Nature Passages

July 2010

The first batch of Tree and Barn Swallow fledglings covered the power line to the Stone House, after the Fourth of July weekend. There will be a second round of nesting, at least by the Barn Swallows but the nest boxes in the meadow seem to be vacant of Tree Swallows now. It will be interesting to see if they attempt a second nest before it is time to fly southward. When the first young swallows begin to fly, it is a signal to me that indeed nature’s springtime has passed. It was a bountiful spring in 2010. Mostly warm weather with rain coming to nourish plant growth at that most important time for vegetation, which sets the stage for success among all creatures.

Prairie plant species are now entering their blooming period. We have a couple of nice prairie gardens along the Center Valley bike path. For the past few years they have colored the landscape with their diversity and splendor. As a mature community, little work is needed to keep them looking good but unfortunately, there are invasive plant species, which encroach and then action must be taken. Before invasive species arrived from other countries, the natural prairie’s only threat was weather conditions (wet), which encouraged tree growth. In prairie-time, this occurred slowly, perhaps over centuries. Then, during consecutive drought years, lightning-set fires, removed the tree and shrub growth in a very brief period, when compared to the time it took for their establishment, thus the prairie was sustained. Today, invasive plants like honeysuckle, burdock and vetch can overwhelm prairie gardens in less than a decade and fire does not come to the prairie’s assistance, so other management methods must be used.

Prairie plantings should not be considered a novel action, depicted by beautiful and unusual plants, which with most gardeners are unfamiliar. Rather, prairie communities may lead to our survival, considering the present state of the environment. Prairie plants are primarily perennials and there are those who believe that modeling our future agriculture methods to mimic prairie habitat may be the answer to such problems as soil erosion, intrusion by common weedy annuals and soil depletion by repeated planting of annual food plants. We’ve kept the weeds out by heavy use of pesticide to this point but soil erosion and depletion continue as threats to agricultural production as well as the resulting silt overloads to our waterways.

Prairies are native only to North America, which restricts the likelihood of pests being imported from another country to ravage prairie species. This is not true of our forests. As we have found with so many trees already, there are similar species in Eurasia, which resist the pests there but once the infestation begins in this country, there are few predators or diseases to limit the alien pests’ damage. Perhaps prairie grasses will become our new raw materials for building and the herbs, which grow in the prairie, become our next food sources?

Prairie time is also the time for the singing insect species to peak. Using tall-stemmed plants as their podium to sing their love songs, lazy summer days, especially at dusk, seem to be filled with insect song, beginning in mid to late July and continuing until the first frost. One might think that this song is restricted to meadows and prairies but some species are bush and tree insects, broadcasting their songs from an even higher podium. Once a few songs are learned, it’s quite a treat to step out of the car at night and whether at home or another destination, hearing a familiar insect song. Currently, there is one book of singing insects that has attracted people’s attention to these insects in a big way. “The Songs of Insects” by Lang Elliott and Wil Hershberger is beautifully done and comes with a CD for learning the songs. For a family with children, this book opens the door to the awareness of some delightful insects and nature in general.
  "There are many stories in nature, but only experience allows us to read them all."

 Stanley Stine, Naturalist for the City of Twinsburg

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