Great Natives of Midwestern Ecotype

January 2010 Edition

© 2010

Cover Photo: Adult Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) at bird feeders– December 2009

Great Natives Of Mid-western Ecotype

Mountain lion, puma, catamount, panther, and cougar– all names for the cat that originally could be found throughout the conti-nental United States. Scientifi-cally known as Puma concolor, the “mighty magic animal” “of one color” is making its presence known in the Midwest– and in a big way.

It is not surprising that when an apex predator makes an unex-pected appearance, it also makes headlines. What is sur-prising is the increasing fre-quency of appearances of the cougar in the Midwest in the past decade.

There are several factors that have created an opportunity for these animals to begin moving back into their old haunts. Cou-gars are territorial and establish home ranges. It has been found that most of the cougars killed have been young males– mainly from populations in the Black Hills. Since that area has reached carrying capacity for the big cats in terms of area for home ranges, young males often

hit the road to establish territo-ries of their own. These va-grants are the ones showing up across the Midwest.

Another important factor in population expansion is food supply. Since white-tailed deer have reached numbers even greater than pre-settlement days, it is not a stretch to see that the predators go where they can easily secure food.

Volume 16 , Issue 1

THE BIG PICTURE: Cougars Making A Comeback

January 5 , 2010

Did you know...

• That, on average, over 58 people are killed a year in the US by lightning while only 5 per year are attacked (not killed) by cougars?

• That the US spends over 40 million dol-lars a year to control the silver carp?

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Plant Profile 4

Native on the Net 4

Best Books 4

Organization Spotlight 5

Native News 5

Planting with a Purpose 5

Dr. Tallamy Interview Invasives! Fantastic Fauna Focus on the Future

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GNOME NEWS

G N O M E ’ S M I S S I O N

Great Natives Of Mid-western Ecotype (GNOME) is an organization focused on the preservation and expansion of native flo-ral and faunal species. The mission is to provide a net-based forum where mem-

bers can share their pas-sion, plans, ideas, and ques-tions with other people hav-ing a common interest. You can participate in many different ways.

1. Join our facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45643568296

2. Submit articles, pictures, sto-ries, or plans for publication.

3. Visit or link to the website 4. Pass on the newsletter.

This can often lead to conflict between cougars and people. Many states offer the cougar no legal protection, simply because they have been gone from the landscape for so long. The end result is that, when a cougar is found, it is often killed.

The Cougar Network is an organi-zation created to monitor and research the expanding popula-tion. Check it out at www.easterncougarnet.org

The “Big Picture” map from The Cougar Network

The majority of people voting on Name That Native last month correctly identified this plant as Euphorbia corollata– commonly called flowering spurge.

The original range of this plant was from the plains of Texas up to South Dakota and east to the Atlantic Ocean.

This plant usually grows to be-tween 2-3 feet tall. It is an erect growing plant that only spreads at the top where the blooms develop.

Blooms are small, but many on this plant. They are usually less than 1/2 “ wide and have yel-low centers with white

“petals” (they are actually modified leaves). They are similar in appearance to the ornamental baby’s breath.

One nice thing about this plant is that it can grow in about any type of soil, and will even prefer poor soils due to lack of other plant competi-tion. They are also very drought tolerant.

Faunal associations include wasps, flies, and short-tongued bees. Ants are believed to as-sist in the seed dispersion due to the small edible appendage at the base of the seed. Seeds are also eaten by many birds like Mourning Doves, pheas-ants, turkeys, and larks. Mam-mals tend to avoid eating this plant because of the white latex found within the green parts– as is typical of the spurge fam-ily. It can be toxic if eaten.

I enjoy the airiness of this plant in bloom. It provides a wonder-ful accent with the bolder colors prevalent in mid– to late sum-mer. It also tends to have nice burgundy color in the fall. I use it with Oswego Tea and little bluestem.

This is an invaluable resource to those living near or in Kane county. No other guide will help identify plants as well as help you find them in their natural setting.

That being said, this reference is so compre-hensive that the plant guide will be useful well outside the county range. I would even venture to say that it is the best Midwest-ern field guide.

When Dick Young created this book for Kane County Forest Preserve, he set the standard for every other county in the United States.

I was first introduced to this title while trying to i.d. a wild hawthorn. I am a resident of Kane county and, upon discov-ering that our county had a guide from a Wild Ones friend, decided to check it out.

Am I glad I did!

Above all else, I like the mission that this book was created to fulfill– to help get people to know native plants in their natural areas and to assist in

the protection of these remnants.

It is not an easy book to find if you are interested in buying it. The best source for pur-chasing it is the Forest Preserve itself. (630) 232-5980

Page 4

N A T I V E O N T H E N E T

Euphorbia corollata– Flowering Spurge

B E S T B O O K S – K A N E C O U N T Y W I L D P L A N T S & N A T U R A L A R E A S

This site is focused on in-creasing native plant aware-ness on public lands.

I like this site for several rea-sons. The first reason is that public lands are accessible to all, and therefore provide a great opportunity for viewing native plants in their natural setting.

The second reason I like the site is that there is a section for native plant art– called the Traveling Artist. Creating art-work of native flora is a great way to increase awareness.

There are also valuable links in other sections on the page– as well as the USDA’s Celebrating Wildflowers site. It is worth a look!

Sometimes wading through sites looking for good resources on native organisms is just too time consum-ing. This section should help!

This month’s featured site is : Celebrating Wildflowers http://www.nps.gov/plants/cw/index.htm

“I'm not trying to recreate the ancient ecosystem. That is gone. I'm trying to create biodiversity.” ~Douglas Tallamy

Volume 16 , Issue 1

Unusual field guide and a model for other counties!

GNOME News

Earthwatch Institute engages people worldwide in scientific field research and education to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustain-able environment.

Taken from their “About Us” page on their website-

http://www.earthwatch.org

This organization uses a unique model of citizen science, match-ing volunteers with researchers to investigate some of the greatest environmental chal-lenges facing our planet.

Organized in 1971, Earth-watch International has inspired over 90,000 vol-unteers to join vital re-search projects across the globe. With that many volunteers, they have logged more than 10 mil-lion people hours or re-search on environmental issues and solutions.

As one of the world’s larg-est private funders or sci-entific research, they invest over 5.7 million dollars annually to projects across the globe.

More than simply having regional chapters with meetings, you can get involved in different types of

expeditions all making an impact on global research.

Membership starts at $35 dollars. Learn more and see what expeditions are being offered by visiting their site.

By far my favorite program to us is one called Smartdraw. This program can be downloaded as a free trial. Being a demo, some features are disabled, but there is plenty to work with and can keep you occupied for hours. The plan used in the section One Yard’s Story on the webpage was created with the free version of Smartdraw.

I like this program because it is a drag and drop program. It is

It might just be the techie in me coming out, but using a land-scaping program is just plain fun.

The downside to this is that some programs are not easy to use, many lack needed fea-tures, and most are pretty costly.

There are ways around these issues through demo versions and free/shareware software.

intuitive and pretty much works like other graphics programs that many are more familiar with.

One benefit I see with using a program to plan your landscape is scale. Mapping out new beds, paths, patios, or trees gets much easier when all of your measure-ments and drawings are in one place! Give it a try!

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ORG A N I ZAT I O N SP O T L I G H T: E A R T H WA T C H I N S T I T U T E

P L A N T I N G W I T H A P U R P O S E : P L A N W I T H A P R O G R A M

Dam on the electric barriers in-stalled to keep the invasive Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes system. One single 22 inch Asian carp was found among the tens of thousands of dead fish.

While the 3 million dollar price tag of the fish kill may seem like a high price to pay, Illinois is facing even larger fiscal issues with the re-opened lawsuit filed by Michigan

with the Supreme Court in 1966 to close canals in the Chicago area leading into Lake Michigan. States uniting against Illinois include Ohio, Indiana, Wiscon-sin, Minnesota, and now even New York.

The ramifications of the case are huge- with Chicago’s transporta-tion and the Great Lakes fishing industry hanging in the balance.

Illinois Department of Natural Resources and several other agencies conducted what is believed to be the largest delib-erate fish kill in state history in early December 2009.

Six miles of the Chicago Sani-tary and Ship Canal was poi-soned with 2,200 pounds of rotenone in order to perform maintenance near the Lockport

“Don't tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish.” ~Mark Twain

Citizen Scientists Making A Global Impact

N A T I V E N E W S : A S I A N C A R P B A T T L E I N T H E M I D W E S T

My yard plan created with Smartdraw demo

Periodically, I like to feature interviews with impor-tant people from the native plant and animal scene in this newsletter. I recently had the pleasure of inter-viewing Douglas Tallamy– author, professor, re-searcher, and entomological specialist. One of his publications called Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife With Native Plants has fundamentally changed how many people view their outdoor living spaces. My interview process began with an email to Dr. Tallamy. I was pleasantly surprised at the quick response and re-quest to interview over the phone as opposed to email. After playing phone tag, we connected on December 20, as I interrupted him from his snow shoveling. I began by asking him what he thought were some good general principles for homeowners to know about their outdoor landscapes. “ First of all, plants matter– they are not just ornaments.” he replied. When the early settlers first colonized America, the primary concern was to literally chop out an area to build a home and grow enough agricultural crops to sustain them through the year, and if they were lucky, to sell or barter. It wasn’t until those settlers that received larger land grants and grew cash crops finally had enough money– and therefore could af-ford more leisure time– that attention turned to orna-mental plants. Many plants were brought here from foreign lands and they became a cultural status sym-bol. The more exotic the plant, the higher one was viewed in respect to income and leisure early on. “Plants have a function in suburban environ-ments. Tens of thousands of acres are taken out of the ecosystem with our current landscape prac-tices.” This would include the typical grass lawn, the daylilies, and spirea foundation plantings all too familiar in suburbia today. These foreign plants simply don’t provide for native life forms– espe-cially at the basic levels for organisms like caterpil-lar larva and other primary consumers. “Plants are the only thing that can eat sunshine.” This is the foundation for all food webs that come after plants. “More plants equal more life.” states Dr. Tallamy casually.

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S P E C I A L I N T E RV I E W : D O U G L A S T A L L A M Y

Volume 16 , Issue 1

“Garden as if your life depended on it!” ~Douglas Tallamy

In the case of our suburban yards, this means using native plants instead of ornamentals from foreign lands. I asked Dr. Tallamy about the nursery trade industry and how native plants play into that busi-ness. He stated that it basically comes down to sup-

ply and demand and also familiarity. He thought that the native plant mar-ket is expanding within the industry. We also discussed the importance of public education as far is it related to native plant use. When people begin seeing more na-tives used in home land-scapes, they will become more familiar with them. With that knowledge will come comfort and de-mand for natives will increase.

I also asked him what plants he would recommend for the home landscape. His response was that it was regionally dependent. “Quercus– the oaks- support over 530 species.” Most regions have at least several species of oaks. This might be a good genus to consider not only for homeowners, but for public lands such as parkways and ditches as well. Outside of the nursery trade, Dr. Tallamy said that people should not be afraid to try self-propagating plants themselves. “If you want a hickory tree, try planting a hickory nut, or even let a squirrel do it for you.” This is often the least expensive and re-warding way to add plants to your yard. Some of the pleasure comes down to perspective. “If you think of a small oak tree as an oak bush, you won’t be disappointed.” It is all about the process and how things are related. A seedling oak is serving a pur-pose in that process. It is as much a part of the larger ecosystem as the 2.5 inch $500 one put in the park-way or front yard. If you have not picked up a copy of Bringing Nature Home, I would highly recommend it. Published originally in 2007, it has been updated and expanded since and is readily available. It is a very practical guide for those wanting to make a difference for the health of the ecosystem around them. I would like to thank Dr. Tallamy for taking his time to answer my emails and talk with me on the phone. It was a highlight and I look forward to reading more from him in the future. Maybe we can even have a follow up for GNOME!

Professor Douglas Tallamy

GNOME News

Hypophthalmichthys molitrix is commonly called the silver, Asian, or jumping carp.

They are believed to have been introduced to the United States in 1973 by an Arkansas fish farmer. Because they were useful in con-trolling phytoplankton, they were used in various aquaculture applications by private, state, and even federal facilities.

These filter feeding carp eat phytoplankton, zooplankton, bacteria, and aquatic vegeta-tion. They can grow to over three feet in length and weigh close to 100 lbs at maturity. They are also long lived, fre-quently reaching the 20 year mark.

One factor that make these fish so harmful is their eating hab-its. Since they are generalists,

they can consume many different things. They can eat more than their weight every day. This creates a huge impact on native aquatic vegetation and the animals dependent on those plants. There many current efforts to control this fish.

One of these efforts is focused in the Chicago area. Electric barriers and chemical toxins have been used to keep these fish from entering the Great Lakes. It is a concern because these invasive fish could have an huge impact on the commercial fishing in-dustry in the Great Lake system. Currently this industry is valued be-tween 4-7 billion dollars annually. Native flora and fauna are sure to suffer as well.

Puma concolor is the world’s fourth largest cat species and America’s second largest behind the jaguar. This information would make most peo-ple put this cat in the “large cat” category. Inter-estingly enough, it is considered a “small cat” due to it’s ability to purr. All small cats (including pet cats) have rigid hyoid bones– those that con-nect the roof of the mouth to the tongue. This allows them to purr. In large cats, this connec-tion is flexible and enables them to roar, thus cougars cannot roar. I wonder what their purr would sound like?!

Adult cougars can weigh up to 250 lbs, though somewhere between 100 and 200 is more usual with males being larger than females. They are usually between 3-5 feet long, with a tail that extends about another 2-3 feet beyond and is about 1/3 of its total length.

The normal coloration of this animal is buff/tan. The stomach area is white. The muzzle stripes, area behind the ears, and the tip of the tail are black.

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F A N T A S T I C F A U N A : T H E C O U G A R

IN VA S I V E S- S I L V E R C A R P

The normal fare of the cougar is hoofed animals. Wild cougars prey mainly on deer, averaging about 48 ungulate per lion per year. Large prey is usually taken from behind by a powerful bite to the base of the skull. Smaller prey is also eaten such as squirrels, raccoons, muskrats, coyotes, and even porcupines– it is one of the few preda-tors wily enough to capture them.

Once having the largest range of any land mam-mal in North America, it was extirpated from many states and took refuge in mountainous, unpopulated regions in the western US and the Everglades of Florida. Now even those areas have human populations and con-flicts between humans and cats occur with increasing frequency. Evidence suggests that cougars are moving east into the Midwest.

Since it is a top predator, many people fear this animal. This is natural, but unfounded. Education will be necessary if a balance be-tween cougars and people is to be found as they expand eastward.

“Give our kids a chance to love the earth before we ask them to save it.” ~D.Sobel

Coming to a wilderness near you?

Bright Red= Confirmed Breeding Area Light Red– Reported Green-States with records

Primary Business Address 1753 Wick Way Montgomery, IL 60538

Great Nat ives Of Mid-western Ecotype

While my interest in nature was always present on our trips, it was usually seen through a car win-dow or scenic overlook.

My trip to Georgia was truly a vacation. We didn’t have a big agenda- no daily schedule of things that needed to be seen or done (except my poor wife). That left my boys and me to relax for a change.

Fortunately for us, my mother-in-law lives right on a wooded lake.

Sometimes it is hard to see the big environmental picture. This was the thought I had while traveling south to Georgia over my holiday break at the end of December.

I would say that I have a fair amount of both regional and global knowledge when it comes to plants and animals. But I am what I would consider an armchair expert.

I have not done much traveling in my lifetime. While my family took vacations to neighboring states, we stayed in hotels and went to places the tourists went– historical sites, museums, and other showy attrac-tions meant to draw people and money into towns and states.

Actually I lived in a place with that goal– a National Historic Land-mark! As a young resident, I grew weary of people asking for direc-tions, slow “tourist” traffic, and shops filled with knickknacks made elsewhere, but stamped with the local name.

We found ourselves with time on our hands and took that opportunity to explore the southern outdoor world– even though it was a “chilly 50 de-grees” according to their radio.

Donning our sweatshirts, we walked the uncleared path to the lake. Immediately I started to make connections to knowl-edge I have only second-hand experience with. There was the kudzu strangling a young white pine tree. Bamboo! It must have escaped a nearby yard and was quickly (it was still green) getting comfortable in the wilder setting. A red-eared slider basking– or not– just the shell and maggots to dump in the lake. We have two sliders as pets but have never seen a wild one, even if it was just a shell.

I now see traveling in a differ-ent way. It is no longer a chore. It is a way to connect– a way to see the big picture.

F O C U S O N T H E F U T U R E

E-mail: GNOME.Native@gmail.com

There’s no place like GNOME!

GNOME

Great Natives of Mid-western Ecotype (GNOME) is an organization focused on the preservation and expansion of native floral and faunal species. The mission is to provide a net-based forum where members can share their passion, plans, ideas, and questions with other people having a common interest in native species.

Check out our site!!!

Join our facebook group!

(http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45643568296)

This is our primary forum location. The newsletter as well as open discussions are there and also other links to people and groups that focus on natives.

Got an article? Now accepting member submitted news and photos! Once you have something to share, send it to the email listed at left. Monthly news articles will, of course, give credit to the contributor. Everyone welcome!

We’re on the Web! http://gnomenative.webs.com/

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