SIERRANCentral Iowa Group Newsletter

Central Iowa

Winter 2011/12

Central Iowa Group at Iowa Outdoor ExpoBy Karen Tigges

The Iowa DNR and the local chapter of the Izaak Walton League held their annual Outdoor Expo on September 24 and 25 at Waterworks Park in Des Moines. The Expo is held every year to expose families and children to outdoor recreation opportunities. Karen Tigges and Debbie Neustadt represented the Central Iowa Group and Iowa Chapter with dis-plays about our outdoor activities and conservation programs such as promoting the ban of lead ammu-nition in hunting. They handed out temporary tat-toos depicting the Sierra Club hiker and pamphlets from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service highlighting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge land that Sierra Club and other environmental groups are working to protect from oil and gas development.

Donna Balzer has served the Central Iowa Sierra Club for many years on its Executive Committee. She loves the Great North Woods and has written about her dedication to studying that call of the wild, the loon. Here is her story: “For the past eighteen years I have been a loon monitor for the Department of Natural Resources in Minnesota (MN DNR). I have a cabin on Rush Lake and this is where I monitor the loons. My job is to locate the nesting areas and observe if there are chicks in them. Throughout the summer, I monitor their progress and keep track of the adults and the chicks. In mid-August, before the loons begin their color change, I count the remaining chicks. In September, my report is sent to Pam Perry of the MN DNR. It includes a map of the nesting areas, how many pairs of loons live there, and the number of chicks born and remaining at report time. Loons are fascinating birds, and this has been a wonderful experience. I have learned so much about loons.”

Loon MonitorBy Donna Balzer

Annual Fall FundraiserBy Ginger Soelberg

Thanks to all who supported the Silent Action, our fall fundraiser. When you support the Central Iowa Sierra Group, you support Sierra Club’s work in your own back yard. This makes you an essential part of our work to protect wildness and wildlife, to improve air and water quality, and to promote the enjoyment of nature. With generous donations and enthusiastic bidding, over $1400 was raised. Proceeds from past auctions have supported many environmental projects, such as nature camperships for inner-city girls, river cleanups, and protection of natural areas. Sincere thanks to our members who donated food, created art work and contributed other auction items. Your help and support are appreciated. Please express your thanks as you patronize the following businesses that donated to our Silent Auction:

Hotel Pattee in Perry Atherton House Active Endeavors Woodland Bed and Breakfast Marshalltown Back Country Outfitters Big Sky Bread Co. Sportsman’s Warehouse Isabel Bloom Polk County Conservation Board Sun Pharmacy/Sarah’s Hallmark Johnston Ace Hardware Papa John’s Pizza The Learning Post Larry Stone, author and photographer Prairie Point Book Store, Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge Starbuck’s Coffee Ty Smedes, author and photographer Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que Panera Bread Bakery-Cafe Des Moines Symphony Des Moines Art Center Earl May Garden Center

Rich’s Brew, Johnston Campbell’s Nutrition Jimmy John’s Bandit Burrito Great Harvest Bread Co. University of Iowa Press Cold Stone Creamery Raygun Texas Roadhouse Olympic Flame Restaurant Miyabi 9 Restaurant Green Goods for the home Big Earth Publishing Planet Sub Boesen the Florist Waterfront Restaurant Macaroni Grill Dallas County Conservation Board Turtle Farm Community Supported Agriculture Raccoon River Valley Trail Assn. Katy Politch Massage Jeff Stickel of Adio Chiropractic

Above: Fundraiser organizer Ginger Soelberg smiles at a another successful fall fundraiser.

Top: Ray Harden ponders items in our silent auctionBottom: Featured speaker, John Wenck, gave us a great look at the history and recreational opportuni-ties of the Des Moines River

Central Iowa SIERRAN Winter 2011/12Page 2

PLEASE CALL THE OUTING LEADER IF YOU PLAN TO GO ON ANY OUTINGS. This helps the outing leader plan and alert you to possible changes. Every-one, including non-members, is welcome to attend programs and outings. Children are also welcome to attend with their parents or caretakers unless otherwise indicated by the outing leader. In order to participate in an outing, you (or your parent or guardian if under 18) will need to sign a liability waiver. To read a copy of the waiver, please see http://www.sierraclub.org/outings/chapter/forms/ or call 415-977-5630. Carpooling on outings is encouraged. However, it is strictly a private arrangement among participants, and participants assume all risks associated with such travel. All telephone numbers in this listing are area code 515 unless otherwise indicated.

DECEMBER EVENTSNO PROGRAMS ARE SCHEDULED

FOR AUGUST

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3: 7 PMSierra Holiday PartyJoin us to celebrate the holidays as another year of conservation efforts, learning, and outdoor enjoy-ment draws to a close. Mark your calendar and plan to bring your favorite holiday treat or beverage to share. Contact Jane at jrclark@radiks.net or 223-5047 for information about the location.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21: NO PROGRAM IN DECEMBERor antique shops before heading home at your leisure Sunday afternoon. Make your paid reservation by August 19 (checks made out to Eagle Cliff). Group size limited to 12. Difficulty level: Moderate. Contact Doug at dra427(@)mchsi.com or 515-277-1263 for informa-tion and reservations.

JANUARY EVENTSPLEASE NOTE THAT MEETINGS ARE

NOW AT THE NORTHWEST COMMUNITY CENTER LOCATED AT

5101 FRANKLIN AVE. IN DES MOINES.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 10: 6 PMPlanning MeetingThe Executive Committee of the Central Iowa Group of the Sierra Club will meet at 6:00 p.m. All members are welcome for quarterly planning of outings and activities. Contact Jane for location of meeting at jrclark@radiks.net or 515-223-5047.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 14Snowshoe Hike Meet at 12:30 p.m. at Jester Park Headquarters. If you need to rent snowshoes, please let Donna know by Wednesday, January 11th —rental is $8.00. Wear warm clothes and socks and suitable boots. RSVP is required by January 11th so we can be sure there are enough snowshoes available for rental. If you have not snowshoed before, basic instructions will be given. Bring a hot beverage for an after-hike warm-up. Con-tact Donna at 285-7787 to RSVP and for questions.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18: 7 PMAFRICA: Jambo and Supa; Hello in Swahili and MaaPenny Thomsen will present a program highlighting her three trips to Africa and what made them dif-ferent. Her first trip was to Botswana and Zambia where she spent time in the Okavango Delta, Chobe National Park and saw Victoria Falls in her full glory. Her second trip was to Tanzania visiting Aru-sha, Tarangire, Serengeti National Parks along with Ngorongoro Crater. Here she saw vast numbers of wildebeest and zebra and saw her first kill as a cheetah took down a gazelle, showing her cubs how to hunt. Her Maasai guide was the stepping stone for her third trip to Kenya, where she volunteered with the Maasai on a newly formed conservation area. Penny says once Africa gets in your blood you can’t get it out! Central Iowa Sierra public programs are now held at Northwest Community Center, 51st Street and Franklin Avenue in Des Moines. Contact Jane at 223-5047 or jrclark@radiks.net for more information about the program.

MAPLELAG SKI TRIP JANUARY 26-29 Minnesota Cross-Country Ski Trip to Maplelag ResortGo north January 26- 29, 2012, for a weekend of cross-country skiing on 64 kilometers of groomed trails at this secluded resort near Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, voted No. 1 in North America. Ski trails of varying length and difficulty (from beginner to advanced) wind through forests, wetlands, and along lakeshores. Amenities include a the largest hot tub in Minnesota, steam room, saunas, mas-sage therapists, and a library and game room in the main lodge,. All-you-can-eat gourmet meals are served family style in the stained-glass-lined dining room. Between meals, refuel from the free bever-age bar and bottomless cookie jars. Brush up on your ski skills with a personalized lesson, or enjoy snow shoeing, ice skating or kick-sledding as well. Our accommodations are in the Northern Pacific Lodge in the spacious, knotty-pine-styled Miles City suite with a living room, 16 beds in 4 sleeping rooms (with accommodations for singles, couples, and small families), 3 bathrooms w/ showers, and a view of the lake. Two departure options: Leave Thursday morning and arrive at Maplelag in the late afternoon, or leave Thursday evening (with a motel stay in the Twin Cities area Thursday night) and arrive at Maple-lag Friday noon. Leave Sunday after lunch and arrive home Sunday evening. Carpooling may be an option. The $332 fee ($109-$199 for children & teens) includes 2 nights lodging and 6 meals (Friday afternoon through Sunday lunch) and is payable to Maplelag at the end of your stay. You can add the additional night Thursday with three additional meals for $80 more ($15-$45for children & teens). 10% additional discount for families also. Cross-country ski and snowshoe rental, ski waxing, ski lessons, and massages available for additional charges. Space is limited to 16. Make your $100-per-person deposit to guarantee your spot (and make check payable to Maplelag). The deposit is non-refundable but transferable. Skill level: None required. Difficulty level: Easy to strenu-ous, depending on trails selected. Contact Doug at 277-1263 or dra427@mchsi.com to sign up. Go to www.maplelag.com for more information as well.

FEBRUARY EVENTSWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15: 7 PM The Return of Iowa’s Bald EaglesFollowing 16 years of bald eagle photography and a year of writing, the new 257page book “The Return of Iowa’s Bald Eagles” is now available. Join Urbandale author/photographer Ty Smedes for a slideshow packed with incredible images of bald eagles, at rest, at the nest, feeding young, and going about their everyday lives as parents. Ty will take us through the complete history of the bald eagle in Iowa, including its near demise and its stunning comeback. A diary along with many im-ages illustrates the 21 mornings and 84 hours he spent photographing at a nest. As a true reference book, his book is also packed with graphs, charts, and statistics on bald eagles that nest and winter in Iowa. You will be entertained with photos of eagles soaring, diving, catching, and eating fish (on-the-fly) along with many stories recounting some un-usual and sometimes unimaginable behavior! If you would like to see some of the best bald eagle photography in America, and learn more about Io-wa’s bald eagles, please join us! A book-signing session will follow the presentation. Central Iowa Sierra public programs are held at Northwest Com-munity Center, 51st Street and Franklin Avenue in Des Moines. Contact Jane at 223-5047 or jrclark@radiks.net for more information about the program.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18Cross Country Ski/HikeMeet at 12:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the lodge at Raccoon River Park in West Des Moines. Look for a red van and from there we will go to the ski/hike area. Bring a hot beverage for a warm-up after the hike. Call Donna at 285-7787 for more information.

MARCH EVENTSWEDNESDAY, MARCH 21: 7 PM Everywhere at Home: Eco-adventures of a Paddling Naturalist

Paddling journeys have enabled naturalist John Pearson to experience the beauty, biodiversity, and challenges of exploring wild places across America by canoe and kayak. This photo-narrative will fea-ture images and stories from outings ranging from day trips to expeditions - some with companions, others solo - to Lake Superior, the Texas Gulf Coast, Okefenokee Swamp, and places in between (includ-ing Iowa!), featuring rocks, plants, birds, lichens, insects and scenic landscapes encountered along the way. John has canoed and kayaked in a diver-sity of natural settings, blending outdoor adventure with ecological observation. Based in Indianola, he teaches kayak lessons for CanoeSport Outfit-ters, works as an ecologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and is author of The Guide to Iowa’s State Preserves and an essayist in Deep Nature: Photographs from Iowa and A Watershed Year: Anatomy of the Iowa Floods of 2008. Central Iowa Sierra public programs are now held at North-west Community Center, 51st Street and Franklin Avenue in Des Moines. Contact Jane at 223-5047 or jrclark@radiks.net for more information about the program.

Central Iowa SIERRANWinter 2011/12 Page 3

Central Iowa Group Directory

(See directory in Chapter newsletter for state and national information)

Chair, Jane Clark 223-5047Vice Chair, Phyllis Goodman 274-4319Treasurer, Ginger Soelberg 253-0232Secretary, Karen Tigges 274-0545Membership Chair, Phyllis Goodman 274-4319Conservation Chair, Jo Hudson 276-6359Fundraising Chair, Ginger Soelberg 253-0232ExCom Members, Donna Balzer 285-7787 Carol Grimm, 278-4057 Sandy Simmons Managing Editor, Phyllis Goodman 274-4319Layout Editor, Teri Peterson 223-8104

http://iowa.sierraclub.org/ciag/ Webmaster, Mary Ann Hynes

Central Iowa SIERRAN SubmissionsThe Central Iowa Sierran is published three times a year. We invite submissions of letters, articles, photographs and illustrations. Deadlines are March 5 for the Spring/Summer issue: July 5 for the Autumn/Winter issue; and November 5 for the Winter issue. Preference will be given to articles relating to the Central Iowa Group. The editors reserve the right to edit for clarity, space and for libel reasons. All submissions must have name, address, and phone number. Submissions may be sent to Phyllis Goodman. Call 274-4319 for submission address. Electronic submission of articles is preferred: goodmanph@mchsi.com. Hard copy submissions should be written neatly or double spaced typed.

Central Iowa Sierra GroupEx-Com Election Ballot

Vote for no more than four (4) candidates.

Indvidual Joint Member Member

Jane Clark

Virginia Soelberg

Mary Ann Hynes

Jo Hudson

Write-in

Write-in

BALLOTS MUST BE RETURNED BY JANUARY 5, 2012

Ballot Instructions:

1. Cut the ballot from the page and mark your votes. Vote for no more than four candidates. Ballots with more than four candidates marked will not be counted. Individual members mark their votes in the left-hand column. For joint memberships, one person must use the left-hand column to vote, and the second person must mark his or her vote in the column marked “joint member.”

2. Be sure to write your name and return address in the upper left corner of the envelope. We need your name to check your member identification number and separate individual from joint ballots. The names will then be blacked out before the envelopes are opened. 3. Mail the ballot to:

Central Iowa Sierra GroupELECTION BALLOT

3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280Des Moines, IA 50310

This is our ninth year of doing battle with the multiflora rose and the honeysuckle out at Yellow Banks County Park. While there is still plenty to do, it has been rewarding to see

the spring flowers come up where they haven’t in many years. Sunlight dapples the forest floor and I am able to see through the forest. You get the feeling that the natives finally have a chance to breathe. John Harri and I have moved our location to a site near shelter number one by the ball diamonds due to research being done by Keith Summerville at Drake University. He and his team are doing research near the pond to see if management of invasive shrub species has an effect on migratory Below is part of the research proposal submitted by Keith. “Undisturbed oak bluff land communities historically occupied sloping uplands in the Des Moines, Raccoon, and Iowa River systems. Dominated by an over story of white, red, and occasionally black oak, bluff land communities provide habitat to a large number of migratory Passeriformes, including ovenbird, Kentucky

warbler, summer tanager, wood thrush, and, less commonly, hooded warbler. Red-shouldered hawks, a state endangered raptor, have been observed to use oak bluff lands during the migration, and recently several have been spotted in Polk County. The status of bluff land communities in Iowa is grim. Less than 1% of original oak forest occurs in upland habitats adjacent to Iowa’s rivers and what little remains tends to be fragmented in highly disturbed private woodlots or heavily invaded by non-native species. Small, privately held fragments are often of little value for nesting migratory birds. Thus, population viability of nesting bird species depends almost exclusively on the few degraded oak bluff lands that are managed for the public. Yellow Banks County Park, managed by Polk County Conservation Board, is among the best examples of a publicly held oak bluff land community that is critical to bird conservation. The oak woodlands of Yellow Banks are typical of those remaining in the public trust – vital to conservation of biodiversity but heavily degraded by invasive species. At Yellow Banks two of the worst problems are from Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) and multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora). These invasive shrubs alter the structure of the oak bluff land community, suppress oak seedling regeneration, and may alter nesting by migratory birds. Species that typically require

Yellow Banks UpdateBy Penny Thomsen, Yellow Banks Steward

considerable cover to reduce cowbird parasitism or loss of nestlings from black rat snakes may benefit from the extra cover provided by these invasive shrubs while species that depend on more open oak parkland structure experience nest failure when invasive species become dominant. Either of these hypothetical interactions between breeding birds and invasive species may be operating at Yellow Banks County Park (some species benefit while others are harmed), but the long-term impact of regenerative suppression on oaks is clear. Reproductive failure of over story trees will ultimately lead to broad changes in bluff land tree composition, and the effects of loss of overstory oaks on breeding insectivorous birds will be significantly negative.”

According to Keith, the results of our work is a rebound of 150% to 200% in the bloom of flowers on the forest floor. Also there has been an increase in ground dwelling species such as ovenbird and warblers and a decrease in edge species like catbird and brown thrasher. Come and be a part of the changes taking place at this park, the native flowers and warblers will thank you! We have moved our work night to Mondays and also do some weekends. Call me at 515-262-1224 for details.

Yellow Banks Host SiteBy Phillis Goodman

If you want to see a beautiful vista, you could do worse than the bend on the Des Moines River by the Yellow Banks County Park boat ramp. At that point, the river spreads out and does a slow curve past low, sandy banks. The landscape opens up to a wide horizon of Iowa nature. Four miles upstream, the river’s flow is more lively as it narrows within the banks of urban Des Moines. Recent improve-ments are creating an engaging river walk within the city. Farther upstream, Saylorville Dam holds the watershed creating our much used lake. Each area offers rich recreational opportunities, as well as providing the area with an essential water supply. Sadly, Iowa’s rivers have too often become easy dumping grounds. But times are changing as more people become stewards of our waters, arming themselves with garbage bags, dumpsters, and the spirit to clean it up. One of the larger non-govern-mental river clean-ups in Iowa is the River Run Garbage Grab, commonly calledR2G2. This year on August 20, over 200 volunteers combed the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers from Saylorville Dam to Yellow Banks Park; and Walnut Woods to Waterworks Park, respectively. Tons of metal car parts, tires, rebar, tires, appliances, tires, and the ubiquitous plastic debris were hauled onto shore at waiting host sites. Boy, there are a lot of tires in our rivers. There, the materials were sorted

into recyclables or trash for appropriate disposal. The Central Iowa Sierra Club again hosted the downstream take out at Yellow Banks. While we had little action in the morning, canoers eventu-ally paddled in to find the volunteers ready to help unload. Thank you to the club members who volunteered to help and haul: Bob Pauls, Jan Robertson, Carol Grimm, Ginger Soelberg, Jane Clark, Karen Tigges, Sharon Johnson, Sandy Simmons, and Rob and Karen Nicholson.

Rob gives an assist to helper Jhenae, who learned to stay out of the river silt.