the reach of the results and give the needed context for the audio to be fully appreciated. Other supplies we plan to buy are rain suits, waterproof bags/backpacks, and rain boots. This is crucial given the mass precipitation of the region as well as the duration of the stay. We anticipate these expenses to cost $1,820.00. Visit the full budget breakdown by following the link in the references section

Potential outcomes

This project will result in the archival of endangered bird species as well as the overall soundscape. This is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, being the home to species of bird exclusive to the region. Unfortunately, however, the turbulent between Ecuador and Peru has compromised the environment and native people. Now, many of these bird species are going endangered and well as major changes to the acoustic landscape. Preserving this area is also the goal of the Jocotoco reserve foundation (as well as other reserves), given its significance. Archiving these sounds will save its place in history and time. Not guaranteeing the preservation of these reserves, for it is out of the scope of our capabilities as ecoacustic researchers. Instead, guaranteeing the digital preservation of the sound landscape to be enjoyed and researched by others centuries from now. In the future, our audio files could be used to compare to the future acoustic landscape of the Jocotoco reserve to better understand how it has changed and the further understand the landscape it once was. Without this, the landscape could be lost to time, the once endangered species could be gone without a trace. This is our scientific contribution to the world of ecoacusts as a result of this project.

References

Information about the Ecuadorian Amazon: https://www.laselvajunglelodge.com/about-the-ecuadorian-amazon/

Information about the tour: http://jocotoursecuador.com/destination/southern-trip-jocotoco-reserves/

Full budget break down: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TbrryDuUNlKlTlQmYi4HHlJ3u4qTbwPAJqnit9IIBlc/edit?usp=sharing

Slideshow presentation: https://www.canva.com/design/DAD1ajgi6v4/IZCuY46MyJhpTggKcYG-eQ/view?utm_content=DAD1ajgi6v4&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink

[crazycactuslady-blog1]

Cactus of the Week: Peyote

A Brief History

This tiny, thorn less cactus is native to the deserts of northern Mexico and southern Texas, and has been around for centuries.  Prized by the Native Americans for its spiritual effects, so much that an entire religion is devoted to it, formally recognized as the Native American Church.  In modern times, Peyote are a trophy specimen among cactus enthusiasts around the world, cherished for its beautiful structure.  The lack of thorns makes the Lophophora group of cacti quite appealing for ornamental purposes, not to mention the flowers are quite beautiful.  

Why Can’t I Find Them Anywhere? Although it’s completely legal to grow a Peyote cactus in Canada, the seeds are extremely hard to find and most often difficult to grow.  This is due to their extremely slow growth rate, it can take up to 10-30 years to produce flowers! (Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2018, para. 2).  But most information regarding Peyote was hidden from the public eye because of its status as a controlled substance in several countries- ”All parts of peyote (Lophophora williamsii) plants and the seeds thereof are classified as Schedule I substances in the United States.  Also, peyote is illegal to posses in France, Russia, and possibly more” (Lophophora, 2000, para. 2).

Pretty crazy for a cactus, right?  But just how hallucinogenic is it? Peyote aka Lophophora williamsii, naturally produces a large amount of mescaline. 

Mesca- who? Time for a bit of science!  Mescaline is the most abundant (out of 28) alkaloid produced by Peyote. “The mescaline molecule is related structurally to two hormones secreted by the adrenal glands, adrenaline and noradrenaline; both are catecholamine compounds that take part in the transmission of nerve impulses” (Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2018, para.1).  

When ingested by humans, it can induce powerful visual distortion and is said to provide medicinal healing during traditional Native American rituals.  Experiences can vary in intensity from person to person, and the same person may have multiple different experiences each time they consume it.  This is common among hallucinogens. Side effects typically include nausea and vomiting; however, I believe that could also be from eating so much raw cactus.  Mescaline itself is a controlled substance in Canada, (so don’t try this at home!) but you could synthesize it in a lab to avoid nausea to some extent. 

Have Your Own Peyote! Now we know why peyote has been hidden from the public eye over the last century, but that only makes the hunt for your own peyote more exciting.  Even if you manage to get your hands on one, they are high maintenance when compared to the average cactus.  Peyote only grow in limestone banks naturally, so it is best to replicate their natural habitat as best you can.  Do this by adding limestone to your regular succulent and cactus mix potting mixture.  They also grow significantly slower that a lot of other cacti, as mentioned earlier, so starting these from seed requires a lot of patience. (Who needs kids when you can watch your peyote grow for decades!) Don’t let this article discourage you from adding this beautiful specimen to your collection! Their growth rate is also reflected in their prices.  It can take up to 10 years for a peyote to reach just a few centimeters wide, and that tiny cactus could sell for up to $100!

How Can I make them grow FASTER? One of the main drawbacks to adding the Peyote to your collection is the sheer amount of time it will take you to grow some.  Although their slow growth rate is somewhat inevitable, we can do our part to give them everything they need to grow correctly!  We already mentioned giving them a limestone based soil, but once they have sprouted there is the option to graft the peyote to a rootstalk cactus so they will grow like crazy!  This is because the root stalk has already established itself, and once the peyote has fused with this new root stalk, it is sure to reach optimal growth.  This might sound daunting for beginners, but it’s a lot easier than it sounds.  I’ll post a link to a grafting tutorial for those interested.  

[biofunmy]

Can Humans Help Trees – The New York Times

Outrun Climate Change?

By Moises Velasquez-Manoff

Illustrations by Andrew Khosravani

April 25, 2019

SCITUATE, R. I. — Foresters began noticing the patches of dying pines and denuded oaks, and grew concerned. Warmer winters and drier summers had sent invasive insects and diseases marching northward, killing the trees.

If the dieback continued, some woodlands could become shrub land.

Most trees can migrate only as fast as their seeds disperse — and if current warming trends hold, the climate this century will change 10 times faster than many tree species can move, according to one estimate. Rhode Island is already seeing more heat and drought, shifting precipitation and the intensification of plagues such as the red pine scale, a nearly invisible insect carried by wind that can kill a tree in just a few years.

The dark synergy of extreme weather and emboldened pests could imperil vast stretches of woodland.

So foresters in Rhode Island and elsewhere have launched ambitious experiments to test how people can help forests adapt, something that might take decades to occur naturally. One controversial idea, known as assisted migration, involves deliberately moving trees northward. But trees can live centuries, and environments are changing so fast in some places that species planted today may be ill-suited to conditions in 50 years, let alone 100. No one knows the best way to make forests more resilient to climatic upheaval.

These great uncertainties can prompt “analysis paralysis,” said Maria Janowiak, deputy director of the Forest Service’s Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, or N.I.A.C.S. But, she added, “We can’t keep waiting until we know everything.”

In Rhode Island, the state’s largest water utility is experimenting with importing trees from hundreds of miles to the south to maintain forests that help purify water for 600,000 people. In Minnesota, a lumber businessman is trying to diversify the forest on his land with a “300-year plan” he hopes will benefit his grandchildren. And in five places around the country, the United States Forest Service is running a major experiment to answer a basic question: What’s the best way to actually help forests at risk?

Some worry about the unintended consequences of shuffling plants and animals around and that the approach will become widely adopted. “Moving species is the equivalent of ecological gambling,” said Anthony Ricciardi, a professor of invasion ecology and environmental science at McGill University in Montreal. “You’re spinning the roulette wheel.”

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It is also complicated. On Lake Michigan, one adaptation planner trying to help the Karner blue butterfly survive is considering creating an oak savanna well to the north, and moving the butterflies there. But the ideal place for the relocation already hosts another type of unique forest — one that he is trying to save to help a tiny yellow-bellied songbird that is also threatened by warming.

In other words, he may find himself both fighting climate change and embracing it, on the same piece of land.

Rhode Island: Swapping In Persimmon

One humid day last fall, Christopher Riely hiked to an 8-foot-tall wire fence in the forest. “It’s amazing how high deer can jump,” he said, unlocking the towering gate.

Mr. Riely helps manage 20 square miles of woodland for Rhode Island’s largest water utility, Providence Water. Inside the five-acre enclosure, among the native oaks and pines, he had planted southern trees including persimmon and shortleaf pine — species better adapted to hotter, drier conditions. And they were thriving.

Mr. Riely is particularly delighted by the Virginia pine, brought in from a nursery nearly 400 miles away in Maryland. “For New England, this is quite incredible growth,” he said, pointing to a young tree now taller than he is. It suggests that climate has already changed enough in Southern New England for some mid-Atlantic species to survive.

Bringing in southern trees may be one solution. But it won’t help, he has discovered, without first dealing with the deer. They ate many of the young trees he planted outside the fence, and are a major reason the hardwood forest has difficulty regenerating.

As a cautionary tale, Mr. Riely looks to the forest collapse that struck near Denver some years back. Conditions in the Rockies differ substantially from those in Rhode Island; still, he calls it “a water supplier’s nightmare.”

In the 1990s, dry spells, insects and disease began killing trees there. In 1996 and 2002, ferocious fires tore through. Then the rains came. Flash floods carried dark, ash-filled silt and debris into Denver’s reservoirs, clogging them.

So in 2010, Denver Water began replanting the mountainsides, making the forest more drought-resistant by spacing trees farther apart and reducing competition for water. Opening the forest canopy allowed other kinds of plants, which also prevent erosion, to grow as well.

Failing to plan for the changing environment was a costly lesson, said Christina Burri, Denver Water’s watershed scientist. A big part of what she does today, she added, is “convincing people about the benefits of being proactive.” Planning ahead, she said, is much cheaper than reacting to catastrophes.

Minnesota: The ‘300-Year Plan’

For someone who makes his living selling wood, John Rajala leaves a lot of trees on the land. It’s part of what he calls his “300-year plan” to deal with climate change.

His family business in northern Minnesota, called Rajala Companies, owns 22,000 acres of northern pine and hardwood forest. He harvests the wood and mills it into flooring, siding and roof beams.

One cool day last fall, he proudly showed me around his land near the headwaters of the Mississippi River, a gently rolling forest of straight eastern white pines, quaking aspen and the occasional flaming red maple. The old “legacy trees,” as he calls them, will reseed the forests with good genetic stock.

“That’s a thousand-dollar tree, and we’ll never cut it down,” he said, pointing to a majestic, century-old white pine.

Mr. Rajala’s planning for climate change is unusual in his profession. “The more careful thought about climate change just isn’t being done” by many industrial-scale companies that manage forestland, said Chris Swanston, who heads the Forest Service’s N.I.A.C.S.

One reason, he and others say, is that so much timberland is owned by real-estate investment trusts and other financial vehicles, which are geared toward short term profits.

Industrial foresters might plant one or just a few tree types, to make harvesting and management easier. Mr. Rajala has embraced a different approach. “I want to accelerate as fast as I can the diversification of species,” he said. Even if some species do badly in a warmer tomorrow, he thinks, others will flourish.

Unlike Mr. Riely in Rhode Island, Mr. Rajala is not willing to introduce nonnative species — yet. But he’s sculpting the forest to make it more resilient.

Birch, a cool-weather tree valued by cabinet makers, isn’t doing as well as it used to. So Mr. Rajala keeps the tree only on north-facing slopes, where it’s naturally cooler.

On south-facing slopes, he is selecting for red oak and maple, two native species projected to do better in a warmer future.

His strategy has required shrewd marketing. Because he leaves many of his best trees standing to reseed the next generation, the wood going to his mills is often imperfect, particularly if it’s aspen or birch, which have started showing signs of climate stress.

Mr. Rajala’s new sales pitch? Imperfection adds character.

Chippewa National Forest: Grand Experiment

One of the most ambitious studies of how to help forests is happening near Mr. Rajala’s land. Launched four years ago by the Forest Service, the project set out to scientifically test the best approach to helping woodlands adapt. With five sites around the country, the study is perhaps the largest of its kind in the world.

In Minnesota, the Forest Service planted 274,000 seedlings over an area roughly 60 percent the size of Central Park. It is testing four approaches: passively letting nature take its course; thinning and managing mostly native trees along traditional lines; growing a mix of native species but with some coming from 80 to 100 miles to the south; and the most radical one, bringing in nonnative trees from warmer, drier areas in nearby states.

The nonnative trees include ponderosa pine from South Dakota and Nebraska, and bitternut hickory from southern Minnesota and Illinois. So far, the pine is doing well.

Conditions may not be optimal for the trees now, but “the idea is to get them established now for 30 years in the future,” said Brian Palik, a forest ecologist with the Forest Service’s Northern Research Station, who oversees the Minnesota site.

Lake Michigan: Where to Put an Oak Savanna?

On Lake Michigan, climate change threatens both the Kirtland’s warbler and the Karner blue butterfly. And saving one may complicate preservation of the other.

As recently as 2009, the Indiana Dunes National Park hosted one of the country’s healthiest populations of the endangered Karner blue. By 2015, they had mostly disappeared.

“I’m pretty sure they’re not in Indiana anymore,” said Christopher Hoving, an adaptation specialist with Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources.

Karner blues inhabit only pine barrens and oak savannas, rare habitats of wildflowers and grasses interspersed with trees, that occur in poor, sandy soil deposited by ice age glaciers. Mr. Hoving and his colleagues think the only way to save the southern populations of Karner blues may be to create a new oak savanna at the northern edge of Michigan’s lower peninsula, where similar soil occurs.

But there, Mr. Hoving’s project to save the Karner blue may collide with his efforts to save the Kirtland’s warbler. In the same place he’s thinking of creating an oak savanna, he is also trying to prevent a dense jack pine forest (which the warbler needs) from retreating north.

The region probably has enough room to host both ecosystem types, he said, at least for a while. But “it’s a high-risk proposition,” he said.

His two projects embody the odd mixture of sunny pragmatism and clammy anxiety inherent in the very idea of humans moving life-forms around to save them from problems caused by humans.

In academia there is no consensus on assisted migration. Dr. Ricciardi, the McGill University professor of invasion ecology, calls it a “techno-fix” that fails to address the “root cause of endangerment or ecosystem erosion” — in this case, climate change.

Not everyone agrees with Dr. Ricciardi. Jason McLachlan, an ecologist at the University of Notre Dame, once spurned the idea of assisted migration, but his views have evolved as the current predicament has sunk in. He concedes Dr. Ricciardi’s point about the unknowable risks of moving things around, but counters that doing nothing is also “extremely risky.”

His broader critique is that classic conservation science risks failure today because it assumes the world is static — and if the world ever was static, it clearly isn’t anymore. Consider the Endangered Species Act, he said, a bedrock of modern conservation. It aims to return species to their original habitat.

But what if they’re now ill-suited to those areas?

To deal with the coming upheavals, our very concept of nature and the meaning of conservation needs to become more fluid, Mr. McLachlan said. “We don’t have a philosophy of conservation that’s consistent with the changes that are afoot.”

For more news on climate and the environment, follow @NYTClimate on Twitter.

Sahred From Source link Science

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[alafair2010]

IT IS NEVER OK TO PUT POISON INTO THE ENVIRONMENT.  NATURE TAKES CARE OF ITSELF AND DOESNT NEED INTERFERENCE FROM HUMANS.

It is never ok to put poison into the environment. Whatever goes into the environment comes back to us in our water and water is never able to be filtered 100%

The poison used by exterminators is deadly and not only kills beneficial wildlife but also kills children

A few interesting facts about prairie dogs; Prairie Dogs are infectiously mischievous, they are petite, attractive and intelligent, they are unique little animals who maintain well-organized homes with designated areas for nurseries, sleeping, and toilets; They live in towns contained within their underground burrows. These burrows can be overtaken by other animals, such as snakes, black-footed ferret and burrowing owls. Prairie dogs often “kiss” when they come and go in the area around their burrow and often play socially bonding games with friends and family. They have a complex means of communication that’s even better than that of chimpanzees and dolphins. Prairie dogs can embed information about the predator’s size, color, direction and speed in a single bark, and a colony — which can include hundreds of animals — consistently uses the same barks to describe the same predators. Prairie dogs even have a specific call that describes a human with a gun.

Ronnie Purcella with Animal and Pest Control Specialists kills more prairie dogs with poison than any other private contractor in Colorado. He gets these contracts because he is the lowest bidder, and he does it with hatred and gusto. One of our supporters called him yesterday, and he starts singing “Another One Bites The Dust” as he laughed and stated that he was killing the bastards right now (in Longmont on Kuhn’s and Strong’s property). This man claims to be a Christian. Ronnie has apparently misinterpreted the Bible’s story of Christ and is in need of an education.

Ronnie has a long history of being an incredibly immoral and despicable character. During the Castle Rock slaughter, he poisoned thousands of prairie dogs with a smile and clearly enjoyed annihilating this wildlife community. He applied this poison within 2 feet of teenagers that were crying and pleading with him to stop, one of which was hospitalized for the chemical exposure. Ronnie takes pleasure in his job and enjoys killing these animals.

Ronnie has been at this far too long and his business seems to be thriving right now especially with the contributions of developers like William Kuhn and Steve Strong. Call his business and keep his phone ringing, write reviews on Yelp, rate him on his Facebook page and review on Google and let him know that these inhumane poisonings are unacceptable to the people of Colorado and elsewhere. Advocates all need to band together and insist that these slaughters stop.

—————————————————————————

The following was borrowed from the following site Great Plains Restoration Council to show how Prairie Dogs are important to the environment and how they are often blamed for damage that is not even caused by them so sadist pest control monsters can have a job that is unnecessary and pretend it is needed so they are able to act on their sadism often in the same way hunters will lie about how hunting is for conservation [completely fabricated lie to enable hunters to continue to kill and be accepted by the ignorant who don’t check the facts].

Prairie Dogs and Soil Impacts

Focal points

General:

Much of the degradation of soils in the urban environments that have prairie dog colonies is the result of considerable human disturbance over long periods of time.

The soil erosion we tend to see is often due to overgrazing by cattle, which has been well demonstrated by numerous studies (Schlesinger et al. 1990, Van Auken 2000, Reynolds et al. 2007). It is important to keep in mind that black-tailed prairie dogs prefer open patches of grassland, and will move into heavily grazed patches of grassland. This tends to cause the observer to blame the prairie dogs for the degraded state, when in fact the conditions were present prior to the presence of prairie dogs.

Prairie dogs and bison co-existed for thousands of years throughout the central grasslands of North America (Forrest 2005, Miller et al. 2007).

Current research at Janos, Mexico by researchers at the University of New Mexico and University of Mexico (Davidson et al., unpublished data) involves an exclosure experiment where they are comparing grassland in areas where prairie dogs are present to where they have been removed. The effects of prairie dogs on soil stability (a measure of soil erosion) are measured for this study, which shows absolutely no difference (statistically or even qualitatively) in soil stability where prairie dogs are absent versus where they are present over the 2 years (4 seasons) of the study.

Prairie dog burrows act as aquifers that prevent water from eroding land while helping to cool it.

Recent studies have shown that ‘managed’ grasses and forbs atop a prairie dog town are higher in protein and nitrogen and are favored for grazing by bison, elk, and pronghorn.

a [Prairie dog] burrowing can be beneficial to the soil because mixing soil types and incorporating organic matter enhances soil formation. It also helps to increase soil aeration and decrease compaction.

In short-grass prairies, the number of plant species, particularly forbs, increases because of the digging and scratching activities of prairie dogs that disturb the soil. These patches of bare soil provide excellent sites for annual forbs to become established. . . . Long-term use of an area by prairie dogs appears to promote buffalograss and grama grasses (Foster & Hygnstrom).

Prairie dogs do more than just serve as prey, they also perform a valuable service for the prairie – they disturb it. In addition to digging up the soil, prairie dogs clip the vegetation around their burrows, enhancing nitrogen uptake by these plants. Natural disturbances are an important part of maintaining the prairie ecosystem (Kotliar, 2001).

Prairie Dogs, Cattle and Soil Impacts:

The overgrazed conditions that we see when both prairie dogs and cattle co-occur are largely due to cattle being confined to a fenced landscape that no longer reflects the large roaming herds that historically grazed the grasslands.

Large ungulates are known to preferentially graze on prairie dog colonies because of the more nutritious forage (Whicker and Detling 1988, Miller et al. 2007). This is a counterintuitive phenomenon made logical by the prairie dog’s penchant for clearing shrubs that cattle shun, while stimulating weeds they savor (Stolzenburg, 2004).

Widespread soil erosion is largely caused by overgrazing by cattle, and prairie dogs are known to move into the overgrazed grassland patches.

Prairie dogs from urban populations provide a key source of prairie dogs for grassland conservation and restoration.

Like giant earthworms, their excavations were loosening and turning, fertilizing and aerating nearly six tons of hard-baked desert soils per acre, more than eight times the combined output of all kangaroo rats, badgers and other burrowing mammals of the grasslands (Stolzenburg, 2004).

Lethal Control:

Efforts to simply eradicate prairie dogs from urban areas are short-sighted and do not contribute to the conservation of our native grassland ecosystems.

Extermination efforts require 72 hours of poisoning to kill the animals. It is an extremely long, inhumane death, and is not something that should be condoned in a civil society. Additionally, extermination efforts indiscriminately kill not only prairie dogs but also other native wildlife.

A model way to think about prairie restoration would be to utilize displaced urban prairie dog populations as a source to repopulate grassland areas being restored for prairie wildlife. In these restoration areas, animals can be released so they can repopulate areas where they were historically abundant, prior to mass extermination efforts and play their keystone role in grassland ecosystems, which is critical to maintaining grassland biodiversity.

Aschwanden,C. 2001. Learning to Live with Prairie Dogs. National Wildlife. p. 26

Forrest, S. 2005. Getting the story right: a response to Vermeire and Colleagues. Bioscience 55:526-530.

Foster, N.S., S. E. Hygnstrom . 1990. Prairie Dogs and Their Ecosystem, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Wildlife pp. 2-6

Schlesinger, W. H., J. F. Reynolds, G. L. Cunningham, L. F. Huenneke, W. M. Jarrell, R. A. Virginia, and W. G. Whitford. 1990. Biological feedbacks in global desertification. Science 247:1043-1048.

Stolzenburg, W. 2004. Nature Conservancy, Understanding the Underdog.pp 28-31.

Whicker, A. D., and J. K. Detling. 1988. Ecological consequences of prairie dog disturbances: prairie dogs alter grassland patch structure, nutrient cycling, and feeding-site selection by other herbivores. Bioscience 38:778-785.

Van Auken, O. W. 2000. Shrub invasions of North American semiarid grasslands. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 31:197-215.

Young, M.T. 2006. A Prairie Dog Ecosystem. Colorado Division of Wildlife: p.1

PRAIRIE DOGS ARE A KEYSTONE SPECIES OF THE GREAT PLAINS

By Nicole Rosmarino/Southern Plains Land Trust

Editor’s note: (The following studies show unequivocally that prairie dogs are a keystone species of the Great Plains, that is, their presence –including their colonies, burrows structure and grazing habits– is central to the survival of a multitude of other wildlife)

Prairie Dogs as Prairie Restorationists:

Although there is tremendous documentation of the benefits that prairie dogs provide to wildlife species, both as a prey base and for creating extensive habitat for prairie creatures, it is also important to recognize that prairie dogs may help to redress the damage to the land caused by reckless humanity.

First, prairie dogs act as water conservationists. While humans have devastated the water features of the Great Plains –by damming up rivers and streams for crop and livestock agriculture, and by overgrazing of riparian areas by livestock– prairie dogs increase the ability of an arid region to conserve what little water falls from the sky. One author (Outwater 1996) has remarked on the extensive megapore system prairie dogs can provide for channeling precipitation into the water table. Imagine 100-700 million acres of these megapores diligently directing the scant Great Plains rainfall to underground storage. Imagine also what the reduction of those millions of acres to less than 700,000 acres might mean in terms of increased flooding (where there isn’t meant to be flooding) and increased runoff in general.

In addition, prairie dog clipping and digging activities lead to decreases in transpiring leaf area, conservation of soil moisture, changes in soil physical properties, and the promotion of water infiltration to deeper soil depths. All of these factors probably account for the improved soil moisture availability and plant water status on prairie dog colonies (Day and Detling 1994). This improved water status and the higher ratio of green forage on colonies later in the season may explain preferential grazing by bison and antelope (Day and Detling 1994), and, of course, by domestic cattle. In other words, prairie dogs increase the ability of the soil and vegetation in the arid Great Plains to conserve the region’s scant precipitation.

Prairie dogs might also redress some of the problems with overgrazing. For instance, prairie dogs can control noxious weeds and native invaders which proliferate on overgrazed rangeland. An example is prairie dog control of mesquite (Miller et al. 1996; Miller and Ceballos 1994). They remove pods and seeds and nip and strip bark from young seedlings, which contributes to seedling mortality. The extermination of the prairie dog may therefore explain the proliferation of honey mesquite from the late 19th century (“Suffering From a Prairie-Dog Shortage,” 1991). Where mesquite proliferates, prairie dogs could serve to control it.

Finally, prairie dogs may also reverse processes such as soil compaction caused by cattle grazing. For example, Ellison and Aldous (1952) provide an early report of the soil aeration effected by burrowing rodents. These rodents produce soil which is substantially softer and looser than soil in uncolonized areas. Such rodents consequently represent a range improvement, which can undo some negative effects on rangeland (e.g. soil compaction) that are caused by domestic cattle.

In the debate over whether or not prairie dogs are a keystone species of the Great Plains, there is no mention of the fact that all studies reviewed took place after prairie dogs had been reduced by 98% (by 1960). How can we assume wildlife has not made significant adjustments in the face of prairie dog scarcity? Our science may very well have totally missed important, close relationships between prairie dogs and a given bird, mammal, or what have you, only because that bird, mammal, or what have you flew or skittered off to greener pastures in the wake of guns and poisons.)

Many of the earlier studies (e.g. Reading/Miller/Whicker/Detling) have been very clear that the biodiversity contributions of prairie dog colonies should be perceived in terms of a grassland mosaic – e.g. a mix of colonized and uncolonized areas, colonized for different lengths of time. If one looks at biodiversity that way, it makes good sense to observe species near or flying over a prairie dog colony, as well as those species on a colony. Prairie dog colonies don’t operate in isolation from uncolonized areas, so why should their value to biodiversity levels/associated wildlife be judged in isolation? Landscape-level dynamics should be judged at the landscape-level, not acre by acre.

—- PRAIRIE DOG ASSOCIATES/DOCUMENTED RELATIONSHIPS

1. Black-footed ferret. This species is an obligate associate of the prairie dogs (Russell et al. 1994). Black-footed ferrets depend on prairie dogs as a primary food source and upon their burrows for shelter from weather and predation. The ferret is completely dependent upon prairie dogs for survival (Henderson et al. 1969). Prairie dogs constitute about 90% of the ferret’s diet.

2. Swift Fox. A major portion of the swift fox diet is prairie dogs (Uresk and Sharps 1986). Also of importance is the ability of prairie dogs to provide cover for swift fox. Swift foxes den on or within .8km of prairie dog colonies (Hillman and Sharps 1978).

3. Ferruginous Hawk. That the ferruginous hawk is closely associated with prairie dogs is apparent from research which suggests that ground squirrels and prairie dogs are the top food source for the ferruginous hawk (Olendorff 1993). In addition, researchers have reported the ferruginous hawk’s relative abundance in areas with prairie dog acreage (Knowles and Knowles 1994; Cully 1991), and Canada has emphasized the importance of prairie dogs and burrowing mammals associated with prairie dog colonies in the recovery of ferruginous hawk populations (Canadian Ferruginous Hawk Recovery Plan 1994).

4. Mountain Plover. The mountain plover may be a prairie dog obligate (Knowles and Knowles 1994), and is, at minimum, highly dependent on prairie dogs for survival. Knowles and Knowles (1998) report that mountain plovers select prairie dog colonies for nesting, breeding and feeding. Other reports concur, showing, for example, that mountain plovers use prairie dog towns as nest sites (BLM 1979, cited in Clark et al. 1982), and they strongly prefer the short-cropped vegetation on prairie dog towns (Knowles et al. 1982), which facilitates their insectivorous feeding (Olson 1985).

5. Burrowing Owl. Prairie dog colonies provide the burrowing owl with both shelter and increased prey abundance (Agnew et al. 1987). Consequently, the decline in prairie dog habitat causes declines in burrowing owl numbers (Knowles and Knowles 1994).

6. Golden Eagle. The golden eagle has long been described as an important prairie dog predator, with current predation probably “second only to badger predation” (Campbell and Clark 1981, 273). More recent reports echo the importance of the golden eagle as a prairie dog predator (Hanson 1993), with some researchers declaring that, in the Northern Great Plains, “wherever prairie dogs are found, golden eagles can also be found” (Knowles and Knowles 1994, 35). When golden eagles nest near prairie dog towns, prairie dogs comprise 50-62% of their diet (Tyus and Lockhart 1979).

7. Badger. Badgers are commonly associated with prairie dog colonies. Knowles and Knowles (1994) write “Generally, the more abundant prairie dogs are in an area, the greater the chances of encountering badgers.” According to Campbell and Clark (1981), badgers are possibly the most significant predator of prairie dogs. Lindzey (1982) concurs. 8. Coyote. Coyotes have been named as important predators of prairie dogs by some researchers (Tyler 1968; Koford 1958; Longhurst 1944; Sperry 1941).

9. Prairie Falcons. One researcher reported the majority of predation on prairie dogs was done by prairie falcons (Knowles 1982). Knowles and Knowles (1994) expect that, should good nesting habitat exist for prairie falcons near prairie dog towns, a significant portion of the falcons diets would be prairie dog.

10. Bison. The preference of bison (buffalo) for grazing, breeding, and resting in prairie dog towns has been demonstrated by other researchers (Whicker and Detling 1993; Coppock et al. 1983b). Even more interesting, Krueger (1986) found that bison and prairie dogs have a mutually positive relationship, as the foraging efficiency of prairie dogs increases in the presence of bison, and bison, in turn, prefer the vegetative conditions caused by prairie dogs.

11. Pronghorn. This ungulates preferentially grazes on prairie dog colonies, on account of the abundance of forbs that typify colonized areas (Whicker and Detling 1993; Krueger 1986; Wydeven and Dahlgren 1985). 12. Elk. This ungulate preferentially grazes on prairie dog colonies in the summer months (Wydeven and Dahlgren 1985).

13. Mule deer. This ungulate also preferentially grazes on prairie dog colonies (Foster and Hyngstrom, n.d.).

14. Horned Lark. This bird has been reported to be found in higher abundance on prairie dog colonies than in surrounding mixed-grass prairie (Agnew et al. 1986).

15. Mourning Dove. This bird has been reported to be found in higher abundance on prairie dog colonies than in surrounding mixed-grass prairie (Agnew et al. 1986; Clark et al. 1982).

16. Killdeer. This bird has been reported to be found in higher abundance on prairie dog colonies than in surrounding mixed-grass prairie (Agnew et al. 1986; Clark et al. 1982).

17. Barn Swallow. This bird has been reported to be found in higher abundance on prairie dog colonies than in surrounding mixed-grass prairie (Agnew et al. 1986).

18. Long-billed Curlew. Prairie dog colonies are reported to benefit this bird (Clark et al. 1982; BLM 1979).

19. Eastern Kingbird. Prairie dog colonies are reported to benefit this bird (Clark et al. 1982; BLM 1979).

20. Upland Sandpiper. Prairie dog colonies are reported to benefit this bird (Clark et al. 1982; BLM 1979).

21. McCowns Longspur. Prairie dog colonies are reported to provide nest sites for this bird (Clark et al. 1982; BLM 1979).

22. Snowy Owl. This bird has been documented utilizing prairie dog colonies in the winter months (Sharps and Uresk 1990).

23. Bald Eagle. This bird has been documented utilizing prairie dog colonies in the winter months (Sharps and Uresk 1990), as prairie dogs can provide a portion of this birds diet (City of Boulder, CO, Open Space Dept. 1996).

24. Red-tailed Hawk. This bird has been documented utilizing prairie dog colonies in the spring, summer and fall months (Clark et al. 1982), as prairie dogs can provide a portion of this birds diet (City of Boulder, CO, Open Space Dept. 1996)

25. Kestrel. This bird has been documented utilizing prairie dog colonies in the spring, summer and fall months (Clark et al. 1982).

26. Rough-legged Hawk. This bird has been documented utilizing prairie dog colonies in the spring, summer and fall months (Clark et al. 1982).

27. Harrier. This bird has been documented utilizing prairie dog colonies in the spring, summer and fall months (Clark et al. 1982), as prairie dogs can provide a portion of this bird’s diet (City of Boulder, CO, Open Space Dept. 1996).

28. Short-eared Owl. This bird has been documented utilizing prairie dog colonies in the spring, summer and fall months (Clark et al. 1982). 29. Deer Mouse. This small mammal has been reported to be found in higher abundance on prairie dog colonies than in surrounding mixed-grass prairie (Agnew et al. 1986).

30. Northern Grasshopper Mouse. This small mammal has been reported to be found in higher abundance on prairie dog colonies than in surrounding mixed-grass prairie (Agnew et al. 1986).

31. Desert Cottontail. Prairie dogs enhance habitat for desert cottontails. In one study, no cottontails could be found prior to the establishment of a prairie dog town, but after the dogtowns were established, cottontails were present in densities of .81-1.33/ha on colony, in contrast with .03-.05/ha off-colony. (Hansen and Gold 1977).

32. Prairie rattlesnake. The greater abundance of small mammals in prairie dog colonies (Agnew et al. 1986), and the availability of prairie dog burrows for shelter, have been cited as factors for rattlesnakes to utilize prairie dog towns (Knowles and Knowles 1994).

33. Great Plains Toad. The greater availability and abundance of insects on prairie dog towns, and the availability of prairie dog burrows for shelter have been cited as factors for this toad to utilize prairie dog towns (Knowles and Knowles 1994).

Ronnie Purcella is a Monster, He Loves Poisoning Prairie Dogs IT IS NEVER OK TO PUT POISON INTO THE ENVIRONMENT.  NATURE TAKES CARE OF ITSELF AND DOESNT NEED INTERFERENCE FROM HUMANS.

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Creating the Best Water Sources for Bees

Like all animals, honey bees need a dependable source of water year round. The best water sources for bees are ones that won’t go dry in the summer, won’t drown the bees, and won’t be shared with livestock or pets. Although honey bees adore a nice salt water pool, it’s a good idea to establish your water source before your bees begin chasing away the sunbathers.

Honey bees drink water like other animals, but they also use it for other purposes. In winter especially, honey bees use water to dissolve crystallized honey and thin honey that has become too thick and viscous. In summer, they spread droplets of water along the edges of brood comb, and then fan the comb with their wings. The rapid fanning sets up air currents that evaporate the water and cools the nest to the right temperature for raising baby bees.

Honey Bees Collect Four Things

In a healthy honey bee colony, foragers collect four different things from the environment. Depending on what the colony needs at a particular time, the bees may collect nectar, pollen, propolis, or water. Both pollen and propolis are carried in pollen baskets on the bees’ hind legs, whereas water and nectar are carried internally in the crop.

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In most cases, a bee will collect the same thing all day, one trip after another. So once a water-carrying bee transfers her load of water to a house bee, she goes back to the same source and fills her crop again. However, sometimes a forager can’t find a house bee willing to accept her load of water. If that happens, she knows the colony now has all the water it needs, so she begins to forage for something else instead.

Honey bees often choose water that says “Yuck!” to the rest of us. They may choose stagnant ditch water, slimy flower pots, muddy mole holes, or a pile of wet leaves. Unfortunately for rural and backyard beekeepers, they are also attracted to the smell of salt and chlorine, which are frequently added to swimming pools. While it seems logical to supply sparkling clean water for your bees, they will probably ignore it.

The Best Water Sources for Bees Have a Smell

When deciding on the best water sources for bees, it helps to think like a bee. Although every bee has five eyes, bee eyes are attuned to detecting motion and changes in light levels, not the detail we are accustomed to seeing. In addition, bees travel high and fast, so they may easily overlook potential water sources.

Biologists believe that bees probably find most of their water by scent rather than sight, so a water source with a smell will be more attractive. Water that smells like wet earth, moss, aquatic plants, worms, decomposition, or even chlorine, has a better chance of attracting a bee than sparkling water straight from the tap.

Smelly or slimy water sources have the advantage of containing a wide range of nutrients as well. Although a bee gets most of her nutrients from nectar and pollen, some water sources are rich in vitamins and micronutrients that can boost honey bee nutrition.

Make Your Bee Waterer Safe

The other thing bees like is a safe place to stand. Water in a steep-sided container or water that flows quickly is dangerous to a bee because they can easily drown. To solve this problem, beekeepers have devised all kinds of bee watering stations. A saucer filled with marbles or stones makes an excellent water station. Equally good is a bucket of water with plenty of “bee rafts.” These can be corks, sticks, sponges, or packing peanuts — anything that floats. If you are a gardener, you may have a hose with a slow leak or a drippy irrigation head that can be moved to a convenient location and allowed to seep into the ground. Others use hummingbird feeders filled with water or small ponds with lily pads.

  Please Bees: Use This, Not That

Sometimes, though, honey bees are stubborn and no matter how many creative water features you design, they prefer your neighbor’s place. Besides the pool, your bees may take a shine to your neighbor’s pet bowl, horse trough, potted plant, birdbath, or even worse, the pinned up laundry.

Unfortunately, bees are creatures of habit and once they find a reliable source they will return again and again. Since getting your bees to change their source is nearly impossible, it is best to establish a source for them before they find one by themselves.

Close, But Not Too Close

Honey bees can travel long distances to find the resources they need. Normally, a colony forages within a couple miles of home. However, in times of stress when resources are in short supply, a bee may travel five miles to get what she needs. Of course, this is not ideal because the trip may require more resources than she collects. In short, the best water sources for bees will be reasonably close to the hive.

However, the bees’ system of communicating the location of resources — the dance language — works best for things that are not too close to the hive. For things just a few feet away, a bee can say the source is close, but she has trouble explaining exactly where it is. If the thing is a bit further away, she can give a direction. So for best results, have the bee waterer a short flight from home, perhaps 100 feet, not right under the hive.

Attracting Bees to Your Waterer

When first establishing a water source, it can help to spike it with chlorine. A teaspoon of chlorine bleach in a bucket of water may be enough to get the bees’ attention. Other beekeepers add a handful of ground oyster shells to a pie pan of water, which gives the water a faintly salty ocean smell the bees find attractive. Alternatively, you can use a weak sugar solution in a bee waterer. Once the bees find it, they will empty it quickly and come back for more.

When luring the bees with chlorine, salt, or sugar, you can stop adding the attractant as soon as the bees become accustomed to the source. After a few days, they will “forget” what was there and simply think of it as water. The most important thing is to establish a pattern early, as soon as your bees arrive before they develop bad habits.

The best water sources for bees are often very creative. Do you have one you especially like?

Rusty is a master beekeeper in Washington State. She has been fascinated by honey bees since childhood and, in recent years, has become enthralled with the native bees that share pollination duty with honey bees. She has an undergraduate degree in agronomic crops and a master’s degree in environmental studies with an emphasis on pollination ecology. Rusty owns a website, HoneyBeeSuite.com, and is the director of a small non-profit, the Native Bee Conservancy of Washington State. Through the non-profit, she helps organizations with conservation projects by taking species inventories and planning pollinator habitat. Besides writing for the website, Rusty has published in Bee Culture and Bee World magazines, and has regular columns in Bee Craft (UK) and the American Bee Journal. She frequently speaks to groups about bee conservation, and has worked as an expert witness in bee sting litigation. In her spare time, Rusty enjoys macro photography, gardening, canning, baking, and quilting.

Creating the Best Water Sources for Bees was originally posted by All About Chickens

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15 Sarasota Museums and Tourist Attractions You’ll Love

Florida is famous for its theme parks but there’s lots more to do in this photogenic region. For example, there are some fantastic Sarasota museums that you really shouldn’t miss. It’s no surprise that the county is known as Florida’s Cultural Coast®. We’ve rounded up our favourite tourist attractions in Sarasota County for young and old.

Sarasota Museums

The Ringling

The Ringling is the State Art Museum of Florida and an exceptional cultural and educational centre. It’s the legacy of John and Mable Ringling and located within the 66 acre grounds of their Winter estate. John Ringling was the founder of the Ringling Bros. circus and later became the co-owner of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. The Ringling has an interactive Circus Museum and the miniature 44,000 piece Howard Bros. circus model. There’s also a pink Renaissance style Museum of Art, commissioned by John Ringling. It has an impressive collection of European paintings and Asian art, as well as temporary outdoor sculptures by artists such as Ai Wei Wei.

Visitors should not miss Ca’ d’ Zan, the former home of John and Mable Ringling. The name means House of John in the Venetian dialect and the decor was inspired by their frequent trips to Italy. Next to it, you’ll find Mable Ringling’s pride and joy, her Rose Garden. It’s the oldest rose garden in continual use in Florida and dates from 1913.

The Ringling has many other treasures including the 18th century Asolo Theater from Italy and the new Kotler-Coville Glass Pavilion.

Opening hours: 10 am to 5 pm daily, until 8 pm on Thursdays. Closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day

5401 Bay Shore Rd., Sarasota, FL 34243

Sarasota Classic Car Museum

There’s a wonderful selection of cars at the Sarasota Classic Car Museum, representing 100 years of automobile history. It’s the second oldest continually operating antique car museum in the United States. The collection features well known cars belonging to stars including John Lennon’s 1965 Mercedes Benz and Paul McCartney’s Mini Cooper. You can also see the Rolls Royce cars that belonged to John and Mable Ringling as well as many rotating exhibits.

Opening hours: 9 am to 6 pm, Monday to Sunday. Closed on Christmas Day.

5500 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34243

Art Center Sarasota

With four galleries, Art Center Sarasota provides creative opportunities to the whole community. They run youth programs including Creative Kids Saturday Classes and the Creative Kids Summer Art Camp. The exhibitions focus on local and regional art, showcasing many emerging and established talents.

Opening hours: 10 am to 4 pm, Monday to Saturday

707 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL

Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium

This iconic Sarasota museum plays an important role in wildlife conservation. Mote Marine has helped to rehabilitate many injured sea creatures such as manatees and turtles. In fact, they hold regular turtle spotting walks at a nearby beach in season. The Washed Ashore art exhibit features sharks and turtles made from plastic and other debris, in order to educate visitors on how to keep rubbish out of the ocean.

Mote scientists are leading 25 research programs including finding new ways to restore coral reefs. They’re also training local diver and snorkeler volunteers as part of their BleachWatch program to detect bleaching on coral, an early warning sign of damage.

There are over 100 species of fish and marine animals at Mote, as well as a 135,000 gallon shark habitat. Visitors can see inside some of the working labs such as the Seahorse Conservation Laboratory, through glass walls. Staff and volunteers are also on hand to answer your questions.

Opening hours: 10 am to 5 pm daily

1600 Ken Thompson Pkwy, Sarasota, FL 34236

Crowley Museum & Nature Center

A great place to discover more about pioneer history, Crowley Museum & Nature Center is fun for all the family. There’s a half-mile boardwalk which leads visitors through 5 different Florida habitats and a two story observation tower overlooking the Myakka river. The Children’s Discovery Path has five interactive stations with fun activities to get involved in. The museum itself houses some interesting pioneer artefacts and there’s also a sugar cane mill and a birding trail.

Opening hours: 10 am to 5 pm in fair weather, from Saturday to Sunday

9192, 16405 Myakka Rd, Sarasota, FL 34240

Historic Spanish Point

Spread over 30 acres, Historic Spanish Point is a fascinating insight into Floridian pre-history. Its one of the largest intact archaeological sites on the Gulf Coast from the prehistoric period. The Window to the Past exhibition is the only place in the United States where you can go inside a prehistoric shell midden or mound.

There’s also one of the largest butterfly gardens in Florida and many different natural habitats, with over 50% of the county’s native plants being represented here. Chicago socialite Bertha Palmer established a homestead here in 1910 and you can visit three of her gardens.

Opening hours: 9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Saturday and 12 – 5 pm on Sundays

337 N Tamiami Trail, Osprey, FL 34229

Save our Seabirds

Housing over 120 birds in their 3 acre site, Save our Seabirds aims to rehabilitate injured birds and to educate the public on how to minimize environmental risks to them. Their Birdwalk shows visitors how each species has adapted to its natural environment, and the Wild Bird Learning Center has some interesting educational displays.

Opening hours: 10 am to 5 pm daily

 1708 Ken Thompson Pkwy, Sarasota, FL 34236

Marietta Museum of Art & Whimsy

This colourful museum features quirky paintings and sculptures galore, as well as a tranquil garden. The Marietta Museum of Art & Whimsy is the passion project of local artist Marietta Lee. Some of her works are exhibited here as well as those of many other unique artists. What makes this place so special is the warm welcome that the volunteers give to visitors. They’ll provide you with as much or as little information as you want on the artworks.

Marietta herself is often at the museum to lend a hand. Even the restrooms here are works of art. There’s no café or gift shop but there is a kitchen manned by volunteers which gives you complimentary cookies and soft drinks. As entrance to the museum is free, donations are greatly appreciated.

Opening hours:  1 – 4 pm Thursdays to Saturdays and from November to May 

2121 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34234

The Ringling College of Art + Design

With over 50 exhibitions each year, all of which are free, the Ringling College of Art + Design is a key fixture on the Sarasota arts scene. Since opening more than 85 years ago, it’s helped students to develop their creative skills. These days its renowned for its computer animation programs.

Opening hours: 10 am to 4 pm, Monday to Friday

2700 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34234

Venice Museum & Archives

Housed in Triangle Inn which dates from 1927 the Venice Museum & Archives has a vast collection of over 30,000 objects and photographs. There are some interesting exhibits including a giant Megalodon shark and one on auto racing in Venice from 1953 to 1960.

Opening hours: 10 am to 4 pm from Monday to Wednesday, and 11 am to 3 pm on the 1st and 3rd Saturday from October to April

351 Nassau St S, Venice, FL 34285

Sarasota Tourist Attractions

The Children’s Garden

One of the most popular things to do in Sarasota with kids is to visit The Children’s Garden. There are fun storybook readings and many other activities like weekly art and gardening classes. A maze, pirate ship, secret garden, tree fort and three little pigs’ house are just some of the attractions.

Opening hours: 10 am to 5 pm daily

1670 10th Way, Sarasota, FL 34236

Unconditional Surrender

This huge statue by Seward Johnson commemorates the end of the Second World War and is said to be inspired by a photograph by Victor Jorgensen. The original bronze statue was created in 2005 with the help of computer technology and damaged by a car in 2012. It was replaced by the current statue in 2013.

Island Park Drive, Sarasota, FL 34236

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

With a magnificent setting on the shores of Sarasota Bay, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is one of the most popular Sarasota attractions. Voted among the top places to visit in Sarasota by TripAdvisor, it’s the only botanical garden in the world specialized in the study and display of epiphytes. If you’re wondering what epiphytes are, they’re plants that grow on other plants. Orchids, moss and many ferns are some of the best known examples. There’s a charming tea room and a gift shop as well as 15 acres of exotic flowers and plants to admire.

The children’s rainforest garden has a rope bridge, outdoor musical instruments and play area. The museum itself has some interesting temporary exhibitions, including Warhol: Flowers in the Factory, celebrating the role of nature in Andy Warhol’s art.

Opening hours: 10 am to 5 pm daily. Closed on Christmas Day

900 S. Palm Ave, Sarasota, FL 34236

Sarasota Jungle Gardens

Feeding flamingos by hand and talking to the resident parrots are just two of the fun things to do at Sarasota Jungle Gardens. There’s an interesting shell museum, a gift shop and café in their 10 acre grounds.

Opening hours: 10 am to 5 pm daily. Closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day

3701 Bay Shore Rd., Sarasota, FL 34234

Saraosota Opera

Sarasota Opera one of the foremost opera companies in the United States, celebrating its 58th season. The building dates from the 1920s and was formerly the Edwards Theatre, once playing host to Elvis Presley. It’s since been extensively renovated and is open to the public for tours – a fascinating behind the scenes experience.

Tour opening hours: Mondays when the opera is in season, at 10.30 am

61 N Pineapple Ave, Sarasota, FL 34236

In addition to visiting these amazing Sarasota museums and tourist attractions, take time to explore the other sights in this great Florida county. There are some incredible Sarasota beaches – one of them was even voted best beach in the USA by TripAdvisor and Dr Beach. You’ll also want to check out the wide range of Sarasota restaurants, from farm to table to gourmet dining. Fans of culture will love the art galleries on Palm Avenue in downtown Sarasota, while antique lovers will enjoy the colourful Burns Court area. You may find our guide to other Sarasota attractions helpful.

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Adelaide Botanic Gardens Wetland

Adelaide Botanic Gardens Wetland

Gardens

by Georgina Reid

Located on First Creek, the wetland is a highly urbanised waterway near the centre of Adelaide. The project ameliorates flooding, purifies polluted stormwater runoff, is the source for an Aquifer Storage and Recovery system, provides habitat and is an immersive educational and recreational resource. Photo – John Gollings.

The lower amphitheatre – Lecture Space, Rubbing Panels, Glass viewing windows. Photo – John Gollings.

As you move through the wetland interpretation installations provide factual information on plants and water in an engaging and immersive manner. Photo – John Gollings.

Pathways and a series of stepping stones throughout the wetland allow visitors to get up close and personal with their environment. Photo – John Gollings.

A mix of public art and integrated interpretation installations provide a series of experiences to stimulate imagination while engaging with the natural environment in a creative and innovative way.  Photo – John Gollings.

The sunken amphitheatre and observation deck encourage connection with the ecosystem. Photo – John Gollings.

The wetland is densely planted along the safety rock benches in lieu of fencing. Photo – John Gollings.

The public wandering throughout the wetlands. Photo – John Gollings.

Cities are wonderful places. They’re great at providing opportunities, connection, and celebrating culture. They’re also really good at insulating human lives from natural processes. Take water, for example. This incredible, life giving liquid just appears at the turn of a tap in most homes in Australia. The natural and mechanical processes required to get it to and from homes are virtually invisible. This is both smart and dangerous.

Invisible processes are harder to value; we humans are less inclined to care if something isn’t front-and-centre of our view. I can vouch for this first hand, having recently migrated to the bush where our water supply is 100% visible (we’re not connected to mains water). It’s the rain, roof, pipes and tank; if there’s no rain, there’s no water. All of a sudden, the value of water in our household has increased tenfold whilst our usage has decreased substantially.

Landscape architecture firm Taylor Cullity Lethlean (TCL) are masters of highlighting the poetry and processes of the natural world. One of their recent projects, the Adelaide Botanical Gardens Wetland, is illustrative of their layered approach. It recently won the 2017 Sustainability Award for Landscape and Urban Design.

Located in the south-east corner of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens (ABG), the 2.5-hectare wetland is a highly urbanised waterway near the centre of Adelaide. The system has a lot of work to do –  it’s designed to ameliorate flooding, collect and purify stormwater, provide habitat for native wildlife and replenish local aquifers so as to supply the entire water needs for the Adelaide Botanic Gardens in seven years’ time. This wasn’t enough of a challenge for TCL, however, so they expanded the brief to create a playful and educative space; allowing city dwellers to interact first hand with the way water moves through urban areas.

‘It was really important to us that we weren’t just delivering the functional design but were also educating the community about how precious water is,’ TCL director Damian Schultz tells me. ‘There’s a lot of water in our environment that is wasted, it goes straight out to sea. Having a design that integrates natural systems with environmental engineering systems and education was a fundamentally important outcome of the project.’

TCL achieved their aim of communicating the story of water in the city through the fusing of smart design, art and multidisciplinary collaboration. ‘We use art in our projects as a tool to make places interesting,’ Damian says. ‘To develop layers of meaning within design, and establish layers of narrative within precincts.’

Accessibility is a really important element of the design too, according to Damian. ‘As a culture, we’ve become so risk averse that we’re not encouraging anyone to engage with public space at all. The goal of this project was to engage people from all age groups by providing a variety of sensory, aesthetic, and educative experiences.’

Visitors are encouraged to interact with the wetland through a number of different spaces including a sunken amphitheatre (where visitors can see eye-to-eye with ducks and other water critters), an observation deck, pathways and a series of stepping stones throughout the wetland, allowing all visitors to get up close and personal with their environment.

There’s no life without water. Projects like the Adelaide Botanic Gardens wetlands by TCL are an important step towards both re-connecting us with the natural systems that support our existence; and implementing smarter, more environmentally sustainable solutions to nurture and conserve all life on earth. Now and in the future.

[tsgsanantoniotexas]

Great Space of Land Unknown: Spain Sets Up Shop

Last month, we dove headfirst into the origins and transformation of our city along the banks of the San Antonio River. This August, The Scout Guide will explore the ensuing sprawl of New Spain that occurred between the 18th and 19th centuries as we gear up for next year’s epic Tricentennial celebrations.

The Spanish first established the mission of San Antonio de Valero along San Pedro Creek, but were forced to move it after multiple instances of flooding and storm damage. Until recently, the creek had long since been essentially abandoned, and her place in our timeline glazed over by locals and visitors alike. Thanks to collaborative efforts by the San Antonio River Authority, Bexar County, and our city government, a pivotal project to transform the concrete-lined drainage ditch into a natural creek habitat and linear park is well underway! The San Pedro Creek Improvements Project runs from IH-35 and Santa Rosa Street to the confluence of the Alazán and Apache Creeks 2.2 miles to the south.

Project goals include providing flood mitigation, economic growth, improved water quality, and cultural links. Not only will the existing channel be deepened and widened to contain the 100-year floodplain within its banks, but this development will also put into better context the sorely underrepresented history of the indigenous populations that first lived here. Public workshops continue to regularly take place in an effort to ensure community input is collected and incorporated-- you can even sign up for one of their quarterly construction tours where you’ll get the inside scoop, be able to ask questions, and provide valuable feedback to the project team!

But we’re clearly getting ahead of ourselves! Back to the San Antonio of New Spain: six years and two moves took place before the Alamo landed in its current resting place. Mission San Jose was established in 1720 along the river and Missions San Juan, Concepción, and Espada would all be on the scene serving as religious and cultural centers by 1731 after their own respective failed starts in east Texas.

The missions served to spread the Spanish culture and Catholic faith to 200+ bands of indigenous peoples that lived in the area, who are typically and collectively referred to by scholars as “Coahuiltecans”. Spain was seeking to gain influence and control over vast regions in the Americas as other powerful countries, such as France and Great Britain, sought the same. European explorers and settlers brought disease, disruption, and death to natives all across the land, some scientists and historians estimate up to 95 percent of the indigenous population of the Americas was lost after 1492. Though, it should also be noted that the period of Columbian Exchange also brought with it a transformative exchange of plants, animals, and technology. Perhaps most famously, we have Spain to thank for bringing with them the ultimate tool and advantage of the period, the horse, which remains to this day indispensable to many here in Texas. Despite contention between crowns, what began as a humble system of missions and garrisons protecting a few roadways evolved into the official capital of New Spain and the foundation for her colonization of the New World.

On March 9, 1731, fifteen families totaling fifty-five Canary Islanders were brought to the secular settlement of Villa de Bejar, establishing it as the very first permanent civil settlement in Texas. The Islanders named their town "Villa de San Fernando" in honor of the Spanish prince, Don Fernando, who went on to claim his throne as King Ferdinand VI. The cornerstone of the Church of San Fernando, now Cathedral was laid in 1738, marking the beginning of the first ever parish church in Texas.

The following decades would witness war after war across the globe as assets and arrogance rearranged themselves. Most notably, the French and Indian War (also known as the Seven Years’ War), the American Revolution, and the French Revolution and all took place before 1800. Eight years later, Charles IV and Ferdinand VII were forced to abdicate in favor of the French Emperor, who then made his elder brother king. That same year, the ayuntamiento (city council) of Mexico City claimed sovereignty in the absence of the legitimate king, leaving little room to wonder about the political turmoil that spurned the Mexican War of Independence. 

The Tricentennial Commission has identified six major time periods which we’ll use to organize this blog series: -Pre-Columbian/Yanaguana | prior to 1718 -Spanish Colonial | 1718 - 1809 -Mexican | 1810 - 1836 -Texas Republic | 1836 - 1846 -Crossroads | 1846 - 1946 -Modern Times | 1946 - 2017

[corixus]

Coal Costs Condensed

A photo essay,  picturing a cost benefit analysis of the birth of the first industrial culture.

Based on a temporary sculpture trail created by members of ‘Sculpture Cymru’, at  Dyffryn Gardens. It explores the following 7 concepts that define ;place’:  ‘suffering’, ‘dislocation’,  ‘combination’, ‘traces’, invisibility’,  ‘messaging’, ‘finality’.

Suffering

Picture:  Patients at The Rest, Porthcawl, established as a seaside convalescent hospital for the working classes, particularly miners.  Circa 1920.  Credit: Richard Burton Archives, Swansea University.

A correspondent from the Morning Chronicle visiting Merthyr Tydfil, the South Wales hub of the British industrial revolution in 1850, was shocked to find the streets ‘thronged with the maimed and mutilated’.

Long-term chronic illness was endemic among coalminers. The industry’s newspaper, The Colliery Guardian, remarked in 1863 that ‘above the age of forty almost all miners are the subjects of chronic bronchitis and asthma’.

During the nineteenth century, there were about 100 non-fatal accidents in Britain’s mines for every fatal one, each resulting in an average loss of around 30 working days. Some led to permanent disabilities.

 In the years leading up to the First World War roughly 30,000 mineworkers in South Wales were involved in accidents each year that resulted in at least 7 days absence from work.  This rose to 40,000 a year during the 1920s, while the figure for Britain as a whole was over 200,000.

http://www.swansea.ac.uk/media-centre/news-archive/2015/disabilityinthesouthwalescoalfieldexhibitionrevealsanextraordinaryhiddenhistory.php

http://www.welshcoalmines.co.uk/forum/read.php?14,55029

Picture: Elizabeth Andrews’ To-Do-Pile

Elizabeth Andrews was born in the Welsh mining community of Penderyn, Rhondda Cynon Taf in 1882.  As a campaigner for mining families in the Rhondda valley in 1919, Elizabeth Andrews helped to outline the suffering of miners�� wives with poor social conditions such as overcrowded homes, poor sanitation and high death rate of children in the South Wales valleys.

 Mandy Lane’s figurative sculpture pays tribute to those who suffered such conditions, including those who contributed to the growth of Dyffryn Gardens in the late 19th century.

 "My sculptures explore relationships, fragility, power, vulnerability and neglect surrounding the family unit. My work is built upon my personal memories in my childhood. I work in mainly wax for its unstable fragile nature but sometimes casting in bronze. I also use mixed media from objects in my own family home”.

The wives of miners were responsible for washing and drying their husbands’ and sons’ clothes after they returned from their shift at the coal mine. For hours before the men arrived home from work they would boil enough water to scrub the clothes clean and to fill a tin bath for the men to wash in.

 Usually, the wives would dry the miners’ clothes in front of the fire at the end of every shift and then wash them at the end of the week. Scrubbing the clothes could take hours. The wives would usually do this in a tub in the back yard with a scrubbing board and some soap. They would have to lean over the tub and scrub hard until the clothes were clean – this was very hard work that put a great strain on their backs.

Most miners did not have a bathroom at home and so they had to wash in a tin tub in front of the fire in the living room or the back yard. The tub was too small for them to lie or even sit in, and the wives would often had to scrub the men’s backs to get rid of the coal dust.

The miners’ wet clothes would also be hung in the living room in front of the fire at the end of every shift or after the wives had washed them at the end of the week. It could take hours and hours for them to dry properly.

Many miners of that time had large families, and one of the wives’ main concerns was that a child could be badly burnt or even killed by falling into the scalding water. Many families lost young children in this way. After the woman of the house had finished washing and drying her husband and son’s clothes and preparing a warm bath after one shift at the coal mine, it would be time for another shift to start and they had to start the process of preparing the hot water all over again!

In 1919, Elizabeth Andrews, together with two miners’ wives, presented evidence about the lives of women in mining communities to the Sankey Commission established to investigate wages, working hours and conditions in the pits.

She cared passionately about the suffering she saw around her and vowed to change the lot of miners’ wives in the South Wales valleys. Her evidence made a compelling case of the importance of having pithead baths to reduce the pressure on women and the mortality rate among children.

The families were living in overcrowded houses, with poor sanitation and a high death rate among their children. The women had to boil water to wash clothes and for their husbands to bathe, because the houses had no boilers. The strain of lifting heavy bowls of water resulted in many premature births and serious illnesses among the women. Many children were scalded by the boiling water carried by their mothers. In addition, drying clothes in small kitchens was having a seriously detrimental effect on the health of the children.

http://www.hiraeth.wales/elizabeth-andrews-pioneering-welsh-social-activist/

https://sites.google.com/site/placeinculture/duffryn-gardens

Picture: Displacement of Species

Dislocation

The figures within Alison Lochhead’s 'Displacement of Species' are formed using a variety of materials from places associated with Dyffryn Gardens, and is designed to represent the displacement of materials and people from one place to another.

“Many different people have inhabited the Dyffryn land, from the Neolithic burial chambers nearby to the gardeners who went to war. Plants were brought from every quarter of the world funded by the extraction of coal from the land, which was shipped out to every quarter of the world. The gardens you are walking through are created from the movement of resources across the world."

- Alison Lochhead

Picture: Japanese Wisteria.  Dyffryn Gardens, May 2017.

Forming dense stands, it kills native shrubs and trees by strangling or shading them. The weight of vines can also topple large trees.

There are native, W. frutescens, and non-native types of wisteria, including Japanese wisteria (W. floribunda) and Chinese wisteria (W. sinensis).

Wisteria is sold in British garden centres and nurseries and can be found in numerous home gardens across the country.

Wisteria is an ornamental vine with fruit characteristic of the Legume Family (Fabaceae). In its forest home, growth of the wisteria vine is limited to the height of the plant that it climbs, often growing more than 65 feet in length.

Reaching a diameter of up to 15 inches, Japanese wisteria will twine clockwise around its host while Chinese wisteria will twine counter-clockwise.

The stem of Japanese wisteria is white in comparison to the dark grey bark of Chinese wisteria. Its leaves are pinnately compound, 4 to 16 inches long arranged alternately on stems, containing 13 to 19 leaflets. Leaflets are ovate in shape with wavy margins.

Flowers of wisteria are borne on 4 to 20 inch long racemes that hang when leaves are newly emerged. Japanese wisteria flowers typically flower from the base to the tip of the raceme and are lavender in colour.

Picture: Displaced global biodiversity: ferns, maple and wisteria. Dyffryn Gardens, May,2017.

http://defiantgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/gardensanddwelling.pdf

 Investigations of dooryard gardens, kitchen gardens, home gardens, and houselot gardens fall unequally into one of three groupings. The first are those that treat the plants in the gardens as biological entities and define a space considered a culturally controlled biological community or habitat. The second are those that consider plants cultural traits and the space defined by their positions a setting for household activities. The third conceives of plants as design elements within a garden or a landscape that frames a house or provides a setting for formal human performances. Recent decades have witnessed a broadening focus in the study of gardens, from spatial characteristics and biological content to social and cultural concerns such as reciprocity networks, contested spaces, and the concept of "dwelling." Keywords: dwelling spaces, gardens, hybrid landscapes, vernacular experience. 

Combination

Picture: Fisk

Nature and the man-made are Lee Odishow’s most prominent themes. Odishow's artistic aims to enhance or highlight the inherent beauty and complexities found within the world around us are also shown by the design of Fisk.

With its combination of organic and man-made industrial elements through the flow of the figurative form and the hard lines of the bolts and porthole, Fisk is a reflection of Odishow’s artistic influences in death rituals and ceremonial practices.

“Fisk gets its title from Almond. D. Fisk who patented the first cast iron burial casket in the 1800's. His sealed caskets had a viewing window for people to view the deceased within."

- Lee Odishow

Picture: Mine-Ours

The ‘Mine/Ours’ sculpture by Lyndon Mably is designed to reflect on the importance of coal mining in wealth creation in South Wales by emphasizing the stark contrast between the beauty of Dyffryn Gardens and the dangerous industry that helped form the property.

"My sculpture was created to highlight the industrial heritage that was a vital part in creating the grandeur of Dyffryn House and the verdant beauty of Dyffryn Gardens that visitors see today."

- Lyndon Mably

Traces

Picture: Sidetracked 

Valerie Coffin Price’s work is based on issues to do with the environment, language and culture identity, responding creatively to the language of poetry and place. A recurring theme is that of ‘journeying’, where to journey is to explore and discover cultural traces embedded in the land. Such traces and ‘unseen paths’ include fragments of objects, memories and history, which all connect us to the invisible world of currents, winds, ideas and language.

Situated within the arboretum, ‘Sidetracked’ is placed and designed to capture a sense of the fleeting beauty of the trees throughout the year, and ‘conversations’ with the arboretum and its visitors.

“to be sidetracked is, after all to be led astray by a path or an idea ..."

  - Richard Holmes, author and biographer of Shelley and Coleridge

Picture: Artificial ‘Wisteria Tree’  

The precise year in which plastic flowers were first sold is hard to ascertain, but a 1947 article described the manufacture of such flowers. William Fan-is (Alhambra, Calif.) used cellulose acetate sheets, plastic rods, vinyl tubing, and methyl methacrylate and made artificial flowers of gardenia, orchid, and calla lily. Wood fibre, paper, cloth, wax, and glass had been used in the manufacture of artificial flowers, but each had major handicaps. Plastic flowers, although appearing to be fragile, were resilient and durable. The Japanese were making celluloid flowers in 1955 and vinyl flowers in 1956. Polyethylene flowers were manufactured in Italy in 1957 and, by 1958, Hong Kong had become a major supplier of plastic flowers. Scented plastic flowers soon became available from France and Spain. Such flowers were made by injection, moulding, and extrusion, but most colours were mixed secretively. The manufacture of polyethylene and polyvinyl flowers was part of the economic programme “Operation Bootstrap” in Puerto Rico in the late 1950s in an attempt to improve the local economy.

http://horttech.ashspublications.org/content/3/1/28.full.pdf

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/magazine/letter-of-recommendation-fake-flowers.html?_r=0

 Invisibility

Picture: Spiked Pollen Form II

“An aspect of pollen that is intriguing to me is that individual pollens are invisible to the naked eye, so their forms exist normally in a sphere invisible to us, in a secret world, and yet through the technology of the electron microscope and the work of sculptors, their nature can be made visible and even tangible."

- Dilys Jackson MRBS

Picture: Magnified fragment of coal

Reginald Cory was the son of Sir John Cory, a Welsh coal-mining millionaire.  In 1930, Cory married Rosa Kester, who worked as secretary in the Cambridge  Botanic Garden and who shared his passion for plants and field botany. His obituary in the Annual Report of 1934 says:  

‘He was a man of attractive personality with wide and often unusual interests, who, with singular modesty and self-effacement, contributed not only to the advancement of the science which he loved and practised, but also to many other good causes.’

‘Reginald Cory had a lifelong passion for plants and gardens and gave generously in support of many horticultural causes and establishments including Cambridge University Botanic Garden and the Royal Horticultural Society.’  Juliet Day, Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, 2006

Cory served on several RHS committees and had sponsored The Cory Cup for Dahlias from 1923.  This award has now been extended to the best hardy plant of garden origin.  Since 1997, The RHS Reginald Cory Memorial Cup has been awarded to the grower of important hybrids of any genus.

Reginald Cory commissioned and attended plant hunting expeditions all over the world. As a result, Dyffryn’s plant collections are unique and incredibly important horticulturally.  He is the invisible maestro who orchestrated the gardens as we see them today. His life marked the passing of an era of cheap manual labour, the hidden workforce, which was necessary to maintain acres of private pleasure gardens and scrub and clean a huge house for the comfort of three privileged people.

  Picture: Attics and Chimneys; the hidden workforce.

The servant class boomed in the late 19th century as the expanding empire and industrial revolution created new wealth. It became fashionable for the up-and-coming middle classes like the Corys of Dyffryn to mimic the aristocracy and hire cooks, maids, housekeepers and gardeners.  Tens of thousands of young people flocked from the countryside to work in big houses.

At the turn of the 20th century, when the population of Britain was only 36million, there were 1.5 million servants. That is more than worked on the land or in factories. They were confined to attics and basements, warmed, like their masters and mistresses, gathering close to open coal fires.

 Reflection

Picture: Reflection

As a reflection of the past and present, Gwyneth Price’s sculpture is based on both the period before World War I where a large number of people were needed to keep the Dyffryn Gardens estate in perfect condition, and also today where the people who work in the grounds are still an essential part of its appearance and history.

  "The War ended the lives of some workers, while others found different work as a result of their experiences at the front. The garden faded. Now the group of volunteer gardeners give freely of their time guided by National Trust staff”

Finality

Picture: Forever Winter

With reference to World War I and the downward spiral of neglect and lack of manpower as men were sent to war, Sue Roberts’ ‘Forever Winter’ reflects on winter and finality of life through the words of Rainer Maria Rilke, a Bohemian-Australian poet and novelist.

“Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were

behind you, like the winter that has just gone by.

For among these winters there is one so endlessly winter

that only by wintering through it will your heart survive.”

"After the war, it was through care, dedication, and hard work that is still continuing today to restore and keep the unique history and beauty of Dyffryn Gardens”.

 This sculpture represents the finality of a garden.   Finality is the quality of being final and impossible to change. It is the objective of re-creation because if you say something with finality, you say it in a way that shows that you have made up your mind about something and do not want to discuss it further

Messaging

Picture: Postcards from the front (I am quite well)

John Howes' brass engraved sculpture makes reference to Field Postcards sent from the front by soldiers of the British Army during World War I. Pre-printed postcards were issued with a selection of messages that the soldiers were allowed to tick or cross out as suited them. Read in any order, they give a glimpse into the experience of the men and their words unwritten.

  "My installation makes reference to the brass of shell casings, and the field postcards he my Grandfather, Lance Corporal Alfred Howes sent from the Somme [1916 – 1918] to my father, who was then just a boy of three years of age.

To communicate the social burden of countless lives lost since the 'war to end all wars', Glenn Morris' sculpture gives the impression of a formal memorial. The principal element of a greatly enlarged butterfly egg references the frailty of life and the transient, ephemeral beauty yet to emerge.

 The sculpture, which took 300 hours to carve and weighs about 250 kilos, comprises of 187 lead Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary butterflies, a threatened and declining species.

It is said that in breaks between shelling on the battlefield in the Somme, when silence prevailed, birdsong filled the air and butterflies fluttered over the trenches. Some soldiers believed that these represented the lost souls of their comrades.These butterflies help to reflect the contrast between the destruction of the battlefield and the fragile beauty of the natural world.

 "Since the First World War, 187 million people have been killed in conflicts around the world. The butterflies on ‘Lost Comrades’ are made from lead bullets collected from the Somme and each butterfly represents 1 million people killed since the end of the ‘war to end all wars’."

- Glenn Morris