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
Peggy Spaeth and John Barber, co-chairs Article by Peggy Spaeth
Many of us have been walking, running, bicycling, birding, and botanizing in the Shaker Parklands for decades, in all kinds of weather. These man-made lakes are a treasured place embedded within the residential cities of Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights, and are a regional destination as well.
We are very alarmed by the condition of the habitat around the lakes. We know that a healthy ecosystem is complex. Yet here the habitat is increasingly simplified by grass and invasive species that do not feed native birds and insects, that outcompete native plants, and that spread throughout the watershed. Please remember that these parks are designated an Audubon Important Bird Area. How are we feeding the warblers that migrate on this route twice a year if their native food sources are disappearing?
Conventional thinking about leaving public parks to naturalize is misguided. The complex balance of native plants, insects, and mammals is now too disturbed to “let nature take its course.” There are several overlapping entities involved in the management of the lake, including the cities of Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights, who hold leases from the city of Cleveland; the Shaker Parklands Management Committee; Doan Brook Watershed Partnership; and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. It is typical, efficient, and economical for cities to “mow and blow” rather than create and maintain habitat and our cities are no different. But we can do better if we want to live in a place healthy for insects, birds, and ourselves.
So we asked, “Whose responsibility is it to restore and maintain a healthy habitat at the lakes?” In the end, we realized it is ours.
Although our intention is habitat restoration, we have inadvertently discovered rich local history by simply starting to remove porcelain berry at the concrete canoe launch. This history has been one of the most fascinating parts of the project, both to volunteers working at the site and the ever-present stream of people and dogs coming by while we’re working. Here is what we found out about the lake, and what we are doing:Why is there even a lake there? Before settlement, this site was a forested ravine. (Ohio was 95% forested in all.) When European settlers arrived in northeast Ohio, they made claim to land occupied by Native Americans through, as one author wrote, “unwelcome treaties and paltry payments.”
Surveys were completed during the period of 1790 – 1807 that focused on laying out townships and inventorying trees for logging. The most common trees found in the Doan Brook watershed (as its called today) were Beech, Oak, Maple, and Chestnut.
The Shakers formed the North Union Colony in the 1820’s in this area. They constructed several dams, the largest of which was built in 1836 to form today’s Lower Lake, for the purpose of having a water-driven sawmill. They cleared the trees in the ravine, then used those trees, clay, and rocks to build the dam.
The colony disbanded in 1889 and the gristmills, sawmill, woolen mills and buildings were torn down (or blown up in the case of the biggest gristmill) and today only a few foundations remain.
Developers then purchased the lands around Lower Lake for housing. The lakes have been considered an asset to the residential community since then, often featured in real estate ads.
Canoeing was a popular activity on all of the lakes at the turn of the century. A group of boaters was particularly attracted to Lower Lake, the largest inland lake in the vicinity, safer than Lake Erie, and lately accessible by trolley. In 1907 a group of men formed the Shaker Lakes Canoe Club. They built a temporary one-story boathouse at the Canoe Club site, replaced in 1914 with the pictured two-story building. It was leased to the Shaker Lakes Canoe Club for $1 per year from the City of Cleveland. Its members paid $15 a year in membership dues, and did all the building maintenance themselves.
They held regattas with races and jousting matches, often witnessed by 3-5,000 people sitting on the lake’s (then) grassy banks. There were moonlight carnivals and canoeing lessons for Boy Scouts, resulting in Lower Lake having boats on it often. Today Lower Lake is a popular passive recreation park, and we have no intention of building a canoe club and hosting regattas attended by 5000 people!
The Canoe Club was active in the 1960s but would have been destroyed had the Clark and Lee Freeways been built through the Shaker Parklands. As you know, the Freeway Fight saved the Shaker Parklands and our neighborhoods, and resulted in the founding of the Nature Center in Shaker Heights. However, the clubhouse was razed in 1976 after membership dwindled and the governing city (now Shaker Heights) cited the Club repeatedly for code violations including the lack of running water and no sewer hookups.
Friends of Lower Lake and our project began at a meeting convened by Tori Mills in March 2018. Several people interested in volunteering to restore habitat on a regular basis had approached DBWP. We were frustrated to volunteer at a once-a-year service day, only to watch the invasive plants re-sprout with renewed vigor. John Barber and Peggy Spaeth agreed to chair a project involving regular volunteers and Friends of Lower Lake was created.
Our vision is simply that Lower Lake is a habitat rich with native plants that support insects, migrating and resident birds, and people and other mammals. The project fulfills the DBWP mission to “facilitate and support conservation and restoration projects within the watershed” and “increase public engagement and awareness of the watershed.”
Our goal is to remove invasive plants, replace them with appropriate natives, and create an ongoing stewardship plan. Let’s be clear: this is a project with no end. We can’t let nature “take its course.”
We initially attacked the Canoe Club site because of the huge amount of invasive Porcelain Berry vines dropping seeds into the lake every year. We removed many loads of vines, roots, and seed-infested soil and ended up discovering the foundation.
Doing this work we found 19 species of non-native plants in and around the foundation, all thriving because the site was left “natural.” Invasive plants have few pests to hold them back, and will always out-compete native plants if left alone.
All of the non-native plants we found are on the Ohio banned and invasive plants list and many were first introduced through the nursery trade without realizing the aggressiveness of these species. This includes not only the flowering plants on the site, but also the vines, trees, ivy, and shrubs.
The challenges of our restoration project are complex.
Regional: Here we are removing invasive plants in the middle of the watershed at the Canoe Club site, while upstream Horseshoe Lake has rampant Japanese knotweed and other aggressive invasive species spilling downstream. Fortunately in between we have the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes with Natural Resource Specialist Nick Mikash onboard, and he has been an invaluable ally in our shared project.
Resources: We are a small band of residents who came together to literally dig up decades of invasive trees, shrubs, groundcovers, and vines by hand.
A core group of 8 to 12 peoplehas been working on Sunday mornings since May 20, 2018. A total of 50 have worked at the site, and we welcome people of all ages and abilities. We would love to have crews working around this lake and throughout our community at sites that connect with each other to create a rich unified habitat reflecting our respect and love of the natural world in our community. For the watershed, we need a master plan with a timeline, funding, and resources. This could lead to volunteer crews working under the leadership of a professional natural resources manager.
This has been a truly heartwarming experience to work with people with a shared vision for a healthy environment. We’ve watched eagles, osprey, kingfishers, and other wildlife as we’ve worked. Clearing the foundation has activated the space, with people coming to photograph, talk, do tai chi, tally birds, or just sit. It’s obvious that the Canoe Club was sited at one of the most scenic places on the lake, with friendly prevailing winds pushing canoes west to east back to the launch. Our hope is to create a larger vision for our environment that educates and partners with city government and active residents so that we all take responsibility for a healthy habitat, upstream and downstream.
Please join us! We need more volunteers! Sign up for our newsletter here to stay informed, or email friendsofLowerLake@gmail.com.
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.
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.
Next week brings two events that might be of interest to Gardenopolis readers.
On Saturday, April 14 at 10 am at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Jim Bissell will share “Seed Banking Stories from the Museum Herbarium” with the Kirtlandia Society. Coffee and Conversation begins at 9:30 am. All are welcome, and admission is free.
Our own Elsa Johnson is the featured reader at Art on Madison for the POETRY + reading series on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at 7:30 pm. The aim of this reading series is to shine the spotlight on a single writer, providing them with the platform and time necessary to present a body of work and to connect with their audience. The doors open at 7:00 pm. POETRY + is free and open to the public.
Can concentrations of pocket gardens help rejuvenate neighborhoods? That’s the question a coalition of Cleveland Heights partners is trying to answer. They are working with neighbors on Langton Road, just off Quilliams Road in the Noble neighborhood, to install 10 pocket gardens this spring. The gardens will consist of either native perennials or a tree surrounded by Russian comfrey and other plants that suppress weeds and provide extra fertility.
“We want to provide sustainable beauty,” said Barbara Sosnowski, who heads the beautification committee of Noble Neighbors, a local activist group. “That means that any garden we plant should look as attractive after four years as it does after one.”
Sandy Thompson, Mani Pierce and Tom Gibson plant a plum tree in the Oxford Community Garden. [photo by Barbara Morgan]If the effort succeeds, the group intends to take the Langton Road model and apply it elsewhere in the neighborhood. “The exciting thing about this project,” Sosnowski added, “is that it is intended to be scalable. If we succeed with 10 private residences, we can succeed with 50, and so on.”
Noble Neighbors’ partners in the effort include the Home Repair Resource Center (HRRC), Cleveland Heights High School, Rust Belt Riders and Green Paradigm Partners. HRRC will provide classroom space and instruction for the Langton Road neighbors, high school students will provide paid help with construction of the garden plots, Rust Belt Riders will provide specialized compost, and Green Paradigm Partners will provide landscape design and community organizing help. Funding will come from grants and crowd funding via IOBY Cleveland. Look for the Noble Neighborhood pocket garden project at www.ioby.org/campaign/cleveland.
To address the problem of long-term maintenance, the group has devised a three-pronged plan. At the horticultural level, the group has selected plants that grow well in Northeast Ohio. It will test soils for mineral deficiencies that attract noxious, high-maintenance weeds, such as bindweed, and then add mineral amendments to correct those deficiencies. Compost with high fungal content, which reduces the need for watering during droughts, will be applied.
At the immediate neighborhood level, the beautification group is asking homeowners to take a two-session course at HRRC on plant selection and care. The intention is to bring immediate neighbors together on a common project and create a greater sense of neighborhood spirit and purpose.
At the broader neighborhood level, the support and participation of Noble Neighbors and Heights High, among others, is intended to raise the project’s community profile and foster its success. “We are employing a number of approaches to community revitalization,” said Brenda May, a leader of Noble Neighbors. “We see this project as one way to make pocket gardens a signature of the neighborhood, thereby enhancing both local identity and property values.”
The effort has attracted wide support. Cleveland Heights Mayor Carol Roe, herself a Noble resident, called the effort “an innovative approach to building community spirit that comes at just the right moment of upswing in the Noble neighborhood.” Kay Carlson, president and chief executive officer of the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes, said, “We find the project’s combination of cutting-edge biology and creative community involvement promising and likely to have much wider application.”
Watch for more information as the project progresses.
Mentor Marsh has been a National Park Service-designated National Natural Landmark since 1966 for being one of the most species-rich sites on the Great Lakes shoreline. The Marsh was named Ohio’s first State Nature Preserve in 1971 and is a National Audubon Society Important Birding Area. This unique wetland suffered dramatically in the 1960s when salt-mine tailings leached into Blackbrook Creek. By the early 1970s, most of the swamp forest trees and marsh plants had died. The 765-acre wetland basin was overtaken by reed grass (Phragmites australis), a 14-foot-tall nonnative invasive plant from Eurasia. Phragmites grew so densely within the nearly 4-mile-long former river channel that an estimated 1 billion plants were growing just a few inches apart. Partial abatement of the salt source in 1987 lowered salinity levels to borderline brackish conditions along one-third of the marsh and lowered the salinity to freshwater levels on two-thirds of the wetland.
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History began a large-scale restoration of Mentor Marsh in 2012. Guided by Museum restoration ecologists, the Phragmites is being sprayed with an aquatic-safe herbicide and then physically mashed flat to allow native plants to grow. The results thus far have been heartening. Dozens of native plant species are sprouting from the soil seed bank, and Leopard Frogs are expanding throughout. Rare marsh birds—such as American and Least Bitterns, Virginia, King and Sora Rails, and Common Gallinules and Wilson’s snipe—are now nesting. Fish, such as Northern Pike, are spawning, and Yellow Perch fingerlings are starting to use the Marsh as a nursery. Otter, beaver, wading birds, waterfowl and shorebird migrants are starting to use the restored Marsh as stopover habitat. While recent surveys have confirmed Blanding’s and Spotted turtles are no longer present, their recovery is possible.
As Ohio’s largest stand of Phragmites, the perennial roots of these tall invaders are well established. Results so far have eliminated 85% of the Phragmites basin-wide, with some older treatment units nearly in the clear while other newer units are experiencing an anticipated bounce back rallying from the massive network of root reserves, or emerging as seedlings from the seed bank. Follow-up on the remaining estimated 15% is critical, requiring an intense commitment of time to traverse the sticky Carlisle muck soil to cover a wetland basin with 12 miles of perimeter.
During the 2017 field season, in an effort to accelerate desired ground cover to outcompete other invasive species lurking nearby, Museum staff, partners, contractors, volunteers and inmates planted over 19,000 live plants of 23 native species in the Marsh. Some of the plants were grown from seeds collected onsite and propagated at a local prison as part of a horticultural job skills program. Other plugs and live stakes were purchased from restoration nurseries and conservation seed growers. We plan to redouble our efforts in 2018, with continued efforts to raise funds towards this worthwhile project.
We could not have undertaken this monumental task without the assistance of the many partners, grant funders, volunteers and donors who believed in what we are doing.
David Kriska, Ph.D., is a Restoration Ecologist in the Natural Areas Program of The Cleveland Museum of Natural History
What could possibly interest a driver through the landscape west of Toledo? Flat corn and soy bean fields stretch to the horizon—green in summer, gray-brown in winter. That’s the way it’s been for the nearly 25 years my wife and I have been traveling to Chicago to visit our daughter.
In the last three years, though, we’ve noticed a change. Instead of bare, tilled soil in winter, the majority of farmland we observe remains untilled and is filled with corn and other crop stubble. Although colors remain pretty much the same gray-brown, what we are seeing is revolutionary. Conventional farmers, who have been growing crops in the best agri-chemical, paint-by-numbers style—so many pounds of artificial nitrogen, phosphorous, etc. per acre–, are now consciously prioritizing growing life in their soil.
Tilled field and…
No till. Still brown, but much more beautiful.
We’re not the only ones to notice this change. Two years ago it even made the New York Times.
Now a book has come out that puts the shift into a worldwide context. It’s called Growing A Revolution by David Montgomery. Montgomery is a professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington; author of previous popular books, most notably “Dirt,” and a winner of the MacArthur Foundation’s “genius” award.
Montgomery’s thesis is that a consensus is emerging in all corners of agriculture and horticulture—from conventional to organic—that the only path toward resilient food production must include an interlocking trio of practices that fall under the rubric of “conservation agriculture.” These are: No till soil management, cover crops, and crop rotation.
As obvious as these three practices will sound to Gardenopolis Cleveland’s cutting edge gardeners, the abiding wonder of this book is how often humanity has gotten this apparently straightforward mix wrong. The Mesopotamians messed up the (once) Fertile Crescent. Thomas Jefferson experimented with cover crops and crop rotation, but also invented and promoted the mold-board plow—that great destroyer of mycorrhizal fungi and their nutrient-gathering capability– and thus managed to undo much of the good of his other innovations. In the 1970s, a young researcher named Rattan Lal, now one of Ohio State University’s most distinguished professors, vastly improved small farm productivity in African test plots with a version of conservation agriculture. But a few short years after his departure, all his good work had been overgrown with trees. Only the small-scale farmers of China and Japan appear to have been able maintain consistently healthy soil over centuries (aided enormously by their techniques for safely recycling both animal and human waste).
The main contributing factor to humanity’s soil-building failures has been a combination of population growth and an impatience with gradualism. As Europe’s much-plowed soils were running out of fertility, European colonialists replaced it with the Peruvian seabird waste known as guano. As guano supplies diminished, German chemists developed the Haber-Bosch process to produce artificial nitrogen fertilizer. Artificial fertilizers also became one of the pillars of the so-called “Green Revolution” of the 1960s, that temporarily rescued farmers worldwide from depleted soils and diminished harvests.
You know the rest of the story: monocultures, fertilizer runoff, Monsanto, glycosophate, herbicide-resistant “superweeds,” and a steady decrease in soil fertility that all of the ministrations of Big Ag have only made worse (requiring still more artificial inputs).
What Montgomery has discovered, however, is that we seem to have reached a genuine tipping point that is taking us back to soil and its neglected life-giving potential. One of my favorite moments in the book occurs when Montgomery, the bearded “Left Coast” professor is invited to speak to a group of Kansas farmers.
Did he look like this? More gardeners ought to wear overalls. They’re both comfortable and practical. Just be careful not to walk into the Stone Oven coffee house like this!
“As I ended my talk I looked out on a sea of baseball hats. One elderly fellow in the middle stood up, stuffed his hands down into his pockets, and said he’d taken one look at me and didn’t think I could possibly say anything worth listening to. I braced myself for what was to come. But then he surprised me. He said the more I talked, the more sense I had made. He’d seen what I was talking about on his farm. It no longer had the rich fertile topsoil his grandfather had plowed. Something needed to change if his own grandchildren were going to prosper working his land.”
What has also changed is soil science. Mycorrhizal fungi were only named and their function thoroughly described by German scientist A.B. Frank in 1885. Frank contended that mycorrhizal fungi and plants worked in a vital system of symbiosis, with plants trading sugars made via their unique process of photosynthesis for minerals which fungi’s chemical exudates were uniquely able to mine. Frank’s findings flew in the face of conventional wisdom and went through waves of acceptance and dismissal throughout the following century. Yet today we recognize the plant/fungal relationship as the most fundamental to life on land. Neither biological domain could exist on earth without the other (let alone us animals!).
Sara Wright in her lab.
The power of the plant/fungal relationship has only really come into focus in the last 20+ years. In 1996 Sara F. Wright, a U.S.D.A. scientist, first identified glomalin, the mycorrhizal exudate that gives good soil its crumbly texture and, at a micro-level, allows bacteria and fungi to perform their most soil-enhancing functions. (Why hasn’t Sara Wright won a Nobel Prize!)
At the same time, scientists’ recent ability to decode genomes has revealed a vast, previously unknown realm of microbiological life. To soil scientists the soil microbiome is still, literally, terra incognita. We know enough, however, to understand why the trio of conservation agriculture practices that Montgomery describes work so powerfully together.
No or minimal tillage allows mycorrhizal fungi to extend their appendages called hyphae. These hyphae, in turn, mine rock and other geological formations for otherwise inaccessible minerals. They also merge with other like fungi and thus create a vast underground network that, sensing some plant’s need for phosphorous, can both mine and deliver it.
Vetch fixes nitrogen and is a great cover crop.
Cover crops supply their own package of nutrients, including nitrogen (e.g. vetch) and phosphorous (e.g. buckwheat). Harvesting them off above the root, moreover, leaves carbon compounds in the soil to feed all the fungi and other microbiota.
Rotation of multiple crops, the third component of conservation agriculture, follows the lesson that almost every veteran tomato grower knows: One crop in place year after year eventually attracts more natural enemies than it can handle. The more varied crops, the safer they all become. Moreover, different crops access different mycorrhizal species and networks, as well different minerals. (E.g. sunflowers, which draw up zinc and make it available to the other crops around them).
The lesson: in diversity there is redundancy and strength. All three practices conserve carbon and build soil. In fact, Montgomery cites a 2014 Rodale Institute that estimates that complete worldwide conversion to conservation agriculture could offset almost three-quarters of then current global emissions. This might not be as pie-in-sky as a realist might imagine. Montgomery emphasizes throughout how profitable regenerative conservation agriculture can be for farmers (not, however, for suppliers of agri-chemicals!).
Montgomery has clearly written this book for the next potential generation of farmer converts to conservation agriculture and to their potential policymaker supporters. But the predominantly gardener readers of Gardenopolis Cleveland will find the book a useful mirror by which to judge their own practices and act as even more informed consumers. The book is accessible in a comfortable journalistic way, but the reader is always aware that, when required, Montgomery can draw on his deep scientific training to summarize, accept and/or dismiss scientific studies as appropriate.
Some other tidbits/insights:
–Montgomery notes that many “organic” farmers fall short—and their crops suffer- -when it comes to implementing conservation agriculture. The more enlightened seem to be adopting some of the techniques of conventional agriculture—like every once-in-while application of a fungicide—to get their conservation agriculture trio of practices into proper balance. Despite my description above, soil and circumstances vary, and there seems to be a emerging productive middle ground, albeit still with very low chemical inputs.
–The two biggest obstacles to widespread adoption of conservation agriculture in the U.S.? The first, predictably, is Big Ag, the complex of seed, agri-chemicals, equipment producers, and food distributors. These companies dominate U.S. agricultural research and educational funding not to mention the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. They are also the only entities to consistently profit off the current system. The second, more surprisingly, is crop insurance. The ability of make money even through crop failure keeps our present destructive system in place. Montgomery seems to take special pleasure in describing how well off financially the new conservation agriculture farmers—who pay exponentially less for chemical and other inputs—have become–to the point of fancy wine cellars!. Most are so profitable they don’t bother with crop insurance, even if it is federally subsidized.
–Smaller really is beautiful. Conservation agriculture with its multiplicity of crops tends to lend itself to much smaller farms than the as-far-as-the-eye-can-see, massive monoculture systems. Because the former are more profitable, they may also make room for more -farmers and more prosperous small towns to serve them. Check out this video to see what can happen.
Could a more prosperous rural America close our current rural/urban political divide?
–Finally, a special point of pride for Ohioans. Rattan Lal, whom I’ve mentioned on this blog before, and David Brandt, a farmer near Columbus, emerge as towering heroes of this book. After reading this book, you’ll appreciate these two state treasures even more.
(This is the inaugural installment of what we at Gardenopolis Cleveland hope will become an ongoing series. Have you read something in a gardening book or blog or article that made you want to try something new? How did it work out for you? We’re looking for short, pithy articles not only from editors, but from you, the reader.)
Garden Experiment #1: Sorghum-Sudan Grass
One of the garden “stars” in Michael Phillips’ book Mycorrhizal Planet is Sorghum-Sudan grass (sorghum sudanese). This annual grows up to 12 feet tall very rapidly, especially in hot weather, thus creating lots of compostable biomass. But it has two other special virtues: 1) Its roots can provide habitat for up to 50 species of mycorrhizal fungi. And 2) when mowed, the plant responds by expanding its root mass, sometimes by a factor of two. That means lots of carbon for microflora to feast on during the next growing season.
If ever soil needed more carbon, it was the garden plot I inherited at the Oxford Community Garden in Cleveland Heights. Light tan in color, it was clearly more dirt than soil. Weeds like thistle (that thrive in calcium-and phosphorous-deficient soil) loved it. Although I reserved one strip of my plot for an attempt at tomatoes (aided by some calcium sulfate and worm castings), I seeded the rest in July with sorghum-sudan grass along with a multi-species, mycorrhizal-based fertilizer with the brand name of Dr. Earth. I bought the latter at Home Depot, something that would have been impossible just a few years ago before mycorrhizal additives started to go mainstream.
The seed (5 lbs. that I bought online at seedranch.com for just $15) was easy to sow, though it required coverage from bird-proof netting. (Flocks of birds flew away as I approached the garden after my initial broadcast planting!) The seed germinated right away and quickly dominated the plot.
Then, in early October, I trimmed the grass with hedge clippers. The cut grass should be no less than six inches high, Phillips says, for the best post-trimming root expansion. Next spring is when I’ll take a mulching mower to the process. Then I plan to plant right into the plant-stubbled soil. I’ll let you know what results.
This idea comes from the far corners of the Web, where hairy counterculturists congregate. (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7TJwh5nu9Y and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD4kDo0Z7Y4). These videos drew me in because stinging nettle has become one of my favorite garden vegetables. It’s great with garlic and eggs for breakfast and in evening meal main courses such as stinging nettle lasagna. And, as permaculturists know, stinging nettle offers twice the nutritional value of even vitamin-and-mineral-rich mainstream vegetables such as spinach. (I tell my permaculture classes that nettles have developed a sting for the same reason that banks install alarms: to protect valuables stored inside! Fortunately, deer don’t wear gloves or know how to steam the leaves to neutralize the formic acid sting, so stinging nettle offers the added benefit of being herbivore-free!)
Stinging nettle seed is just as rich in nutrients as the leaves. This year, with regular rains extending into July, my stinging nettle seed crop was exceptionally robust. How much effort, I asked myself, would it take to collect the seed and was it worth the effort?
I was feeling pressed for time, so, as a test, I just cut the six longest stalks and dumped them top first into a refuse bag. There they sat drying (until I remembered them!) for almost two months. Then I cut off the little bunches of seed pods and pressed them into a colander. Voila! Tiny black seeds emerged on the other side. We then roasted them with a little salt and oil. The result: nutty and crunchy.
Critically, the roasted nettle seeds pass the all-important “wife test.” They added a nice crunchy texture to the rice and veggie lunch we prepared. We thought, however, they might stand out best on simpler dishes such as scrambled eggs or plain rice.
In terms of future garden productivity, the newly-discovered edibility of stinging nettle seed extends the harvest season of what has become, for us, a staple crop. The leaves are at their best from May through June, but become less digestible when plants start to flower in July. (One of the visual pleasures of a breezy July day is to watch wind-borne clouds of nettle pollen drift past their neighbors.) Now we can harvest seed in quantity, roast it, and enjoy it during the winter months.
