Newsletters
April, 2017 - Luna Moth, Highbush Blueberry, Peace Haven
WELCOME TO GREEN FUTURES!
APRIL, 2017
“It's very hard to be great at what you do if you aren't deeply passionate.”
- Ivanka Trump
“Without passion you don't have energy, without energy you have nothing.”
- Donald Trump
“Determination gets you a long way.”
- Chelsea Clinton
“There's no day that is the same as the day before. So you have to be energized; you have to be focused.”
- Hillary Clinton
“Here cometh April again, and as far as I can see the world hath more fools in it than ever.”
- Charles Lamb
OF INTEREST FROM OUR READERS
Thar she goes! Losing the right whale. http://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20170215/north-atlantic-right-whale-births-in-decline
EPA's Scott Pruitt addresses agency employees. Sad day at EPA. https://www.c-span.org/video/?424362-1/administrator-scott-pruitt-addresses-epa-employees
More Pruitt. Reading this one reminds us of the time there was a vacant seat on the Fall River Conservation Commission so we submitted the names of two conservation minded individuals to the mayor for consideration to fill the vacancy. Massachusetts Conservation Commissions are charged with protecting the land, water and native biological resources of their communities. We were appalled when the mayor responded that he wouldn't consider those individuals we suggested because he had to fill the vacancy with someone from the “building trades or construction industry” who could “compromise.” Someone that could “work with” developers that might find it necessary to “fill a little wetland” or impact “in a minor way” some other natural resource. Sheesh!!! http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2017/02/21/scott-pruitt-lays-out-a-vision-for-the-epa-that-contradicts-the-mission-of-the-epa/#456250458291
Too many people, too few redwoods. http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/travel/outdoors/2017/02/23/redwoods-grove-of-titans-jedediah-smith-redwoods-state-park-redwood-national-park/97715282/
Shame on Governor LePage. http://mainepublic.org/post/lepage-asks-trump-rescind-katahdin-woods-and-waters-national-monument#stream/0
Katahdin support. http://www.pressherald.com/2017/02/23/congressional-delegation-members-dont-back-lepages-request-to-abolish-katahdin-monument/
Editorial on Katahdin from Portland Press Herald. http://www.pressherald.com/2017/02/23/congressional-delegation-members-dont-back-lepages-request-to-abolish-katahdin-monument/
Burning wood is not the solution. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2122115-the-eus-renewable-energy-policy-is-making-global-warming-worse/
Just curious turkeys ...or something more bizarre? http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2017/03/02/turkeys-circling-cat-video-explained/
Please pay attention President Trump. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/opinion/a-lesson-trump-and-the-epa-should-heed.html?_r=0
Continuing threats to our public lands. This article about Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/4980433-155/op-ed-grand-staircase-is-huge-economic
The Atlantic Ocean covers an area of 41,105,000 square miles. The recently created Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument covers a little less than 8 square miles. Short-sighted, greedy fishing interests are filing suit against its creation. http://www.pressherald.com/2017/03/07/fishing-groups-challenge-obamas-creation-of-underwater-national-monument/
Maine's Governor Paul LePage is quoted in the New York Post as saying, “I was Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular.” Apparently he was and still is. http://bangordailynews.com/2017/03/09/opinion/contributors/maine-deserves-a-chance-to-capitalize-on-the-north-woods-monument/
Group forms to advocate for Katahdin Wood and Waters National Monument. http://www.freepressonline.com/Content/Home/Homepage-Rotator/Article/-Friends-Group-Forms-to-Help-Katahdin-Area-National-Monument/78/720/50888
Trees can't leave. http://www.twincities.com/2017/03/11/many-northern-forest-species-threatened-by-climate-change-study-finds/
Judge rules environmental groups can intervene. http://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-environmental-groups-timber-industry-suit-cascade-siskiyou/
REEFER MADNESS – High Times In Our Neck Of the Woods
Looking toward Barnaby's Neck, Peace Haven
Will there be a pot (pun intended) of gold at the end of the marijuana rainbow? We don't know, but there are an awful lot of local folks betting the farm ...and their community ...on making a big score if marijuana profits are as high (no pun intended) as some marijuana enthusiasts project they will be.
Within a couple of miles of each other in Freetown we have one active and two proposed marijuana growing and/or medical “research” facilities. Cannatech Medicinals has cleared 12 acres of hardwoods to build their facility at Innovation Way, just over the Freetown line, in Fall River. Down the hill in Freetown, Colorado's Ameri-Cann proposes building a one million square foot ...yes, you read that right ...growing facility they're calling Massachusetts Medical Cannabis Center.
The second proposed marijuana facility in Freetown is a rather nebulous plan, so far, for a marijuana research and grow operation by real estate development company Churchill and Banks. Their facility would be located on archaeologically and environmentally sensitive land at Peace Haven.
Peace Haven is a site listed by Preservation Massachusetts as one of Massachusetts' “Most Endangered Historic Resources.” What a shameful proposal for such a unique and historically important property.
There was an opportunity to save a significant portion of Peace Haven during the Meditech debacle back in 2010/11. The original proposal had Meditech deeding 117 acres to The Trustees of Reservations for preservation. This acreage consisted of Barnaby's Neck and adjacent upland areas that had first been inhabited by Paleo-Indians following receding glaciers 12,000 years ago.
We supported Meditech's original proposal. Unfortunately, due to a plethora of problems and some known and many unknown reasons, Meditech decided they no longer were interested in the site and moved on.
From Fall River's “The Herald News” at the time, "I think it's terrible to lose this project," [Castro] said. "I never thought this would happen. It isn't good at all." He and Al Lima of Green Futures both said the preservation of the 117 acres on this site was more than the environmental group could have dreamed of happening.
Well, this time it is Mary Jane threatening the peace at Peace Haven. What can be done to save this priceless piece of our historic and natural heritage? Is there a place in Churchill and Banks' and Freetown's plans for preservation of at least the most historically significant part of Peace Haven?
The Importance of Peace Haven – Over 12,000 Years of Continuous Human Habitation
“In the end our society will be defined not only by what we create but by what we refuse to destroy.” – John Sawhill
Known since Colonial times as Peace Haven, the land lying along the Taunton River from Barnaby’s Cove north to the confluence of the Assonet and Taunton Rivers has been continuously inhabited by man for close to 12,000 years. It is unique in that archaeological excavations extending over 70 years by Roy Athearn and his associates has resulted in the discovery of Paleo-Indian settlements here dating from just after the receding of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age.
Peace Haven is one of the few locations in New England with such a long unbroken human record. Peace Haven’s proximity to major shellfish beds, anadromous fish runs, extensive system of interconnecting waterways for easy travel, fertile slopes oriented to the southwest and sheltered position in the Taunton River valley providing a longer growing season than the rest of New England, all provided ideal habitat for human settlement. Whether during the Paleolithic, Archaic, Historic or Industrial eras, Peace Haven has always been able to provide its inhabitants with more than just the basic necessities of life.
Peace Haven is considered one of the most thoroughly documented archaeological sites in the Commonwealth and one of the most significant. The site has been the subject of many articles in the Journal of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society and other publications on archaeology. Some of the many artifacts unearthed at the site are on display at the Somerset Historical Society and recorded with the Massachusetts Historical Commission.
Peace Haven also includes one of the most significant geological features in the area remaining from the past ice age, a large intact esker.
Eskers are elongated serpentine ridges, many reaching over thirty feet in height. They were formed when fissures and crevasses in glacial ice allowed melt water through forming streams beneath the glacier that over thousands of years deposited layers of sand, gravel and boulders.
When the glacier eventually melts away, esker formations are revealed. Since locally occurring eskers have been exploited for their gravel deposits, over the last hundred years, most have been stripped of their gravel, turned into gravel pits and thus been destroyed.
Peace Haven was also the site of one of the key incidents that resulted in the start of King Philip’s War. On July 19, 1675, following opening hostilities between the Wampanoags and the English settlers in Swansea, King Philip and Weetamoe fought the English in the battle of the Great Pocasset Swamp. Many English casualties resulted, allowing the Wampanoag warriors to escape by traveling along the east side of Watuppa Pond and then down an old Indian trail that the English settlers called Mowry Path. Mowry Path terminated at Winslow’s Point at Peace Haven, where an Indian ferry was located. King Philip, Weetamoe and their warriors were ferried across the Taunton River which allowed their advance toward central Massachusetts where they joined with some Nipmuck and thus began what is known today as King Philip’s War.
The escape from Winslow’s Point was the last opportunity for the English to avoid war. Had King Philip and Weetamoe been intercepted at Winslow’s Point, the Indian uprising would have been ended and the course of New England history changed dramatically.
On August 3, 1676, Weetamoe, who had remained loyal to Philip throughout the war, drowned in the Taunton River, just south of Peace Haven, while trying to escape the Taunton Militia. She was found dead on the Somerset shore.
Peace Haven is also rich in natural history. The biological diversity of Peace Haven, as we’ve already noted, is the reason for the continuing presence of humans for the past 12,000 years. Some of the bounty: Oysters, soft shell clams, quahogs, blue crabs, eels, striped bass and white perch are still found there today. Ospreys still patrol the river and wintering bald eagles are becoming more than an occasional visitor. The endangered Atlantic sturgeon prowls the deeper holes in the river and two Massachusetts listed “species of special concern” …the diamondback terrapin is returning to the river’s salt marshes and spotted turtles are becoming more frequent in the freshwater area of upper Hathaway’s Cove.
The salt marshes and uplands of Barnaby’s Cove are well vegetated and contain many indigenous species. There are some exemplary examples of sassafras and white oak along the peninsula.
Commercial, industrial and residential growth is at an all time high in southeastern Massachusetts. As a result, not only wildlife habitats and open space recreational lands are being put in jeopardy, but historical sites are increasingly being threatened and destroyed.
Many parcels may be suited for developments. However, every so often, certain properties are slated for development that are exceptional in their biological and historical scope and value. Peace Haven is one of these sites.
“Why should we care about preserving archaeological sites? Most of human history is the word, and written history in the Western Hemisphere arrived with the Europeans only 500 years ago. Before that time, the history of this hemisphere can only be deciphered through the analysis of artifacts found in archaeological sites. These sites are like buried history books. Some of these locations, like Peace Haven, have a lot to tell us.” - Al Lima
QUEQUECHAN RIVER RAIL TRAIL AND ITS ALIEN INVADERS – A more inclusive view of urban nature
Not even a year old, Fall River's Alfred J. Lima Quequechan River Rail Trail (ALQRRT) is a tremendous success. A wonderful amenity that any city would be proud to have. This bike and pedestrian path runs through the heart of the city along the much abused river that gave Fall River its reason for being and its name. Quequechan is Wampanoag for “falling river.”
Despite its urban surroundings one of the first things noticed while experiencing the trail is how “wild” it is despite its location. Mother Nature hates a vacuum, so despite the early industrial era destruction and lack of interest in the river and adjacent areas from the human population, once the rail line was abandoned and the mills and factories closed, Mother Nature was stymied as to how to restore the native plant and animal species that had lived along the Quequechan for thousands of years.
Although stymied, Mother Nature is also very clever. Unable to repopulate the blighted area with native species of flora and fauna that now had scant habitat left, she did the next best thing.
Mother Nature, it appears, made sure the most invasive species on earth ...and we all know what species that is ...brought along with them, knowingly and unknowingly, other species that had evolved with them over thousands of years and had become used to their nasty ways. Species of plants and animals that evolved to survive and thrive on land and in water used and abused by large concentrations of Homo sapiens.
These hardy, adaptable species, aliens in their new land, populated not only along the Quequechan, but also just about everywhere else on Earth where they were taken. So although, except for a few native generalists, the trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, fungi, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, mammals and even invertibrates may not be the same species that once were found along the Quequechan; the present river is also not the same river it once was and it does not flow through the same landscape it once did. It and its purely native flora and fauna will never again be seen as they were seen and experienced by the aboriginal people of the area and the first European interlopers.
Back to the present. Some ALQRRT friends and enthusiasts have been thinking about and discussing ways to restore natives and eliminate or severely constrain alien species found living and growing along the bike trail and river.
We feel what would be best is a functioning landscape of benignly managed long-term alien and native generalist species that still exist there. That combination best suits the urban wild of today's Quequechan.
Humans have a need to connect with nature. Even more so among those living and working in urban areas. Joe and Jane Average walking or biking along the ALQRRT do not see a difference between native and non-native species. They just see that they are out in their natural environment enjoying nature.
While some alien species may need some benign management ...no herbicides, pesticides or other chemical controls ...most won't. It is important to realize that most of the alien species contribute positively to the ecology of the present Quequechan, its vegetated banks and uplands. Most of the time, it is best to heed Mother Nature and let her do her own thing.
Last summer we recorded a few alien species we spotted or encountered on three walks on three separate days along the ALQRRT and Quequechan River, along the whole 2½ miles of it, from its Watuppa Pond source to its mouth at the Taunton River. If one went out specifically to do an alien flora/fauna biological inventory along the Quequechan the list would contain hundreds of species.
Here's our list, from our three walks, of aliens with common name, scientific “binomial” name, and probable species origin.
brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) – Asia
house mouse (Mus musculus) – Europe
yellow bellied slider (Trachemys scripta scripta) – Southeastern US
red eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) – Mississippi River Valley
mallard duck (Anas platyrhyncos) – Northern Hemisphere except Northeastern US
rock pigeon (Columba livia) - Europe
English sparrow (Passer domesticus) - Europe
starling (Sturnus vulgaris) - Europe
mute swan (Cygnus olor) - Europe
largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) – Midwestern and Southern US
bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) – Midwestern and Southern US
Asian carp (Cyprinus carpio) – Asia
honey bee (Apis mellifera) – Europe
Chinese Praying Mantis - (Tenodera sinensis) – China
winter Moth - (Operophtera brumata)
dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) - Europe
chicory (Cichorium intybus) - Europe
buttercup (Ranunculus acris) - Europe
Norway maple (Acer platanoides) – Central and Western Europe
phragmites (Phragmites australis) - Europe
Asiatic bittersweet (Celastrus orbiclatus) - Asia
Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) - Japan
Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) - Japan
purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) – Europe
wineberry raspberry - (Rubus phoenicolasius) - Asia
Queen Anne's lace (Daucus carrota) - Europe
celandine (Celandine majus) - Europe
tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) – Europe
autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) - Asia
garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) - Europe
multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) - Asia
Japanese Knotweed: an alien invasive that is delicious. In April the stalks are
just the right size for making a pie. Here's a knotweed pie recipe from Yankee magazine:https://newengland.com/today/food/strawberry-knotweed-pie/
SHAME, SHAME, SHAME DCR
"If we were an all-conservation agency or an all-recreation agency, this would be easier," Roy said. "The fact that we're responsible for both means we have to achieve the appropriate balance." - Leo Roy, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation
View the following photos. See any “appropriate balance”? Any “responsibility” here? DCR is a dysfunctional agency in need of reorganization and new leadership.
“To protect, promote and enhance our common wealth of natural, cultural and recreational resources for the well-being of all.”
-MA DCR's Mission of Lies
BIORESERVE FAUNA OF THE MONTH – Luna Moth (Actias luna)
Photo – Wikimedia Commons – Fairy by Luis Ricardo Falero (Public Domain)
We have yet to see a pixie or fairy in the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve but, we have come close. We've seen the ethereal luna moth, exquisitely elegant, effortlessly flying through the forest on a warm midsummer's evening.
The luna moth is one of the largest moths in North America with a wingspan approaching five inches. Luna moths are in the Saturniidae family. The Saturniidae, the true silk moths, include some of our most beautiful moths such as the Io moth, Cecropia moth, Promethia moth, Polyphemus moth, regal moth, rosy maple moth, barrens buckmoth, New England buckmoth, orange-tipped oak moth, imperial moth, spiny oak moth, pink-striped oak moth. Sadly, populations of many of these large and colorful moths have been severely impacted by alien parasitoid wasps released to control alien gypsy and winter moths.
Luna moths of both sexes have dark green to pale green wings. Females have larger bodies and males have much larger and wider antennae.
All have beautifully designed hind wings ending in long curving tails and in each of the four wings is a transparent “eye-spot” accented with dark purple/black and white. There is a thin stripe of purple across the leading edge of the fore wings and wings may have a thin line of white or yellow along the outer edge. Eyes are black, legs reddish-purple and bodies white to yellow.
As caterpillars all the Saturniidae are voracious eaters. As adult moths they do not have functioning mouth parts so do not feed. They live off the fat stored from when they were caterpillars and use their time and energy, as adults, to seek out a mate and lay their eggs.
In our neck of the woods most lunas eclose (emerge from their cocoon as an adult) during the night in late May and June. The winter was spent on the forest floor in their brown cocoons buried under fallen leaves. There may be a second brood emergence in mid-August.
Upon leaving its cocoon the moth crawls to the nearest tree and begins to climb. By early morning they stop mid-way up the tree while their wings expand to full size and dry off.
Females give off pheromones attracting males from up to a mile away. Mating takes place after midnight when a male, using its broad antennae to follow the pheromone trail, finds a receptive female at its end. In our area mated females lay their now fertile eggs the following night, singly or in clusters, on the leaves of hickory trees.
Luna eggs hatch in seven to twelve days dependent on temperature. Cold daytime temperatures slow development and hatching. Luna caterpillars develop through five instars (successive growth stages after each molt) before spinning their cocoons. Luna caterpillars are light green with very tiny yellow or reddish-purple dots along their sides. They also have arrayed along their backs and sides white setae (hairlike bristles) that repel predatory insects and birds.
When the caterpillar is fully mature it folds over a leaf on its host tree and spins a silken cocoon. In its cocoon it completes its final molt becoming a reddish-brown pupa. The cocoon enclosing leaf remains on the tree until it wilts and falls to the ground.
Major predators of these moths, besides parasitic insects, include a number of bat and owl species.
Want to experience some forest magic? Go out into the forest this June and find a luna moth.
Photo - Wikimedia Commons -ggallice (Geoff Gallice), Actias luna in Florida, CC BY 2.0
FLORA OF THE MONTH – Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corybosum)
Photo – Wikimedia Commons
Genus Vaccinium, blueberries, in our neck of the woods contains many species and many of those species closely resemble each other and some of them readily hybridize making exact identification extremely difficult.
Blueberries are also members of the Heath (Ericaceae) family along with huckleberries, cranberries, bearberries, azaleas, laurels and rhododendrons. All acidic soil loving plants ideally suited to soil conditions here in southeastern Massachusetts.
One of the easier species of blueberry to identify is the highbush blueberry and that is good because it has the largest and most delicious berries. The highbush blueberry has been domesticated and is the ancestor of most cultivated blueberries. Another blueberry easy to identify and sometimes cultivated in the wild, through the use of mowing and fire, is the lowbush blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium. This is the blueberry of the Maine blueberry barrens and the species mentioned in Robert Frost's famous poem “Blueberries” that fruit, seemingly by magic and often abundantly, after the lowbush shrubs have been burned over two years before. Here's a bit of the poem that mentions that practice and how the berries seem to magically appear.
“There may not have been the ghost of a sign
Of them anywhere under the shade of the pine,
But get the pine out of the way, you may burn
The pasture all over until not a fern
Or grass-blade is left, not to mention a stick,
And presto, they’re up all around you as thick
And hard to explain as a conjuror’s trick.”
Both lowbush blueberries and highbush blueberries are native to the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve.
While lowbush prefers to grow in upland barrens, wild highbush blueberry grows best in swamps and boggy areas. It grows to a height of four to ten feet and does best and produces the most fruit when growing in full sun.
This blueberry has one to three inch long elliptical, alternate, dark green leaves on short stems. Twigs are green to reddish-brown. In autumn highbush blueberry is very attractive with leaves turning yellow, red, orange and purple.
The highbush blueberry blooms in May. Flowers in clusters, each flower is bell-shaped and white to light pink in color. Bumble and other woodland bees pollinate the flowers.
Following pollination small green berries form and by late July through August most are one quarter of an inch in width and turning blue. Each berry contains many tiny seeds.
Just about everyone loves blueberries. That also includes mammals from mice and voles to moose and bears. Many species of fruit and seed eating birds also enjoy blueberries and box turtle do too.
APRIL – First full month of spring.
April daffodils gone wild in the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve
Hear the birds early in the morning calling to their mates and warning rivals to stay away? See all the spring flowers blooming in gardens and their wild relatives doing the same thing in field and forest?
Get out, get going, enjoy spring. Click on our Calendar for a few area activities you might find interesting.
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