Ripples 6/22/23

Posted on by June 22, 2023

by Nancy Nabak, Communications Coordinator

William Shakespeare said, “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” Well, last night Jim Knickelbine, Executive Director of Woodland Dunes, and his wife Sue, plus six staff members and hundreds of other local conservation-minded people became just that – kin. All were at the 21st annual Manitowoc County Conservationists Hall of Fame Banquet to honors those who have done exceptional things in the name of conservation in Manitowoc County.

Jim Knickelbine, our Jim, was inducted into the Hall of Fame and we are so proud of him. And because of his works, we now have a larger extended family.

Jim was nominated by Tom Kocourek and the Northeastern Wisconsin Great Lakes Sport Fishermen organization for his years of dedication to conservation through his personal efforts and professional leadership at Woodland Dunes.

Here’s a little background on our bird-banding, flannel-wearing Jim. He first came to Woodland Dunes when he was running a soil consulting business. That’s when he met Bernie Brouchoud, director at the time. He liked what Bernie was doing and what was happening here so he began volunteering. In 1993, he joined the staff as a part-time naturalist then became Assistant Director in 2003.  In 2004, he was hired as the full-time Executive Director.

His years as director have been spent living out his passion and managing a two-part mission: conservation of our natural resources and educating the public about their value. Yep, he’s also a licensed bird bander and loves any time he gets the opportunity to do so. He also participates in and coordinates a number of wildlife surveys each year. Even though he’s an equal opportunity nature lover, I think he enjoys the bird surveys the best.

Jim has shared his talents with others by serving on Boards for the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative, and Conservation Education, Inc.  And truly, he’s made a difference. Prior to last night’s induction, he’s received awards from the Izaak Walton League, Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership, Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, and UW-Manitowoc.

During Jim’s tenure at Woodland Dunes, the Preserve has grown to more than 1,500 acres, over 15,000 trees have been planted to negate the effects of the emerald ash borer, and a beautiful addition to the nature center was added with a price tag of nearly two million dollars. In keeping with Bernie’s desire to educate children, Jim has continued to emphasize grade school education programs and to date, over 170,000 children have been a part of Woodland Dunes’ instruction.

Congratulations, Jim! Well done and well deserved!

Photo by Nancy Nabak

 

Ripples 6/15/23

Posted on by June 19, 2023
On a fine, soft morning recently a group of paddlers met at the county boat launch near Shoto to explore bird life along the West Twin River there.  It was not what one would typically refer to as a beautiful day, but beautiful it was- gray, cool, calm, and comfortable.  Lacking wind, it was possible to hear birds calling far away, and they too were noisily enjoying the morning.  Many of the participants were Woodland Dunes staff and summer interns, joined by exceptionally nice people who enjoy paddling and wildlife viewing.  And hearing, because many birds were hidden by foliage, fortunately proclaiming their presence in song.  There was purpose beyond just recreation that morning- our bird checklists were submitted to the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin as part of the Great Wisconsin Birdathon, a fundraiser which supports projects to conserve birds. I was birding as part of a team of birders known as the River Raptors.
 
At the start of the paddle, turning upstream, one of the first birds encountered were ospreys on their nest with a young one, then  a singing Orchard Oriole- in fact there were two on opposite sides of the river, with a few Baltimore orioles also present.  Next to the orchard was a singing purple finch, a very uncommon bird in the summer here.   Farther up were warbling vireos singing noisily from the cottonwood trees, common yellowthroat and yellow warblers, a family of kingfishers, and many more.  At one point an osprey took offense with a great blue heron, chasing it for several hundred yards, the heron squawking most of the time.  Herons are opportunistic feeders, and will take baby birds if they can get at them.  The young osprey was far too big, but the parent was taking no chances this day.
 
Farther up, toward the dam, we noticed ash trees dying from the borer, with eastern kingbirds in their branches hunting over the newly opened landscape.  Robins and red-eyed vireos sang from high in the trees, and woodpeckers, including a couple of flickers, poked at the ash looking for grubs.  More orioles and vireos sang from the arms of giant cottonwood trees, and we noticed a large cow parsnip plant in bloom, and many blooming Nannyberries.
 
As we paddled back down, American redstarts sang from brushy areas, goldfinches flew over, and a cedar waxwing, probably enjoying the flowers of the blooming shrubs, quietly sang unseen.  A sandhill crane, crouched low to avoid being seen, sat on her nest.  Below the boat launch, a gnatcatcher and indigo bunting called, and on a mudflat a killdeer and spotted sandpiper searched in the muck for tasty bugs.  All totaled, we found more than 40 species of birds in a half mile stretch, up and back. 
 
The West Twin, like other local rivers, has wonderful wildlife within and along its shores.  To find it requires the willingness to be patient and quiet.  The number of wild creatures you see is inversely proportional to the amount of noise you make.   And patience is related to the amount of time you make available for observation.  It is hard to relax and see if you are on a tight schedule.  So I hope you can make time in your schedule to spend some time on our area waterways.  It doesn’t seem like a great adventure, but nature can surprise you.  And, I hope, inspire you to think about how you can help make things even better for our rivers and lakes.
 
Photos- sandhill crane on her nest on the West Twin and a green heron, also on the West Twin by Shelly Randerson.
 
 

Ripples 6/8/23

Posted on by June 8, 2023
by Kennedy Zittel, Woodland Dunes Naturalist
 

Tuesday, June 6th, was an amazing day. We spent the day working on one of my favorite parts of the preserve (though it is quite difficult to truly pick a favorite). Before work even began, I did a quick 10-minute bird survey and documented 19 different bird species! A sign of a wonderful day to come. The weather was perfect, staying in the 60s with a breeze perfect for keeping mosquitoes away. 

This past month has been very busy, our land interns, staff, and volunteers have already planted hundreds of trees out in the state natural area. Woo! Hundreds more await planting, certainly enough to keep us busy for the rest of the summer. Tuesday was spent planting, but not trees. 

Instead, we planted native woodland flowers along the forest’s edge, right along some of our prairies where the endangered rusty patched bumble bee has been documented for the past few years. The prairies are full of beautiful native wildflowers like blazing star, milkweed, bergamot, coneflowers, and culver’s root to name a few. If there are already awesome plants blooming out there, why plant more? 

Well, most prairie plants around here bloom mid-late summer. Some pollinators, including the rusty patched bumble bee, emerge from their winter sleep in spring. Many woodland flowers bloom late spring-early summer, perfect for filling in that gap of when the bees wake up to when the prairie flowers bloom! 

We planted a variety of species, bluebells, mayapples, asters, and jacob’s ladder, to name a few. With armfuls of plants, off we went! We worked under the shade of sugar maples, beech, and hemlock trees while birds called from the treetops above. A glance out towards the prairies offered a view of countless dragonflies zipping on by with a few monarchs floating from one milkweed plant to the next. 

After the last flowers were planted, as we gathered up our shovels and plant pots, a single bumble bee buzzed on by us. It went from one newly planted flower to the next, as if it was curious as to what we had been working on for the past few hours. I couldn’t help but think of how excited that bumble must have been to discover this area full of new resources that it and countless other pollinators can come and enjoy. It was a really nice feeling to see that pollinators were already appreciating our hard work, merely minutes after we had finished. 

Our work here at Woodland Dunes is truly fulfilling. We get to teach the importance of nature and why we protect it while sharing how special this preserve is for children and adults alike. We also get to help protect and restore that land, improving habitats for numerous species of wildlife to enjoy for generations to come. How amazing is that? And, let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want to spend their day planting flowers under the shade of beautiful trees, while birds sing all around you, as if cheering you on as you improve their habitat one scoop of a shovel at a time.

photo- Virginia bluebells from Wikipedia

Ripples 6/1/23

Posted on by June 1, 2023
As we rejoice at the onset of summer with the next wave of blooming fruit trees and flower beds bursting to life, we think about how good it is to live here.  We enjoy the beautiful Lake bordered by lots of green landscape with flowers as frosting on the cake.  Some of us are already busy looking for insects among all that, especially the pollinators like butterflies and bumblebees. 
 
Last time I talked about the early blooming plants which sustain bumble and other bees just after they emerge from their winter dormancy – the willows and weeds that bloom as soon as it starts to warm. I think we’ve all heard of “No Mow May” as a way of helping provide flowery resources for pollinators, but I wonder how many people actually don’t mow for the entire month.  I’m not able to get past the middle of the month, lest my lawn become an absolute hayfield, un-mowable with my little lawn tractor.  Last year, my uncle next door had a mower break down and I mowed his lawn in late May and it was a disaster – actually took several mowings and put a lot of strain on equipment.
 
So I would like to propose an alternative to No Mow May, which would require no additional effort on the homeowner’s part.  It would have three components:
 
1. Set your mower to its highest height.  Even the highest setting on most mowers is about 3 inches or so, not terribly high compared to native grasslands.
 
2. Don’t use herbicides or insecticides on your lawn, except if you choose to save an ash tree in your yard.  Although treating ash trees would be toxic to insects which feed on ash in addition to the ash borers, as ash disappear they would lose that food source anyway.  Avoiding lawn herbicides requires us to be tolerant of non-grass plants- in my lawn are creeping charlie, dandelions, white clover, common and narrow-leaved plantains, and other plants.  They adapt to grow low, and survive mowing, providing flower resources for bees and others all summer.  Minnesota Vikings or Two Rivers Raiders fans will appreciate the splash of purple and yellow in the yard.  Yes, they are non-native plants, and can be invasive, but your lawn is not a pristine natural area.  Turf grass is non-native and invasive, so if you’re going to have non-natives at least they should be a food resource for beneficial pollinators.  Of course, you may not want an entire lawn of creeping charlie, but better to control it in the fall after pollinators are done for the year.    
 
3. Mow a little less.  Every year I try to figure out how to make my lawn smaller.  I live on about 20 acres and could make my lawn that large if I wanted. Of course, I don’t want a large lawn, and am working to have what I consider a reasonable lawn framed by prairie and wildflower plantings.  My lawn has been getting slightly smaller each year for the last five years.  I realize that I’m fortunate to not have close neighbors which might be offended, but whatever your situation I encourage you to think about how you might “cut down” a bit on mowing.  The benefits to nature are obvious.
 
I think the key to long-term environmental improvement and sustainability is to find ways to work with nature which are easy. Less work, less gas for mowers, and less pesticides results in a more liveable world.  And, I find happiness in walking over my yard looking for bumblebees and others which I know are struggling to survive in other places.  I hope you do too.
 

photo- a two-spotted bumblebee on creeping charlie at UW-Madison Arboretum, from their webpage

 

Ripples 5/25/23

Posted on by May 30, 2023
Spring seems to be a season of enticement and denial.  Our expectations for warmth barely met, with better weather always around the corner.  At least for activities involving relaxation- if exertion is required, the cool weather we’ve experienced recently is just fine.  Trees and other plants are similarly being teased, by just enough warmth to encourage very slow growth and flowering, but not enough to move things along quickly.  Its not bad at all, as it allows us to savor the mid-spring blossom time.
 
Plants beginning to bloom represent a very important time in nature’s calendar.  The development and movement of insects which depend on pollen and nectar, and the birds which depend upon those insects, involves those flowers and is timed around their bloom.  In the last couple of weeks, some trees and other wild flowers have begun to blossom, and those first flowers are magnets for early insect pollinators.
 
We’re excited to see pussy willows start to bloom in March, when, other than skunk cabbage, little is blooming.  Now, their catkins droop on the branches, covered with pollen.  This is one of the first food resources available to insects, and their presence might ensure survival of early emerging bumblebees.  For this reason, flowers we consider pests such as creeping charlie and dandelion may be important foods for a variety of native insects like bumblebees, fresh out of their winter burrows.  In my yard, where both grow unabated (fortunately I’m separated from neighbor’s lawns), many of the lawn flowers have various bees, wasps, flies, and even ants visiting them and distributing pollen.  My lawn management strategy is to avoid pesticide treatment, and mow as high as the mower allows.  
The first tree to flower in my yard was a Nanking cherry- a foreign plant but not invasive.  Unfortunately, it also has not borne fruit either, but it produces large numbers of flowers which were again covered with hundreds of pollinators, including honeybees from a hive at an unknown location.  In addition to the bees, wasps and flies, four species of butterflies were already active- mourning cloaks and question marks, which can overwinter in sheltered places as adults, and migratory cabbage whites and painted ladies, fresh from someplace a little warmer.  The energetic interactions between hundreds of insects and thousands of flowers on one tree was remarkable, and made me pause my yard work.  They were working much harder than I, and this miraculous spring emergence was joyful to watch.
Its fine by me if the blossoms hang on the trees a little longer as we wait for serious warmth in the air.  Early flowers, and all that go with them, will keep my interest for a long time.
 
Photo- Question Mark butterfly taken by Derek Ramsey from Wikipedia