Naturalists are studying our wetlands.Two weekends ago, 20 naturalists of various disciplines camped near our wetlands to take inventory. Several were here for three days, a number for two, and some for one. One couple drove down from western New York. These are typically retired scientists living within 100 miles of here. A few students participated as well. The objective was to identify as many species of nature as possible over the weekend. Each scientist has her own specialty: butterflies, plants, crawfish, moths, lichens, birds, amphibians, fish, and other. Some, of course, offered numerous specialties. They donated over 300 hours of time and expertise to this effort.
John Howard, of Southern Ohio Environmental Services, organized this, and it is his connections that brought the event together. John is a highly skilled naturalist himself, and he will collate all of the information gathered, and produce a report on what was identified. I asked how many plant species might exist at a location like this. He said: 4-500. I asked how many he expected to be identified. He responded: 4-500. So, this will be comprehensive! We are eager to receive his report this fall, and will share more about it then.
Below they are attracting moths at midnight, with a Luna Moth showing up at the bottom of the sheet. Each of those specks of moths will be identified by them. |
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| John has installed numerous trail cameras around the property, and has captured some beautiful pictures of animals. Here is a mother Red Fox, a vixen, with her five cubs. How can she possibly provide enough food for all of them? Her den is only about 150 feet from our house. It has been posited the influx of coyotes over recent decades is driving foxes closer to houses and barns for protection. However, we haven't seen Grey Foxes on the property yet. |
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| Below is a magnificent visiting Great Egret, presiding in paradise. |
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As we continue the mysterious process of becoming willing partners with vast amounts of water, we learn evermore about how little we know. Rehydrating soils that have been systematically drained for over a hundred years is a challenge. Every thirty to forty years a new drainage system would be installed, as the previous one began failing. What we are discovering as we close down the newest system is water finds its way to the next oldest and gladly reactivates its exit path to the creek. So, then we close that pathway down, awaiting an exit to show up in yet another location.
Below is an example of how the old clay-tile system reactivated after we closed down the plastic one of 30 years ago. It is hard to know when this clay tile was installed, but probably 60 - 70 years ago. We went to the wet outlet, dug down four to five feet, and compacted the soil going back about 50 feet. The round clay tiles are relics I put in place to show what we unearthed. |
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Revegetating a wetlands to strict ecological standards is a challenge. Government agencies that monitor wetland reclamation are very clear about species acceptable to the ecosystem. Of particular concern are invasive species, which will overrun a wetland and choke its biodiversity. Every two years, we submit reports on random sampling of grids. Tolerance for invasive species is allowed at less than 5%. If more, we have to address the matter post haste. So far, we have always come in below 5%, due to careful management.
This past February, we received from a very select nursery 60,000 native trees and shrubs. We planted them as part of our effort to reconstruct the ancient wetlands of this extensive valley, described by naturalist Lucy Braun (of the University of Cincinnati) in the 1950's, as Beech Flats. The plants went in successfully as previously recounted to you. They were bare-rooted and bare-leaved. Over the next two months, roots took hold and leaves sprouted.
By mid May, Jacob noticed something amiss. One of the shrubs we had ordered and planted, Ninebark, didn't look like Ninebark. As the plant leafed out, it look ever more like a Spiraea. We have a few bushes of Japanese Spiraea at our house, and the similarity between the two is clear. We then began communicating with the nursery that we have a problem, but wanted to confirm identification with plant specialists on the Bio Blitz team. The specialists confirmed it is a Spiraea of some sort. Below are Ninebark on the left and the cultivar of Spiraea planted in the wetlands on the right. |
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The nursery inadvertently sent us a mislabeled invasive species! 2,000 of them, now embedded in our reclaimed acreage. The nursery has been very apologetic and contrite. They apparently out-sourced that specie to another nursery, and wasn't aware it was mislabeled. We are in discussions with them about the liability. We can quantify the cost to replace and replant, but it is harder to identify the cost of unintended consequences.
Over three days last week, Jacob's intrepid team walked every row planted this February and pulled up 1200 specimens of Spiraea. They had to walk through annual rye and ragweed six feet tall. Fortunately, it was cool and recent rains made the job easier than it would have been two weeks ago. What about the plants we overlooked and didn't find? What damage will they inflict? How long will it take to extinguish this invasive plant, another year or two or perhaps never? What does this do to our performance data over the years ahead? And what is the opportunity cost of this small crisis? What is not being accomplished because of this issue now and in the future? Those are real costs, but they are hard to quantify. Below, pulled Spiraea plants are inventoried on nearby fencing. |
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