Rebecca Homecca

I had an extremely busy day today. I got up at 6:40 (on a Saturday!) to make it to my Invasive Species class for my nature program. It’s the last class. Well the last required class. They have some pretty interesting supplemental topics scheduled for 2010.

After my class I went directly to work where we were having a fundraiser for Children’s Miracle Network. Hubs and I were on bean bag toss & ring toss duty.

After that, we came home and worked more on the kitchen. I am finally sitting down and taking a break.

In my class we learned about invasive species. We learned the top 10 most NOT wanted plants, why they are bad, and how to get rid of them. Then we went out in the field and worked on eradicating some Autumn Olive at the nature preserve. Which was good info to have considering our back yard is full of Autumn Olive.

Autumn Olive is bad because it makes the ground inhospitable to other plants. It also has berries on it that the birds love. The problem is there is no nutritional value to them. So they don’t have the energy they need to migrate.

Imagine running a marathon after having nothing but Twix & Cheetos for the week before. Probably not going to end well.

The other bad guys are :

Oriental Bittersweet-Also has candy bar berries. You know those wreaths you buy at Christmas that look like sticks with berries on it? Yep, Oriental Bittersweet.

Purple Loosestrife-They have actually found a beetle that will eat this and are making great strides in getting rid of it.

Japanese Barberry-Sold in garden centers. Sadly we planted some of this at the old house before I knew better.

Multiflora Rose-Very pretty, which makes it more dangerous. People are less like to get rid of it.

Bush Honeysuckle -Similar issues as the Autumn Olive

Spotted Napweed-That’s the purple stuff you see along side the highway

Common Buckthorn-Generally grows in wetland areas and can actually lower the water table.

Common Reed/Phragmities-Found in wetlands and I find the word Phragmities endlessly funny. It reminds me of Fraggle Rock.

And the #1 trouble maker of all? Garlic Mustard. Which is growing all over our woods and our neighbors woods. And takes years of hand pulling to get rid of it. It also changes to soil climate to keep native plants including trees from growing.  It takes out entire forest floors.

We learned about other ones too but these are the worst offenders.

Now I just have to take the test and do my volunteer hours and I will have my certificate.

It’s been really interesting learning about all the different habitats and plants. It was also interesting to learn about all the different organizations around that are working to conserve the natural areas we have. One of the things I love about living in Michigan is all the different natural areas we have and the beauty that our state has to offer. Now I will be taking a more active role in keeping it that way.

Had a Tufted Titmouse hanging out in the birdbath while we were eating dinner. Hubs was a big fan of his mohawk.

This morning I had prairie class for my naturalist class. One of the defining characteristics of a prairie is the lack of trees.

Lack of trees means no shade. And it was very hot today.

As with all my classes so far, I learned the importance of this particular eco-system. I suppose most people (including myself) would just look at it and think “oh a field. hmm.” or maybe wonder why someone isn’t growing corn there.

Turns out there are many species of animals that live there and it also important for erosion control & water issues.

Who knew?

Here are some folks in my class. They are all hot and wanting a drink of water right about now.

Here is the instructor standing in some of the taller grasses. This prairie is newer so the plants are not real tall. Over time they can grow to be 8-10 feet. Historical accounts tell of people getting lost in prairies because they are so tall.

Unfortunately most of those have been turned into farm land or housing developments. There are people working on reconstructing those or like this park, creating new areas.

We saw a ton of different flowers and grasses in this small area. My head was overflowing with info by the end of class!

I had another class for my nature program today. It was all about identifying trees. I took a Naked Tree class this winter (the trees were naked, not the people) and it was the same instructor.  He looks (and sounds) like he is  Jeff Daniel’s close cousin.

I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures. It was at the same nature preserve as the Wildflower Class, so it was interesting to see how the park has changed in a months time.

It’s a pretty cool place, there are some HUGE trees. Some of the Oak trees are estimated to be a couple of hundred years old!

I took a ton of notes because there was so much information, there is no way to retain it all. Thankfully, somethings from the winter class came back to me when identifying the trees. We just have so many kinds of trees here in Michigan and then it gets all mixed up with trees that were brought over from Europe.

The main thing we are learning though is what kinds of things to look for, and the method for identification. We learned the first thing you look for is if the leaves are opposite (grow directly across from each other) or alternate. If they are opposite, that narrows the list right down.

If they are alternate, then you look at things like leaf shape, leaf edges, bark, habitat, etc. There are some trees that have obvious characteristics but some look similar to each other and that’s when you need all information to narrow it down.

Habitat is a good one for determining the difference between two similar species. If they generally grown in wet or damp conditions, they say the trees have “wet feet”. I find that endlessly funny.

You know, tree humor.

We had bad rain storms yesterday.  I was worried they would still be hanging around this morning, but the weather was perfect. It is such dense shade that it didn’t really get warm until the very end.

After class I had to run home and get cleaned up for my Nephew’s open house. After that I took a nap!  It has been a busy day!

Since we got our new Kayaks, we’ve been doing some research on where are good places to go (especially close by) and I found out this little tid bit of information:

In the State of Michigan we’re never more than six miles from an inland lake  or river

Who knew?

I always knew that I felt surrounded by water (especially after we went out west, where there is none) and it turns out I am!

So it shouldn’t be too difficult to find some fun places to go. And if we don’t like where we are, we can just drive another 6 miles and come across some more water to go in.

Just another reason I love living in Michigan (talk to me in February and it might not be quite the love fest it is in Summer!)

This morning I had Wildflower Class for my nature program. We had a lot of wind and rain last night so everything was pretty beat up and we didn’t get to see as many blooms as we had hoped.
We did see Trillium, Wild Ginger, Wild Geraniums, Jack in the Pulpit and more. I’ve got a few pictures on flickr (click on the pic).
The teacher was the real highlight. I was told she was in her eighties, but she had more energy than any of us, that’s for sure.
She grew up in that area when it was farm land (it’s all built up now) and used to play in the woods where the nature preserve is. She was working in nature education with the public museum and took a group of kids to that woods. They ran into the owner of the woods and got to talking about what his plans were for it.
So she worked with him on creating the nature preserve in the 1960’s. Apparently people thought they were starting a nudist colony because nature preserves were not very common at that time.
Over the years she has worked in various capacities at the preserve, including director. She is “retired” now, but teaches classes and is responsible for getting a new meadow area put in.
Since she has spent her whole life on that property she knows every tree, every wild flower patch, every secret spot where flowers might be. She can name plants just by leaves and probably has a story to go along with it.
The class was interesting and I learned a lot about wildflowers, but the instructor was definitely the thing I’ll remember the most.

The hummingbirds are back here in MI, so it’s time to put the feeders out. Here’s the recipe for homemade food again:

1 Part Sugar
4 Parts Water
Boil 1-2 Minutes
Cool & Store In Refrigerator Do NOT add food coloring. It is not needed and I think birds prefer organic food anyway.

In other nature news I am learning about invasive species in my nature classes and it appears we have 2 (that I have identified so far) in our yard. Great.

Garlic Mustard is the arch nemesis of my nature group and we have a bunch of it in our woods. It is hard to get rid of and you have to work on it every year otherwise it just gets out of control again.

It also looks like we Autumn Olive bushes everywhere. I am going to take a branch in to confirm with the nature ladies. We had planned on taking them out anyway, just because they look kind of scraggly and block our views into the woods. So I guess this would be even more reason!

I went to snakes class today for my nature program. Here we are out Herping. That means walking around looking for snakes.

That’s the instructor walking by the set up they have to catch snakes. It leads them into a funnel and they can’t get out. They also caught some frogs and some small mammals. I’m guessing if they were in there with the snakes, only one came out. I didn’t tell them that all they really need to catch snakes is a partially full in ground pool.

Along the walk we came across this

Some silly mama bird put her nest at the bottom of this shrub. I’m guessing these eggs won’t last long.

But they sure were pretty.

We only saw one snake in the wild. It was a Northern Ribbon Snake.

It was  a bit cold for them to be out and about. They had several in the classroom that we could see though. The teaching assistant actually breeds Blue Racers to release back into the wild.

Everyone needs a hobby.

I just got home from my first Master Naturalist class. Five hours of learning and I am exhausted!

We had 3 different speakers and they were all really good. I was glad that it wasn’t too much of a hippy-dippy nature lover kind of thing. The speakers all focused on working with development instead of against it and fitting nature conservation in to a more urban landscape.

The first guy came from an architecture back ground and focused on rainwater run off and how to keep it out of the sewers (and eventually out of the river taking all kinds of pollution with it). He works in a commercial setting  so it is on a more grand scale, but things like rain gardens can be adapted to home use. Also I think it is important to realize that conservation doesn’t just take place in the woods. Efforts can be made everywhere.

The second guy was from a non-profit conservation group. Their philosophy really made a lot of sense to me. As he stated, they are not a tie yourself to a tree to stop a bulldozer kind of organization. Instead, they work WITH municipalities, developers, farmers, and the community. They look at specific geographic areas and focus on very specific issues for that area.  Instead of saving all the butterflies in the world, lets build up the population of them here (for example). I thought it was really good and kind of reminded you that you don’t have to save the world, just your little spot in it.

The last lady works with farmers who want to sell their farms to developers and with those developers and the townships where the farms are located. Her goal is, again, not to impede development, but to make it as ecologically friendly as possible. Their group works within the laws of the township to develop the land and keep as much green space as possible, get the farmer as much money as possible for his land, and help the developers see the financial benefit of conservation efforts. A big task to be sure!

The general theme I took away from today was that development is going to happen, but it doesn’t have to be at the cost of  native plants and animals.

I got my Master Naturalist paperwork today!

I’ve been on the waiting list for probably two years now. They are doing 2 sessions this year to give more people the chance to go through the program. There are 60 spots and over 70 people on the waiting list. So I filled my paperwork all out tonight so that I can drop it in the mail first thing. I don’t want to miss my spot!

Here are the classes:

Introduction to Conservation Theory & Practice

Woodland Wildflowers

Native Trees and Shrubs

Michigan Wetlands Habitats

Prairie Environments

Invasive Plant Species

I am also taking a supplemental class on Michigan Snakes.

I am pretty excited to learn all about nature stuff that is local.Especially since we practically live in a nature preserve.

We will be visiting different parks and nature preserves in the area.  I am hoping to find some hidden gems that we’ve not been to before.

As part of the program you also have to volunteer a certain number of hours in a conservation type setting. We will learn about what opportunities are available in the first class. I think it will be fun to get out in the community to help with conservation efforts.

I know I’m a huge nerd. But I like learning about things, what can I say?