Avid gardeners are ordering seeds and planning new beds for the coming growing season. How about adding actual selling to those plans?
That’s a message from Noble Neighbors, a neighborhood organization based in Cleveland Heights, which is launching a Gardener’s Market to begin Saturday, July 20 and continue every Saturday through September 21. According to Brenda May, a Noble Neighbors leader, “We think the time is ripe for a venue strictly for home gardeners and community garden members who want to generate additional income and participate in the broader community.”
The market will be the region’s first market in which only backyard and community garden growers (no professional farmers) can sell extra fruits, vegetables and flowers. Initially, the market won’t be offering any kind of processed food.
Noble Neighbors tested the concept last summer with several “pilot” garden market Saturdays. The location of the market was (and will be) a small park belonging to the City of Cleveland Heights along the major thoroughfare of Noble Road at Roanoke Road (a block north of Monticello) and is the site of both significant foot and auto traffic. “We experienced strong interest from customers and potential customers,” says May. “We’re confident that a larger market with more offerings will be a success.”
Noble Gardeners’ Market organizers hope to attract a variety of gardeners from local communities beyond the immediate neighborhood. “We think the opportunity to offer home produce at no space-rental charge is unique to the region,” May says. “Our goal is both to allow gardeners to make money and to increase the feeling of neighborliness in the area.”
Sellers must bring their own table or ground cloth, be prepared to make change for their customers and provide their own weather protection.
Further information will be posted on the Noble Neighbors website www.nobleneighbors.com. Send inquiries to NobleNeighbors@gmail.com
Hummingbirds are a pollinator. There are a few plants that only they can pollinate, such as Cardinal Flower (photo from my yard above) and Royal Catchfly. We can save hummingbirds with more than sugar water. During the summer, hummingbirds nectar from my plants and rarely use the feeder. They are a woodland bird, so plant native trees for cover and places to raise young. Plant chemical-free, tubular shaped nectar plants for food. Here is a list what I’ve provided in my Ohio yard to save hummingbirds.
Adding native plants to your yard doesn’t need to be weedy. You can landscape them just like you would non-native plants. I was interviewed in the recently updated Ohio Animal Companion articles about going native and how to create a functioning wildlife habitat. Ask native plant vendors to help you with your selection so you can put the right plant in the right place. A link for the Ohio list is in the going native article, but for other state lists, click here.
We can save bees in our yards. They work hard for us by providing 1 out of every 3 bites of our food, so please don’t swat at them. Don’t confuse bees with wasps, hornets or yellow-jackets that sting to protect their nests. Carpenter bees fly beside me and buzz loudly, but they are harmless. If carpenter bees drill holes into your wood that cause problems, paint the wood with polyurethane in early spring right after the bees have emerged. Provide clean water in a shallow dish with rocks, plant the Cup Plant, which holds dew, or make mud or sand puddles. Buy plants from a reputable organic native plant dealer to ensure that the plants don’t contain pesticides that kill bees. Plant a variety of native plants that bloom at different times throughout the season. For a bee plant list, enter your zip code to see your Pollinator-Friendly Plant Guide.
Good news: National Wildlife Federation honors America’s Top Ten Cities for Wildlife. Cincinnati, Ohio is a new one on the list. Be inspired.
Tips for Your Yard
Organic Lawn Care: Apply Corn Gluten when the soil reaches 50 degrees (between 3/15 and 4/10 in central Ohio, when crocus blooms) as a pre-emergent broadleaf weed control
5 weeks after using Corn Gluten (if we’ve had enough rain), over-seed weedy or bare areas with a pesticide-chemical-free grass seed, like TLC Titan, available at most home and garden centers; keep seed damp until grass is 2″ high
Pull out weeds or spot-treat weeds sparingly with an organic product, only if necessary, such as Iron (a few brands are Whitney Farms Lawn Weed Killer Iron, Fiesta or Garden’s Alive Iron X)
Mow high to shade out weeds (3″-4″)
Bluebird houses: Transparent fishing line (monofilament) deters house sparrows from killing bluebirds and other cavity nesting birds in their bird houses, except that 20-lb is recommended instead of 6-lb weight
Birds love moving water, but it’s easy to trip or mow over the tiny hose for a dripper. Using a shovel, create a slit in the lawn about 3-5″ deep and 1″ wide by rocking the shovel back and forth. Push the tiny hose down and close the soil over it to make the soil flat and protect the hose for the season. The hose will be easier to remove when the ground starts to freeze than if you buried it
Plant native milkweed for Monarch butterflies
Leave plant materials in place throughout winter and into the nesting season to supply bird nesting materials naturally. Here are ideas for extra bird-nesting materials
When an invasive Garlic Mustard plant is in its second-year, the flowering stage, gently dig out the entire root of the plant. If you can ID the first-year rosette, gently pull it out. Important: Bag the flowering stage plant and put the bag in the trash (not in compost or yard waste) because the plant continues to go to seed even after removed from the ground
In spring, invasive bushes become green before most native plants, so they’re easy to see. Cut the invasive plant at or near ground level and cover with cardboard. If it is pesky, cover with black plastic
To keep an Invasive Plant away, put an alternative native plant (if a bush: a bush; if a flower: a flower) in its place
Cut flower stalks to 12-15″ and leave them standing until summer (late May to early June in the Midwest) after the small carpenter bees that used them for nests have emerged
Put out hummingbird feeders April 15 to Oct 15 in mid-Ohio to help Ruby-throated hummingbird migrants and summer residents. Watch this migration map for timing in other areas
Contact your Public Health Department to find out if your city does mosquito fogging and, if so, ask how to opt out. These chemicals kill beneficial insects, including bees and Monarch caterpillars
Help migratory birds by turning your outdoor lights off or down 11:30pm-5am from mid-March to mid-June to keep birds from being disoriented and having nighttime collisions
Apply organic tree fertilizer to the root zone to help trees make leaves
When you have your chimney cleaned in early spring, close the damper, uncap it and add a cover 12″ above chimney with openings on the sides so that a pair of Chimney Swifts can use it for their summer home and nest for babies. See tips here
If you find unattended baby or injured wildlife in your yard, here’s what to do from the Ohio Wildlife Center Hospital
Reg now for 4/28, Conversations on Conservation: Basic Bugs 101 with the Bug Chicks, Garden for Wildlife Exhibit, Fee for non-members, Cincinnati Nature Center, Milford
These days everybody’s gotta have an acronym – something catchy to remember you by. Well LEAP is catchy. But LEAP where? What do the letters represent? The short version: Lake Erie Allegheny Partnership. The long version includes two more words whose initials don’t make it into the acronym: for Biodiversity. But there are two more P’s that play a part in this alliterative game I’m playing – Plain, and Plateau.
photo by Laura Dempsey
As in the Lake Erie Lake Plain, and the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau (that area that, thousands of years ago, was covered by glaciers). These are ecoregions lying along the southern shore of Lake Erie, covering an area that stretches from just east of Sandusky to Buffalo, New York. On the western end it dips down in a narrow extension toward Mansfield and Columbus, then back up again before it swoops down at its widest to include Youngstown, before narrowing increasingly and tightening as it pushes up against the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania and New York. It’s an area where northern boreal biome remnants rub up against mixed eastern hardwood remnants, which rub up against more southerly Appalachian forest remnants. Because of all this biological jostling, it is a rich place of diverse and unique habitats and ecosystems, examples of which are to be found within a network of public and private lands throughout the glaciated region of northeastern Ohio, northwestern Pennsylvania, and western New York. The LEAP publication, A Legacy of Living Places, presents an overview of those habitats and where to find them.
A partnership is, of course, a group of people or organizations that come together around a cause or issue. Founded in 2004 and housed within the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, as of January 2018, the LEAP partnership now includes 56 members. Counted among them are cities, park districts, museums, universities, research labs, conservancies and land trusts, watershed districts, nature centers, arboretums, native plant societies, local businesses, and more. Your community or organization could belong, too. What brings all these diverse organizations and entities together, and in sustained communication, is the shared mission of protecting and supporting the LEAP region’s natural biological diversity. There are not a lot of partnerships like it.
photo by Laura Dempsey
Such a broad membership helps dedicated conservation professionals and educators, and enthusiastic conservation nonprofessionals and volunteers, to document and to disseminate information. LEAP does everything from sponsoring invasive garlic mustard pulls in the springtime, conducting counts of West Virginia White Butterflies at the same time (the butterfly unwittingly lays its eggs on garlic mustard, to their detriment), to tracking the spread of beech leaf disease, or the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid in the region’s forests. There is a Conservation fund that attracts and distributes funds for conservation and protection projects. In conjunction with and through its partners, LEAP offers workshops, events, and public programs that encourage environmental awareness.
photo by Laura Dempsey
LEAP meets every two months at a different location each meeting. Each meeting is centered on a topic speaker. The next meeting will take place on Wednesday, March 20 at 10 am, at the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes; the topic will be the proposed removal of the dam blocking the Cuyahoga River in Cuyahoga Falls, where the river begins its turn to head north.
Grand River; photo by Laura Dempsey
The yearly publication of the 3 native plants of the year postcards is an example of a LEAP initiative. This card is produced with the intention that it will encourage the use of native plants by landscape designers and property owners, while simultaneously partnering with the nursery industry to create an adequate supply of these plants.
Recent work: Over the past year the LEAP Regional Biodiversity Plan Committee has been working to create a vision document to help guide regional conservation-related activities ranging from land acquisition and conservation easements to policy-making, restoration, and mitigation. It will identify core habitats and supporting landscapes. Gardenopolis Cleveland will write more about this soon.
photo by Laura Dempsey
There are 14 ecoregions recognized in the LEAP area. You can find all these communities listed and described in A Legacy of Living Places. Many example of each are listed, many of which are to be found in area parks and are thus freely open to the public. Others are part of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s collection of protected properties, with restricted access only through the museum. Trips are offered throughout the year. Become a member of the museum, if you have not already done so. Check museum scheduled offerings.
The snow may be keeping us out of our gardens, but it’s not keeping us home! At least one representative of Gardenopolis will be attending each of the events listed below. Hope to see you there!
Bringing Nature Home
Garden as if life depends on it – Doug Tallamy, entomologist/author
Go Wild in your Own Yard! Date: Thursday, February 21, 7-8:30 pm Location: Brody/Nelson Room, Heights Library, 2345 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights Discover what local native flowers, ferns, sedges, and shrubs will thrive in your yard to benefit insects, birds, and life on earth. Presented by Friends of Lower Lake co-chair Peggy Spaeth.
Plant This, Not That Date: Thursday, March 21, 7-8:30 pm Location: Room A-B, Heights Library, 2345 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights Learn how to deal with garden thugs that take over your garden and our natural areas. Why are non-native plants undesirable? Where did they come from and why? Examples of what to plant instead will be discussed. Presented by Friends of Lower Lake co-chair John Barber.
Not the Last Children in the Woods! Date: Thursday, April 4, 7-8:30 pm Location: Stephanie Tubb Jones Community Center Room 114, Shaker Heights More than 100 children are growing up growing native plants in the Garden Clubs of Onaway and Lomond Elementary Schools in Shaker Heights. Tim Kalan, their art teacher who planted this idea, will talk about how a community as well as healthy habitat has grown up with the gardens.
The Powerful Partnerships of Plants and Pollinators Date: Thursday, April 11, 7-8:30 Location: Room 1-2, University Heights Library, 13866 Cedar Road, University Heights Learn what native plants are needed to supply a rich foraging habitat for pollinators and wildlife, in addition to plant communities that provide nest sites for native bees, host plants for butterflies and overwintering refuge for other beneficial insects. Presented by Ann Cicarella, gardener, beekeeper, and landscape architect as well as the organizer of the annual Cleveland Pollinator and Native Plant Symposium.
Stewardship in our Backyards Date: Monday, April 22, 7-8:30 pm – Earth Day Location: Nature Center at Shaker Lakes, 2600 South Park, Cleveland Join us to learn how the Nature Center maintains our natural areas in an urban environment and easy steps you can take at home to be a good earth steward. In our modern day, leaving nature “to take its course” isn’t enough to preserve healthy habitats. Mother Nature needs a little help from her friends. We’ll talk about the challenges, tools and techniques used to keep our habitats healthy. We will also discuss recent and upcoming projects at the Nature Center. A Q&A session at the end will provide you with the opportunity to ask Nick Mikash, Nature Center at Shaker Lakes Natural Resources Specialist, your stewardship-related questions. A short hike will follow the presentation.
Other Ohio Events
Garden History: Thomas Jefferson – Landscape Architect Date: Sunday, February 24, 2-4 pm Location: Holden Arboretum Cost: $5 members, $20 nonmembers Speaker: Greg Cada, OSU Extension A garden history presentation using the life of Thomas Jefferson to illustrate the horticultural influences that shaped him for producing his landscape architectural and garden projects. Extensive pictures include Colonial Williamsburg, Monticello, Poplar Forest and the University of Virginia. Historic garden restoration and design considerations are included.
Crooked Chronicles: A Century of River Clean Up in Cuyahoga Valley Date: Friday, March 1, 7-9 pm Doors open at 6 pm with drop-in tables about current environmental projects. Location: Happy Days Lodge, 500 W Streetsboro St, Peninsula, OH 44264 Free admission; advance registration preferred How was the Cuyahoga River transformed from a health hazard to the centerpiece of a national park? A panel of experts piece together the 100-year story within Cuyahoga Valley using historic photos, archival documents, and personal memories. Come join the discussion. Moderated by the League of Women Voters Akron Area. Supported by West Creek Conservancy, Xtinguish Celebration, Ohio Humanities and Cleveland Humanities Festival.
Ohio Woodland Water and Wildlife Conference Date: Wednesday, March 6, 9:30 am to 3:30 pm Location: Mid-Ohio Conference Center, 890 West Fourth Street, Mansfield, OH 44906 Cost: $60 Early Registration, $80 Late Registration Presentations for the day will cover a wide range of topics and include: Missing Trees: Effects of the Loss of Ash and Chestnut on Forest Ecosystems Glyphosate and Pesticide Safety Update Harmful Alga Blooms in Ponds: Concerns and Mitigation/Management The Ohio Credible Data Program: Certification Requirements and Training Opportunities Bird Conservation in Ohio: Past, Present and Future Challenges Using Social Science as a Tool to Inform Wildlife Management
Author Andrew Reeves Discusses the Asian Carp Crisis and Its Threat to the Great Lakes Date: Monday, March 25, 7 pm Location: Hudson Library and Historical Society, 96 Library Street, Hudson, Ohio 44236 Cost: Free with registration Award-winning environmental journalist Andrew Reeves discusses his book, Overrun: Dispatches from the Asian Carp Crisis. In his book, Reeves traces the carp’s explosive spread throughout North America from an unknown import meant to tackle invasive water weeds to a continental scourge that bulldozes through everything in its path and now threatens to reach the Great Lakes.
Ohio Botanical Symposium Date: Friday, March 29, 8 am to 4 pm Location: Villa Milano Banquet and Conference Center, 1630 Schrock Rd. Columbus, OH 43229 Grasslands of the eastern United States, Huffman Prairie, Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative, bogs and fens, endangered species conservation, rushes, and best plant discoveries will be highlighted at the 2019 Ohio Botanical Symposium on Friday, March 29. The event also features a media show and displays from a number private and public conservation organizations, as well as vendors offering conservation-related items for purchase. More than 400 botanical enthusiasts attend this every-other year event. Hosts: The ODNR Division of Natural Areas and Preserves The Cleveland Museum of Natural History The Nature Conservancy — Ohio Chapter Ohio State University Herbarium
Next Silent Spring? Date: Sunday, April 28, 2-4 pm Location: Cleveland Museum of Art Recital Hall Cost: Free The Northeast Ohio Sierra Club is holding this event to commemorate Earth Day 2019. Rachel Carson raised the red flag years ago. Pesticides were not only killing insects, but also disrupting the delicate balance of nature. Now history is repeating itself. Laurel Hopwood, Senior Advisor to Sierra Club’s Pollinator Protection Program, will show the outstanding documentary Nicotine Bees. Pollinator populations are declining. How does this affect our food supply? How does this affect our entire ecosystem? A panel of experts will discuss how everyone can help move things forward. ● Dr. Mary Gardiner, Associate Professor in the OSU Department of Entomology, and her graduate students have been introducing pollinator pockets throughout vacant lots in Cleveland. ● Tom Gibson, principal of Green Paradigm Partners, uses his soil building and community organizing skills to help revive neighborhoods. ● Elle Adams, founder of City Rising Farm, helps people in underserved communities learn to grow fresh local food and create opportunities in their own neighborhoods. For more info, please contact Laurel at lhopwood@roadrunner.com
Recently several of Gardenopolis’ editors traveled to the Toledo Museum of Art to see the installation by Rebecca Louise Law. Composed of a vast multitude of infinitesimally thin wires of natural and artificial materials hanging/descending from a two story ceiling, this was a magical experience, as the pictures show. Originally installed when most of the materials were fresh, by the next to last week of its run, when we saw it, the flowers, seed heads, and leaves were desiccated, but still entirely recognizable, and often still quite colorful. It was quiet inside the hall in which they hung. If people talked to each other, it was quietly, as if it would be wrong somehow to impose on what was a kind of meditation. There were subtleties to be enjoyed, such as the muted mysterious shadows of the plant materials reflected on the walls by the muted lighting.
Re-visiting Rockman
About a month or so ago we ran an article on the Alexis Rockman art exhibit at MOCA Cleveland: The Great Lakes Cycle (also now closed). That article spurred a query from one reader about why fertilizer contamination is currently a problem in the agricultural lands of northwestern Ohio. To whit: “I thought there were regulations in place.”
Around the same time that I visited the Rockman show, I also attended a panel discussion held at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History on Lake Erie. Two of the participants in particular spoke to this issue, Dr. Laura Johnson, Director of the National Center for Water Quality Research, Heidelberg University, and Dr. Jeff Reutter, former director of Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab. They were two of four panelists. The following is my attempt to corral their part of a discussion — that necessarily jumped about a good bit — into a single organized presentation. Any errors are entirely my own.
What we know: Our lake is a finite resource. It is the 13th largest lake in the world. It is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, and because of that, it is the most productive as a fishery. But this shallowness also makes it extremely vulnerable. The lives of 3,500 species are tied to the health of the lake. Many are now endangered. What happened?
We know that the highly productive farmlands of northwestern Ohio are the result of draining what once was called the Great Black Swamp, a formidable wetland monster that was tamed for agriculture by a system of underground drainage that carries water off the land into ditches, and thence into the natural watershed (primarily the Maumee River). We know that modern farming involves fertilizers, both natural and chemical, being applied to the land at the start of the growing season. But fertilizer doesn’t stay put. Inevitably some of it gets into the watershed. In the late 1960’s people realized the shallowest part of Lake Erie, the Western Basin, was, as a result, becoming a giant cesspool. Regulation followed, and, for a time, it was better. Around the year 2000, however, the quality of the water again took a turn for the worse. Here are two of the panel members explaining this.
Dr. Jeff Reuter: Mid 1990 to the present has seen an increase in dissolved phosphorus entering the lake, which is a form that is very easy for the harmful algae to use. In 2008, 3,800 tons of phosphorus entered Lake Erie from the Maumee watershed, the largest of Lake Erie’s tributary watersheds. To reduce phosphorus from agriculture entering Lake Erie, we are using a system of voluntary incentives and disincentives meaning that we are offering only carrots, not sticks. We are also seeing the impact of climate change, with more severe storms producing more run off. The system sets up a false dichotomy of farm economy against lake economy (that lake economy is valued at 14 billion dollars). We want both.
Dr. Laura Johnson: It does not take a lot of phosphorus in the warm shallow waters of the western basin to cause a nuisance problem…. i.e., a lot of farms, leaking a little bit. Most farmers now apply at recommended rates and data suggests that application of phosphorus and removal via crops is largely in balance. The best reasoning for the losses is that phosphorus application on the soil surface associated with broadcasting in the fall combined with the massive system of subsurface tile drainage is allowing for excess dissolved phosphorus loss. Thus efforts should be focused on nutrient management- that is applying phosphorus at the right rate, time, and place. For instance, some studies suggest inject phosphorus fertilizer deeper than 2 inches in the soil could reduce losses by 60%. However, there needs to be more incentives to provide the appropriate technology to farmers to increase the use of this practice.
We’ve had some extremely large blooms since 2008, some of which were very toxic. The toxin produced by these cyanobacteria, Microcystin, is more toxic than cyanide. Although these toxins are filtered out at the drinking water treatment facility, the costs have increased drastically and can be over $10,000 a day in Toledo during bad blooms years. The high level of toxins entering this plants could get to a point where it overwhelms filtering capabilities. At the present time the western basin is the most affected, but the blooms in the western basin move over to the central basin threatening water intakes there as well. The central basin also has different blooms that prove challenging for the region. Clevelanders will be relieved to know that, unlike Toledo, Cleveland has multiple water intakes, thus, Cleveland’s water supply is not as vulnerable.
An artist of our own
The artist Charles Burchfield was born in Ashtabula Harbor (I am taking this from explanatory material from the exhibit – and I don’t know about you, but upon reading this I found myself hoping he wasn’t literally born in Ashtabula Harbor), and studied at The Cleveland School of Art (now CIA). After WWI he returned to northeast Ohio. Burchfield, like Rockman, was a watercolorist, but to a very different purpose. Both are representational painters, but where Rockman uses his considerable skill to create hyper-realistic paintings that are muralistic, that tell a story of environmental purity and degradation over time, Burchfield used color and form in small paintings that express personal emotion and mood through landscape. For example, in the picture of the tree with the branches reaching up to a glowing sun, Burchfield suggests the divine influence he saw in nature.
In another painting, the accompanying sign explains, an
orange stream divides an area of barren yellow from an area of lush green,
suggesting the impact of mining – often abandoned after the resource had been
depleted — on the eastern Ohio landscape.
Even Burchfield’s pencil drawing of a chestnut tree, while explicitly representational, seems deeply imbued with mood.
The Burchfield exhibit is current and can be found in the small gallery opposite the gift shop at the Cleveland Museum of Art. A reminder for seniors: if you are a member, parking is free on Tuesdays.
by Garrett Ormiston, GIS and Stewardship Specialist, Natural Areas Division, The Cleveland Museum of Natural History
The Museum’s Natural Areas Program
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is home to a unique conservation program which has protected some of the highest-quality natural sites in Northeast Ohio. This program, known as the Museum’s ‘Natural Areas Division’ was formally created in 1956 with the purchase of a portion of a small bog in Geauga County known as ‘Fern Lake Bog’. This preserve acquisition was conducted under the leadership of Museum Director William Scheele. The natural areas program has since grown to include more than 10,000 acres of land that have been conserved through either direct land purchase by the Museum, or through the purchase of conservation easements held over privately-owned land.
In total, the Museum has conserved 58 distinct nature preserves that are as far-flung as Kelleys Island and the Huron River watershed to the west, the Ohio-Pennsylvania line to the east, and the Akron-Canton metropolitan area to the south. These preserves contain a plethora of different habitat types that are wide-ranging and include peat bogs and fens, glacial alvar, forested wetlands, and sand barrens. Indeed, each preserve is a unique example of a particular habitat with distinct plant communities that existed naturally within our region before European settlement.
Natural Areas of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Map by Garrett Ormiston.
The Museum is very focused in its mission to conserve sites that contain unique habitat or that harbor rare species. In Ohio, rare species are listed as endangered, threatened, or potentially-threatened based on the number of populations in the State. The Museum’s program is unique in that its conservation efforts are largely steered by the research and inventory work conducted by the Museum’s staff. For instance, inventory data that is collected from field surveys conducted by the Museum’s various departments is compiled in Ohio’s Heritage Database which is managed by the Ohio Division of Wildlife. It is the data from this Heritage Database that helps determine which species are considered ‘rare’ in the State, as opposed to species that might simply be overlooked or not studied. Indeed, a rare species list is only as good as the data that is fed in to it, and the Museum is the main contributor in Northeast Ohio to the State’s Heritage Database. It is true that the Museum’s collections and research are literally driving its conservation efforts in Northeast Ohio.
The Museum ramped up its conservation efforts significantly around 1980 under the leadership of its Curator of Botany and Director of Natural Areas, Dr. James Bissell. Between 1980 and 2005, The natural areas program more than doubled in size. And between 2006 and the present, the program has more than doubled a second time. Over the last year, the Museum has seen the acquisition of several important tracts of land, which are described in detail below.
Expansion of the Mentor Marsh Preserve
One of the Museum’s oldest natural areas is the Mentor Marsh Preserve which is dedicated as a State Nature Preserve in Ohio. This 780-acre preserve was once a sprawling swamp forest system. Rich silver maple-dominated swamp flats and vernal pools covered the landscape, interspersed with small areas of open water, and emergent wetlands dominated by Greater bur-reed (Sparganium eurycarpum), a species that was likely one of the largest components of emergent wetlands in our region before invasive species like narrow-leaf cattail and canary grass became dominant.
The Museum took ownership of Mentor Marsh in 1965 after a grassroots effort to conserve the site was carried out between 1960 and 1965. The Museum owns the site through a combination of a land transfer and a long-term leasing arrangement with the State of Ohio.
Unfortunately, the biological integrity of Mentor Marsh was dramatically altered in 1966 with the influx of salt contamination from an adjacent site. The water in Mentor Marsh became excessively saline, and caused the trees within the swamp forest to perish and to be replaced by a nearly 800-acre monoculture of giant reed grass (Phragmites australis), a non-native invasive grass that is salt tolerant, spreads quickly and aggressively, and can reach heights of more than 15 feet in a single season, displacing all manner of native vegetation. What was once a diverse ecosystem was transformed in to a landscape dominated by a single invasive species.
Since 2015, the Museum has been engaged in an ambitious project to rid Mentor Marsh of the invasive Phragmites, and to restore the site to native vegetation. This effort has been led by Museum Restoration Specialist, Dr. David Kriska, and has involved the aggressive treatment and removal of the Phragmites at the site, as well as the planting of native plant plugs and seed mixes to re-establish native vegetation. While the site may never return to the swamp forest it once was, the Museum envisions the 800-acre marsh basin returning to a rich diversity of native wetland plants including swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), and Greater bur-reed (Sparganium eurycarpum), among other species.
Native plants being planted at Mentor Marsh after Phragmites removal. Photo by Dr. David Kriska.
At the start of the restoration project at Mentor Marsh, the Museum did not own the entire marsh basin. This created a problem in that large swaths of the marsh were still under private ownership. Those areas would not have been able to be included in the Phragmites removal efforts. The Museum addressed this problem through a combination of land acquisitions and management agreements with private owners within the marsh that allowed for invasive species treatment of the entire Mentor Marsh basin.
Sections of the marsh were seeded by a helicopter with a mix of native plant species. Photo by Dr. David Kriska.
In July 2018, the Museum purchased the 25-acre Fredebaugh Property in the southeast section of the marsh basin, a site that extended out in to the Mentor Marsh basin. This property purchase was funded through a grant from the State of Ohio’s Clean Ohio program. At the same time the Museum acquired a 20-acre conservation easement in the far-western section of the Marsh basin.
Consolidating the Museum’s land ownership of the marsh basin through such acquisitions is the best way to insure that the Museum is able to manage the site in the long-term. If isolated stands of invasive Phragmites are allowed to persist in the marsh basin, they will remain a seed source that will allow continued invasion in to the preserve.
The Windsor Woods Preserve
In August 2018, the Museum purchased an additional 572 acres of land at its Windsor Woods Preserve, creating a sprawling 643-acre preserve nestled in the heart of the Grand River lowlands region. This purchase was funded through two grants, one from the State’s Water Resource Restoration Sponsorship Program (WRRSP), and a second grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission through the Clean Ohio program. The WRRSP grant was utilized as matching funds towards the Clean Ohio grant. The Museum had worked to protect Windsor Woods for more than 10 years, and had engaged in discussions with various landowners over the years before finally sealing the deal this year.
Large beaver-flooded open water wetland at the Windsor Woods Preserve. Photo by Trish Fox.
The ‘lowlands’ region of the Grand River watershed is a wild place, where the Grand River and its many tributaries weave in great arcs within the flat valley. Historic meanders of the Grand River eventually transform in to ‘oxbow’ channel ponds, which provide outstanding breeding habitat for many amphibian species. The preserve is home to at least 11 different species of salamanders and frogs. Some of the old channels of the Grand River are now high-quality peat wetlands and the preserve harbors a population of the native wild calla (Calla palustris) that grows within one of these peat systems. Beavers have also exerted a heavy influence on the landscape at Windsor Woods. Through the building of dams, beavers have engineered expansive open water wetland areas, and have contributed to the habitat diversity at the site.
Wild Calla at the Windsor Woods Preserve. Photo by Trish Fox.
The Grand River frequently breaches its banks in this part of the Grand River lowlands which can lead to large sections of the preserve being temporarily inundated with flood waters, and can even necessitate the closing of certain roads in the area due to flooding. Visiting the preserve at different times of year can therefore provide very different landscape views.
Windsor Woods is also unique in that it is situated in a large block of land that is absent of any major roadways. The Museum’s preserve is located in the interior areas of this swamp forest block and is largely buffered from the influx of invasive species that often invade preserves from roadways. The Museum certainly envisions continued expansion of this preserve in the future if the opportunity should present itself.
Swamp Forest at the Windsor Woods Preserve. Photo by Trish Fox.
The Minshall Alvar Preserve on Kelleys Island
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has a long history of conservation work on Kelleys Island, located in the western basin of Lake Erie. The Museum has a total of nine nature preserves on Kelleys Island presently, including several preserves with frontage on Lake Erie. Kelleys Island is essentially a large limestone block in the middle of the lake, and it is home to many limestone-loving plant species that are not common in the Cleveland area, and are typically more prevalent in areas west of our region. The topsoil layer on Kelleys Island is very thin, with a limestone rock substrate very close to the surface.
Alvar plant communities on the shore of Lake Erie at the Minshall Alvar Preserve. Photo by Dave Vasarhelyi.
Limestone erratic on the Minshall Alvar Preserve. Photo by Dave Vasarhelyi.
The Museum has long considered the Minshall Alvar property, located in a less-developed area in the northwest corner of the Island to be an important conservation target. Through a partnership with the Trust for Public Land, the Museum finally acquired the Minshall Alvar Preserve in October 2018. The Trust for Public Land (TPL) and the Museum secured funding from the Clean Ohio Conservation fund to purchase the property. The Minshall family generously provided the matching funds that were needed to be eligible for Clean Ohio funding in the form of a bargain sale of the land. The site harbors two globally-rare snakes including the Fox Snake and the Globally-imperiled Lake Erie Water Snake. The preserve’s plant communities are very diverse. Wave-splash alvar wetlands are present along the Lake Erie shoreline at the preserve, and unique microhabitats are perched atop large limestone blocks on the shoreline. The rare mountain rice (Piptatherum racemosum) is among the unique plants that are found on these limestone blocks at the preserve.
Sunken forest area in historically-quarried section of the Minshall Preserve. Photo by Dave Vasarhelyi.
Limestone Blocks on the Minshall Alvar Preserve. Photo by Dave Vasarhelyi.
The preserve also protects the most mature forest present on Kelleys Island, a noteworthy forest dominated by hackberry (Celtis occidentalis), blue ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata), and honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos). And the honey locust at the preserve are not the thornless cultivars that we are used to seeing in our gardens! They are fully-adorned with long painful thorns that can be both ornamental and agonizing to the touch.
The Minshall Alvar Preserve also contains a formerly quarried area in the center of the property that is home to the State-endangered lakeside daisy (Tetraneuris herbacea). The Kelleys Island State Nature Preserve is located next to the Museum’s Minshall Alvar Preserve, and the lakeside daisy was re-introduced to the State-owned property in 1995, and it subsequently naturalized and spread to the Minshall property over time. More than 200 individual lakeside daisy plants were counted by Museum staff on the Minshall property in 2017. Unique switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) meadows and even shallow buttonbush wetlands are also present in the former quarry area, creating a diverse matrix of different plant communities. And shrublands dominated by Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) are also abundant at the preserve.
Lakeside Daisy (Tetraneuris heteracea) which has naturalized at the Minshall Alvar Preserve. Photo by Judy Semroc.
Switch-grass meadow in a historically-quarried section of the Minshall Alvar Preserve. Photo by Dave Vasarhelyi.
Saw Whet Owl in a Red Cedar on Kelleys Island. Photo by Judy Semroc.
Conclusion
The Museum is actively growing its network of nature preserves in Northeast Ohio. Its focus is on expanding existing preserves, especially when it results in the protection of entire wetland systems or other natural features, or when additional acquisitions can be useful from a preserve management perspective. Anyone who is interested in learning more about the Museum’s conservation work is encouraged to sign up for a field trip through the Museum’s website, www.cmnh.org. Several trips to Museum preserves are offered every month.
For parts of our community, particularly newly arrived refugees and immigrants, gardens can be an important source of cultural expression and food for the home. Having diverse and welcoming gardens can be an opportunity for all to thrive. It allows for opportunities to learn unique growing skills and new perspectives on gardening.
Whether people are newly arrived or had immigrant relatives generations ago, growing information is often handed down through generations. From working with Bhutanese and Burmese individuals I learned about growing cucurbits through what we termed “shelf gardening.” In other terms using a trellis, like an arbor, allowing for the plant foliage to grow and for the melon, gourd or squash fruit to hang down. This was done with Asian varieties including bottle gourd and bitter melon. Try this with delicata or acorn squash, nothing too heavy.
Living in our commercial milieu, gardeners in the US often think they have to buy something to solve a garden issue. The perspective on garden supplies is much different for refugee and immigrant farmers. For trellises, I’ve seen community gardeners scour for large fallen branches. The results of pole beans growing up and winding around the branches is beautiful and free!
Working with a diverse set of gardeners also give the opportunity to learn about other cultures. If you can engage with your fellow gardeners, you can learn about different crop varieties that are particular to other regions of the world. Thai eggplant, Asian long beans, Thai chili peppers, okra, bitter melon and the list goes on. By communicating with the people that know these veggies best, you learn how to prepare and cook these special veggies.
Here are some tips for working with a refugee and/or language-learning community:
Have picture-based signage. Put as many garden rules into clear graphic signage so that no matter your language or literacy level you can discern the message. If you can, interpret and demonstrate the rule to the group so that the meaning is solidified.
Seek interpretation when available. If there is a language barrier, try to find a family member or a community leader to help with communication. Communication is key to good relationships between gardeners.
Navigate cultural differences and misunderstandings. Cultural differences will arise, however the benefits are well worth negotiating these issues. Common misunderstanding can be over perceptions of neatness in the garden, plot boundaries and ownership of produce.
Provide information and learning for all levels and styles. Individuals have varying levels of experience and success with formal, classroom-based education. Some may have no experience. Remember there are many approaches to learning. Materials and sessions that are text and graph heavy can be difficult for some. Consider storytelling, role-play vignettes, and demonstration as techniques to use in addition to plain language handouts to send home.
Make space for empowerment and sharing knowledge. Many people have rich backgrounds farming in their homelands. With pre-set garden rules and typical “ways of doing things” much of the information can seem one-directional. Adults are most engaged and learn best when they can share and draw upon experience. Make space for this sharing to happen, and invite leadership from any cultural communities involved in the garden.
One great resources for working with refugee and immigrants as farmers and community gardeners: ISED Solutions (2017). Teaching Handbook Refugee Farmer Training. Happy garden planning!
One day the leaves are gone.
And the wind makes dying sounds
within the humbled branches.
It is time.
The slow earth yields its precious heat.
In a cold hush before the sun
our garden perishes within the arms
of a stranger. Vain, inexorable, patient,
He chalks his victims
in a pale and savage dust.
Marigolds and sweet alyssum
wither uncherished beneath the brittle weeds
that overtook our nobler intentions
in warmer months, when we were young
and soon distracted.
Rain, snow, frozen soil, the way
the blackbirds undulate across drab
sheets of grey sky in curving
arrows toward the recent past…
so many things go unremembered.
On Tuesday I spent an hour (not really enough time, but I had a meter running) at Cleveland’s Museum of Contemporary Art, free on election day (great idea there, MOCA). I wanted to see the current exhibit, The Great Lakes Cycle, by artist Alexis Rockman, who aligns environmental activism with art in a most satisfying way. The exhibit introduces itself through a collection of some of Rockman’s field ‘sketches’ – which are actually not sketches but black and white watercolor renderings with a delicious, ephemeral watery look –
Following that, in the first exhibit hall, is a collection of large scale equally watery, equally delicious watercolor paintings that allow one to appreciate Rockman’s loose yet explicitly detail-suggestive handling/execution of this challenging medium.
Leading to the largest room, in which hang the five great paintings for which the exhibit is named. These fill-the-wall scale paintings are visually rich, emotionally affecting, and intellectually exhilarating, educating, and depressing. Don’t let that last keep you away. This is a must see exhibit.
These five paintings are visual studies through a vast extended timeline of man’s interaction with and effect on the Great Lakes. One ‘reads’ the paintings from left to right, with the left side representing the original pristine natural environment.
In all the pictures the left side is the oldest in the timeline, and the timeline changes progressively through time toward the right side, which is the historically most recent and most ecologically disturbed, abused, and debased. That juxtaposition on one canvas, of those effects of which we are not unaware but often not thoughtful about, brings the alteration profoundly home. It is a slice through time and physical reality that shows us, both above and below the water, the changes wrought as it enumerates the natural, the unnatural, and in one painting the imaginary, denizens of the lake and shore. The paintings are a little overwhelming and deserve more study than a ticking meter allows.
A little Great Lakes history here, cribbed from an accompanying book of the same title (available in the gift store): The Great Lakes were carved by glaciers over vast millenia of geologic time, and were equally slowly revealed as the glaciers receded. Better described as inland seas, they reached their current form roughly 5,000 years ago. They carry 18 to 20% of the surface freshwater on the planet. If combined into one, that sea would span the combined landmass of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The Great Lakes hold 6 quadrillion gallons of water – enough to cover the continental United States with a layer of water 10 feet deep. The northernmost lake, Superior, is the world’s largest lake by volume of water, while Lake Erie, our canary-in-the-mine lake (my description, not the book’s) is the southernmost and shallowest. Lake Erie has the most productive fishery, and is the most quickly flushed (my choice of words, not the book’s – and believe me, fast flushing is a good thing). Surrounding the Great Lakes is a rich diversity of ecosystems.
There are 5 paintings. It is not really clear to me that each painting represents a specific lake. Rather, each painting addresses a common issue all the lakes have. The painting titled Pioneers, focuses on aquatic life, and the in-migration of aquatic life since the end of the last ice age, from the sturgeon that fed the first Native Americans to today’s aquatic invaders, shown as a stream of small creatures ejected from an anchored ships ballast water.
The painting titled Cascade is a study of man’s continuing impact on nature, a mix of human and natural history, from the elk swimming across the water on the left to the blighted industrial landscape pictured on the right, set off by buoys.
The painting titled Spheres of Influence explores how the interaction of the global ecosystem (weather, birds, insects, bats, and air-borne micro-contaminants) has shaped the current condition of the lakes
The painting Watershed illuminates the shift that happens as pristine streams and rivers are contaminated by modern agriculture and urban development. It’s pretty disturbing…
And finally, the picture Forces of Change illustrates these – both the past, and the potential future – complete with an imaginary e-coli kraken – if we continue on our current polluting ways.
A day following my trip to MOCA to see this exhibit I attended an evening panel symposium at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, discussing the state of our lake. What good timing I thought! I thought I could include a synopsis of that panel discussion here at the end of this article, but I have come to see that it is a separate article of its own. So I will end here with a synopsis of each lake’s problems as taken from the book:
Lake Superior is the fastest warming large lake on the planet. Warmer waters threaten this lake’s cold water fishery. Lakes Michigan and Huron are essentially one lake; they have been invaded by zebra mussels, which filter immense quantities of plankton through their bodies. This gives the water clarity, but that clarity is indication of meager fish. Lake Erie suffers from toxic algae blooms, which are likely to double as the climate changes. And Lake Ontario suffers from being used as a toxic dumping ground, which are now locked into the lake’s bottom sediments. What follows is a map from the book showing cumulative stresses on the lake. It does not differ significantly from one projected on the screen at the museum talk, so I include it here:
I hope you will go see this exhibit and spend some time with it. Take the kids.
Our drop in temperatures throughout Ohio will no doubt convince fall home invading insects that it’s time to seek winter quarters. These unwelcomed guests typically include Boxelder Bugs (Boisea trivittatus); Western Conifer Seed Bugs (Leptoglossus occidentalis); Magnolia Seed Bugs (Leptoglossus fulvicornis); Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles (MALB) (Harmonia axyridis); and the most notorious of all, Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs (BMSB) (Halyomorpha halys).
These home invaders have several things in common. First, their populations may vary considerably even across relatively short distances. Some homes may be inundated while those located just a few miles away remain free of insect marauders.
Even more challenging, late season outdoor populations are not always a reliable predictor of indoor excursions. Just because you didn’t see them in September doesn’t mean you won’t see them sitting next to you on your sofa in November.
A Series of Unfortunate Events
The second thing these home invaders have in common is their “cold-blooded” physiology meaning the speed of their metabolism is mostly governed by ambient temperature; the higher the temperature, the faster their metabolism, and the faster they “burn” fat. Yes, insects have fat, but it’s confined by their hard exoskeletons so they don’t suffer ever-expanding waistlines.
These insects feed voraciously in late summer to accumulate fat. They then seek sheltered locations in the fall where cool temperatures slow their metabolism during the winter so they will not exhaust their stored fat reserves. This survival strategy keeps them alive since there is nothing for them to eat throughout the winter.
The insects are attracted to the solar heat radiating from southern or western facing roofs and outside walls as well as the warmth radiating from within. This can lead them into attics, outside wall voids, and spaces around door jams and window frames that make perfect overwintering sites. They stand a good chance of surviving the winter as long as they remain in these cool, protected sites.
However, sometimes they make a terrible error; for both the insect and a homeowner. Instead of staying put, they continue to follow the heat gradient into homes. This is accidental and disastrous for the insects because the high indoor temperatures cause them to burn through their fat reserves and starve to death. And, they do not go gentle into that good night! Starving brown marmorated stink bugs and multicolored Asian lady beetles commonly take flight to buzz-bomb astonished homeowners and terrified pets.
The Best Defense is a Good Offense
The best defense against home invaders buzzing or lumbering around inside a home is to prevent them from entering in the first place. Although there are effective indoor BMSB traps, they shouldn’t be used in place of sealing openings that allow the bugs to enter the home. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of bugs.
Large openings created by the loss of old caulking around window frames or door jams provide easy access into homes. Such openings should be sealed using a good quality flexible caulk or insulating foam sealant for large openings.
Poorly attached home siding and rips in window screens also provide an open invitation. The same is true of worn-out exterior door sweeps including doors leading into attached garages; they may as well have an “enter here” sign hanging on them. Venture into the attic to look for unprotected vents, such as bathroom and kitchen vents, or unscreened attic vents. While in the attic, look for openings around soffits. Both lady beetles and stink bugs commonly crawl upwards when they land on outside walls; gaps created by loose-fitting soffits are gateways into home attics.
Handle with Care
Insects that find their way into a home should be dealt with carefully. Swatting or otherwise smashing these insects can cause more damage than leaving them alone since fluids inside their bodies can leave permanent stains on furniture, carpets, and walls. Also, mashing multicolored Asian lady beetles and brown marmorated stink bugs can release a lingering eau de bug; lady beetles have stinky blood and stink bugs are called stink bugs for a reason!
Vacuum cleaners present their own sets of risks. A “direct-fan” type of vacuum cleaner should never be used. Passing the refuse through an impeller will create a horrifying bug-blender! Even a “fan-bypass” type (e.g. Shop-Vac) with the refuse bypassing the impeller can develop a distinctive scent if used on stink bugs because the bugs will release their defense odor in response to swirling around inside the vacuum tank.
However, fragrant misadventures with vacuum cleaners can be minimized with a slight modification involving using a nylon ankle sock as pictured below. The method is clearly described in the OSU Factsheet titled, Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle (see “More Information” below).
Small numbers of home invaders can be scooped-up and discarded by constructing a simple but effective “bug collector” using a plastic pint water bottle as pictured below. Large numbers of insects can be quickly dispatched by placing a small amount of soapy water in the bottom of the bug collector.
