We're Facebooking!

TLC has entered the modern world with our very own Facebook Page!

Why? Well, Facebook is a Social Networking site that helps people connect with people they know, as well as people who share interests. So, by having a TLC site on Facebook, we can start a "fan club" and then those individuals help connect us to their own personal networks.

I think the term is "viral marketing" when information spreads through a pre-existing network to increase general awareness of a product, event or organization.

If you are not yet using Facebook to communicate with your network of friends, then I'm guessing you may never start...

If you do want to start, just visit http://www.facebook.com/, and you can start your own page. All you need is an email address - really, it's that simple.

Once you are in the Facebook realm, just type "The Land Conservancy of McHenry County" into the Search box, and our page will come right up!

Call me Savage

In a previous post, we read the wonderful quote from Chief Seattle. One of the parts that struck me as particularly poetic was his use of the phrase "I am savage and I do not understand..." in reference to the nonsensical things that he observed the white man do.

Well, call me savage, because I don't understand some of those things either.

Like how some people can choose machines at the expense of the natural world.

Or how some people can think that clean air, clean water or safe & abundant food are "special interests." Last I checked, we all had to breathe air, drink water and eat to live. In fact, people can only live without air for a couple of minutes, without water for a few days, and without food for a few weeks (depending on how much ballast they are carrying, I suppose).

But how long could a person live without a car? Without a television? Without a cell phone? You get my point. Billions of people have and will live long and happy lives without any of those things.

Is it so awful to consider the needs, rights and integrity of the natural world when we make decisions about our daily lives? Is that really such a savage idea?

Ask yourself: will my actions enrich the web of life or degrade it?

Baseball for Gravel Pit proposal

I just have to get something out there:

The Land Conservancy of McHenry County is not for or against the proposal to build a baseball stadium in Woodstock in exhange for allowing the surrounding area to be mined for gravel. There have been implications in public meetings that TLC has some interest in the project - that is not accurate.

TLC's interest is in ensuring that the environmental resources on and around the property are safeguarded should the development project go forward.

There is a large, high quality wetland area in the center of the parcel. While the proponents say that they will take necessary steps to preserve the wetland, the history of gravel mining adjacent to wetlands is that the wetlands lose because of the changed hydrology (water flow) over and through the site.

The wetland is dependent upon groundwater flow through the surrounding porous soils. Building a baseball stadium will decrease the ability of water to infiltrate at this site, and has a good chance of reducing the flow of water through the ground into the wetland. It also has a good chance of increasing the surface water flow into the wetland, thus changing cool clean groundwater for warm, dirty surface water. The change is likely to mean that the wetland will be more susceptible to invasion by non-native, invasive plants like Phragmites australis, an invader that thrives in urban wetland because of its tolerance of poor water quality and salt.

Now, don't get me wrong, gravel pits can be reclaimed to become lovely conservation areas such as MCCD's The Hollows and Lake County Forest Preserve District's Independence Grove.

In this case, the proposed end use for the gravel pit area is a new County Fair Ground should the Fair Association have the funds needed to purchase the site from the gravel company after the mining is complete.

A question I have in that regard is this: if the gravel company digs down to within a foot of the seasonal high water table, will that leave enough of a separation between the water table and the ground surface for development of a fair ground facility? Or, will soil have to be brought in to increase the separation? And, if the mining will go within a foot of the seasonal high water table level, where will it be in relation to the record high water level? And, how will the water level change with the addition of a baseball stadium and large parking area?

These are not trivial concerns. As the answers emerge, I'll be sure to report back!!

Ephemeral Morning

After a recent column I wrote in the Woodstock Independent, I received a mysterious fax of a poem titled: Ephemeral Morning.

Earlier this week, I ran into TLC member Beverly Meuch who asked me if I received her fax! Now that the mystery of the poem's author is resolved, I am happy to share the poem here:

Ephemeral Morning

by Beverly Meuch

Mist moves in with the morning.

The forest stands cloaked in grey,

Silence and stillness adorning

The dawn of mysterious day.

The fern slowly frees its frond,

And fog encircles the leaf.

While out in the meadow, the pond

Reflects the sun, the thief.

Thanksgiving Message

This from Chief Seattle (Seatlh), c. 1860

We are a part of the Earth and it is a part of us.

The perfumed flowers are our sisters;

The deer, the horse, the great eagle,

These are our brothers.

The rocky crests, the juices of the meadows,

The body heat of the pony, and man -

all belongs to the same family.

So when the Great Chief in Washington sends words

That he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us.

If we decide to accept, I will make one condition:

The white man must treat the beast of this land as his brother.

I am savage and I do not understand any other way.

I have seen a thousand rotting buffalos on the prairie,

left by the white man who sot them from a passing train.

I am savage and I do not understand how the smoking

iron horse can be more important than the buffalo

that we kill only to stay alive.

Where is man without the beasts?

If the beasts were gone, men would die

from a loneliness of spirit.

For whatever happens to the beasts

Soon happens to man.

All things are connected. This we know.

The Earth does not belong to man;

Man belongs to the Earth. This we know.

All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth.

Man did not weave the web of life,

He is merely a strand in it.

Whatever he does to the web,

He does to himself.

Thank you to retired TLC board member Dale Galloway for sending this lovely statement to me.

Think about this: Man did not weave the web of life - he is merely a strand in it. If we all think of this simple idea when we are making decisions in our daily lives, just imagine the profound effect it could have on the planet? "Will this action strengthen the web or make it weaker?" Keeping in mind that while some actions may strengthen one's personal strand, they will weaken others...

Wow. That whole notion kind of blows me away!

Have a happy, sustainable, nourishing, and web-strengthening holiday!!

What's in a name?

I have a problem with a lot of the names of natural areas and parks. They just don't do anything to inspire me.

For example, Lions Park or Bailey Woods (named after the group or individual who donated the land) are pretty plain-sounding.

Some use words that sound Native American or French (or both) like Meredosia or Chautauqua or Emiquon (all Wildlife Refuges in Central Illinois), which harken back to an earlier era, but start to sound alike over time.

Some parks are named after an animal, plant or natural community that is found there, like Boloria Meadows in Bull Valley (named after a species of butterfly), which seems to take the risk of sounding like a subdivision (Turtle Crossing in Harvard comes to mind -- it's a subdivision, not a park where turtles cross...)

Other sites are named for the geographic location, as is TLC's Crowley Sedge Meadow which is located on Crowley Road near Harvard and TLC's Powers Creek Conservation Area (which could easily become the name of a subdivision by substituting "Estates" for "Conservation Area"...)

So, why am I rambling on about this whole issue of naming natural areas or parks? Well, just this week, TLC acquired the nicest remaining wet prairie in all of McHenry County, and now we need to come up with a name.

The site is currently known as "West Woodstock Prairie" (since it is on the west side of the City of Woodstock, and is a prairie). Yawn.

The property was originally bought for $50 in 1843 by a man named Peter O'Brien, so maybe "O'Brien's Meadow" is an option.

The property is located in the headwaters of Franklinville Creek, so how about "Franklinville Headwaters Preserve"? It is mostly a wet prairie, so maybe Franklinville Prairie Preserve?

The land sits at the base of a steep bluff, so maybe something like "West Woodstock Bottoms" would be appropriate? Or "Franklinville Bottoms"?

You see the challenge! Now, if someone came along and made a donation to cover the costs of buying the site, we could just name it after him or her: TLC's Jane Smith Praire Preserve!

Just a thought.

Wild Parsnip Advice

If you have it, you know it!

If you aren't sure, read carefully, because you want to be very careful around this plant!

Here is the management warning from the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission "Vegetation Management Guidelines" web page for this plant: "Warning-- Care should be taken to avoid skin contact with the toxic sap of the plant tissues by wearing gloves, sleeves, and long pants.Although eradication of this exotic is desirable from a human safety as well as ecological standpoint, in some situations the best control measure is to do nothing."

The plant is phototoxic - in other words, it gives off an oil that is activated by sunlight. And once activated, it can cause burn-like rashes.

I was at a conference recently, and asked several experienced land managers about parsnip - before giving me their management advice, each one would role up his or her shirt sleeve and point out scars earned during parsnip management work to be sure I knew how dangerous the plant was.

Despite the plant's toxicity, it can be controlled. NOTE: once the plant turns brown, it is ready to drop seed! So, while this advice is coming right at the end of parsnip season, it might help someone develop a plan of attack for next year.

Use the plant's life-history to your favor. It is a biennial, meaning that during its first year of growth it focuses on putting energy into its root system, and in the second year (or sometimes the third), it sends up a stem and blooms to set seed and create the next generation of plants.

With this in mind, it is ineffecive to herbicide the plant in year two, because the herbicide is designed to be delivered to the root when the plant feeds the root, and in year two, the plant is focused on producing seed, not feeding the root! That means the herbicide can't do its job. However, in the first year, herbicide works great because the plant is focused on putting food into the root, so if you are able to identify first year plants, spray away (using glyphosate, aka Roundup).

Here is a summary of the best advice I obtained about non-chemical control of the plant:

1. Wear long sleeves, long pants & gloves to be sure the plant does not touch your skin. After you finish any contact with the plant, thoroughly wash your clothes - including the gloves - take a shower just to be sure, and wash any tools that came in contact with the plant so you don't pick up the oil later. Another suggestion was to wear a miner's helmet with a light and cut the parsnip in the dark - the person who suggested this was quite serious!

2. If there are just a few plants, pull them out by the roots before they set seed. Destroy the plants by burning them. DO NOT leave the plants lying where you pull them.

3. If you have an infestation that is too large to hand pull, then try this approach: after the plants flower, but before they set seed, cut the seed heads off and gather the cut tops together to burn them. NOTE: the plants are likely to flower again and will set seed, BUT, the flowers will be smaller, there will be fewer seeds, and many of the seeds are likely to be sterile. In four or five years, this approach should result in a dramatically reduced number of plants. At that point, the remaining ones can be pulled.

4. If mowing the parsnip (because of size or resources), use a pull-behind tractor type mower, not a push mower, and definitely not a rotary cutter or weed whip! Those are much more likely to scatter the oil around where you or someone nearby can be harmed! Mowing should be timed carefully to occur when the plant has finished blooming but has not set seed. (Friday, August 1st would have been a good day - the plants I saw looked ready.) The area mowed should then be checked in a few weeks for resprouts, and if necessary mowed again.

5. One good piece of news is that sites with a well-established prairie planting are not likely to be invaded by parsnip, and, if an area is enhanced, the parsnip is likely to fade on its own over time.

6. Prescribed fire does not really help control the plant, BUT, it will make it easier to identify the first year plants in the spring since they will be some of the earliest plants to come up.

I'd like to thank my friend Vern LaGesse from Springfield for talking me through the ins and outs of parsnip management, and for reminding me to check the INPC vegetation management website because they have pulled a lot of good resources together to help individuals with managing weeds on their property.

This is a photo of first year growth

Do you have an experience with parsnip control to share? I'd love to hear it!!

Some facts FYI:
Life history: Wild parsnip typically lives for two years. The first year, as a spindly rosette of leaves, it keeps fairly low to the ground while the plant's carrot-like taproot develops. It may live two or more years this way until conditions are right for flowering. The second year, a hollow, grooved flower stalk rises 2-5 feet high, first holding clusters of yellow flowers and later dozens of flat, oval seeds.

Leaves: Pinnately compound, with a main stem and 5 to 15 leaflets.

Flowers: Yellow, in flat-topped umbrella-like clusters at the top of the plant.

Season: Wild parsnip rosettes are among the first plants to become green in spring, and its flowers turn a prominent yellow in midsummer. After flowering and going to seed, plants die and turn brown in fall, but first year rosettes remain green until frost.

Habitat: Roadsides, abandoned fields, unmowed pastures, edges of woods, prairie restorations.