Beaver Moon Newsletter

Hi Plant People,

Happy Beaver Moon!

It’s a glorious autumn in the northeast and the days are alarmingly warm for the season. One could be forgiven for enjoying climate change, just for the weekend. However, wow, things are dire. A new and massive World Wildlife Fund study was released this month, reporting that since 1970, global wildlife populations have decreased by 70% on average. This is staggering.

The scale is overwhelming. As are many of the drivers: climate change, industrial agriculture. But most of the decline is due to habitat destruction. And that is something that each one of us can help effect on our small plots of land. Many wildlife populations can recover if we allow them to. Here is a truly beautiful story of the Fender’s Blue Butterfly came back from the brink thanks to a collaboration between indigenous peoples, government agencies, and private landowners. We can do this.

A massive new paper was published ahead of next month’s UN Biodiversity Conference, calling for specific actions to mitigate climate change’s effects on insects. These are all things that are doable. And people WANT to do them.

Nearly ALL (95%) American’s want to take action to support pollinators, to the point of landscape protections and ecological restoration. It crosses the political divide! Most people (66%) just don’t know HOW to do it. And that’s where we come in. Godspeed ecological landscape stewards. Time is of the essence.

GARDEN NOTES

It’s pretty incredible to see how far and wide the “leave the leaves” movement has spread. In my little bubble, messages are absolutely everywhere that so many of the bees, butterflies, and birds we love, rely on that leaf layer to thrive.

But in so many of our landscapes, including here at Harvard, the land is almost entirely turf and trees. Many are venerated old oak trees that no doubt attract thousands of butterflies and moths to their leaves. Most of those caterpillars will fall to the soil in an attempt to pupate in the leaves that trees gently lay beneath them. But I keep imagining all the animals getting blown into garbage bags along with leaves and wondering about the net ecological benefit of trees that attract insects who are then killed part way through their lifecycle. Are the trees really beneficial? Or are they an ecological sink? I would like to know.

I’m sure your land is far better. But if you know people who need help managing leaves, here are some resources:

• A Xerces overview on winter habitat.

• An NPR story encouraging people not to bag their leaves.

• And a wonderful interview with Uli Lorimer on ecological fall clean up.

RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT

• Do your blueberries support pollinators? Bee-friendly certifications can tell us which farms and which produce are grown are on land that is safe and welcoming for pollinators. Xerces Society issues adorable stickers and Pollinator Partnership certifies farms. Thorough overview from Civil Eats here.

• Applications are open for the 2023 Practice Grant. Awards from $2,000 - $20,000 are distributed to “shovel ready” landscape-related projects and research that expand approaches to design and fosters a more inclusive community.

• Here is a cool website with detailed instructions on propagating native (eastern Canadian) plants from seed.

• New water cycle diagram just dropped from the USGS. More about it here.

• Jared Rosenbaum’s new book, Wild Plant Culture, is out! I can’t wait to read it. Margaret Roach interviews him here.

IN THE NEWS

• Robin Wall Kimmerer is a genius. We always knew that, but now the powers that be have decreed it, as she won the MacArthur Fellowship! Here is a wonderful piece she wrote on Serviceberries.

• The 2023 Chelsea Flower Show will feature a garden themed around “unpopular bugs”. The Royal Entomological Society is sponsoring the garden to show visitors the fascinating creatures who are not bees and butterflies. Slugs, beetles, and moths are ready for prime time!

• Fancy Irish garden designer Mary Reynolds has got the rewilding bug. A lovely piece in Gardenista. Does this mean that gardeners of the British Isles are discovering their native plants?!? We shall see…

• A “naturalistic” garden made the cover of Fine Gardening magazine! Adam Woodruff’s garden in Matthew Cunningham’s landscape in Massachusetts is lovely. And while not entirely ecological, the garden incorporates many native plants and does the important work of shifting aesthetics towards design that allows for garden habitat. Here is a lovely video tour.

• An unusually brilliant arum, Syngonium hastiferum, has turned the tables on a common sap-sucking crop pest. Rather than attracting beetle pollinators as usual, this arum convinced the Neella bugs drinking its sap, to pollinate the flower as well!

• There is a country fair in Queensland, Australia that hosts a floral beard competition each year. You’re welcome.

• Did you know that much of England is naturally rainforest, suppressed by sheep and logging? There are still small pockets left. Here is a short and beautiful video of a forester explaining ancient practices in an ancient British rainforest.

• Native plants + high fashion in the New Yorker! Artist Lily Kwong shops for native plants and talks ecology in LA.

• The fight to save Bell Bowel Prairie continues. Yes, they are still considering bulldozing an ancient prairie so that trucks carrying Amazon packages can drive on the hypotenuse of a triangle, rather than around the right angle. Even though the remnant is only 15 acres, ecologists demonstrate that it is absolutely critical to save it. Here are ways you can help.

• Wiping out “pests” in our gardens is impossible but also not a good idea. A new study shows that oaks infested with scale host significantly more predators (like spiders and assassin bugs) than oaks without scale. What’s more, the shrubs underneath the oaks had more predators as well, showing that “pests” can bolster “beneficial” presence, likely keeping nearby plants healthy.

• But if you are passionate about reducing herbivores on your land, a great strategy is encouraging bats! Forests without bats in Illinois saw 3 to 9 times more damage to tree saplings than those with bats, due to our flying friends eating insects.

• During WWII, a tiny army of American children gathered 2.5 million pounds of milkweed seed pods for the war effort. The military used the silky floss - the parachute attached to the milkweed seeds - as filler for vests and life jackets. They found that Asclepias syriaca floss specifically was as warm as wool, but 6 times as light, and more buoyant than cork: “A pound of floss could keep a 150-pound man afloat for more than 40 hours.” This article has some fascinating history about how milkweed became a “wartime strategic material” and then pivots to follow two of the children who were mobilized, as they grow milkweed for monarchs today as elders.

• Benjamin Vogt talks to Rewilding Mag on the various methods available to kill your lawn.

• Did you know that the roses grown for Chanel No. 5 come from a specific region in France, like wine? Thirty seven tons of Rosa x centifolia are harvested each year over the course of two weeks. A very pretty look at the journey from flower to perfume in the New Yorker.

• Pesticides can make strawberries smaller. Neonicotinoids have been previously proven to slow down and disorient bees, but now researchers have shown how that effects food crops. Less floral visits = smaller fruit.

• OK, buckle up for bad news: Irish butterflies have declined 30% in just 14 years. Forest destruction and tree canopy removal will lead to local instability in rainfall resulting in droughts and floods. Bumble bees don’t differentiate between flowers treated with glyphosate and those without, leading them to increase exposure. And researchers identified 70 North American bird species that are at a tipping point, plummeting towards endangered status.

• OK, deep breath. The rest is just good news. A new paper in Nature found that seeing or hearing birds improves mental health for 8 hours, including in people with depression.

• Many of us grew up thinking that cities are ecologically destitute. But it’s just not the case and more research emerges regularly on our busy and dense niche: Wired Magazine does a deep dive on how cities can be ecological refuges for bees. And urban botanical gardens were shown to be hotspots for butterflies.

• On October 12, cops in Longmeadow, MA drove up to evict a woman from her home. 55-year-old Rorie Susan Woods wasn’t having it. She opened the lid to her bee hives and released them on the officers, carrying a “tower” of bees to the home’s front door to hold off the evection. Woods is facing four counts of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon and her mug shot is epic.

• It can be hard to find incredible art that is ecologically knowledgable, but painter Christi Belcourt is marvelous. I love to see accurate depictions of plants and dynamics illustrated so decoratively (more, and more). The reasons why she paints are equally beautiful.

• There are many annoying things about the latest piece in the NYTimes on forest mycorrhizal networks. For one, it takes a complex topic in ecology and turns it into a “she said / she said” with no conclusion on even verifiable facts like whether or not studies show that networks are abundant. But the most frustrating part is the constant struggle by so many researchers to suck the life out of ecology. To keep it cold and distant. Forego anthropomorphization to the point that people can’t relate to other organisms. All the while mapping an ideology of competition onto literally everything and claiming objectivity. Boooo.

• Ancient trees must be protected at all costs. Hopefully, you already know this and the many reasons why (ecological dynamics, carbon sequestration, respect for elders). A new book, Elderflora, and NYT article lays out the history of ancient trees. I believe many of us can do more to protect the veteran trees in our landscapes. Gardening around established trees requires special care, and when considering work on older trees, we MUST hire arborists with veteran tree care specialization.

• A joyful new study found that bumblebees like to play with little wooden balls like kids in a ball pit. Younger bees play more! Adorable video here. More new facts: honey bees count from left to right (but it’s controversial). And it’s possible that hover flies migrate.

• New word alert! “Zoopharmacognosy” is when animals self-medicate. Like a dog eating grass, or parasitized bees drinking nicotine-laced nectar. Here is a fascinating overview from Discover magazine, including amazing facts like “Over 200 species of bird are known to roll over and aggravate ant nests to pester the ants into spraying them with alleviating acid.” Enjoy!

• I really like Matilda Essig’s portraits of native grass flowers. They are fun and informative.

• Pine is one of the world’s best aromas. But the scent isn’t there to please us, it’s doing many important jobs for the trees. When pine weevils bite into branches, the resin releases an aroma that calls in weevil predators as well as warns other trees to step up defenses! Surrounding trees respond by opening stomata wider, to “breathe” in more information about their environment, and then release VOCs that can be toxic to pine weevils in high doses.

• And just for you unflinching readers who have made it this far, scientists have shown that swarms of insects generate as much electrical charge as storm clouds! Bees are little balls of static. And the atmosphere is similarly positively charged. Researchers put sensors under swarms of bees and saw the atmosphere charge by 100 volts/meter! They speculate that massive swarms of locusts or even the every day numbers of flying animals have profound effects on atmospheric charge. A lovely (but paywalled) piece in the Times.

UPCOMING EVENTS

I am taking a break from public speaking until Spring 2023, but am excited for my line up thereafter! In the meantime, other cool events:

• Regenerative Solutions for Resilient Landscapes

  November 10

  Virtual and open to the public

  ELA is putting on a conference focused entirely on landscape management. Not design, but management, and all the critical and too often invisible work therein. So thrilled to see Rashid Poulson, Brooklyn Bridge Park’s fantastic new Director of Horticulture, will be speaking on managing a crew!

• The Future of Nature

  November 10, 2022

  Virtual, free, and open to the public

  Emma Marris and Laura Martin will discuss the concept of “nature.” Should be interesting given what I think are opposing viewpoints? We shall see…

• Plant Exploration: Geekiness with a Purpose

  November 10, 2022

  Virtual and open to the public

  Following Adam Black on social media is an adventure. He’s a plant hunter who travels far and wide but also through rare North American ecosystems, finding trees once thought extinct! Should be a fun talk.

• Madison Square Park’s Hort Symposium: Creating a Resilient Workforce

  November 16, 2022

  Virtual, free, and open to the public

  How wonderful it is to see the Hort world focus on the workers on the ground! It’s hard to imagine a more important perspective for this moment.

www.rebeccamcmackin.com