Blog on hiatus

It's been a while since I have updated. My blog is on hiatus until next year my county's 4-H E-thon season starts up. The emerald ash borer has made it's way to St. Paul, MN now and it will be interesting to see where it is when I start up this blog again this winter. If any Pembina County kids are interested in joining E-thon, contact me! Lesley 265-8411. Here are some fun blogs that I like which are environmentally related. If you know any good ones, please comment. http://somethingscrawlinginmyhair.com/ http://www.sandsageprairie.blogspot.com/

Posted at 11:40AM Jul 21, 2009 by Lesley Lubenow in General | Comments[0]

Another One Bites the Dust….

Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) has moved onto eastern Wisconsin was yesterday’s breaking news. Vernon County borders MN and Iowa. It sounds like this EAB has been in this new county over 5 years, but just discovered now. It’s getting closer to our home state. EAB can fly ½ mile away from the tree they emerge from. However, EAB moves by humans…through moving firewood.

EAB is an invasive exotic species which normally occurs in Russia, China, Japan and Korea. First found in 2002 in Michigan, the insect appears to come over from shipping lanes in the Great Lakes. Now is in 10 states and 2 providences in 7 years.

When found in an area, quarantine lines are drawn and ash trees are proactively cut down. The insect only attacks ash trees so if remove the host, stop the insect.

Here is a picture of the emerald ash borer and the galleries where the larvae eat away the water and nutrient carries tissues.

Posted at 09:38AM Apr 08, 2009 by Lesley Lubenow in Forestry | Comments[0]

Signs

This winter I drove to work at the courthouse and was stunned to see this! Large rectangular ovals with sawdust at the bottom of the tree trunk. Is this man made or animal made? Scroll down to see.

This tree injury is made by a bird: A pileated woodpecker. Surprisingly this tree damage probably took less than 45 minutes for the woodpecker to punch out. Birds target decaying trees that have insect food source instead. Pileated woodpeckers are the largest woodpeckers in North America. They are about the size of a crow. The species exhibits sexual dimorphorism. The one pictured here is a male. Females do not have the red mustache and their forehead is yellowish-brown instead of red.

Woodpecker species can be identified by sound or by marking left on the wood. Click here to here the birdcall. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Pileated_Woodpecker.html

Posted at 11:05AM Apr 06, 2009 by Lesley Lubenow in Wildlife | Comments[0]

Seven Sisters of Conservation

We watched a video on the seven sisters early in the year. These WILL be asked about at the state competition so I thought today I would write them out. IMO, these questions will basically be "gimme answers" for the teams that study and learn them. You can find more information at: http://www.rmef.org/Hunting/HuntersConservation/Model.htm

Sister #1: The Public Trust

In North America, natural resources on public lands are managed by government agencies to ensure that we always have wildlife and wild places to enjoy.

Sister #2: Prohibition on Commerce of Dead Wildlife

Conservation laws and their strong enforcement in the United States and Canada saved wildlife from slaughter.

Sister #3: Democratic Rule of Law

You can help make laws to regulate hunting and fishing and conserve wildlife.

Sister #4: Hunting Opportunity for All

Every citizen has an opportunity, under the law, to hunt and fish in the United States and Canada.

Sister #5: Non-frivolous Use

In North America, we can legally kill certain wild animals under strict guidelines for food and fur, self-defense and property protection.

Sister #6: International Resources

Wildlife and fish migrate freely across boundaries between states, provinces and countries.

Sister #7: Scientific Management

The right information helps us make good decisions and become better stewards of wildlife.

Posted at 02:37PM Mar 31, 2009 by Lesley Lubenow in Wildlife | Comments[0]

Colorado S. “Blues” vs. “Black Hills” S.

Since we are still in the midst of March Madness, I thought a little identification competition would be good. We have two even matched contenders for id. The Colorado Blue Spruce and the Black Hills Spruce. Each have excellent point guards, literally… spruce tree needles are pointy and hurt when you touch them while pine trees are soft to the touch.

The “Blues” are the favored, by-the-book striking team. Colorado spruces are widely overplanted and the blue color especially easy to see on young trees and makes this tree a standout. The branches are nearly horizontal the ground and the tree keeps its very compact shape through its life. The cones are larger (2 to 4 in. long).

The Black Hills are the scrappy, smaller underdogs. While young, this tree is compact but as it ages the Black Hills spruces turn leggy and semi-weeping as a mature tree. It’s scrappy character also comes with smaller cones (1 to 2 ½ in.) and drought tolerance. This team can travel well as it is adaptable to many conditions.

So can you tell the difference?

Young Players: Black Hills Spruce (Left) and Colorado Blue Spruce (Right)

Old Players: Colorado Blue Spruce (Left) and Black Hills Spruce (right)- at Cavalier trailer court

Posted at 04:51PM Mar 30, 2009 by Lesley Lubenow in Forestry | Comments[0]

A look at a channel

Look at the above picture, what do you see? The shapes of water stream is telling you a story. On the right side of the watershed, the stream is relatively straight while on the left, the stream is very loopy. When you see straight stream morphology, this is where the water moves fast. The headwaters from the escarpment have a high gradient/slope and the soils are highly erodible with under-developed topsoil layers. Moving to the left of the picture, the river is showing sinuosity (the looping of the river). At this point, the river is slow. The gradient of the land is very flat. To illustrate this more at Mountain, the elevation drops 22 ft/mile and by Hoople, the elevation drop of 2 ½ ft/mile.

Posted at 09:34AM Mar 24, 2009 by Lesley Lubenow in Aquatics | Comments[0]

Tree Basics

Trees are everywhere. I bet if you counted how many you saw everyday, you would reach a number in the 100s between shelterbelt trees to boulevard trees in people’s front yard. Trees have organs like people do. However instead of a heart, lungs, livers; trees have organs of roots, shoots (stem), and leaves.

When identifying trees, a person comes across words like opposite, alternate, whorled. What do they mean? Opposite, alternate, whorled describe leaf or stem arrangement.

Are the leaves alternate like on this black walnut?

Or opposite stem arrangement like this blue spruce?

Whorled like the catalpa (rare nonnative tree for ND). Look carefully to see where 3 or more leaves are coming from one node on the stem.

Are the leaves simple or compound? The walnut above is a compound leaf which leaflets while the catalpa is simple arrangement.

There is also a plethora of leaf shape descriptors.

Denate=toothed like big-tooth aspen

deltoid = delta-shapped like cottonwood

cordate=heart-shaped like a linden tree

serate like an elm leaf

lobed margin like an oak leaf, the list goes on and on.

Posted at 05:10PM Mar 23, 2009 by Lesley Lubenow in Forestry | Comments[0]

Practice on Tuesday Night

We have practice on Tuesday March 24 at the Cavalier Science Room. The topic is soils review and tree id. If you have something in your yard, that you want to know what it is - take a picture, bring in a sample and we'll see if we can get it identified.

Posted at 01:00AM Mar 22, 2009 by Lesley Lubenow in General | Comments[0]

Sodic Soils

What is sodic soil? Sodic soil has high amount of sodium ions. Remember basic chemistry? Sodium is a 2+ ion. With high amounts of sodium, there is a lot of positive charge in the soil. Like charges dispel from one another and this process happens in the soil. This is called defloccation. BAM! Soil structure is destroyed. Look at the picture, do you see natural soil aggregation? No, just powdery soil and white sodium residue.

How does this affect biodiversity? Very few plants can grow in sodic soil. The pore space has been destroyed, leaving plants little air and available water. It’s is an unwelcome environment. Actually, when the Romans defeated the Carpathians in BC, the Romans plowed the land with salt so the crops wouldn’t grow. One of first pesticide uses recorded in history. Salt can have nasty consquences.

Posted at 01:00AM Mar 21, 2009 by Lesley Lubenow in Soils/Land Use | Comments[0]

Explore Your Environment

I got outside last night and took this picture. What trees do you see?

The white barked trees are Quaking Aspen and the black tree is a Bur Oak.

I though this picture was interesting too. The snow is cut away from the melting fastmoving drainage. Pretend this was a stream bank made of sand, silt and clay rather than snow. You can see “sediment erosion” where the river is taking sediment away. The sediment is picked up in the carried down stream until it deposits. If the overhanging ledge were to drop then we would have a “slump” occurring.

This picture is of a culvert. On Tuesday, the culvert was submerged in the water and all I saw was water bubbling up the depths. Fast moving water is causing “runs and glides” vs “pools and riffles”. Also in the background, you can see overland flooding occurring. When you are out and about this weekend, take some time to look around you and apply what you have heard in class to your surroundings.

Posted at 09:45AM Mar 20, 2009 by Lesley Lubenow in Forestry | Comments[0]

It’s time for trees…

Ah, spring is here. My month has been full of farmer’s meetings, so I have slow to update this blog. We have had a snow storm, a big melt, and ice jams on culverts. Besides all this activity, the trees are getting closer to breaking dormancy and putting on new leaves.

We are pretty fortunate in Pembina County. We have natural forested areas in a predominantly prairie state. In Cavalier, there is the Cavalier and McKechnie Woods. By Walhalla, there is the Tetrault State Forest.

Our next class is going to focus on tree identification. Tree ID may cause shudders down your spine. My college notebook has 367 trees that I had to know for a plant class (ID, common and scientific names). There are about 25ish common trees to know. Mountains are climbed by putting on foot in front of another, so let’s start with five trees.

Russian Olive – This tree was on the test from last year. Russian Olives are spiny, knarled trees. The foliage looks like slivery lanceoate (lance-like) leaves. These trees are considered invasive under the right conditions. In dry places or salty land places, these trees can thrive where other trees die.

Green Ash – This large tree is everywhere in ND. Green ash have compound leaves. This means the leaf is separated into leaflets. Green ash may have between 5 to 7 leaflets. Mature ash bark has grooves and to me looks a little like narrow diamonds running up the bark.

Bur Oak – Another familiar large tree in our county, where I grew up an oak was a rare tree but here. The hills of Walhalla and City of Cavalier has many dark-colored almost black barked oaks present. Oaks resist drought conditions and may live up to 400 years. The seeds are in the acorn.

Quaking Aspen – This white barked tree is “bush tree” in our county. Aspen have small deltoid leaves. The trees are found in clumps, as the root system suckers. This is a tree that has used silviculture practices in our county to be processed into chipboard.

Paper Birch – Another white barked tree. It can be confused with quacking aspen because of this character. Aspen has flat petioles (leaf stems) while the paper birch does not. Paper birch bark exfoliates off the tree like “paper” as it is named. Paper birch has strobile fruit. These looks like very small soft cones. My facebook picture is cutleaf weeping birch are variety of this tree.

Posted at 03:16PM Mar 19, 2009 by Lesley Lubenow in Forestry | Comments[0]

Quiz Answer Friday

1. False – While providing many other benefits, riparian zones do not function as a temperature regulator along aquatic ecosystems.

2. Which of the following watersheds would you expect to find elevated levels of coliform bacteria? Watershed B

a. Watershed “A” – is densely populated, tall skyscrapers dominate the landscape, has little wildlife and domestic animals, and has many factories producing plastics and metal alloys.

b. Watershed “B” – is sparsely populated, farms and ranches dominate the landscape, wildlife flourishes and domesticated animals are commonplace.

3. True – The Stonefly, Mayfly and Caddis Fly are all pollution sensitive organisms that are intolerant of poor water quality.

4. The Clean Water Act of 1972 : Answer is A.

a. Was passed by the United States Federal Government that forms the basis today for water quality protection for surface water in streams, rivers, and lakes as well as for groundwater.

b. Protects animal and plant species that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have designated as threatened or endangered.

c. Enables dredging in water bodies that sedimentation and erosion occur.

d. Focuses on increasing the funding of water treatment plants.

5. Oxygen in a lake is a product of: Answer is E.

a. photosynthesis

b. wind and wave action

c. the atmosphere

d. A & B

e. All the above

Posted at 01:00AM Mar 06, 2009 by Lesley Lubenow in Aquatics | Comments[0]

Runs and Riffles

Water is dynamic subject to study. The graphic above shows how physical characteristics of the stream change depending on the flow (aka discharge) of the water. Two components make up water flow: velocity and volume. In the example above, high flow times like spring thaw or large summer storms produce a stream with glides and runs while in low discharge times pools and riffles are present.

How does this effect pollutants and natural substances in the water? A pollutant will be diluted and flushed out more quickly in a high flow event. Sediment and debris in the stream also increase in a high flow event. High flows carry more energy for stream bank erosion to occur. Remember the story during class about the field that lost 7 acres in 25 years? The water picks up the soil, suspends in the water column and moves it downstream. During low flow, more soil deposition occurs.

Have you ever noticed in a puddle that along the edges you see ribbons of soil film left behind? The fine textured silt and clay particles stay suspended much, much longer in the water than sand and gravel. When the flow slows, the silt and clay deposit. Soil deposits in deltas, on bends in the stream, and the streambed floor.

Image: Streamkeeper's Field Guide, 2001. Illust. by Thomas Whittemore

Posted at 12:38PM Mar 04, 2009 by Lesley Lubenow in Aquatics | Comments[0]

Water Quiz

1. True or False – While providing many other benefits, riparian zones do not function as a temperature regulator along aquatic ecosystems.

2. Which of the following watersheds would you expect to find elevated levels of coliform bacteria? _________________________

a. Watershed “A” – is densely populated, tall skyscrapers dominate the landscape, has little wildlife and domestic animals, and has many factories producing plastics and metal alloys.

b. Watershed “B” – is sparsely populated, farms and ranches dominate the landscape, wildlife flourishes and domesticated animals are commonplace.

3. True or False – The Stonefly, Mayfly and Caddis Fly are all pollution sensitive organisms that are intolerant of poor water quality.

4. The Clean Water Act of 1972

a. Was passed by the United States Federal Government that forms the basis today for water quality protection for surface water in streams, rivers, and lakes as well as for groundwater.

b. Protects animal and plant species that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have designated as threatened or endangered.

c. Enables dredging in water bodies that sedimentation and erosion occur.

d. Focuses on increasing the funding of water treatment plants.

5. Oxygen in a lake is a product of:

a. photosynthesis

b. wind and wave action

c. the atmosphere

d. A & B

e. All the above

Posted at 12:25PM Mar 03, 2009 by Lesley Lubenow in Aquatics | Comments[5]

Mottles & Trucks

What is a mottle? The word “mottle” refers to an uneven colored appearance. Freckles on a person’s skin could be considered a mottle characteristic. In soils, mottles refer to areas where the soil looks spotted with brown, red or yellow as a result of being alternately wet and dry. Rust colored mottles are from iron oxides. Just like the old truck with rust spots created from bare iron and exposure to the elements, soil becomes “rusty” from the wet/dry cycle. Many times these mottles are in the B horizon. For the chemistry buffs, mottles are local concentrations of Fe³⁺oxides.

Posted at 12:00AM Feb 28, 2009 by Lesley Lubenow in Soils/Land Use | Comments[0]

The Cranberry Tree