President's Column - Ralph Jersild
Birding at Two CILTI Properties - Don Gorney
Annual Meeting Enjoyable and Beneficial
Another Stewardship Challenge: Gypsy Moths - Don Gorney
"Everyone has a dream, what counts is what you do with it." I frequently travel past one of Marion County's Middle Schools and take the occasion to read the inspirational messages they post on their roadside sign. This particular quote started me dreaming of my special place. Most of us have some special place from the past, a place where we could soak up the sounds, sights, and smells of nature, a place where we could escape for brief interludes from the demands and stresses of modern life. My special place as a youngster was in a southern Wisconsin town with a population of about 30,000 people, where urban sprawl and strip malls were not yet part of our vocabulary. It was tucked away within easy walking distance past the edge of town. Located in a quiet, wooded area beyond a knoll of tall grasses and flowers, it beckoned one to enter and share in nature's offerings.
I dream of pleasurable days spent there during my youth, and yearn to return. When I do, reality sets in. Dreams are shattered. Urban expansion has replaced my dream. The same changes are occurring in our Indiana communities with the rapid loss of our natural heritage. Wood lots have become housing and commercial lots. Green space has become living space for a growing and restless population. My dream of "what was" now becomes a dream of "what still can be." Remnant areas of our precious natural lands, large and small, still exist -- vestiges of what once was common throughout Indiana. While not denying others the pursuit of their dreams, we must work to protect available areas of our valued open space, places to enrich the needed living space of our communities and to enhance the quality of life for us and for our children, places where present generations can dream and places where the dreams of future generations can have their foundation.
Please share my dream and help put it into action. Your continued membership is important to CILTI's success. Volunteer as you are able. Assist us in identifying potential areas for preservation and willing landowners. Educate others on the benefits of retaining natural areas.
Do you also have a dream of your own? Are you ready to follow that dream? "Dreams can help us see the invisible, believe the incredible, and achieve the impossible" (author unknown). So keep your dream -- "...what counts is what you do with it."
One of the delights of spring is the return of birds that have been elsewhere during our winter. They are in breeding plumage and singing heartily. Having traveled huge distances from Central and South America, they return in search of nesting sites, food, water, and cover. They depend on the kind of refuge CILTI properties provide.
Don Gorney visited BURNETT WOODS and GLICK NATURE PRESERVE. He shared the following report on his observations.
Forty-five species of birds were seen or heard during an early morning visit to Burnett Woods Nature Preserve during the first week of May. Many of the birds will nest in the woods, but some were just passing through on their migration farther north. Of the twelve warbler species present, it is probable that only three of the species: Common Yellowthroat, Ovenbird, and Kentucky Warbler, will nest at Burnett Woods. A fourth, Northern Parula Warbler, may end up staying but this seems like an outside chance. The other warbler species -- Tennessee, Nashville, Chestnut-sided, Yellow-rumped, Black-Throated Green, Blackburnian, Palm, and Blackpoll will have reached their breeding grounds farther north by the time you read this. On the day I visited, the Tennessee Warblers were especially raucous and numerous. As soon as I entered the woods, at least three Tennessee males were singing with a little bit of help on background from Nashville Warblers and an Eastern Towhee.
Other highlights of my trip to the woods, besides the warblers, were White Throated Sparrow, Rose Breasted Grodbeak, Eastern Wood Pewee, Acadian Flycatcher, Ruby Crowned Kinglet, Wood Thrush, and Indigo Bunting.
Unintentionally, I flushed an owl, but my momentary glance at the fleeing bird was not long enough to tell clearly whether it was a Great Horned Owl or a Barred Owl. One white-tailed deer was also seen.
Shortly after leaving Burnett Woods I visited Gene B. Glick Nature Preserve for the first time. This urban preserve is certainly a sharp contrast to Burnett Woods. But I braved the teasel, honeysuckle, and multiflora rose that greeted me at the entrance and found 13 species of birds. The species present included Mallard (six bachelors), American Crow, Northern Cardinal, Common Grackle, Brown Headed Cowbird, American Goldfinch, and House Sparrow.
Bird monitoring, especially nesting activity, on CILTI properties will be an ongoing project. Cataloging and monitoring of the flora and fauna at CILTI properties provides essential information for appraisal and decision-making about management needs and stewardship plans.
You may have wondered about Tom Swinford's presentation on dragonflies (could this really be all that interesting?) when you received your brochure about the Annual Meeting, but if you were in attendance, you now know how intriguing a subject they are. Tom had magnificent slides and gave a presentation that was both informative and entertaining. Did you know that dragonflies existed even before dinosaurs, and have survived when so many other species went extinct?
Ed Schools, of Sycamore Land Trust shared experiences that our neighbors in more southern Indiana counties have had in forming and maintaining a Land Trust, acquiring land sites, and handling stewardship responsibilities.
The knowledgeable legal presentation by Paul Kohlhoff of the Shirley Heinze Environmental Fund regarding Conservation Easements provided valuable information about easements and the acquisition process. It also affirmed the quality service regularly provided to CILTI by attorney board members Dave Prechtel and Bryan Collins.
The Annual meeting is also the occasion for elections of Board members.
Welcome new Board Members, Nonie Krauss and Randy Lewis.
Gypsy moths (mantria dispar) are an introduced pest (native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa) that can defoliate a tree during their larval (caterpillar) stage. Although gypsy moths rarely kill trees by themselves, trees weakened by heavy defoliation may become more susceptible to drought, disease, or other insect pests.
Gypsy moths were brought to this country in 1868 by scientist Etienne Leopold Trouvelot to breed with other moths for a new strain of silk producing caterpillar. His experiment failed and the caterpillars found their way to the Massachusetts woods. From there they spread slowly southward and westward. Now gypsy moths can be found in all but the southern one-third of Indiana. However, it is extremely likely that the moths will make it to all of Indiana over the next decade as they continue on a southward expansion.
Because gypsy moths prefer trees such as oak and aspen, IDNR reveals 82,000 adult male gypsy moths trapped in 1998, with the highest percentages in Steuben, DeKalb, La Grange, and Noble counties. Eight northeastern counties are the "hot spots," but central Indiana also snared some of these invasive pests in Hamilton, Hendricks, Hancock, Marion, Johnson, and Morgan counties. Martin County was the southernmost county to have caught gypsy moths. Fifteen thousand traps, of two different types, were used in 1998, and IDNR's plan is to place 14,000 traps this year.
Steuben County was the first to be quarantined, but Allen, Elkhart, LaGrange, and Porter counties have also been put under gypsy moth quarantine. This requires that homeowners visually inspect outdoor goods before moving to a non-quarantined county, so that egg masses and larvae are not transported along with those goods. Nurseries, tree farms, and lumber related businesses are to take additional precautions.
In early May, an isolated occurrence of gypsy moths in Marion Co. was met with aerial spraying on ten acres of a local Nursery. An infestation had been found at the nursery from stock shipped from Ohio. The aerial spraying of a bacteriological insecticide (Bacillus thuringiensis) was performed once the caterpillars hatched, and repeated in ten days. The bacterium, found commonly in soil, reportedly does not harm humans or family pets.
Gypsy moths are naturally controlled by a disease known as neucleopolyhedrosis virus (NPV). The disease is present in the caterpillar and will cause death if the larva is stressed, such as when it is competing for food with many other gypsy moth caterpillars. Some scientists believe active control of gypsy moth populations by humans could unintentionally result in a population explosion. Insecticide applications are effective for a given year, however, some caterpillars are bound to survive and can quickly restore the population. Repeated insecticide uses could reduce stress levels and NPV wouldn't be released.
Another natural enemy of gypsy moths is Entomophaga maimaiga, a fungus from Asia introduced near Boston in 1910 as part of a program to kill the moths. Additional states have introduced the pathogen and it is spreading naturally. The insecticide used by Indiana is a common first line of defense in treating isolated or small populations.