May 2009 |
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With freedom comes responsiblity. - Eleanor Roosevelt |
For outdoor environmental activity in Northeast Ohio it is hard to beat the May 31, 2009, Sunday, 8:00 am Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 6:00 pm Guest are welcome, see our website for maps and more details. |
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FOWL Picnic Status |
Canceled, Sorry. Along with our false start, we have a poor finish.We have grown as an organization to include an early summer and an early fall picnic. We have wrestled with the concerns of ‘pig – or – no – pig’. We have had open mic entertainment and paid professional musicians. We have used a canopy, a tipi, and relied upon the whims of chance and weather for our accommodation. Beautiful sunny skies have blessed us and squalls condensed us into tight knots of wetland revelers. We have raised funds, lost funds, and lost track of funds. I hope that we will continue to celebrate our common cause and bonds of friendship as we prepare for the next FOWL event. There is no time like the present to begin planning for the next FOWL picnic. I propose that the Fall FOWL 09 Picnic be scheduled for a Saturday in early fall. The options would be 9-25, 10-02, or 10-09. Let me invite a discussion of those who would attend and select a proper date. Please email ray@fowl.org with your preferences and considerations. In addition to picking a date for the Fall FOWL picnic, I propose the formation of a picnic planning committee. I will host a meeting in mid-summer of dedicated members interested in a successful fall picnic event. Agenda:
Bring your own side-dish and beverage. Musical instruments optional. Campfire likely. There are two possible dates for this committee meeting: July 11 or July 18, (both are Saturdays). Please email your preference to ray@fowl.org. Only those who respond will be included in followup communications. So if you think you would be interested get back with me. |
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Fowl Blog now live By Ray Stewart |
There is a new blog on the FOWL website. If you are not familiar with blogs, it is simply a place where contributors can post content. Until now, all of the content on the FOWL website has been posted by yours truly, the Director of Communications. Although much of the content, the newsletter especially, has been contributed by many others, I alone have had access to actually post content. With a blog, authorized members can post their own content whenever they like. |
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Biological Diversity |
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Those Who Do Not Learn from History... |
more... |
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Vernal Pool Power Point Presentations |
I have prepared two power point presentations. One is on Vernal Pool Geology and the Other is on Vernal Pool Amphibians. Each presentation takes about 40 minutes, and there are audio files of frog calls included in the presentations. I prepared the power points for vernal pool workshops being produced by the Ohio Environmental Council, and have recently presented them to eight classes and an environmental club at Midview High School in Grafton (Feb 17), the Brooklyn Centre Naturalists in Cleveland (Feb 21), two of the OEC VP workshops at West Geauga Middle School and Wildwood Preserve MetroPark in Toledo. Each seemed to be well-received and appreciated. |
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Great Connection Made at Workshops |
At the Toledo workshop a friend of Bill Sullivan (who, being a fearless and tireless reporter of wetlands violations, to our great sorrow and loss, had to move to Chicago to keep his job) named Nadine (Deanie) Perry introduced herself to me and came along on one of the vernal pool field trips. Deanie has some wetlands behind her house that she cherishes and protects. And she showed me some of her spectacular artwork, printed on notecard stock, a few of which are included here: violets, lupine drawn from Kitty Todd Preserve, and (my favorite) a miscellany of autumn composite remnants. She generously donated about 20 of these for FOWL use, that I'd like to make available for a donation of $4 (or more) donation apiece. There are other designs, both mono- and polychrome, can be viewed on the FOWL website (www.fowl.org). If you would like more information about her work you may write to 5908 County Rd. 2, Swanton OH 43559, or call (419) 825-5390.
At the Geauga workshop I made contact with two fellows who are looking for entre into small local wetlands for their map work with USGS, with the very helpful and deeply knowledgable Geauga Soil and Water Conservation District Conservation Educator, Ron Etling - and many other committed folks. |
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Report on the Ohio Odonata Society
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more... |
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My Big News |
I just bought 11 acres of matchless prime swamp and woodland in Huron County. By the quiet country road there is an upland field building site that drops down into a wooded buttonbush pool in which I've heard Western Chorus Frogs, Spring Peepers, Wood Frogs, Gray Treefrogs, American toads, Leopard Frogs, and Green Frogs. The pool has Floating Manna Grass and Yellow Water Buttercup and is ringed by Carex bromoides, Blunt Broom Sedge, and Carex lacustris, the large, handsome Lakeside Sedge. Right now there is a fine green foam of False Mermaid Weed in many places, and the Purple Cress has bloomed and faded. There are beds of Marsh Marigolds and expanses of Skunk Cabbage. Highbush Blueberry, several species of violets, serviceberry, and a host of other wildflowers and woody plants abound. Last Sunday morning I was sported by warblers (including Yellow, Yellow-rumped, and American Redstart, among others), Flickers, Downy Woodpeckers, Swamp Sparrows, and encircled in a flurry of courting Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. I was camping in a stand of Red Pine and fir. The site is in recovery from logging about 10 years ago. There are lots of treetop remnants and snags, and heartbreaking stumps four feet across, as well as a fair amount of Multiflora Rose, Blackberry, and Black Raspberry. But the canopy is recovering and the paths are passable. I've been doing a little Garlic Mustard pulling here and there, but so far this seems controllable. Turkey Vultures roost and are nesting in and near the conifer stands. There may be a house on the building site in the future, but I definitely plan on a cabin in the woods, where I hope to be joined every so often by some Friend of Wetlands. In many ways this is the place I have been seeking for some years now. |
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Headwater Stream Salamander Biomass
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University of Missouri scientist Ray Semlitsch studies creatures most people don't ever see. These creatures are active only at night and thrive in the shallow, cool, wet surroundings of headwater streams, an oft-overlooked biological environment. more... |
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Findley State Park Block Busting |
June 12 (Friday), 13 (Saturday), 14 (Sunday), 2009 See more at Events.FOWL.org |
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FOWL Happenings |
Upcoming: I have organized a walk to a very significant but unsurveyed swamp and forest in north central Ohio with botanists (including Jim Bissell, Rick Gardner, Brad Phillips, and Diane Lucas, who is a moss specialist); beetle expert Harry Lee; herpetologist Ralph Pfingsten, coauthor of Salamanders of Ohio (And currently working on a comprehensive volume on Ohio's reptiles and amphibians); and bird experts Terri Martincic and Brad Phillips. We will be joined by several local residents to survey this place that has several rare plants and animals. more... |
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Waging War with Language |
"Mobile home." Whatever happened to "house trailer"? more... |
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The idea that, given the constancy of human nature, human technological advances outstrip the ability of our social behavior to adequately adjust to or compensate for them is not new. One of FDR's "Brains Trust" was Rexford Tugwell, a Columbia University economist who held that people must and (as opposed to others, such as the more pessimistic Thorstein Veblen) could change their social institutions to maintain or recover economic balance and fairness in human affairs. On the other hand, he and the other "institutionalist" economists saw that such adjustment was by no means inevitable.
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Last updated May 25, 2009 |
Friends of Wetlands © 2009 |
Contact webmaster@fowl.org |
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