Alas, not a firefly,
But the lights of a car passing by.
Eric R. Eaton
Showing posts with label conservation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conservation. Show all posts
Saturday, December 14, 2024
Friday, June 10, 2022
Thoh-Dah Prairie Bioblitz
Last weekend, June 4-5, my wife and I had the opportunity and honor to participate in a bioblitz of a newly-acquired property of the Missouri Prairie Foundation. Thoh-Dah Prairie is located in St. Clair County, Missouri, U.S.A., and is named for the Osage word for “peace” or “peaceful.” Indeed, it is an idyllic landscape.
Copyright Heidi Eaton 
Carol Davit addresses the crowd before the dedication 
Ready for the ribbon cutting 
Carolina Rose
New Jersey Tea
Sensitive Briar and Tickseed Coreopsis
Painted-cup Paintbrush 
Clay-colored Leaf Beetle 
Bioblitzing makes you hungry....
....and tired (photo used with permission) 
Coffee-loving Pyrausta moth
Pyrgotid fly, Pyrgota undata
Firefly, Photuris sp.
Zebra Conchylodes moth 
Striped Lynx Spider 
Azure Bluet damselfly 
That's all, folks! 
Goat's Rue
According to MPF, colonialism has been positively brutal to prairies in Missouri. Pre-settlement prairie amounted to roughly fifteen million acres. Today, only about 51,000 acres remain, in scattered patches that are at best tiny refuges of native grasslands. Given the scarcity of such a unique ecosystem, Heidi and I were eager to discover what insects live there.
An enormous tent was set up to accommodate everyone, and several parties also erected their own camping tents to spend the night. Plenty of resources were provided by MPF, and memberships and merchandise were available for sale along with free publications from Missouri Depart of Conservation.
The event was kicked off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate the parcel, now preserved indefinitely thanks to the generosity of the family that managed hayfields there for generations. We immediately took to exploring, and were amazed by the floral diversity alone. Most of the plants we saw would not be found in your average vacant, neglected field. Many are endemic only to this kind of prairie.
Most of the area we covered in our survey of organisms was subjected to a prescribed burn in autumn of last year. You could scarcely tell, as it was lush and green. Dickcissels and Grasshopper Sparrows called from all directions. Swallows frolicked low over the grasses. The skies remained overcast almost the entire time, and there was a brief, late afternoon shower, but we still found plenty of insects.
Following an afternoon of hiking the gentle slopes, we were treated to a potluck. Each party brought a dish, but some of the MPF personnel fried up some fish, and also cooked quail and venison. There were plenty of salads and desserts, including homemade ice cream. Now that is how you do a proper bioblitz.
After dark, a sheet and blacklight were set up. Despite the cooling effect of the earlier rain, several interesting species flew in.
Sunday, we explored in a different direction, making use of the mown paths that provided avenues for the many, enthusiastic bioblitz participants. Prairies are not all dry and dusty, we learned! There were several wet, boggy areas that proved to be almost entirely different habitats from the surrounding hills that drained into them.
A couple of “tree islands,” thick stands of trees and/or shrubs, offered yet another kind of habitat. One larger group of trees surrounded a large pond that we could not comfortably access. The edges of those tree islands were perhaps richer in insect fauna, but such ecotones are well-known for higher diversity.
We got a little carried away, and by the time we returned to “base camp” a little after noon, we found the tent deserted. We are already looking forward to making another trip there to see how the area changes with the seasons, and contribute more data to the MDF for use in education and conservation.
Heidi took so many great photos that you can look forward to another blog post of images and captions alone. Meanwhile, please consider membership in the Missouri Prairie Foundation. It has a long, strong record to success stretching over 56 years (since 1966).
Besides identifying, acquiring, and managing remnant prairies such as Thoh-Dah, MDF also encourages rewilding of your own property through the Grow Native! project. This is one of the resources we are using to begin converting our own lawnscape into something much more compatible with the native landscape.
Many thanks go to Carol Davit, Executive Director of MPF, Jerod Huebner, Director of Prairie Management, and Erika Van Vranken, Special Projects Coordinator, and Sarah Hinman, board Secretary, for making this event such a success. These are empathetic and appreciative people.
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Insects in the News
One of my unfortunate duties as a blogger of truth and science, here and at Sense of Misplaced, is that I must occasionally dispense bad news. There are plenty of awful stories these days, but bear with me and I'll conclude with something uplifting.
The insect story getting the most press right now, by far, is the "Insect Armageddon" opinion piece in the New York Times, and the follow-up article about the German citizen scientists who made the observations. It appears that there has been a precipitous decline in insect abundance in many parts of Europe, up to 75% over the last twenty-five years. Should the numbers hold up to repetition, this is indeed alarming, if not catastrophic. Insects are the foundation of all major biological processes. You can do the math, use your imagination, and draw the obvious conclusions.
There are plenty of places to point blame for the demise of insect populations, and wildlife declines in general, but accusations and rhetoric are not likely to reverse the course of events. We have to act personally, and locally, to go about changing things for the positive. That means resisting the urge to grab the over-the-counter insecticides, planting native trees, shrubs, and flowers in our urban and suburban landscapes, growing our own vegetables without using chemical treatments, putting up "bee condos" for solitary bees....There is no end to what we can do, and it does make a difference. You are setting an example, for one thing.
Meanwhile, our very own government agencies are against us here in the U.S. Make no mistake about it, the current edition of the federal administration is out to ruin public lands in many ways. I already wrote about U.S. Fish & Wildlife granting permission for the construction of a strip mall known as "Coral Reef Commons" on globally endangered pine rockland habitat near Miami, Florida. The President's directive to shrink Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is further proof of the overriding policy to open public lands to private interests, namely those in the natural resource extraction industries.
It is also quite probable that a lawsuit filed by The Independent Petroleum Association of America, American Stewards of Liberty, and Osage Producers Association will result in the de-listing of the endangered American Burying Beetle, Nicrophorus americanus. This is in spite of the fact that there is grave concern as to whether the species is truly "recovered." It is found only in a handful of isolated locations whereas its historical range was over most of the eastern U.S. It also remains largely a mystery as to why it disappeared in the first place. Until a better understanding is reached, any action toward removing the species from the endangered list is premature at best, and irresponsible at the least. God forbid any creature, Native American population, or other sacred entity stand in the way of short-term profits for greedy corporations.
Oh, well, two can play the lawsuit game, and recently the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas filed suit against the federal government to block construction of the border wall, which would cut right through that private preserve. Take that! I have visited this area and can attest to the rich diversity of all organisms there, thanks to the caretakers who are so devoted to it. Many, if not most, United States records for mostly Mexican butterfly species are recorded from the National Butterfly Center. It is on every naturalist's bucket list of places to visit. A wall cannot be erected there, or through the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge....
Ok, I promised some good news, and here it is. It was recently revealed that a spectacular species of clearwing moth was rediscovered after a gap of 130 years in the scientific record. Known previously from only a single specimen housed in a museum in Vienna, Austria, Heterosphecia tawonoides was observed in the Taman Nagara rainforest of Malaysia. It just goes to show how little we know about a planet we are hell bent on destroying in the name of "progress."
Resolve for the new year to get involved, get outdoors, document, record, and report what you find. You never know where your personal discoveries will lead; or whether you are the only thing standing between a lone population of some creature and its potential extirpation. I'm facing that right now myself, but more on that later.
Saturday, December 9, 2017
Losing the Pine Rocklands
It has not been my intent to deprive you of new content on this blog, but personal realities have dictated that I put my energies elsewhere, or have actively blocked my creative mindset. My internal motivations have been dealt devastating blows by external events that leave me wondering if I am making a difference. Meanwhile, I still deal with financial struggles and my aging father's circumstances.
The last (or at least latest) straw is what happened this week with U.S. Fish & Wildlife approving construction of a Walmart and strip mall on one of the last large parcels of imperiled pine rocklands habitat near Miami, Florida. Bulldozers began their devastation on Thursday, but thanks to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, and a court order issued by heroic U.S. District Judge Ursula Mancusi Ungaro, the engines of destruction have been shut off, at least for the time being.
This dire situation, to be fair, is the end result of poor management by a number of property players. According to Save The Pine Rocklands, the Richmond pine rockland tract was formerly owned by the University of Miami, which acquired the area for free as military surplus land, in 1981 and 1997. The university then sold eighty-eight acres, for $22 million, to Ram Realty Services in 2014. It is Ram that is behind the "Coral Reef Commons" project that would include a Walmart, LA Fitness, Chick-fil-A, and Chili's; plus a 900-unit apartment complex. A mere 40 acres would be spared as a "preserve."
Since this habitat depends on regular fire events for its existence, one has to wonder how apartment residents and business patrons would tolerate prescribed burns for ecosystem maintenance. That is not to mention whether the forty acres falls below some minimal territorial threshold for which a species could no longer survive. It also bears consideration whether pressure for continued economic development would not eventually compromise the rest of the property. You did it once, so you have set a precedent.
The pine rocklands are home to a diverse and unique assemblage of organisms, including critically endangered species. Among those are the Miami Tiger Beetle, Cicindelidia floridana, found nowhere else on Earth. The Atala (Eumaeus atala) and Bartram's Scrub-hairstreak (Strymon acis), both butterflies, also exist in no other ecosystem. Florida Bonneted Bat is also at risk. Thirty-one plant species occur there exclusively; and a total of nine federally endangered species call the pine rocklands home.
This is just the latest crime against our natural heritage as the President and his appointees go about dismantling all environmental, consumer, and labor protections for the benefit of an extreme minority of extremely wealthy individuals and corporations. This not politics, it is policy. Very, very bad policy that will negatively impact you, personally, at some point.
The recent actions by the U.S. Department of the Interior, where the National Park Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife agencies reside, have been decried as "dereliction of duty," but that is being too polite. This is outright theft of public lands and should be prosecuted as such. It is not failure to fulfill institutional mandates, it is criminal behavior.
I pride myself on presenting you with an unbiased, apolitical blog here, but I have my limits of tolerance. Those limits have been vastly exceeded over the last few months, and I do not foresee improvement any time soon. I hope you will respect my personal desire to protect your right to your "pursuit of happiness" as it involves observing and enjoying the natural world in intact ecosystems. I also urge you to stay silent no longer. Thank you.
Friday, October 20, 2017
Are We Saving Species by Rescuing One Individual Bug?
NOTE: I had to change the original title of this post because, believe it or not, it is a trademarked phrase! The owner of said patent/copyright informed me of this on September 17, 2019 and asked that I remove the title.
Increasingly, thanks to social media, I am struck by how many people attempt to save individual insects they find injured or lethargic. On one hand this empathy for other life forms is encouraging, but on the other hand the energy investment is grossly misplaced.
The problem is that the media has painted honey bees and Monarch butterflies in particular as highly vulnerable if not on the brink of extinction. The implied message is that every individual of these species needs protection in every way possible! Consequently, people spend more time "rescuing" individual specimens than in protecting or creating habitat, working to curb pesticide use in their community, or engaging in other strategies that would have a far greater impact on improving the health of the entire species.
Another problem is that most people are not knowledgeable enough to recognize when a given insect really is in trouble. The wrong assessment happens over and over with bees in particular. Bees often become inactive when it gets too cold for them. They rest on whatever object is available and often this is a more conspicuous spot than normal. A good Samaritan human believes the insect is in peril and needs the equivalent of a sugar-water IV, stat! No, it does not.
Further, in late summer and fall, chances are you are saving a male bee, which is even less useful. Male bees live a short life in which their only purpose is to mate with a female. They do not possess pollen baskets, so are less effective pollinators than female bees.
Another aspect of life that we forget is that insects, like any organism, are prone to developmental problems that cannot be overcome. Improper emergence from a chrysalis will leave a butterfly crippled beyond repair. It happens. Insects reproduce in large numbers to overcome those deficits. Insects are incredibly durable once they mature, and losing half a wing barely slows down a butterfly or a bee. We should be in awe as much, if not more, than in sympathy, let alone pity.
Ok, so last month my wife and I were on vacation in Cape May, New Jersey, and we happened upon a Monarch trapped in a spider web. We intervened. It was a quick fix, simply disentangling the insect and sending it on its way. The whole investment was maybe forty seconds. We understood the insect could collide with a vehicle later that same day. Our expectations for the survival of individual insects are low, given our knowledge of their biology.
Contrast that example with an online video that shows how to mend a broken wing on a Monarch. More than a few such organizations have exploited the "sky is falling" scenarios centered on the Monarch, and one has to question the motives of some of them. Yes, older, established conservation organizations use overly alarming narratives, too, but the best ones measure their tone and can point to historic successes in legislation and habitat protection.
You want to curb insect mortality? Then give up driving. For every insect you nurse back to health, you kill dozens, if not hundreds in the course of operating your motor vehicle. Even bicyclists take their toll. I have seen countless insects mortally wounded, or crushed, on bike paths.
Basically, insects are better served by actions aimed at enhancing habitat health, and planting native vegetation in the landscape of your own property where you are able. Tear out the lawn, or most of it, and do your best to mimic the natural ecosystem where you live. Want to go a step farther? Start a dialogue with city and county officials to restructure weed ordinances and other codes that currently restrict the ability of homeowners to plant for wildlife. Educate your homeowners association to make those communities more wildlife-friendly without compromising safety and property values.
Also, stop insisting that one species is somehow more worthy of our attention than any other. Stop categorizing insects as "friend" or "foe." Such distinctions do not apply to the overwhelming majority of life on this planet.
Be proud of yourself for having empathy for other living things; but, channel that into something that will make a difference beyond the individual insect or arachnid. Do intervene for birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, all of which have far longer lifespans than invertebrates, but make sure you do it legally and correctly. Carry on.
Friday, April 7, 2017
Jeers for Cheerios? Not so Fast
I am not sure whether it is a good thing or a bad thing that politics and consumerism are infiltrating the world of entomology, but in the case of General Mills versus....science, controversy could be a good thing if it informs the cereal-buying public. The well-intentioned corporate advertising campaign aimed at benefiting pollinators has hit a few snags, and the ramifications for future like-minded endeavors are complex. Partnerships with conservation organizations are, however, an excellent outcome.
When the Honey Nut Cheerios® mascot "Buzz the Bee" disappeared from the cereal box to call attention to the plight of honey bees (and ostensibly the decline of all pollinators), it seemed like a genius marketing gimmick. Add the promise of receiving a packet of "wildflower" seeds to sow in your garden if you simply request them, and you have a win-win-win love affair at first blush. Who could object to stimulating environmentally-friendly action on behalf of imperiled insects like the Rusty-patched Bumble Bee, just added to the Endangered Species List? Well, it turns out that knowledgeable botanists and entomologists can object, and do so strenuously and effectively.
The major problem stems from the seed packets that General Mills is dispensing, in partnership with Veseys Seeds. They are a "one size fits all" solution to a complex problem, and therefore no solution at all according to many scientists weighing in. There have been charges that certain flowers in the seed mix are not only not native to North America, but invasive species in some areas. Homeowners are certainly better off purchasing native cultivars at their local nursery, if only because native plants are better suited to local soils and regional climate.
Another frequent complaint directed at virtually all pro-bee propaganda is that the sole intended beneficiary is the honey bee. Apiculture, it could be argued convincingly, is an industry, complete with large scale marketing, lobbyists, and other attendant business arms. The honey bee is not native, having been brought to the settlement of Jamestown in 1621 or 1622. Today, migrant beekeepers truck their hives across the country to pollinate various orchard crops, especially almonds. While Honey Nut Cheerios™ contains no nuts, it does contain "natural almond flavor." Interesting.
This is not to say that General Mills is without good deeds for pollinators in...general. Check this out, from personal correspondence with my friend Matthew Shepherd, Communications director for the Xerces Society, a non-profit organization devoted to invertebrate conservation:
"GM [General Mills] is partnering with the NRCS [Natural Resources Conservation Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture] to support a half-dozen new staff biologists, who will be employed by Xerces and based in NRCS offices. GM and the NRCS have each committed to providing $2 million—a total of $4 million—over a 5-year period. You’ll find more information about what the staff will do and where they’ll be based at here. For an overview of the partnership, and the press release, [click on the links].
"We’ve [Xerces] got other partnerships with various GM brands (Muir Glen, Cascadian Farm, Annie’s), but any dollars from those, often tied to sales of a product, will be part of the $2 million above.
"Xerces also has a contract with GM to work with their suppliers to create habitat on farms. We’ve already done some of this in California, planting hedgerows along tomato fields and hedgerows and meadows in almond orchards, and in Washington around blueberries, but this will be spreading across the country to farms supplying all manner of products. This is another multi-year agreement. I’m afraid that I don’t know what the total dollar amount will be over the years. Hundreds of thousands for sure...."
I happen to like General Mills and Cascadian Farms products, so I am happy to be benefiting the Xerces Society when I make those purchases. I am also glad that I learned what is going on behind the headlines, which were far from flattering initially. Meanwhile, my next post will revisit a workshop I attended back in March that speaks to the future of pollinator conservation at the homeowner-level. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
The Monarch Dethroned
I confess I have come to dislike the Monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, but it has nothing to do with the lovely insect itself. My objection is to the public obsession with the species to the exclusion of so many other butterfly species, let alone moths and other insects. It is also a manufactured obsession created by the many conservation groups that have capitalized on the Monarch’s existing popularity and used it to generate revenue for their organizations.
Let us explore some of the myths that have been purported as a result of the propaganda produced by the likes of Monarch Watch and the Xerces Society, whether accidental or intentional.
Still, conservation organizations may be guilty of creating a perpetual crisis that does not exist in reality. Were Monarch numbers declared stable, there would be no perceived endangered status, and monetary donations would dry up. This “sky is falling” phenomenon is probably true of many environmental organizations, and one should be wary when deciding where to spend one’s disposable income.
All of this is not to say that the Xerces Society, Monarch Watch, and other non-profits are not doing valuable work, or are merely exploiting human sentiments for “poor butterflies.” Indeed, Xerces has branched out over recent years to address insect conservation beyond butterflies, such as protecting aquatic insects and native pollinators. Also, exaggerating an organism’s endangered status can be a way to draw attention to an otherwise overlooked or understated issue.
The biggest problem I personally face in promoting insect conservation is in getting the public to think “outside the chrysalis” if you will, and recognize that arthropods other than butterflies are valuable. It is incredibly important to change public attitudes toward wasps, spiders, and flies, for example.
We are making collective headway in creating popular movements that embrace dragonflies, damselflies, moths, and (to a lesser degree) tiger beetles, that do not involve collecting specimens. So, I remain cautiously optimistic that the trend will continue. Just don’t ask me about Monarchs.
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