Tallamy on Caterpillars, Song Birds and Native Plants

What a treat to hear Doug Tallamy talk last week. Doug is the author of Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens. He advocates very persuasively for native bio-diversity in our own yard and his talk featured lots of pictures of caterpillars. Caterpillars, it turns out, tell us a lot about the health of our eco-system. Each type of caterpillar needs a specific host plant and if you don't have that host plant, you won't have the caterpillar or its adult phase - butterfly or moth. And we need butterflies to pollinate, but more important we need a lot of caterpillars to feed song bird nestlings, small mammals, larger mammals, spiders and more. And we need a lot of different types of caterpillars because with ecological health is measured in bio-diversity.

Tallamy wants us to create native areas in our own yards. We could focus on restoring natural area, but he points out that all the lawn in American equal many, many more acres than the National Parks, so they are a logical place to start to restore native plants. If just half the lawns in American planted native plants, it would give us some 20 million acres of native space.

One take away was just try a 12' by 12' native spot in your yard. He counted caterpillars in 12 x 12 native gardens versus 12 x 12 gardens with no native plants. It was shocking - the plots with native plants had 100s of caterpillars and the non-native 1 or 2. This is because butterflies and moths only eat the native plants they evolved with. He also spent a lot of time counting how many caterpillars birds need to feed their young - something like 6,000 for a little bird feeding three nestlings. So, even a little native plot will go a long way to helping the food chain.

Some good resources for native plant lists and sales can be found on our website at
at http://www.lfwa.org/bay-friendly-gardening and http://www.lfwa.org/updates/are-you-attracting-butterflies-your-garden

Also, Doug Tallamy's website - http://www.bringingnaturehome.net/ is an excellent source for bang-for-your-buck plant lists.
Sarah

Sarah Morse
Executive Director
Little Falls Watershed Alliance

Tips for Controlling Lesser Celandine

Lesser Celandine is a ground cover with shiny heart-shaped leaves and a little yellow flower. Look for it in early February.

Lesser Celandine Bulblets

Every year, we get a lot of emails oohing and ahhing over the beautiful yellow flowers that have blanketed the Parks. These are lesser celandine (Ficaria verna) and while they are pretty, they are diabolical. A non-native invasive from Europe, it has crowded out native spring wildflowers to the point where we are seeing none. Our native birds and pollinators cannot feed on the celandine, so we are also see a decline in native insects. One field study of lesser celandine found no pollinators in the site they were censusing. That is scary! But the most scary part is that the celandine cannot be pulled or easily controlled. It grows from little corn size tubers which live 8 inches underground. If you pull the tops, the tubers break off and they sprout again.

For more information, visit HERE.

In April, 2015, Meghan Fellows, who was in charge of the Weed Warrior program at Montgomery Parks and has been monitoring the problem, sent this information to weed warriors on how to control or eradicate it. It's lengthy but thorough and worth reading. One take away is don't plant lesser celandine in your yard. It will take over everywhere. And if you have it, dig it out ASAP! Don’t let it spread. You need to get every bulblet and throw away the soil.

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Lesser Celandine taking over the forest floor. No native spring wildflowers have survived the invasion.

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What a forest without Lesser Celandine looks like in the early spring. Spring beauties are plentiful as well as a variety of other spring wild flowers.

From Meghan Fellows:

Dear Weed Warriors,
Many of you have sent in questions and concerns about lesser celandine.

Yes, it is getting worse. Floods and dispersal events spread this plant throughout our area. They are also extremely good at taking over new ground. Those pesky yellow carpets of weeds have replaced what should be a bounty of spring ephemerals (and their pollinators) are it is painful to watch - we want to DO something.

Unfortunately, science has not kept up with our need. There is NO good, reliable way to kill celandine.

Some popular suggestions:

Dig it out.

Most people know not to pull it out - those pesky underground bulbils stick around and thrive in the disturbed soil. So people have resorted to digging out the clumps whole. This can work in areas where the soil, moisture and all other factors are inline. It generates a ton of waste (soil and plant matter) and does a number on the health of the soil you're leaving behind.

This waste cannot be home composted, so the only option is to send it to the county yard waste compost.

This works best in garden beds, or in very small infestations (1-10 plants).

20% Acetic acid

20% Acetic acid has been heralded as the organic alternate to glyphosate. Many people forget that when you're using it to kill plants, it is a pesticide (not allowed for volunteers to use on parkland). However, let's explore this tool as to whether it is useful in a private situation. The mechanism of how it kills is important to consider when trying it out on a new species/situation. It is a top "burn" killer. Meaning above ground plant parts will die, but the roots do not die. Therefore this would best used on an annual plant, or in a situation where you could apply it repeatedly (not more often than every 2 weeks). 20% Acetic acid is actually recommended for sidewalk/driveway cracks and in gravel. But do be careful and wear protective gear, this is a strong acid and can burn. Household vinegar is 5% acetic acid and appears to have no consistent effect.

Lesser celandine is a perennial - 20% acetic acid is unlikely to have any long term effect. I know of no direct, replicated experimental studies on the species/treatment, only anecdotes.

Here is a paper from University of Maryland on the topic: http://extension.umd.edu/sites/default/files/_docs/programs/ipmnet/Vinegar-AnAlternativeToGlyphosate-UMD-Smith-Fiola-and-Gill.pdf

Flame weeding

Flame weeding using a propane based torch is another method that achieves the top "burn." It leaves no residues at all in the soil. The roots/bulbils may or may not be affected. It has been used extensively for stiltgrass - key thing to note, stiltgrass is an annual. Theory says flame weeding should not work on lesser celandine, but a few Weed Warriors and I have an extensive trial set up in Sligo, Little Falls and Capitol View Homewood Parks. We have been working on this since February. I hope to finish collecting data by late May, analyze it this summer and maybe have a new method for next year. Or at least an answer as to whether it might work

Glyphosate

The only current reliable method of killing lesser celandine is to use glyphosate. As you all know we only use herbicides when it is absolutely necessary, and then in the minimum amount required.

The protocol for lesser celandine control is to foliar spray celandine in the time in the spring after it has leaves but before it goes to flower (typically less than 50% of the plants have buds). This is an incredibly narrow window that we are now out of. This year it was about March 27-April 6.

You must repeat this cycle for 3 years in a row.

I read this summary as there is no good method for controlling celandine. Many people have told me what worked for them in their own garden, and we appreciate that - we are looking at extensive infestations throughout parkland. All of the stream valleys and many of the parks in between do have celandine. This is a massive infestation.

What can you do?

Avoid areas with celandine. Avoid digging in them, or even walking through them. In a few months (usually by mid-June) the celandine has senesced and you can go back to work.

Garlic mustard on the other hand is out now, and there are key spots in the county that could use a lot of help (Sligo for one). Please pick garlic mustard!

Support efforts to research better ways to kill celandine.

Grow native ephemerals, if you can, in your own spaces. Studies have shown private yards can provide refugia for native pollinators and insects.

And please remind people not to plant lesser celandine! I've been told a number of stories of people removing it from parkland to put in their yards as it was "so pretty."

Meghan Fellows
Weed Warrior Volunteer Coordinator
meghan.fellows@montgomeryparks.org

Equity One Releases Concept Drawings for Westbard Sector

This is from

Robest Dyer@BethesdaRow

-

Equity One is showing the first images of its plans for properties it owns in the Westbard Sector of Bethesda, and previewed them at a media event on Wednesday, Feb 4, 2015. This was a somewhat unusual move, to reveal the renderings for reporters instead of at a large community meeting, or pre-submittal public meeting. The firm's Executive VP of Development, Michael Berfield, said he doesn't anticipate having a large meeting like those held last year again, saying that "at some point they become counterproductive." Instead, Berfield said, he is meeting with small groups, such as the Kenwood and Springfield Civic Associations. Click

HERE

for complete story...

Dog Poop and Fecal Bacteria

• Did you know that the fecal bacteria count in the Little Falls Branch is dangerously high?

• Did you know that dog wastes contributes significantly to the count?

• Did you know that by scoop the poop and disposing of it in your toilet or trash can, you can make a difference!

Dog Poop has been on a lot of people's mind lately!  It seems like snow brings out the worse in us and no one wants to pick it up.  We all know no one wants to step it it, but there are environmental considerations too.  Yes, it is organic and it does break down, but the ground can only absorb so much.  The rest is washed off the yards, out of the woods and into the creek.

The average dog produces almost 300 pounds of poop a year.  That's a lot to step in, but also a lot of pollution.  

According to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection: 

Pet waste contains bacteria and parasites, as well as organic matter and nutrients, notably nitrogen and phosphorous.

Some of the diseases that can be spread from pet waste are:

Campylobacteriosis- a bacterial infection that causes diarrhea in humans.Salmonellosis- the most common bacterial infection transmitted to humans from animals. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, headache, vomiting, and diarrhea.Toxocarisis- roundworms transmitted from animals to humans. Symptoms include vision loss, rash, fever, or cough.In addition to these diseases, the organic matter and nutrients contained in pet waste can degrade water quality. When pet waste is washed into a surface water body, the waste decays. This process of breaking down the organic matter in the waste uses up dissolved oxygen and releases ammonia. Low oxygen levels, increased ammonia and warm summer water temperatures can kill fish.

Excess phosphorous and nitrogen added to surface waters can lead to cloudy, green water from accelerated algae and weed growth. Decay of this extra organic matter can depress oxygen levels, killing organisms. Objectionable odors can also occur.

You can make a difference for clean water and clean shoes by scooping the poop.

 A simple plastic bag full of poop in the trash, or even better, flushed down your toilet keeps fecal bacteria out of the creek.  

Westbard Sector Planning Meeting, Tuesday

Westbard Sector Plan Public Meeting
Tuesday, September 23, 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Walt Whitman HS Cafeteria
7100 Whittier Blvd., Bethesda.

The Westbard Shopping Center and surrounding properties have been bought by Equity One, with the intent on redeveloping the area. However, before it can be redeveloped, the Sector Plan must be reworked. The last plan for the area was done in 1982 and does not allow for the type of development they are envisioning.

Montgomery County is in the process of developing a new plan for the area. On Tuesday, they will hold the first public meeting. Citizen input into the process is critical. Sector plans are the map for future development. What is on the plan will be the rule until the next plan is developed - usually 20 or 30 years later. So, it's important that they get the plan right!

More information is at the County website - http://montgomeryplanning.org/community/westbard/

Who's that Croaking!

Report from a FrogWatch Volunteer at the Vinton Park Pond

By Jeanette Kreiser

At the Vinton Park Pond, right by the Somerset Town Pool, a lone bullfrog (apparently) calls for a mate while American toads provide a more continuous background din. As part of FrogWatch USA, a national citizen science program of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to monitor the frog and toad populations across the United States, I have been spending three minutes one night a week for the past several months listening at the pond for the calls of various species of frogs and toads, and some additional minutes recording my findings on the web at the Fieldscope site, http://frogwatch.fieldscope.org.

I have been part of the Montgomery County chapter of the program, conducted under the aegis of the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection. After a one-hour classroom session in January and an additional hour of training in the field in early March, supplemented with further online listening sessions at my home to learn the calls of the different species of frogs and toads native to this area, I began my weekly three-minute evening vigils as soon as temperatures were above freezing.

The first weeks were discouraging. There were no sounds at all coming from our pond—even when, in early March, I had just heard a multitude of spring peepers a half-hour earlier at a pond in Rockville where the March training session was conducted. After three very quiet weekly evening sessions at the pond, I was beginning to think that our town was devoid of frogs, and that my frog monitoring was going to be a very uneventful and unproductive effort.

Finally, one afternoon in late April, while taking the cut-through from Friendship Heights to Somerset, I heard my first calls at the Town pond which I identified as those from American toads. The next week, a lone bullfrog added deep bass notes to the toads’ higher trills. Several weeks later, the American toad calls ceased and sounds that resembled the strumming on a comb’s teeth—the call of the upland chorus frog—began, with the bullfrog’s voice continuing its regular deep croak.

Concerned that there seemed to be a lone (and lonely?) bullfrog, I began an e-mail conversation with the Somerset Mayor and some Town Council members, as well as some members of the town’s Environmental Committee, about whether there was a way that the Town might provide some additional bullfrogs in the pond.

But the idea was dropped when we contacted the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, which discouraged the introduction of populations in general, and warned that bullfrogs were known to be very aggressive and would very likely drive out the other species of frogs in the pond environs. Further, it seemed best to leave the frog to his own devices. Rather than lonely, he might well have been most happy to be the sole male, with the likelihood being that there were females, who do not croak, available in the pond area.

My vigil will continue into the summer. I hope that I will be able to report that there are other species of frogs and toads croaking in our pond and woods.

We Won! Little Watershed Group Packs a BIG Punch!

Thank you to all our supporter in yesterday's DoMore24.org fundraising frenzy. We won prizes for the most donors and for the most donations in the Environment and Community Category. That's an extra $5,000 on top of the $3,937 raised.

It just reconfirms the importance of small local groups. We are the only watershed group working directly for the Little Falls creek and our work matters. We pick up trash, we free trees from vines, we restore meadows and other native habitats and we watch out for the creek.

The parks and the creeks are treasures in our densely populated and we are proud to speak for them. Thanks for helping us help the environment.

Have you seen this plant - Leatherleaf Mahonia?

Last week, I led a weed removal work day for folks from the Marriott Corporation.  We worked off of Little Falls Parkway and got a lot done.  (See our

Facebook page

for pictures).  I was working with Frank Sanford, another weed warrior supervisor, and we came across a plant neither of us knew - pretty holly like plant with really flat compound leaves.   Yesterday, with the help of another weed warrior, I IDed it.  It's Leatherleaf Mahonia  and wouldn't you know it - there's an invasive alert out for it from the National Park Service.  It's been identified as a potential threat in Montgomery County and other parts of Maryland.

This just points to why we need to keep focusing on natives.  We never know when a perfectly good landscaping plant will go rogue.  This was the case for non-native bush honeysuckle.  It was a great landscaping plant for some 80 years until the climate changed, or something changed and it escaped into the forest where it has taken over. 

Hopefully we can nip a full scale invasion of Leatherleaf Mahonia in the bud (so to speak).  So much work to do!