tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74488058028399226632024-02-07T14:22:45.987-07:00Sage ScienceSound research and clear writing on science, agriculture, and natural resourcesCindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-52196555327820247972022-11-27T11:18:00.007-07:002023-02-08T11:28:19.293-07:00Gals with Griffons<p>Many years ago, while mulling over my finances, I wondered to a friend how much money I could save by going deer hunting. After my friend described the costs (license, gun, ammunition for practice and hunting, processing, and freezer storage) and difficulties (I realized I'd have to get the deer to jump into the truck before I dispatched it--yes, I know that's illegal, I was kidding!), I decided to go on sneaking up to meat in the frozen food aisle.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiizfOnxlDZU9S1ZYofnkmRChv4DQtmyKyNoTpiI0p0ISpN8jQXOhR5wXEMp5E0JHmfF89gG_KXF53xguUaasy3DaWJQVSZTCEzRF2qPyiODJbNRyrRWuKm8-FIGOQv17_G035I3evAM8WggRcEgKCr0Sgn-YCzwoVjJMzcXW2s-kFBud-1TlG3ZS8FQ/s585/221127GalsWithGriffons.S.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Two women and three dogs next to a gray truck get ready to go hunting." border="0" data-original-height="369" data-original-width="585" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiizfOnxlDZU9S1ZYofnkmRChv4DQtmyKyNoTpiI0p0ISpN8jQXOhR5wXEMp5E0JHmfF89gG_KXF53xguUaasy3DaWJQVSZTCEzRF2qPyiODJbNRyrRWuKm8-FIGOQv17_G035I3evAM8WggRcEgKCr0Sgn-YCzwoVjJMzcXW2s-kFBud-1TlG3ZS8FQ/w320-h202/221127GalsWithGriffons.S.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>But then I met Tawna Skinner, Anita Andrus, and their assorted wire-haired pointing griffons. Tawna invited me to watch them train their dogs at a wetland near town. I saw dogs and people working together to catch and retrieve wild birds--just the right size for me to wrestle into the truck. I still don't hunt my own meat, but I've learned about remarkable human-canine partnerships. I wrote about them in <a href="https://bigskyjournal.com/gals-with-griffons/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gals with Griffons</a>, in the fall, 2022 issue of <i>Big Sky Journal.</i> </p>Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-52948262878350219762022-03-02T19:34:00.004-07:002022-03-02T19:39:16.848-07:00Casting From the Shoulders of a Giant<p><i> In 1960, 34-year-old Joan Cummings — later to become Joan Wulff —
used a one-handed bamboo fly rod to cast 161 feet and set an unofficial
women’s record. Unofficial because there was no women’s distance
division in casting events at the time; Joan competed with the men.</i></p>
<p><i>In 2018, 14-year-old Maxine McCormick used a graphite rod to cast 161
feet in a similar one-handed event, matching Joan’s distance. This
time, McCormick set an official women’s record at the World Championship
of Flycasting and followed that up with a 189-foot cast in the
two-handed distance event, another one of the six women’s events.</i></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg24sXfFOlmQJOTpAlqjqQ5bOR99EIafJtzTvOJh7SEsJP5klOhejLB5uwah1egiW0cEMWJPwfXxUDX0yrRf11WkpCqBUAfF22vtY9Qy6_jOjdG_eVT0kMYUPJDkieCGiqOTTSqPuEvc-0sBEZDMrN1kc71geBDanJXfs8XuCqJKfhyR1FeERXuNBLGIw=s1492" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="944" data-original-width="1492" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg24sXfFOlmQJOTpAlqjqQ5bOR99EIafJtzTvOJh7SEsJP5klOhejLB5uwah1egiW0cEMWJPwfXxUDX0yrRf11WkpCqBUAfF22vtY9Qy6_jOjdG_eVT0kMYUPJDkieCGiqOTTSqPuEvc-0sBEZDMrN1kc71geBDanJXfs8XuCqJKfhyR1FeERXuNBLGIw=w400-h253" title="Joan Wulff casting in Canada in 1997." width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joan Wulff casting in Canada in 1997.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<p><i>Although the distance of McCormick’s record-setting cast was the same
as Joan’s, competitive casting and fly fishing had undergone a sea
change in the intervening six decades. “The arc of Joan’s life perfectly
encompasses the development of modern fly fishing,” says Tom Pero,
fishing writer and long-time friend of Joan’s, “from her graceful
tournament casting with heavy bamboo rods and high-maintenance silk
lines during the 1940s, to her flawless teaching with ultralight
graphite rods and synthetic lines into the 2000s.”</i></p>
<p><i>The First Lady of Fly Fishing, as she is known, has both witnessed
and helped bring about changes in fishing tackle and gear, along with
influencing the popularity, demographics, and conservation ethos of the
sport. Over her life and career, Joan Wulff, now 95, built a strong
foundation for fly fishers, both women and men.</i></p><p>Read more of my latest article at <a href="https://bigskyjournal.com/casting-from-the-shoulders-of-a-giant/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Big Sky Journal</a>.</p>Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-70117171159080870112021-06-24T10:09:00.014-06:002021-06-24T11:28:40.491-06:00Range riders still roam central IdahoDuring the summer, sheep ranching in the U.S. West follows a biblical rhythm. When the bands leave their valley homes for summer grazing, shepherds accompany them. Herders spend all summer with the sheep, guiding them to new feed, providing water, and camping near them at night. <div><br /></div><div>Although cattle are checked on, watered, and moved regularly, they aren't herded as closely as sheep. Except for Alderspring Ranch cattle. Based in central Idaho's Pahsimeroi Valley, Glenn and Caryl Elzinga, their seven home-grown cowhands, and a crew of range riders herd their organic grass-fed beeves all summer long on Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service grazing allotments. I helped (by staying out of the way and taking photos) Elzingas move over 400 cattle from their valley ranch to public rangelands in late May.</div><div><br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXtoaOYd9q-AnaXhzqopwWyetqPDtL8BPc_I-CaGxWSLSIoXYA0QLpCnSPkwZLKhte8gQvM5mq7yeDq9nlKcvi2W6leKheHR9ltSL1zB_sy1qRJedmtGtW4rL_Ccr5jtlLiE4zS5zssamR/s2048/01IMA_2489.W.E.C.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXtoaOYd9q-AnaXhzqopwWyetqPDtL8BPc_I-CaGxWSLSIoXYA0QLpCnSPkwZLKhte8gQvM5mq7yeDq9nlKcvi2W6leKheHR9ltSL1zB_sy1qRJedmtGtW4rL_Ccr5jtlLiE4zS5zssamR/w400-h266/01IMA_2489.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roxy's ready to help new range riders learn to keep cattle where they belong.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwY2H69z7AGnAzOKmqGsvXNWRfXfVzQPNm81yhnfBwb43yJ-Di23uDOOU0vgLp-U3gBMeiRxfOMstlMRneUGAA8b4tvVSr3a_gyeR2Uf8jEYDT2PypP10QGwvCI3SfimX7tm-5bPi5Hj6I/s2048/02IMG_2367.W.E.C.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwY2H69z7AGnAzOKmqGsvXNWRfXfVzQPNm81yhnfBwb43yJ-Di23uDOOU0vgLp-U3gBMeiRxfOMstlMRneUGAA8b4tvVSr3a_gyeR2Uf8jEYDT2PypP10QGwvCI3SfimX7tm-5bPi5Hj6I/w400-h266/02IMG_2367.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glenn Elzinga gets Sunny ready, with an assist from son-in-law Ethan Kelly.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYwqejrqDDEjCxTMcS-BOkZNlTlwmEbQDMaBpCQtyvof-AoyMoQC2YP0NXabkLPcnhZMdg_n9S5xJ0wzXh3_KTrIwjCM8i8c42ZzPUGSc3RftCQkvHonVXmhZBbixAdyMYWiLaOg478Kp3/s2048/03IMG_2428.W.E.C.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYwqejrqDDEjCxTMcS-BOkZNlTlwmEbQDMaBpCQtyvof-AoyMoQC2YP0NXabkLPcnhZMdg_n9S5xJ0wzXh3_KTrIwjCM8i8c42ZzPUGSc3RftCQkvHonVXmhZBbixAdyMYWiLaOg478Kp3/w400-h266/03IMG_2428.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Horses were tied up everywhere, far enough apart than nobody got tangled up.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7v3imHWEn_Cv-i0SUORz7x2aVyObB1hiYfrGp5PdRKKrKaUHY490V6fQvog6odYeMnifA-oxUWivaaIi8f4B-CF0RC_8fNn78x9T9sAJ_UA0QSV3UOnLWForwHQ-RnB9YUcSgS7qgHXy7/s2048/05IMG_2363.W.E.C.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1587" data-original-width="2048" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7v3imHWEn_Cv-i0SUORz7x2aVyObB1hiYfrGp5PdRKKrKaUHY490V6fQvog6odYeMnifA-oxUWivaaIi8f4B-CF0RC_8fNn78x9T9sAJ_UA0QSV3UOnLWForwHQ-RnB9YUcSgS7qgHXy7/w400-h310/05IMG_2363.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roxy strikes a pose.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhzDpHa3UmCT0V5Y6sgMxI9TTLsnrOkL5X7DKj5rMwvzc3EK8DtURkca0X_jAEOE8qYiXpBSAmhh-XdBnZeXFXt79TFQ3Sd73Ve2GAzKY8uT8t-YiYC1g76w5AEjd_TRqEhWOM91Xa2RNT/s2048/06IMG_2386.W.E.C.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhzDpHa3UmCT0V5Y6sgMxI9TTLsnrOkL5X7DKj5rMwvzc3EK8DtURkca0X_jAEOE8qYiXpBSAmhh-XdBnZeXFXt79TFQ3Sd73Ve2GAzKY8uT8t-YiYC1g76w5AEjd_TRqEhWOM91Xa2RNT/w400-h266/06IMG_2386.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even the hitching rail held horses.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtLE6niUtLNSptuNEJRCRwaU862mu5l_49EvF2Qnu8kj-HHLDb8F6o7ARY0-HUVGjCBAyZdAdwFgXcsY7zpDSFmyCD2Tqvum2n0kRJVDQVjh8aWIqJM27-xZXV7blDpfk_bmFBBxlyL6ek/s2048/12IMG_2491.W.E.C.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtLE6niUtLNSptuNEJRCRwaU862mu5l_49EvF2Qnu8kj-HHLDb8F6o7ARY0-HUVGjCBAyZdAdwFgXcsY7zpDSFmyCD2Tqvum2n0kRJVDQVjh8aWIqJM27-xZXV7blDpfk_bmFBBxlyL6ek/w400-h266/12IMG_2491.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hats off for a blessing before leaving.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFHpYg0zY3mgKUT4fRfC3cKDvbqTKFqYljCi8Ymd96UqACz7N3NAsIv6PDYPEPyJr9TN0UTQu8XOlAW5uKvqoli__S1spC7e_yhbW9edhwEBFmPE0gnGkvT9Ldi0DNKcRWX-UDl4oZTz2c/s2048/10IMG_2464.W.E.C.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFHpYg0zY3mgKUT4fRfC3cKDvbqTKFqYljCi8Ymd96UqACz7N3NAsIv6PDYPEPyJr9TN0UTQu8XOlAW5uKvqoli__S1spC7e_yhbW9edhwEBFmPE0gnGkvT9Ldi0DNKcRWX-UDl4oZTz2c/w400-h266/10IMG_2464.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Last minute adjustments.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5CQZxZfhigi1-7rCMtKgOS01PDUmsLqveBgXpf2VTtrj98NwLK6p1AZ9Rb_SXzteWzeAyQBJTULn8bpKNqGSJnxQo45Gq-I30_-ofVFBuVIuCq7CBRDsQoqo0y12_rvcfTVCAebF7pPrv/s2048/16IMG_2536.W.E.C.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5CQZxZfhigi1-7rCMtKgOS01PDUmsLqveBgXpf2VTtrj98NwLK6p1AZ9Rb_SXzteWzeAyQBJTULn8bpKNqGSJnxQo45Gq-I30_-ofVFBuVIuCq7CBRDsQoqo0y12_rvcfTVCAebF7pPrv/s400/16IMG_2536.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Riders top the hill gathering cattle.<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_GxPtHPv09Veir51FBbesE4ntNRm6f1cvnBtiouY_LkoRgI-zIIFrjkeR7MkBsq8ziEMXZY2yncwAJcfjncXgy5vYqzwKBNZSzXDxx_tfs8GKO3DsFNI5PRhxBGYCHor2l9rULS8I5UM/s2048/17IMG_2553.W.E.C.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp_GxPtHPv09Veir51FBbesE4ntNRm6f1cvnBtiouY_LkoRgI-zIIFrjkeR7MkBsq8ziEMXZY2yncwAJcfjncXgy5vYqzwKBNZSzXDxx_tfs8GKO3DsFNI5PRhxBGYCHor2l9rULS8I5UM/w400-h266/17IMG_2553.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Abby (Elzinga) Kelly move the electric fence out of the way...</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhImFo8ZL1LAeYzu01uaMoR-XpIcV4zpw8TIRAlZ0oajFYpJpdDjzsOpeg1KbdGAEjts0Z_W-o10gI0sKXo5lFZWldo2b2ChFvf1INZQ-ju7BbQUzlpbbWx6VIzCa7Xrlv8Kxkc8PDyAe3G/s2048/18IMG_2558.W.E.C.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhImFo8ZL1LAeYzu01uaMoR-XpIcV4zpw8TIRAlZ0oajFYpJpdDjzsOpeg1KbdGAEjts0Z_W-o10gI0sKXo5lFZWldo2b2ChFvf1INZQ-ju7BbQUzlpbbWx6VIzCa7Xrlv8Kxkc8PDyAe3G/w400-h266/18IMG_2558.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...and checks that everyone's ready for her to open the gate and release the cattle.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpVkH8a_8lyjFBpEsYl92XjB2Xblok7Yok_Bdy_Juc7VC6qka7Db07WrOdUQqr9b-TIfra9Vewzi4Gje9YCCF5Jl2fu8d2HvoH9uuWmhvzwh7PnspPldEtQYn68u4HUgjEcrReXY12xMmQ/s2048/19IMG_2597.W.E.C.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpVkH8a_8lyjFBpEsYl92XjB2Xblok7Yok_Bdy_Juc7VC6qka7Db07WrOdUQqr9b-TIfra9Vewzi4Gje9YCCF5Jl2fu8d2HvoH9uuWmhvzwh7PnspPldEtQYn68u4HUgjEcrReXY12xMmQ/s400/19IMG_2597.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's hard to get water to make a right angle turn; the same is true for a herd of cattle. Here they're back on the road and headed up the hill.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrbbtUM5x5W3y95IDwRlUO9piXQx4DALoitfo4O0rsFzg_0CLMog_QbywiuDIG_hyiM9Bf54WbP4xyHfe6LXBBlUZmmG5r33XKmEnivYJGjvWeC_q_sCGnzQ09ilz1RExYBxjfCE48Cfaw/s2048/20IMG_2599.W.E.C.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrbbtUM5x5W3y95IDwRlUO9piXQx4DALoitfo4O0rsFzg_0CLMog_QbywiuDIG_hyiM9Bf54WbP4xyHfe6LXBBlUZmmG5r33XKmEnivYJGjvWeC_q_sCGnzQ09ilz1RExYBxjfCE48Cfaw/s400/20IMG_2599.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cattle leave behind their irrigated valley pastures for the upland range.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikGPf0Cd6wi5Ntq0MxfoYWnIBu3Vea1X8uOrtWhYI11ThRLs_4Ok7Klq-QRkp2Pq9o4sRJTsag_Wq6Xw1A9OTsbgtA19v9MKw8sk6rmmVt9GZpf9xC8EpThjJgyS-GaZrOV1ZhgdTsAZ40/s2048/22IMG_2674.W.E.C.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikGPf0Cd6wi5Ntq0MxfoYWnIBu3Vea1X8uOrtWhYI11ThRLs_4Ok7Klq-QRkp2Pq9o4sRJTsag_Wq6Xw1A9OTsbgtA19v9MKw8sk6rmmVt9GZpf9xC8EpThjJgyS-GaZrOV1ZhgdTsAZ40/s400/22IMG_2674.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Buster helps by holding some heifers.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyIPbe9JSggPfDnsaaZ2GvUwjpgCLb74liuJGk5DC5xfppg8tNdsbJmFC-PgxAXeeWu0muIDVQehH2Nl9XXX0huDqHGwddZw55gll3M71KN8Ya4qfBO3qC9aCkMPJrGOKaQ3WGG4CMMeeX/s2048/23IMG_2695.W.E.C.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyIPbe9JSggPfDnsaaZ2GvUwjpgCLb74liuJGk5DC5xfppg8tNdsbJmFC-PgxAXeeWu0muIDVQehH2Nl9XXX0huDqHGwddZw55gll3M71KN8Ya4qfBO3qC9aCkMPJrGOKaQ3WGG4CMMeeX/s400/23IMG_2695.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Everything's going well coming down the Pahsimeroi Road.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB0_sxhr_op59I79AODdHkHSdlBzOmtLVXZmzM6ciS90zNrS1hOxeiu1xWRtVshjF51YOMh-SzTI_LSNX8qvse6ZadI7PvR5CQn105EHepDLDe41cVDEhNPmDu2VSbi48WUwiJVHPzo82E/s2048/25IMG_2713.W.E.C.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB0_sxhr_op59I79AODdHkHSdlBzOmtLVXZmzM6ciS90zNrS1hOxeiu1xWRtVshjF51YOMh-SzTI_LSNX8qvse6ZadI7PvR5CQn105EHepDLDe41cVDEhNPmDu2VSbi48WUwiJVHPzo82E/s400/25IMG_2713.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A long line of cattle follows the highway along the Salmon River for a short way.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxTNCr3cXNPBhGh9ou3wBhGcRbIjQ7a_FJz7fAKqmn6HZw_Iopb2TPmt_ccy51o_DXu5EpsSr3Pd_-J7cZ6zrTxQ3Wk9JB5rBfD5MDEB4eaTtHlncFPGwsZ0_-oVH01pXgL8tThU27uwrK/s2048/27IMG_2739.W.E.C.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxTNCr3cXNPBhGh9ou3wBhGcRbIjQ7a_FJz7fAKqmn6HZw_Iopb2TPmt_ccy51o_DXu5EpsSr3Pd_-J7cZ6zrTxQ3Wk9JB5rBfD5MDEB4eaTtHlncFPGwsZ0_-oVH01pXgL8tThU27uwrK/s400/27IMG_2739.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The herd does great on this right angle turn.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDdBeUFlpVRVA7Hggei7p8IbftCDrvI5kx-KrTfspNO-qOsMqmP00T0-xF0qHtrT6wxq4mLUYpkVuNK_VnY8HzD3Zkllc3gJxzL4hz4NU7V8Bb4Q9xKscX95IPqEgmp57WLa7LesbfJZt/s2888/28IMG_2752.W.E.C.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1089" data-original-width="2888" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLDdBeUFlpVRVA7Hggei7p8IbftCDrvI5kx-KrTfspNO-qOsMqmP00T0-xF0qHtrT6wxq4mLUYpkVuNK_VnY8HzD3Zkllc3gJxzL4hz4NU7V8Bb4Q9xKscX95IPqEgmp57WLa7LesbfJZt/s400/28IMG_2752.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hooves over the Salmon River.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqShsiipxSefYp8paOges8sQMFbfkGb83RcCcW0m-dMsJdQtfQhz15RnRGw7tfXHda35b0hR-Nia0FTRhT3vGyrued2OIiNdrAsteRWPVCXetDLuWQZBGq3H_JCwS8Y8MPBlSqW2vcRkkz/s2048/29IMG_2756.W.E.C.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqShsiipxSefYp8paOges8sQMFbfkGb83RcCcW0m-dMsJdQtfQhz15RnRGw7tfXHda35b0hR-Nia0FTRhT3vGyrued2OIiNdrAsteRWPVCXetDLuWQZBGq3H_JCwS8Y8MPBlSqW2vcRkkz/s400/29IMG_2756.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Melanie Elzinga points the way.</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKmhILgWSpHYxX2yrpBsljn7tF_HIQbTr53e2ds8m2XjdIseY92s28CGkIrvR5VH5oK6c5TbhEuBa0U4ovUSnpPCxBPaa0hqIHjgKbncwsmluG8Ch2ILRxgHMIEHWGaDyQ__ierwUzFh9P/s2048/30IMG_2769.W.E.C.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKmhILgWSpHYxX2yrpBsljn7tF_HIQbTr53e2ds8m2XjdIseY92s28CGkIrvR5VH5oK6c5TbhEuBa0U4ovUSnpPCxBPaa0hqIHjgKbncwsmluG8Ch2ILRxgHMIEHWGaDyQ__ierwUzFh9P/s400/30IMG_2769.W.E.C.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Riders, horses, and cattle all made it safely to public lands, where they'll send the summer.</td></tr></tbody></table>
Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-86297373773242177952021-05-19T08:39:00.054-06:002023-08-06T12:35:11.992-06:00To predict cheatgrass die-offs we must understand their cause
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRSfTKbxnBNR7ZvU9OQLwDO7UOVwcsXeUy6Yb5VkGXvlTzH96dcA2e9h2dB7CjeOrmxUW9iZvJ07U1bn53wrKJoo_hHC-vlTqGEOTagLS2Uw96cnqOnXNryVNft1wnnEppGbDZ2IOF6Aoj/s2048/210519_9694.J.E.C.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1463" data-original-width="2048" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRSfTKbxnBNR7ZvU9OQLwDO7UOVwcsXeUy6Yb5VkGXvlTzH96dcA2e9h2dB7CjeOrmxUW9iZvJ07U1bn53wrKJoo_hHC-vlTqGEOTagLS2Uw96cnqOnXNryVNft1wnnEppGbDZ2IOF6Aoj/w640-h458/210519_9694.J.E.C.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Army cutworms created this large die-off near Bruneau, Idaho in 2014.</b></td></tr></tbody></table><b><br /></b><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>In brief</b> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div><i>• Exotic cheatgrass fuels rangeland wildfires in the intermountain west.</i></div><div><i>• Cheatgrass die-offs are large bare patches that appear suddenly in cheatgrass-invaded areas.</i></div><div><i>• Die-offs are opportunities to reseed invaded areas </i><i>with native species while there are few </i><i>cheatgrass seeds to sprout and compete with sown plants. </i></div><div><i>• Army cutworms (ACW) consume cheatgrass seedlings to produce die-offs and can also defoliate native shrubs. The larvae hide in plain sight by feeding at night in winter and spring and hiding during the day. Later, they pupate in the soil and fly away. </i></div><div><i>• Major ACW outbreaks and die-offs in 2003 and 2014 occurred during drought broken by late summer rain, which germinated cheatgrass for larvae to eat. </i></div><div><i>• Two recent federal reports overlook ACW as the most likely cause of die-offs. </i></div><div><i>• Both reports state that fungal pathogens cause cheatgrass die-offs. However, fungi have not been linked to die-offs, are rare during drought, and would require a more complex series of events to damage cheatgrass. </i></div><div>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 9pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -9pt;"><b>Download a pdf of this post <a href="https://www.cindysalo.com/Files/Salo210519ArmyCutwormsEatCheatgrass.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>.</b></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">Cheatgrass (<i>Bromus tectorum</i>)
die-offs are bare areas, often covered with gray plant litter, that appear suddenly within stands of
normal-looking cheatgrass. Die-offs have distinct boundaries and can cover up
to several square miles. Perennial grasses and forbs within die-offs are
unaffected, but the exotic annual mustards (Brassicacaea) that often grow with
cheatgrass are also missing. Cheatgrass die-offs are sporadic in time and space: widespread
die-offs occur relatively rarely, and die-offs only infrequently reappear in the
same place.</p><div>Die-offs first appeared in low, dry areas of the intermountain west in 2003, during a major army cutworm (ACW) (<i>Euxoa auxiliaris</i>) outbreak. B. Hammon of Colorado State University (personal communication 2003) described conditions leading to the outbreak and die-offs: </div>
<div>1. a previous year of dry weather created many egg-laying sites, </div><div>2. late summer rain germinated cheatgrass for larvae to eat, </div><div>3. a large flight of ACW (miller) moths in fall laid many eggs, </div><div>4. dry fall and winter weather allowed many larvae to survive and consume cheatgrass seedlings.</div><div>
<br />
Ranchers and at least one researcher watched ACW eat cheatgrass in early 2003. Entomologists saw extensive ACW damage to crops in southwest Colorado and northern New Mexico. I saw a cheatgrass die-off in Nevada on April 17, 2003, but didn’t learn the cause of the bare area until later that year. </div><div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEi3KYls1Ts7xF8tYecZufnq4YFyiu3Hy9SZCm3cNiObEb4UuH_HjvQGxKAKCDc_VFb381cB9Be8bm7E2l6Bn3I3T2TBMS-8LT3CCXMTpzzpkNAnOxORmdeRkTkEuJt2CCGK0UU9hyiWV2/s1158/210519ACWdiagram.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="848" data-original-width="1158" height="469" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEi3KYls1Ts7xF8tYecZufnq4YFyiu3Hy9SZCm3cNiObEb4UuH_HjvQGxKAKCDc_VFb381cB9Be8bm7E2l6Bn3I3T2TBMS-8LT3CCXMTpzzpkNAnOxORmdeRkTkEuJt2CCGK0UU9hyiWV2/w640-h469/210519ACWdiagram.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Army cutworm outbreaks in the intermountain west are most likely after a year of dry weather is broken by September rain, followed by a large flight of miller moths, and a second period of dry weather through January.</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div><div><br /></div><div>My 2004 <a href="http://www.cindysalo.com/Files/SaloZielinski04SRM.ArmyCutworms.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">research poster</a> described how ACW outbreaks could create cheatgrass die-offs (Salo and Zielinski 2004). I recognized the appropriate conditions in January 2014 and found ACW in cheatgrass die-offs in late February in Owyhee County, Idaho. Die-offs also occurred in <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266156297_Cheatgrass_die-offs_as_an_opportunity_for_restoration_in_the_Great_Basin_USA_Will_local_or_commercial_native_plants_succeed_where_exotic_invaders_fail" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">northern Nevada</a> in 2014. In a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019005281830004X" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">research paper</a>, I documented larval damage and vegetation recovery (Salo 2018).</div><div><p>A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1470160X17302005" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">remote sensing study</a> has since confirmed that cheatgrass die-offs are most likely during a dry winter following a previous dry year (Weisberg et al. 2017). The lead author told me their study did not look at the effect of September precipitation.</p></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Army cutworms are the most likely cause of cheatgrass die-offs </h3><div><br /></div><div>A recent <a href="https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ofr20201125" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">U.S. Geological Survey report</a> (Remington et al. 2021) and an earlier <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/rmrs/publications/science-framework-conservation-and-restoration-sagebrush-biome-linking-department" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">U.S. Department of Agriculture report</a> (Crist et al. 2019) both recognize cheatgrass die-offs as opportunities to reseed cheatgrass-invaded areas with desirable native species, but both overlook ACW as the most likely cause of die-offs.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlG_RL64ldeamw81K-FwUv6CPDhvgfc0Ay47hJk19yGgHOPaL-iIa91zXgSFsbIWxSt7NgNxGhvRMV20KT_Bu2T0yq1DYHTLfgrNZPBIIN4STzDy4cLmFD1aKk4dQpOFDfIe1bI_xPTHHA/s2048/2105219Larvae_0850.E.C.S.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlG_RL64ldeamw81K-FwUv6CPDhvgfc0Ay47hJk19yGgHOPaL-iIa91zXgSFsbIWxSt7NgNxGhvRMV20KT_Bu2T0yq1DYHTLfgrNZPBIIN4STzDy4cLmFD1aKk4dQpOFDfIe1bI_xPTHHA/w400-h300/2105219Larvae_0850.E.C.S.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span><b>By spring, army cutworms are big and easy to spot.</b></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;">Army cutworms are the simplest, most direct cause of these events. Ranchers, who are out on rangelands in winter and at night far more than researchers and federal land managers, are familiar with ACW eating both cheatgrass and crops. Entomologists watch for <a href="https://eupdate.agronomy.ksu.edu/article_new/army-cutworms-in-wheat-alfalfa-and-winter-canola-376-3" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ACW damage to wheat and canola</a>, closely related to cheatgrass and weedy mustards.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div>The life histories of ACW and cheatgrass interact to create sporadic and spotty die-offs. To reach outbreak levels, ACW need cheatgrass seedlings for food in winter and early spring. Cheatgrass seeds need significant rain during usually-dry September to germinate in time to feed ACW. The rarity of significant rain at this time means that ACW outbreaks are relatively rare. The larvae earn their common name for their habit of marching <i>en masse</i> to find and consume essentially all their preferred plants--creating bare areas. <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM2hYicuzYm5FAnfBrx_uMU961IW_rR5lMnj5uxtVgTm8nR03df29a76PUJnti5RSnha9uQZKKHjoEEE9T6P0An8hNHotZvxNyGMlgmorNKH2cETU-rp8xLxtT9Q35Bn2lSbUtf9wrwo-w/s768/210519Moth_5511780-PPT.S.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="768" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM2hYicuzYm5FAnfBrx_uMU961IW_rR5lMnj5uxtVgTm8nR03df29a76PUJnti5RSnha9uQZKKHjoEEE9T6P0An8hNHotZvxNyGMlgmorNKH2cETU-rp8xLxtT9Q35Bn2lSbUtf9wrwo-w/w400-h260/210519Moth_5511780-PPT.S.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span><b>Adult miller moths emerge in late spring.</b></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div>After ACW pupate, the adult miller moths fly to high elevations, leaving no fingerprints behind. The moths spend the summer feeding on nectar <a href="https://centerofthewest.org/2014/04/01/greater-yellowstone-grizzly-bear-army-cutworm-moths/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">and being fed upon by bears</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>The following fall, the moths catch wind currents back to low elevations. The capriciousness of wind makes it unlikely that eggs will be laid in the same place more than once. A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1470160X17302005" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">remote sensing study</a> found that over 80% of die-off sites do not experience die-offs the following year (Weisberg et al. 2017). </div><div><br /></div><div>However, both recent federal reports overlook the evidence and state that fungal pathogens cause cheatgrass die-offs. Both cite <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_journals/2016/rmrs_2016_meyer_s001.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Meyer et al. 2016’s</a> book chapter, “Community ecology of fungal pathogens on <i>Bromus tectorum</i>.” </div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">
Occam’s Razor shaves away fungal pathogens</h3></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://philosophyterms.com/occams-razor/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Occam’s Razor</a> reminds us that the simplest explanation that fits the evidence is usually the correct one. Army cutworms are the simplest explanation for die-offs—with the most evidence. None of the fungi studied by Meyer et al. and described in their 2016 book chapter have been clearly linked to die-offs. They do not report studying pathogenic fungi of exotic mustards, which are also missing from die-off areas and are readily eaten by ACW.</div><div><div> <div>Meyer et al. 2016 state that fungal pathogens “sometimes interact to increase the total impact on <i>B. tectorum</i> stand structure, which can result in stand failure or ‘die-off’,” (page 193). They suggest that “thick litter created by [Rutstroemiaceae] may create conditions conducive to the success of <i>Fusarium</i> seed rot organism the subsequent year,” (page 218). This explanation is more complex, less direct, and supported by less evidence than the ACW explanation. </div><div><br /></div>
<div>Differences between ACW and fungi in weather conditions when outbreaks occur, local patterns of damage, and local persistence point all to the former as the most likely cause of die-offs (Table 1).</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Weather: <i>Cheatgrass die-offs occur during dry weather.</i> </b></div><div>
Most pathogenic fungi need wet conditions to grow, spread, and infect plants. Army cutworm outbreaks typically occur during dry weather lasting about 1½ years, broken by unusual late summer rain, to reach outbreak levels. Remote sensing work has also found that die-offs occur during drought (Weisburg et al. 2017). </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Local damage pattern: <i>Cheatgrass die-offs are bare soil</i>.</b> </div><div>Three of the five fungi discussed in Meyer et al. 2016, <i>Ustilago bullata</i>, <i>Tilletia bromi</i>, and a type of Rutstroemiaceae, infect cheatgrass without killing the plants. These organisms prevent the production of normal seeds, but do not destroy plants: they do not create the bare patches seen in cheatgrass die-offs. </div><div><br /></div>Pathogenic fungi can’t move to seek out host plants. Fungi are moved by wind or water, which typically produce spotty local patterns of fungal diseases. Some fungal diseases, such as <a href="https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/potato-late-blight" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">late blight of potato</a>, which led to the Irish potato famine, can kill essentially all plants in an area. However, these fungi leave fields of decaying plants, not bare areas. Army cutworms consume plants to bare soil. </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Local persistence: <i>Cheatgrass die-offs usually last only one year</i>. </b></div><div>
The other two fungi discussed in Meyer et al. 2016, <i>Pyrenophora semeniperda</i> and <i>Fusarium</i> spp., kill seeds in the soil; <i>Fusarium</i> spp. can also kill seedlings. <i>P. semeniperda</i> is one of many soil fungi that kill cheatgrass seeds, but the effect of this fungus on cheatgrass stands is negligible (Meyer et al. 2016, page 208). </div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Fusarium</i> spp. can be a serious problem in crops, as pathogenic fungi usually persist in an area longer than one year. For example, gardeners rotate tomatoes with other crops and plant resistant varieties to avoid <a href="https://extension.umn.edu/diseases/fusarium-wilt" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fusarium wilt</a> (<i>F. oxysporum</i>). Army cutworms, in contrast, leave the scene after creating die-offs, and winds rarely carry moths back to the same spot in later years.
</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGaEiHmhAlatfHTOV0bv9tCzCX8jvwZDyDYQ3kKNcdY20aOAzNdj6MNwKJrpnG1Sn_lSf9vn_IYCaF5CCYHrQw7146r1UnjECBiCPKrW_Vwczt8Ed22f7SqabgrcIi6xMjfzTD0Y9sV0tg/s557/210519Table1.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="135" data-original-width="557" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGaEiHmhAlatfHTOV0bv9tCzCX8jvwZDyDYQ3kKNcdY20aOAzNdj6MNwKJrpnG1Sn_lSf9vn_IYCaF5CCYHrQw7146r1UnjECBiCPKrW_Vwczt8Ed22f7SqabgrcIi6xMjfzTD0Y9sV0tg/w640-h156/210519Table1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">
Previous reports of cheatgrass die-offs</h3><div><br /></div><div>Meyer et al. 2016 discuss previous reports of abnormal cheatgrass growth. However, neither appears to have been caused by pathogenic fungi. The first seems to describe an ACW outbreak; the second, a dense stand of cheatgrass. </div><div><br /></div><b>Report 1: <i>Cheatgrass winterkill in southwest Idaho in 1960 </i></b></div></div><div>Meyer et al. 2016 cite winterkill of cheatgrass observations by <a href="https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/CAT86200649/PDF" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Piemeisel 1938</a>; the source is actually <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4353689" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Klemmedson and Smith 1964</a>. Klemmedson’s original <a href="https://www.cindysalo.com/Files/210520Klemmedson1960BRTEdieoff.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">photos and descriptions</a> of the event are archived at the <a href="http://www.greatbasinnpp.org/usfs-rmrs" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rocky Mountain Research Station</a> (below). </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQHrGusy207UuK4uvu4q2QufqoseOI7n75siZpH-G_zNNzqlbuSyq53P10O41922Etp7Gg64xxZpPDUlZVBTzd0vajk7DPvN6N89uLZozLt-NDClEzLD4gEc20l6RKDQ2IGRA3vBdXlGjh/s713/210519KlemmedsonR-669.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="389" data-original-width="713" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQHrGusy207UuK4uvu4q2QufqoseOI7n75siZpH-G_zNNzqlbuSyq53P10O41922Etp7Gg64xxZpPDUlZVBTzd0vajk7DPvN6N89uLZozLt-NDClEzLD4gEc20l6RKDQ2IGRA3vBdXlGjh/w400-h219/210519KlemmedsonR-669.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span><b>Klemmedson documented the 1960 cheatgrass die-off</b></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div>Klemmedson describes an event in 1960 near Glenns Ferry, Idaho strikingly similar to the 2003 and 2014 die-offs: large, litter-covered bare areas that end abruptly normal-appearing cheatgrass; unaffected perennial Sandberg bluegrass (<i>Poa secunda</i>); and a summer cover of Russian thistle (<i>Salsola kali</i>). <a href="http://www.cindysalo.com/Files/Salo17SRM.ArmyCutwormsTalk.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">I have suggested</a> that this event, and a similar one in 1949 in Payette County, Idaho, were caused by ACW outbreaks (Salo 2017, slides 26, 27). </div><div><br /></div><div>Glenns Ferry, Idaho recorded conditions before the 1960 die-off strikingly similar to those before the 2003 and 2014 ACW outbreaks and cheatgrass die-offs: a previous year of dry weather, heavy September rain, and a dry fall and early winter from October through January (Table 2).</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyuSiDXMBIj8NihLX7N7CCib-d_CHPYrxyuQHMcl7omag5fewt9dRH3w1rTWY4_xD5vrMDoxWqOv4XuV2FDUVwAnEno1a1JWKCyWZ82MXtLm5FA7c52fFJdnAD9Ab3jkEi5agIgzbBH0Re/s653/210519Table2.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="653" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyuSiDXMBIj8NihLX7N7CCib-d_CHPYrxyuQHMcl7omag5fewt9dRH3w1rTWY4_xD5vrMDoxWqOv4XuV2FDUVwAnEno1a1JWKCyWZ82MXtLm5FA7c52fFJdnAD9Ab3jkEi5agIgzbBH0Re/w640-h280/210519Table2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>Klemmedson and Smith 1964 suggest that desiccation or pink snow mold caused the 1960 event and cite <a href="https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/IND43894327/PDF" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sprague’s 1953</a> description of the mold. According to Sprague, <i>Microdochium nivale</i> = <i>Fusarium nivale</i>) attacks grasses “in late winter, either under the snow or during raw winter weather.” The attacked leaves turn into “pink or straw-colored mats, which dry to paper films,” (page 271). </div><div><br /></div><div>However, snow and raw winter weather would have been unlikely during the dry winter of 1959–1960. In addition, Klemmedson’s photos and descriptions show the litter that often covers cheatgrass die-offs, not the papery films of pink snow mold. The weather conditions, photos, and descriptions all point to ACW, rather than pink snow mold, as the cause of the 1960 die-off. </div><div><br /></div><b>Report 2: <i>Cyclic succession on abandoned cropland in southern Idaho in 1941 </i></b><div>Meyer et al. 2016 cite <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2307/1930972" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Piemeisel’s 1951</a> report of “degenerate” cheatgrass stands “in which seed production was prevented and stand loss ensued,” (page 195). Meyer et al. 2106 continue, “He credited this effect to increasing intraspecific competition, but it seems plausible that plant pathogens…could have played a role. This process is very similar to the ‘die-off’ or stand failure in <i>B. tectorum</i> monocultures documented in recent years.” </div><div><br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSYOFDm91zraY8EmZNCKSiIm-K-SUCrQXjub7En_j9cj-Gd6ZjowsMFbtNhsE6vhGK3AIHs9bDgnOZlm6HbRgFjW_eB62nJ4zZ2VXg94WxuM4ZjUarQu77208ZTINrzaMR6TXTPEoQLsfi/s362/210520Piemeisel1951.Fig3Sm.JPG" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSYOFDm91zraY8EmZNCKSiIm-K-SUCrQXjub7En_j9cj-Gd6ZjowsMFbtNhsE6vhGK3AIHs9bDgnOZlm6HbRgFjW_eB62nJ4zZ2VXg94WxuM4ZjUarQu77208ZTINrzaMR6TXTPEoQLsfi/s320/210520Piemeisel1951.Fig3Sm.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Piemeisel 1951 describes dense cheatgrass stands</b></td></tr></tbody></table>
<div>However, the pattern Piemeisel describes (right), and that Meyer et al. say is similar to cheatgrass die-offs, is the opposite of that seen on cheatgrass die-offs. </div><div><br /></div><div>Piemeisel reports islands of cheatgrass, “as small as a few feet in diameter…in parts of a field in 1941 where downy chess [=cheatgrass] was beginning to establish,” (page 56). The “degenerate” stand at the center was “a disk composed of a very dense, short growth of immature plants…with barely emerging heads.” Plants
in the outer portions of the islands were progressively more robust as the plant density decreased. </div><div><br /></div><div>Cheatgrass die-offs, on the other hand, are large bare areas cut out of normal-appearing cheatgrass stands—the inverse of Piemeisel’s islands. He certainly seems to describe intraspecific competition in cheatgrass, not a die-off.</div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Army cutworms are the most likely cause of cheatgrass die-offs
</h3><p class="MsoNormal">Researchers and ranchers have watched the larvae consumer cheatgrass, mustards, and the leaves of native shrubs (Salo 2018). The life cycles of cheatgrass and ACW, driven by weather, interact to produce periodic larval outbreaks that create die-offs sporadically across low, dry areas in the intermountain west.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When we understand ACW enough to predict their
outbreaks, we’ll know when and where to look for die-offs. My “trapline” in
Owyhee County, Idaho monitors fall miller moth flights; nearby weather stations in Grand
View and Murphy record precipitation. When conditions that lead to ACW
outbreaks occur though the end of January, it’s time to start looking for
larvae and die-offs. Reseeding die-offs with desirable native species will let the sown plants get started while there are few cheatgrass seeds in the soil to sprout and compete with them.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">
Literature cited</h3></div><div><div>Crist et al. 2019. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2737/RMRS-GTR-389" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Science Framework for Conservation and Restoration of the Sagebrush Biome: Linking the Department of the Interior’s Integrated Rangeland Fire Management Strategy to Long-term Strategic Conservation Actions. Part 2. Management applications</a>. USDA RMRS-GTR-389. 237 p.</div><div>Hammon. 2003. Personal communication.</div><div>Klemmedson and Smith. 1964. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4353689" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cheatgrass (<i>Bromus tectorum</i>)</a>. Botanical Review 30:226–262.</div><div>Meyer et al. 2016. <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_journals/2016/rmrs_2016_meyer_s001.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Community ecology of fungal pathogens on <i>Bromus tectorum</i></a>. In Germino et al. editors, <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-24930-8" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Exotic Brome-Grasses in Arid and Semiarid Ecosystems of the Western US</a>.</div><div>Piemeisel. 1938. <a href="https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/CAT86200649/PDF" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Changes in Weedy Plant Cover on Cleared Sagebrush Land and Their Probable Causes</a>. USDA Technical Bulletin No. 654. </div><div>Piemeisel. 1951. <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2307/1930972" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Causes affecting change and rate of change in a vegetation of annuals in Idaho</a>. Ecology 32: 53–72. </div><div>Remington et al. 2021. <a href="https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ofr20201125" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sagebrush Conservation Strategy—Challenges to Sagebrush Conservation</a>. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2020–1125. 327 p.</div><div>Salo and Zielinksi. 2004. <a href="http://www.cindysalo.com/Files/SaloZielinski04SRM.ArmyCutworms.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cheatgrass dieoffs: of drought, cutworms, and bears?</a> (poster). Society for Range Management Annual Meeting, Jan. 24–30, Salt Lake City, UT.</div><div>Salo. 2017. <a href="http://www.cindysalo.com/Files/Salo17SRM.ArmyCutwormsTalk.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Army cutworms (<i>Euxoa auxiliaris</i>) consume winter annual plants and shrub foliage</a>. Society for Range Management Annual Meeting, Jan. 29–Feb. 2, 2017, St. George, UT.</div><div>Salo. 2018. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019005281830004X" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Army cutworm outbreak produced cheatgrass “die-offs” and defoliated shrubs in southwest Idaho in 2014</a>. Rangelands 40(4):99–105.</div><div>Sprague. 1953. <a href="https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/IND43894327/PDF" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Root and crown rots of the grasses</a>. USDA Yearbook of Agriculture 267–272. </div><div>Weisberg et al. 2017. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1470160X17302005" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Development of remote sensing indicators for mapping episodic die-off of an invasive annual grass (<i>Bromus tectorum</i>) from the Landsat archive</a>. Ecological Indicators 79:173–181</div></div><div><br /></div>Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-73331456556368288592021-05-12T16:43:00.027-06:002021-05-13T16:00:10.686-06:00Pollinators could benefit from the pandemicMy <a href="https://bigskyjournal.com/western-focus-the-birds-the-bees/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">recent piece</a> for <i>Big Sky Journal</i> describes how landscaping with native plants can help our declining insect pollinators.<div><br /></div><div>I started my research by talking with my friend Diane Jones, owner of <a href="https://waterthriftyplants.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Draggin' Wing High Desert Nursery</a> in Boise, ID. Jones remembered that 2020 at first looked like a tough year in the plant business. Organizations cancelled their spring sales, where Jones usually sells plants early in the season. </div><div><br /></div><div>But, as people spent more time at home, they noticed their yards could use some attention. As they saved time and money on commuting and socializing, people started on yard projects. They went to Draggin’ Wing for plants, ideas, and advice. “People kept coming and coming,” Jones remembered. </div><div><br /></div><div>Looking back over her almost 20 years in business, Jones has seen a steady increase in the use of native plants in landscaping. Concern over the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150304-global-pollinators-in-decline" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">precipitous drop in our pollinators</a> is driving much of the interest in natives, Jones said. Much of the pandemic yard work involved creating pollinator-friendly yards.</div><div><br /></div><div>Monarch butterflies (<i>Danaus plexippus</i>) are, sadly, our best-known pollinator in peril. <a href="https://monarchjointventure.org/monarch-biology/life-cycle" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Monarchs rely solely on milkweeds</a> for raising their young. As the plants’ roadside and wildland habitats are converted to other uses, and adjacent crops are sprayed with herbicides, milkweeds—and monarchs—are disappearing.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5cZ8ryPIhb3NVcwidB2I0g1MWc_ksEUq8CdWMxDmtQxn05zD9YtUNDZq3kkz-QpOAEWcP4DTOyW3LvKTOdJjdbLNXslXuPgX3HqFcb-oW7ZVVp3IEL_HWZ9wZmlG6fawOQNHqeWDb-Wcj/s1489/ThreeMilkweeds..S.C.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="395" data-original-width="1489" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5cZ8ryPIhb3NVcwidB2I0g1MWc_ksEUq8CdWMxDmtQxn05zD9YtUNDZq3kkz-QpOAEWcP4DTOyW3LvKTOdJjdbLNXslXuPgX3HqFcb-oW7ZVVp3IEL_HWZ9wZmlG6fawOQNHqeWDb-Wcj/w640-h170/ThreeMilkweeds..S.C.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Native milkweeds: <i>Asclepias tuberosa</i>, <i>A. speciosa</i>, <i>A. fascicularis (</i><i><span face=""Candara",sans-serif" style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 32.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "\@Malgun Gothic"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">© Draggin' Wing High Desert Nursery)</span></i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">We have fewer monarch butterflies west of the Rockies and they seem to be <a href="https://xerces.org/press/western-monarch-population-closer-to-extinction-still-no-federal-or-state-protection-in-sight" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">declining faster</a> than those in the east. While eastern monarchs overwinter in Mexico, their western siblings head to groves on the southern California coast. Where over a million orange-and-black butterflies covered the trees as recently as 1997, fewer than 30,000 were found three years ago. This past winter, western monarchs numbered fewer than 2,000. Researchers feared the worst. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>However, while we were adapting to working from our living rooms and remembering to unmute on Zoom, monarch butterflies were adapting to living in San Francisco and laying eggs. At least some of the missing monarchs appear to have <a href="https://news.wsu.edu/2021/05/05/new-monarch-butterfly-breeding-pattern-inspires-hope/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">stopped in the Bay Area to create a pandemic baby boom</a> instead of continuing on to their winter homes. (The predicted human baby boom turned out to be a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/06/994145464/the-pandemic-didnt-appear-to-spur-a-baby-boom-rather-a-bust" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">baby bust</a>.)</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://wine.wsu.edu/faculty/david-james/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">David James</a>, at Washington State University, has <a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/aug/02/the-bottom-has-just-dropped-out-as-insect-populati/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">tagged and tracked</a> western monarch butterflies since 2012. In a <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ami-2021-0002/html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">recent academic paper</a><i style="font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ami-2021-0002/html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></i>, James says that the new stay-home-and-reproduce behavior is likely due to warmer temperatures in northern California and the availability of non-native African milkweeds, which are widely planted in the area. </div><div><br /></div><div>This isn’t the first time James has seen monarchs change their migration and breeding habits. Four decades ago, he saw a <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/informit.230400820023374" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">similar shift among monarchs in Australia</a>, where the insects were introduced. James is hopeful that western monarchs will adapt and thrive, but cautions that we don’t yet understand all the challenges they will face. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you didn't finish your pandemic yard work, you can still help pollinators by planting native milkweeds for our iconic monarch butterflies—and the more than 100 other insects that use them. Draggin’ Wing High Desert Nursery carries the three kinds of milkweed pictured here.
</div>Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-78802135604282992782021-03-10T09:03:00.001-07:002021-05-12T16:45:17.838-06:00How did wheat take over the world?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7KzTKHLlX3g7ztLror6Pvf4fYQ_VdWWW6NKsmu4vRPRVc7qGgehMGF5V3g75VS6HgrlFOPeklMbCVb5H-o_NpfAi-bsk6-aU_6A0lh8BJM6BVWnPAOHNQBQSBvvgEo6qrvQmLfZtRx6uB/s307/210310AmberWaves.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="307" data-original-width="200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7KzTKHLlX3g7ztLror6Pvf4fYQ_VdWWW6NKsmu4vRPRVc7qGgehMGF5V3g75VS6HgrlFOPeklMbCVb5H-o_NpfAi-bsk6-aU_6A0lh8BJM6BVWnPAOHNQBQSBvvgEo6qrvQmLfZtRx6uB/w260-h400/210310AmberWaves.jpg" width="260" /></a></div>I was smitten by the wheat fields of Montana in high school. My dad and younger brother and I were headed to Glacier National Park when the rolling fields stretched from the horizons to capture my heart. I was sure that some day I'd live that far from town and drive tractors on fields that big. But I didn't wonder why there was so much wheat in Montana or how the crop I wanted so badly to raise affected the ecology of the area. <div><br /></div><div>Montana State University professor Catherine Zabinsky has thought about those things and wrote a book about them. <a href="https://issues.org/review-amber-waves-wheat/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">My recent review</a> of <i><a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo28183488.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Amber Waves: The Extraordinary Biography of Wheat, from Wild Grass to World Megacrop</a></i> is in the current <i><a href="https://issues.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Issues in Science and Technology</a></i>. </div><div><br /></div><div>I was living 35 miles from town when I wrote the review, but I wasn't on a Montana wheat farm.</div>Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-17969636428282373972021-02-19T13:23:00.011-07:002021-02-20T10:32:52.042-07:00Yellowstone cutthroat comebackMany stories about troublesome exotic species are tragedies. Some of the endings have been written: an exotic fungus wiped out the <a href="https://acf.org/the-american-chestnut/history-american-chestnut/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">American Chestnut</a> and <a href="https://www.doi.gov/oia/press/interior-announces-34-million-brown-tree-snake-control-guam" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">brown tree snakes</a> have driven more than half of Guam’s birds and lizards to extinction. Other stories are long-running dramas: <a href="https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/eichhornia-crassipes/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">water hyacinth</a> clogs waterways in the southeast U.S. and <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/resources/pests-diseases/hungry-pests/the-threat/med-fruit-fly/med-fruit-fly" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mediterranean fruit flies</a> damage fruits, nuts, and vegetables around the world.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS-0i9MDQOL-WPBnz7rcEw3ciYvfIofSBHczPzhX_iJ0EW8E-Ga13ir8auykpyhr8tCVHg9Qhs3QSbLaF3RrU61tJEzDBz6845oi2XKiIQo9WeWUq-6QM7XjI7p-T91lrnB-YOtQCWO-Yi/s591/TheReturn18YCTT.S.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="591" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS-0i9MDQOL-WPBnz7rcEw3ciYvfIofSBHczPzhX_iJ0EW8E-Ga13ir8auykpyhr8tCVHg9Qhs3QSbLaF3RrU61tJEzDBz6845oi2XKiIQo9WeWUq-6QM7XjI7p-T91lrnB-YOtQCWO-Yi/w640-h426/TheReturn18YCTT.S.JPG" title="Yellowstone cutthroat trout" width="640" /></a></div>
My latest article, <a href="https://bigskyjournal.com/the-cutthroat-comeback/" target="_blank">The Cutthroat Comeback</a> in <i>Big Sky Journal</i>, is an inspiring fish tale of gaining ground against a troublesome exotic species. Lake trout are large and efficient predators that eat native Yellowstone cutthroat trout. Yellowstone National Park is using population modelling and commercial gillnetters to reduce lake trout numbers in Yellowstone Lake, while researchers develop effective methods for controlling lake trout eggs. With the help of their friends, the native cutthroat trout are reclaiming their high, cold home waters. <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMdN7fo6OCptpkSOWjtJvDNrVRMvnVDNTLJ_x37BP__Swe6lt3B4v5WfVpSO8r1QESWZgntPRTcG1Za55n2GSCr-mG33o6q0xS7dOi6eN72jwRrf-WlFD-8K2j7YweodkPul9YVYxD4zO_/s536/NPSxxLakeTroutGillnetting.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="353" data-original-width="536" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMdN7fo6OCptpkSOWjtJvDNrVRMvnVDNTLJ_x37BP__Swe6lt3B4v5WfVpSO8r1QESWZgntPRTcG1Za55n2GSCr-mG33o6q0xS7dOi6eN72jwRrf-WlFD-8K2j7YweodkPul9YVYxD4zO_/w640-h422/NPSxxLakeTroutGillnetting.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-58129451940972288922020-04-18T20:36:00.001-06:002021-02-20T10:27:16.919-07:00April is the best time to spot cheatgrass die-offsCheatgrass die-offs might sound alarming, but few people in the West are sorry to see cheatgrass gone. This exotic annual grass spreads into sagebrush grasslands where native shrubs and grasses are missing or weakened. When fire comes, dried cheatgrass burns readily and spreads fire among native plants, killing or damaging them. But when cheatgrass dies out in an area, seeds of longer-lived <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320439108_Cheatgrass_Die-Offs_A_Unique_Restoration_Opportunity_in_Northern_Nevada" target="_blank">native plants can get started without competing</a> with this invasive exotic grass. <br />
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Cheatgrass die-offs are easy to spot in April. For bonus points, you might also find the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019005281830004X" target="_blank">army cutworms that create</a> them by eating each grass shoot as it comes up. The bare die-offs stand out against the surrounding cheatgrass, which is having a growth spurt in the warm temperatures and plentiful moisture of spring. <br />
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Die-offs can be almost completely bare, where native shrubs were killed by fire and cheatgrass moved in. These are an alarming sight.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWrO4-fc9y6cX7aP9CmpFl86u7Xr4JQt4qzyiFFyr4mMz_oofxae0gPtI9n2kgnijIfIciw-5KzqNDiDB0GlrWrv0Kc_hQ3W8aLvMkDROWr1ixk4FgogJluZlNt8mMpyWEtccuBeQOKJtb/s1600/200418_2003_0082.S.E.C.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1042" data-original-width="1600" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWrO4-fc9y6cX7aP9CmpFl86u7Xr4JQt4qzyiFFyr4mMz_oofxae0gPtI9n2kgnijIfIciw-5KzqNDiDB0GlrWrv0Kc_hQ3W8aLvMkDROWr1ixk4FgogJluZlNt8mMpyWEtccuBeQOKJtb/w640-h418/200418_2003_0082.S.E.C.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
Die-offs in areas with native shrubs (sagebrush and saltbushes) are a little harder to spot. You'll see shrubs without any herbaceous plants growing underneath them. The shrubs might be missing a good portion of their leaves, as they are here.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWbkst7Mf_XN4M9FeoqrqEbtFu6DRJmQ_Z0Xt0wioog2cfii0Gl59mb_qhCfuflWNqmijR3Tb43HZNZdwzdqVDFMKEUMtEgwXfRstiOA65kiJaOqXy42ggozLyir2YoQfhxOR4hD2Z402n/s1600/IMA_9710.J.E.V.C.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="791" data-original-width="1600" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWbkst7Mf_XN4M9FeoqrqEbtFu6DRJmQ_Z0Xt0wioog2cfii0Gl59mb_qhCfuflWNqmijR3Tb43HZNZdwzdqVDFMKEUMtEgwXfRstiOA65kiJaOqXy42ggozLyir2YoQfhxOR4hD2Z402n/w640-h315/IMA_9710.J.E.V.C.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
To find cheatgrass die-offs look for:<br />
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1. Bare areas where cheatgrass grew in previous years, with or without shrubs. <br />
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2. Sharp borders to bare areas, changing abruptly from bare soil to normal-looking cheatgrass. <br />
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3. Native shrubs, if present, missing most of their leaves: army cutworms also climb shrubs and eat leaves. <br />
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4. Gray-green larvae hiding during the day under cowpies and plant litter or in the soil. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmaM9Bm-N4QyPN-Mad9PJlzioMzWsHPKv3ffws0RfVxq-vKTUDmHgfyqbZAdv3p2aCkObaUg5BlLV_IiKxO4NXear5h2ervJZ9PKgioWFr5crf74P-55j1uGy5AnJGYMZYyRU2tHoPQ7Qj/s1600/IMA_8839.J.E.C.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="758" data-original-width="862" height="563" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmaM9Bm-N4QyPN-Mad9PJlzioMzWsHPKv3ffws0RfVxq-vKTUDmHgfyqbZAdv3p2aCkObaUg5BlLV_IiKxO4NXear5h2ervJZ9PKgioWFr5crf74P-55j1uGy5AnJGYMZYyRU2tHoPQ7Qj/w640-h563/IMA_8839.J.E.C.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
If you find cheatgrass die-offs, seize the opportunity to seed native plants and revegetate these areas.Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-50193280207067850572019-08-18T20:12:00.000-06:002021-05-12T16:45:42.418-06:00Light on the Devils: Coming of Age on the Klamath<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Light-Devils-Coming-Age-Klamath/dp/0870716115/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2L7WIRAVIYZ5K&keywords=light+on+the+devils+wagenknecht&qid=1566180473&s=books&sprefix=light+on+the+devils+wagen%2Cstripbooks%2C223&sr=1-1"><i>Light on the Devils</i></a> pulled me in and made me want to know more about the people and places it described.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM7zLpgRwArRGtlqa758klr55Z3VfkBTF3eyQK4_4kcmxciclYY-gGbghrxii6Qc4EH3T4pGzi56wx8MAjoFunuAmrWU7tnUC9JZZEWrO70DlqJt_b797NLneMX3h9PERxe-QlLY2UxFfr/s1600/190818LightOnDevils.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="196" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM7zLpgRwArRGtlqa758klr55Z3VfkBTF3eyQK4_4kcmxciclYY-gGbghrxii6Qc4EH3T4pGzi56wx8MAjoFunuAmrWU7tnUC9JZZEWrO70DlqJt_b797NLneMX3h9PERxe-QlLY2UxFfr/s320/190818LightOnDevils.jpg" width="214" /></a></div><br />
After reading Louise Wagenknecht's book, I searched aerial photos to track her family's moves from Hilt, California, downriver to Happy Camp, and then to Seiad Valley during the 1960s. I wondered where her high school classmates committed suicide, died in vehicles rolling off mountain roads, gave birth between junior and senior years, and dropped out to work in the timber. <br />
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Then I searched topographic maps for the Three Devils peaks of the book's title. I traced the path of the Klamath River through the forests of northern California, where Wagenknecht's stepfather laid out clear cuts in old growth timber. I looked for the roads and bridges built to "get out the cut"—infrastructure the cut didn't pay for. I planned a road trip to see how the clear cuts were filling in and search for remaining old growth trees. <br />
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Between the crescendos of tragedy—floods, fires, and logger deaths—Wagenknecht records the steady bass beat of disappearing old growth timber and degraded watersheds and wildlife habitat. At the height of the post-World War II timber boom, a neighbor remembers California condors and Wagenknecht's family moves into a house with a large supply of kindling: veneer peeled from old growth pine. <br />
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But I didn't need a guide to follow Wagenknecht's journey from science geek kid who loved animals, through her dismay and disbelief when her stepfather tells her women can't be veterinarians and his co-worker tells her women can't fight fires—after she had just fought one, and on to her decision to attend college. She saw the contradictions in growing up female and told the world, and herself, that she wanted to be a science teacher—a nice, acceptable job for a high school valedictorian.<br />
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At home, Wagenknecht's stepfather decreed she would spend time doing her hair and nails, plus three agonizing hours a week holding up the walls and reading album covers at high school dances. But she, the oldest child, was also his hunting and fishing companion. She was the one who helped him fell trees for firewood and then split, load, and unload the fuel. She made a good hand and he made a good teacher. Despite their conflicts at home, they reached détente in the woods. <br />
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This book describes Wagenknecht's path toward a career with the Forest Service—which included fighting fires—and her détente in the woods with society.Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-68804504442232275402019-04-05T14:00:00.004-06:002020-01-09T12:22:44.747-07:00Hunting the ancient agaveAgaves spend much of their lives as toothy, spikey plants we avoid while hiking. Most agaves bloom only once, throwing their heart and carbohydrates into raising an exorbitant stalk of fragrant flowers that ripen into dry fruits stacked with flat, black seeds. We're captivated by the transformation from spikey to florescent.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgkzwgZdK5xGHehdAKxLkjABmpBOV6WyoaEgCD73pAwZqaZNZZ_6A6uF4QbGmrtAbgGYGMc1yQLlTxp0e5h85ETX-uGw8PiIcWo1c4DoCP23_5yQ3mUN8TJu0S5ZanSpoeCO-JHmfZMvo2/s1600/IM__9959.W.E.C.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgkzwgZdK5xGHehdAKxLkjABmpBOV6WyoaEgCD73pAwZqaZNZZ_6A6uF4QbGmrtAbgGYGMc1yQLlTxp0e5h85ETX-uGw8PiIcWo1c4DoCP23_5yQ3mUN8TJu0S5ZanSpoeCO-JHmfZMvo2/s320/IM__9959.W.E.C.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wendy Hodgson makes agave seeds fly in Cascabel.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>However, for over 8,000 years, people have harvested agaves just before flowering, usurping the carbohydrates in the stem for human food and beverage. The leaves also provide fibers for rope, baskets, bags and sandals.<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"></div>Although people have used agaves continuously in Mexico, the plants' cultivation and culture faded from what is now Arizona by the 18th century. Residents of the Middle San Pedro Valley have periodically wondered if we could grow agave in our area. After all, <a href="https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/2016/12/21/new-site-protection-acquisition-the-taylor-site/">Sobaipuri</a> Native American agave fields dot our community, and wild agaves grow in the valley. <br />
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When this question came up again last winter, we learned that <a href="https://bioone.org/journals/systematic-botany/volume-43/issue-3/036364418X697445/Hohokam-Lost-Crop-Found--A-New-iAgave-i-Agavaceae/10.1600/036364418X697445.full">survivors of pre-Columbian cultivated agave</a> had recently been found in our area. Wendy Hodgson and her colleague Andrew Salywon, both with the Desert Botanical Garden, named the new species <i>Agave sanpedroensis</i>. Wendy and Andrew even suggested that this low-water-use crop could be revived to diversify agriculture and stimulate new industries in the U.S. Southwest.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUqU-TDZyHbbic8-8EFrgLGpr_CGaRxqj6gVdn3fnA8VMo5Dm-JTBHhdZxXPCBwIXHHYtOfQAd0JgTXzV9guVZqCmxKPME-oy8SYJqv-FP75piKUco17dDPTmrlnonSa3L3j1olpMRySPh/s1600/Salywon_AGSAplant.E.S.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="662" data-original-width="662" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUqU-TDZyHbbic8-8EFrgLGpr_CGaRxqj6gVdn3fnA8VMo5Dm-JTBHhdZxXPCBwIXHHYtOfQAd0JgTXzV9guVZqCmxKPME-oy8SYJqv-FP75piKUco17dDPTmrlnonSa3L3j1olpMRySPh/s320/Salywon_AGSAplant.E.S.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Agave sanpedroensis.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>We contacted Wendy, who was as eager as we were to connect. In January 2019, she told a packed Cascabel Community Center about the eight (and counting) species of formerly cultivated agaves she and her colleagues have found. In February, dozens of people braved blustery weather on a follow-up field trip. Wendy explained how she recognizes the different species of agaves and outlined how we can help her survey the plants in our valley.<br />
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Wendy and Andrew work with archaeologists, who have documented extensive <a href="https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/554185/dp_07_02.pdf?sequence=1#page=75">agave fields</a> at many sites in central and southern Arizona. Rows of rocks along contour lines slowed runoff across the fields and rock mulch piles reduced evaporation. Near the fields, archaeologists find knives used for removing leaves and roasting pits where agave stems, or "heads," were baked to sweetness. <br />
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The plants we see today are genetically identical to those the Sobaipuri and other groups developed to suit their needs. Unlike their wild relatives, these cultivated agaves produce little or no seed. Instead, the plants reproduce vegetatively, usually by pupping, to produce offspring identical to the parent. Cultivated agaves are also sweeter than their wild relatives and their leaves are easier to cut.<br />
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After surviving drought, insects, and rodents for centuries--or millennia--climate change and development threaten these rare plants. As cultivated crops, they fall into a protection gap: the Endangered Species Act protects only wild species and the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/archeology/tools/Laws/ARPA.htm" target="_blank">Archaeological Resources Protection Act </a>protects only inanimate artifacts. <br />
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Wendy fears that these recently discovered, living storehouses of information on people, culture, and plants could be lost. She is helping residents of the Middle San Pedro Valley learn about the ancient agaves in their area and work to protect them. Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-88948144500592200542019-04-03T08:50:00.000-06:002019-04-07T19:17:53.696-06:00You can help agaves and bats in southern ArizonaStep outdoors on a warm southern Arizona night and you might be swept up in what naturalist <a href="http://riverbendpublishing.com/crown.html">Ralph Waldt</a> calls a "bat tornado" of winged mammals. Residents routinely wake to find that the clouds of bats have drained their hummingbird feeders overnight.<br />
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Although nectar-feeding bats are most noticeable in the area, only two of the 30 bats native to Arizona feed from flowers; most Arizona bats eat insects. Both nectar-feeders, <i>Choeronycteris mexicana</i> (Mexican long-tongued bat) and <i>Leptonycteris yerbabuenae</i> (lesser long-nosed bat), visit Cascabel during warm months. <br />
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World-wide, the more than 1,300 bat species represent almost a fourth of the over 5,400 mammals. Bats have the agility to catch and eat prodigious amounts of night-flying insects and to pollinate night-blooming flowers atop tall agave stalks and columnar cacti.<br />
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Agaves and cacti provide bats a nectar meal in exchange for pollen the bats inadvertently carry among plants. The bats move with the blooms, from southern Mexico in winter to the grasslands of northern Mexico and the southern U.S. in summer. <br />
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This elegant partnership evolved over millions of years and is crucial to the survival of both partners. Currently, bats and agaves are both threatened by climate change and the loss of agaves to land clearing, development, and the harvest of wild agave for bacanora, the agave liquor of Sonora.<br />
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The lesser long-nosed bat is the more imperiled of the two nectar feeders in this area. Although this bat was removed from the endangered species list by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2018, these pollinators are still at risk due to the decline of their nectar sources. <br />
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The Borderlands Restoration Network (BRN), in Patagonia, Arizona, works with many partners to protect bats by increasing their agave food supply. You can help both agaves and bats by participating in two of these projects.<br />
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BRN and volunteers track the effects of climate change on two native agaves in our area through the USA National Phenology Network's <a href="https://fws.usanpn.org/flowersforbats">Flowers for Bats</a> campaign. Many plants are blooming earlier as our climate warms. If bats migrate from Mexico on their usual schedule, but Agave parryi and Agave palmeri bloom earlier, the bats might arrive to find nothing to eat. <br />
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BRN replants agaves lost from the southwest U.S. and northwestern Mexico as part of Bat Conservation International's Agaves for Bats campaign. Each year, <a href="https://www.borderlandsrestoration.org/native-plant-materials">BRN</a> collects agave pups and seed to grow thousands of agaves for planting by landowners. <br />
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If you haven't experienced a bat tornado, keep your hummingbird feeders full for the night shift, watch when agaves flower in your area, and plant some agaves at your place. Then step outdoors on a warm southern Arizona night and wait for the whirlwind.<br />
<br />Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-2008489353069395842018-09-20T13:59:00.003-06:002022-01-18T11:44:11.390-07:00An entomological who dunnit<i>Jeff Lockwood's book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Locust-Devastating-Mysterious-Disappearance-American/dp/0465041671?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-d-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0465041671" target="_blank">Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect That Shaped the American Frontier</a> is available on Amazon, where I reviewed it.</i><br />
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Scientific understanding usually shuffles along in the two-to-three-year steps of graduate student research projects. Big, intriguing mysteries take longer to resolve, but are more fun to research—and more interesting to read about. <br />
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Jeff Lockwood tackled the mystery of why the Rocky Mountain locust went extinct at the dawn of the 20th century. The species' periodic irruptions rivaled the bison in terms of biomass and the 1875 outbreak still horrifies young readers of Laura Ingles Wilder's, On the Banks of Plum Creek. Then the insects disappeared.<br />
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In his book, Lockwood recounts the challenges of sleuthing out a big mystery. Big research projects require new research techniques and years of soul-crushing work counting, dissecting, measuring, and recording data. Papers describing new research findings are sometimes rejected by academic journals; colleagues sometimes snicker. Unearthing the Rocky Mountain locust's secrets required field work at remote high elevation "grasshopper glaciers" reached by difficult climbs in foul weather.<br />
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Big research projects need lots of brains and lots of backs. Lockwood doesn't hog the limelight; he credits his employees, students, and colleagues for their inventions and insights. Field research is carried out by people, so it's a social activity, which Lockwood captures. A twenty-five-mile hike, completed in the dark, isn't quite as bad when you're not suffering alone, and joy shared at discovery is joy multiplied.<br />
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Other ecological changes in the late 19th century might have been linked with the locust's disappearance: decline of the bison, changes in climate, or reduced burning by Native Americans. Lockwood guides readers through the possibilities and explains why he rejects each. He focuses instead on the ecological bottleneck of limited egg-laying sites in valleys of the northern Rocky Mountains. Lockwood determines that when settlers plowed and grazed these areas, they destroyed the locust's eggs, and with them, the species. The culprit was settlers, in valleys, with plows, by accident.<br />
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Although the Rocky Mountain locust's sky-filling swarms are gone with the thundering bison herds, Lockwood ends his book by wondering if a few individuals may live incognito in less disturbed valleys of the Rockies. Another big, intriguing mystery.Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-55068773045981461572018-09-10T14:04:00.000-06:002021-05-12T16:46:11.543-06:00Marathon health, lava stroke, and natural resources<i>Mike Medberry's book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Side-Moon-Mike-Medberry/dp/087004513X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1536608913&sr=8-3&keywords=on+the+dark+side+of+the+moon+book">On the Dark Side of the Moon</a> is available on Amazon, where I recently reviewed it.</i><br />
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Mike Medberry's legs carried him uphill to finish a half marathon the day before a clot in the 44-year-old's brain stopped blood flow, immobilizing his right side and scrambling his speech. His was the kind of stroke you want to have in the ER parking lot. But Medberry was hiking across lava at Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho. He spent most of a day waiting to be found and whisked to a hospital.<br />
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Medberry "became pure observer" while wounded and waiting on the lava. He describes the stroke clearly enough that I don't have to experience one myself to feel I have a working knowledge of the condition.<br />
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Recovering, Medberry learned to brush his teeth, drive, navigate phone trees, speak, and write. His struggles to organize his thoughts are heart-breaking. "…[T]he pieces of [his] brain were a blizzard of blowing pages ripped from a book." Medberry's emotional struggles are inspiring. His falling in love and recovering enough to say, "I do," are triumphs.<br />
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Interwoven with Medberry's own story is the story of <a href="https://www.nps.gov/crmo/index.htm" target="_blank">Craters of the Moon</a>. He was working to expand the national monument when the stroke found him there. Even after the stroke, he hiked and found peace on the lava. <br />
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I enjoyed Medberry's descriptions of Idaho landscapes, but I wondered about a few points in his discussion of cheatgrass. He's correct that the exotic annual grass fuels wildfires that damage native vegetation and the wildlife habitat it provides. But I cringed when I read that cheatgrass is "[a] poison brought here by cowboys, for cows." In its native range, cheatgrass is an insignificant grass that doesn't inspire purposeful sharing. Researchers understand that the grass was inadvertently introduced to the U.S. West.<br />
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The stark black and white cover photo of a hiker leaning against gravity to climb lava echoes the contrast between Medberry's marathon health and lava stroke. Natural resource issues are rarely as clear cut and the actors, both people and plants, are rarely completely good or evil.Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-39526352348593795522018-08-28T19:17:00.001-06:002021-05-12T16:46:31.249-06:00Hawley Creek fish habitat work, Lemhi ValleyChinook salmon by the thousands used to leave the Pacific Ocean to struggle 800 miles up the Columbia, Snake, and Salmon rivers. Where the Continental Divide blocked their way, they hung a left and swam up the Lemhi River and its tributaries to spawn. Spawning fish jammed the waterways. Their thrashing and splashing kept the human residents of the valley away at night.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirHSszqJ5Oh7bkHzoqHHcvRDjNEf7Rm1SElVDokp22vMgdtw1aVsHlGB5xmXch08yibV6MExp9eYDuo4D2redRJrZabP11zCU6hThQn4Rp5wrNeDhbHsywtr_oGARa9iZfefYRhAwH1JMI/s1600/IM__6923.W.E.C.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="876" data-original-width="1314" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirHSszqJ5Oh7bkHzoqHHcvRDjNEf7Rm1SElVDokp22vMgdtw1aVsHlGB5xmXch08yibV6MExp9eYDuo4D2redRJrZabP11zCU6hThQn4Rp5wrNeDhbHsywtr_oGARa9iZfefYRhAwH1JMI/w640-h426/IM__6923.W.E.C.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Lemhi River south of Salmon, Idaho, in summer.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Europeans settlers changed the waterways of the Lemhi Valley. They rerouted tributary streams and the mainstem Lemhi to irrigate the hay fields that grow winter feed for cattle. Returning salmon found earthen dams and dry river bed blocking their way. Young fish, starting their trip to the ocean, found the same.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyr2vXQrxNL9WX8ueKhOV7wUp7APfjR-Jp-II6BTvhOF33woXuZGKaBwYIZX2r_KZoj4MrmhfojUlj579trrPnND2qNZ5o2zelR_dnl4-FfsYmBNeJjmU2nYT4URfa_XT-TZcjyYdFrtTX/s1600/180828__4076.W.E2.C.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyr2vXQrxNL9WX8ueKhOV7wUp7APfjR-Jp-II6BTvhOF33woXuZGKaBwYIZX2r_KZoj4MrmhfojUlj579trrPnND2qNZ5o2zelR_dnl4-FfsYmBNeJjmU2nYT4URfa_XT-TZcjyYdFrtTX/w640-h426/180828__4076.W.E2.C.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Angus cattle in the Lemhi Valley.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Bruce Mulkey, a rancher and chair of the Lemhi Soil Conservation District sounded the alarm in the 1980s. He urged the group (now the <a href="https://iascd.wordpress.com/tag/lemhi-soil-and-water-conservation-district/" target="_blank">Lemhi Soil and Water Conservation District</a>) to do what they could to help salmon. I wrote about <a href="https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/saving-salmons-salmon/" target="_blank">ranchers saving Salmon's salmon</a> for <i>Hakai Magazine</i> last fall.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1rvx11zo_a5ky4Zbji9zKBD4rYGc7t2eqDdlWoxo3219Jm6299vbR1WL_WAPrbRGEoqF3G1iaIfUh-w0aoQxOl5ji1X2Q86NkWF8R-NvfIx1uebBPl6M9zd0TalWmQ-YNVxfdMkYPqqF7/s1600/180828__7357.J.E.C.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="876" data-original-width="1314" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1rvx11zo_a5ky4Zbji9zKBD4rYGc7t2eqDdlWoxo3219Jm6299vbR1WL_WAPrbRGEoqF3G1iaIfUh-w0aoQxOl5ji1X2Q86NkWF8R-NvfIx1uebBPl6M9zd0TalWmQ-YNVxfdMkYPqqF7/w640-h426/180828__7357.J.E.C.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Lemhi River north of Leadore, Idaho, in fall.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Today, the LSWCD works with federal and state agencies and private landowners to return streams to their original channels and reconnect them to the mainstem Lemhi. The groups install more efficient irrigation structures and systems, which leave more water in the streams for fish.<br />
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In June, 2018, the LSWCD hosted a tour of <a href="https://www.webapps.nwfsc.noaa.gov/apex/f?p=309:19:::::P19_PROJECTID:40598963" target="_blank">improvements on Hawley Creek</a>, near Leadore, Idaho. This tributary of the upper Lemhi has been returned to its original channel, after being diverted to a ditch, which left the creek bed dry for more than a century.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRnN_UHAGSnlmdAZ0nKRkoKgwLSkjCs7TyuF8dEKSNztY7g_CvJ0z-VLj2CQ0fqglCBNInVbl8upGAE8XMgOImXkPnyNrLq8JKqoBE9z-Tf2ghVuqJeqFgARTLUUd3fpAOLjKMWNyy158S/s1600/IM__8238.W.E.C.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRnN_UHAGSnlmdAZ0nKRkoKgwLSkjCs7TyuF8dEKSNztY7g_CvJ0z-VLj2CQ0fqglCBNInVbl8upGAE8XMgOImXkPnyNrLq8JKqoBE9z-Tf2ghVuqJeqFgARTLUUd3fpAOLjKMWNyy158S/w640-h426/IM__8238.W.E.C.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The LSWCD tour started where Hawley Creek enters the Lemhi Valley.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>A new structure on upper Hawley Creek sends irrigation water through a pipeline to center pivot irrigation systems in the Lemhi Valley. The new pipeline loses less water during the trip than the open ditch it replaced. The pipeline delivers water directly to the center pivots, saving thousands of dollars per year formerly spent to pump water out of the ditch and onto the hay fields.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKc_swU1l5ui8AT_yvsKK9GSlUgeKNcxlzv669Att610KmuJpItkUhSL1qBpi-zk_LJ4_Am-ZTbxqIE073AezSZV4wlFup3-1Ub0KGkrQ9DQjemPcE8C_18btbXGYubDuGzjETVNoBFzy_/s1600/IM__8246.W.E.C.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKc_swU1l5ui8AT_yvsKK9GSlUgeKNcxlzv669Att610KmuJpItkUhSL1qBpi-zk_LJ4_Am-ZTbxqIE073AezSZV4wlFup3-1Ub0KGkrQ9DQjemPcE8C_18btbXGYubDuGzjETVNoBFzy_/w640-h426/IM__8246.W.E.C.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paddle wheels power rotating drum fish screens to keep salmon out of the pipeline--and fields.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Center pivot irrigation uses less water and is far less work than flood irrigation, the former method. Flood irrigation required hours of hand work—hands with shovels in them. Ranchers also find that hay crops grow more evenly and that yields are higher with center pivots.<br />
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The pipeline and center pivot systems take less water out of the creek than the systems they replaced. This leave more water in Hawley Creek, which now adds more water to the Lemhi River.<br />
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Cumulatively, improvements on tributaries and the mainstem river have greatly increased flows in the Lemhi system. The reconnected waterways provide spawning sites for chinook salmon, steelhead, and resident trout, and nursery areas for young fish. The numbers of native fish in the Lemhi Valley are steadily increasing.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOdsgEzl416cC14tfMpQ5NTmCpQDaQbZAS6NGoNsdJ-X8foFvfDrqCgW0L2pjknxdpN5-Xc8xIsaQ0cEs48LtdAiAn78XEnJG0tt1Qq0dFycww_ETwWFUxrdpq_HZ4HRXsUqBfIoxSl3rk/s1600/IM__8256.W.E.C.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOdsgEzl416cC14tfMpQ5NTmCpQDaQbZAS6NGoNsdJ-X8foFvfDrqCgW0L2pjknxdpN5-Xc8xIsaQ0cEs48LtdAiAn78XEnJG0tt1Qq0dFycww_ETwWFUxrdpq_HZ4HRXsUqBfIoxSl3rk/s320/IM__8256.W.E.C.jpg" width="259" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sack lunches; come and get 'em.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir7R5GfE5oV2wdeoMWzbGyjrmWaCC4qoZ7l5JDOJzf6eTn0CxI9ZzNGxbemcDgwfx_huRkzVJUVqKfCHtVyipowv3wlrisauBmILtKTDq4vKq9VMwErpLN0NRMAzPj8d4RJeCq6zrBoNbE/s1600/IM__8260.W.E.C.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir7R5GfE5oV2wdeoMWzbGyjrmWaCC4qoZ7l5JDOJzf6eTn0CxI9ZzNGxbemcDgwfx_huRkzVJUVqKfCHtVyipowv3wlrisauBmILtKTDq4vKq9VMwErpLN0NRMAzPj8d4RJeCq6zrBoNbE/s320/IM__8260.W.E.C.jpg" width="259" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trampled grass at <i>Homo spaiens</i> feeding area.</td></tr>
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The <a href="http://modelwatershed.org/" target="_blank">Upper Salmon Basin Watershed Program</a> (USBWP) is installing beaver dam analogs (BDAs) in Hawley Creek, where it flows across the broad Lemhi Valley toward the mainstem river. These post and stick structures create pools that provide excellent fish habitat. Young cottonwoods trees are protected inside wire cages.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrdFoHaxdB6lfVXOWP8IRrvBIzyh_hQ1JpQk_-zXIVkNgCO1S05R9M6y2gckkFUgC0O3oP61D8b1T2q_6lQU6ITvmeb2j8DshnoK1KzMHXIarxTVHaGkMygS4h9vG4UjeRw4fXeVowFy6a/s1600/IM__8289.W.E.C.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrdFoHaxdB6lfVXOWP8IRrvBIzyh_hQ1JpQk_-zXIVkNgCO1S05R9M6y2gckkFUgC0O3oP61D8b1T2q_6lQU6ITvmeb2j8DshnoK1KzMHXIarxTVHaGkMygS4h9vG4UjeRw4fXeVowFy6a/w640-h426/IM__8289.W.E.C.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">USBWP manager, Daniel Bertram, describes beaver dam analogs (BDAs) on Hawley Creek.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The last tour stop overlooked lower Hawley Creek where it has been returned to its original, winding channel. Willows trees still lined the original channel when the work started. Skilled backhoe drivers scooped up each willow, moved it out of the way, and replanted it after excavating work was done in the redesigned channel. Light-colored gravel now fills the straight ditch, through which Hawley Creek used to flow.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjGz8X_rpKyOXmcS5-FveqxDgi18Bgu4NVoqPhKqgf-P3Rhb-duqHirhhwWcvJPcHN8gs6j76qw7uJXKrFscxK6GClwDHcMvUx4Qz8oUM6pV6lIVIBlwGuPl8w9tQA5URRoRVpnH8QzVSK/s1600/IM__8305.W.E.C.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjGz8X_rpKyOXmcS5-FveqxDgi18Bgu4NVoqPhKqgf-P3Rhb-duqHirhhwWcvJPcHN8gs6j76qw7uJXKrFscxK6GClwDHcMvUx4Qz8oUM6pV6lIVIBlwGuPl8w9tQA5URRoRVpnH8QzVSK/w640-h426/IM__8305.W.E.C.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Replanted willows line the original--and current--channel of lower Hawley Creek. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>Leadore rancher, Merrill Beyeler, listed five or six local families that are being supported by work on the numerous fish habitat projects in the Lemhi Valley. These families are able to stay in the Lemhi Valley and raise their children here.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib0qrNYeP_JPYd738MowaRIB0bmiAu3fnjQXG0AaUuRFC-vEuYhg-QUn_jFSLYm75g6ulqcxzrAmLvzruDd84i_lQrHelIFLntuWzN4TnivdJw4TYKsNlUFizCr5dEozQ8CYBuV3-XVVln/s1600/IM__8293.W.E.C.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib0qrNYeP_JPYd738MowaRIB0bmiAu3fnjQXG0AaUuRFC-vEuYhg-QUn_jFSLYm75g6ulqcxzrAmLvzruDd84i_lQrHelIFLntuWzN4TnivdJw4TYKsNlUFizCr5dEozQ8CYBuV3-XVVln/w266-h400/IM__8293.W.E.C.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rancher Merrill Beyeler shares his local knowledge.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-33837500353908456892017-06-16T14:32:00.000-06:002018-08-29T11:58:19.704-06:00Uber drivers and long hours: Did NPR miss the bigger story?Uber drivers can spend up to 14, or even 20, hours a day on the road. A recent NPR story <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/06/09/532196932/changing-pay-rates-keep-uber-drivers-on-the-road-longer%E2%80%9D" target="_blank">highlighted the safety risks of the long hours</a>. The story blamed Uber’s variable pricing and pay, which make it hard for drivers to know how much they’ll make in a shift. <br />
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As alarming as NPR’s report was, the financial reality for Uber drivers might be even worse than described. The figures presented suggest Uber drivers could make more asking McDonalds’ diners if they want fries with their burger. <br />
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NPR followed a Muncie, Indiana Uber driver on a Friday night. Driver Kyle Reninger prefers working weekend nights, when surge fares are most likely. These “nuggets of the Uber gold rush,” as the story called them, are the higher prices, and higher pay, that kick in when demand is high and supply low. <br />
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The story mentioned only the number and level of surge fares as sources of variability in Uber drivers’ earnings. The story overlooked variations in wait time between fares, distance to pick up fares, the value of each fare, and the size of tips. These are largely random. Drivers can't control where their next customer will be or where they'll want to go.<br />
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Random events hold the possibility of unexpected rewards. The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=relmfu&v=axrywDP9Ii0" target="_blank"> uncertainty of a random reward is more addictive than the certainty of a known payment</a>. Maybe the next customer will be just a block away, maybe they’ll want a ride to the next state, and maybe they’ll tip with a fistful of $100 bills. <i>It could happen!</i> <br />
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At the end of his shift Reninger had been in his car, either delivering a customer, waiting for a customer, or driving around looking for one, for 14 hours and 9 minutes. He drove 401.2 miles and made $165.30 from Uber. With tips, he “nearly hit his goal of $200.” That was “nearly” $200 before expenses.<br />
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The story noted the figures didn’t include the cost of gas, but it also overlooked other vehicle expenses. Every mile a car is driven moves it closer to maintenance, repair, and replacement costs. The IRS calculates that operating a vehicle costs 53.5 cents/mile. This means that Reninger's 401.2 miles cost him $214.64—more than he earned. <br />
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Uber drivers should be able to deduct business mileage expenses. Reninger and his wife make and sell vegan baked goods; perhaps his Uber driving losses offset bakery earnings. But is the hefty time investment worth it?<br />
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Did NPR wait for an unlucky driver on an unusually slow day? I can’t tell. If NPR's figures are correct, Uber drivers make appallingly little. Why do people choose to drive when they could make more at a minimum wage job? Reninger said, “If you don't enjoy doing it, then what's the point, really?” Does he drive for Uber as a hobby? To get out of the house and meet people?<br />
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I wonder the hope that the next customer will be the big one, the meter-busting fare with the outlandish tip, keeps Uber drivers in their cars hour after hour. The company seems to have plugged into our love of uncertainty and dream of hitting it rich. It’s the same dream that keeps <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/1/13/10763268/lottery-poor-prey" target="_blank"> poor people buying more lottery tickets than the affluent</a>. But the fact is, buying lottery tickets keeps poor people poor.Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-20375118115791112302017-01-09T08:48:00.002-07:002021-02-20T10:31:09.887-07:00The oldest profession?Rancher <a href="https://www.alderspring.com/about/about-glenn-caryl/" target="_blank">Glenn Elzinga</a> says herding might be the oldest profession. I wonder if he also knows shepherds have a long record of improving human culture. Shepherds brought civilization to people in the 4,000 year-old <a href="http://gilgamesh.psnc.pl/index.html" target="_blank">Epic of Gilgamesh</a>. A couple thousand years later, shepherds starred in many Greek myths. One story traced the roots of <a href="http://www.nationalcowboypoetrygathering.org/" target="_blank">cowboy poetry</a> to the shepherd <a href="http://www.theoi.com/Heros/Daphnis.html" target="_blank">Daphnis</a>, who composed the first pastoral poem on the island of Sicily. <br />
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Today, the profession doesn’t maintain the workforce it did in ancient times and it provides fewer cultural innovations, but shepherd still watch flocks of sheep in the U.S west. Herders live 24/7 with bands of a thousand animals. With the help of herding dogs, the shepherd guides the flock to browse a variety of plants and avoid poisonous fare. The animals are watched at all times and can be kept away from areas protected for other uses. The herder sleeps nearby to help the guard dogs protect the sheep from predators and theft. <br />
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For years, I wondered why herding sheep made so much sense, but herding cattle was, well, unheard of. I wondered until I heard Glenn Elzinga’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap2N8rFNSlY" target="_blank">keynote address</a> at the 2015 <a href="http://idahocsa.org/symposium/" target="_blank">Idaho Sustainable Ag</a> Conference. He's developing a "new" approach to ranching: he's herding his cattle.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlVDtGJpF5watU_PU8ZBSf7kEafs5OFAo_buCO0czJOTG6mDpzoATq5o3Ny28EVwA5yG_tpprVdFwLB9ZyzZcgWaVjrGCTjRa-9LCaXDHa-JPG9HXvZQqzjeg8kpKFCmrVZM8ISf3Ev8Rz/s1600/IM__4623.W.E.C.S.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlVDtGJpF5watU_PU8ZBSf7kEafs5OFAo_buCO0czJOTG6mDpzoATq5o3Ny28EVwA5yG_tpprVdFwLB9ZyzZcgWaVjrGCTjRa-9LCaXDHa-JPG9HXvZQqzjeg8kpKFCmrVZM8ISf3Ev8Rz/w640-h427/IM__4623.W.E.C.S.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>After lunch, I lurked with intent and buttonholed Glenn as we walked back to the afternoon session. I followed up with an email. Later, I asked if I could write about him. He and his wife Caryl agreed. <a href="https://www.cindysalo.com/Files/Salo1609EdibleIdaho.Alderspring.pdf" target="_blank">My story</a> on <a href="http://www.alderspring.com/" target="_blank">Alderspring Grassfed (and herded) Beef</a> was in the Fall 2016 issue of<a href="http://edibleidaho.ediblecommunities.com/" target="_blank"> <i>Edible Idaho</i></a>.Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-11797241507941140462016-09-26T12:13:00.004-06:002020-05-27T13:29:42.019-06:00Local land trust helps Swift River Farm grow in Salmon, IdahoLocal food used to be the only food in rural central Idaho. People living in isolated mountain valleys grew and shared most of what they ate. When paved roads and trucks arrived to stock grocery store shelves, residents shopped more and farmed less. <br />
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Jessica McAllese and Jeremey Shreve are (re)creating local food networks in Salmon, Idaho. The couple settled in the Lemhi County town in 2013 with a border collie named Nora, a tractor named Fergie, and years of experience farming in Pocatello. <br />
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Salmon has been fertile ground for Shreve and McAllese’s <a href="https://www.swiftriverfarm.org/" target="_blank">Swift River Farm</a>. Other small farmers, a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SalmonValleyLocalFoods/" target="_blank">local foods group</a>, and a <a href="https://www.lemhifarmersmarket.com/" target="_blank">farmers market</a> are reviving small scale production and distribution systems.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4ltK7P-ZZ_9S_PLqr8oePYrnQwHNUbPNNBURUTCPMYkahthsYx-KHywpMjzJ2CVowWUouVtu3qRZfdRLhUi8jG7EFEY7tBcyAP7rgHmGb1vberZJpy8nSWBFBlKomiV2SWheUpQOkc39/s1600/IM__4655.W.E.C.S.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit4ltK7P-ZZ_9S_PLqr8oePYrnQwHNUbPNNBURUTCPMYkahthsYx-KHywpMjzJ2CVowWUouVtu3qRZfdRLhUi8jG7EFEY7tBcyAP7rgHmGb1vberZJpy8nSWBFBlKomiV2SWheUpQOkc39/s400/IM__4655.W.E.C.S.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Ranchers started the <a href="http://www.lemhilandtrust.org/" target="_blank">Lemhi Regional Land Trust</a> to protect local landscapes and rural lifestyles. The trust found a way to help McAllese and Shreve buy land to expand their farm and build a home together.<br />
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I told the <a href="https://www.cindysalo.com/Files/Salo1606EdibleIdaho.SwiftRiverFarm.pdf" target="_blank">Swift River Farm story</a> in the Summer issue of <a href="http://edibleidaho.ediblefeast.com/" target="_blank">Edible Idaho</a>.Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-61955719517193566062016-05-12T15:33:00.000-06:002020-05-27T13:31:04.154-06:00The vineyard is a-LIVEVineyards are evocative, pastoral landscapes that invite visitors to linger and relax with a glass of wine. These agricultural fields can be more or less environmentally friendly, depending on how they are managed. <a href="http://bitnervineyards.com/" target="_blank">Bitner Vineyards</a> is the first and, so far, only Low Input Viticulture and Enology (<a href="https://livecertified.org/" target="_blank">LIVE</a>) certified vineyard in Idaho. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wbrigG7aIBJdw58Q4khvozyoc2PzR8cP7eriWUFJ4pO74Uv5fIAqOtZLdoaEt8SQiEtarplCk1NzGrQdzeYHMQUPu-qtb8FLcDeutKIEzgqv0m_YVH4n2Yq4YH4WgsJ3PFvzmpzk3q0u/s1600/160512VestalHoyt15BitnerVineyard.S.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wbrigG7aIBJdw58Q4khvozyoc2PzR8cP7eriWUFJ4pO74Uv5fIAqOtZLdoaEt8SQiEtarplCk1NzGrQdzeYHMQUPu-qtb8FLcDeutKIEzgqv0m_YVH4n2Yq4YH4WgsJ3PFvzmpzk3q0u/s320/160512VestalHoyt15BitnerVineyard.S.JPG" width="304" /></a></div>Ron and Mary Bitner use science-based practices to protect water, soil, and pollinators. The couple provide habitat for pollinators and use cover crops, integrated pest management (IPM) techniques, and biological control methods to reduce their use of pesticides. Embracing science comes naturally for Ron Bitner--his first career took him around the world as an expert on <a href="http://blog.mydbsupply.com/getting-to-know-the-alfalfa-leafcutting-bee/" target="_blank">leafcutter bees for pollinating alfalfa</a>.<br />
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I wrote about the <a href="https://www.cindysalo.com/Files/Salo1603EdibleIdaho.BitnerLiveVineyard.pdf" target="_blank">Bitner’s LIVE vineyard</a> in the Spring issue of <a href="http://edibleidaho.ediblefeast.com/" target="_blank">Edible Idaho</a>.Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-7502233316923822392015-10-04T11:01:00.000-06:002019-05-05T12:10:21.353-06:00Hop harvestThe hop yards of southwestern Idaho are growing quiet and empty. The walls of hops are falling as workers cut and gather the lanky plants. Unpaved roads wave dust plumes behind the trucks that carry the plants to the hop-pickers and -driers that rattle and hum day and night in the farm fields around Wilder, ID. <br />
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Wrangling the tall plants takes special equipment. This <a href="https://www.cindysalo.com/Blogs/HopHarvest.wmv" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">short video</a> shows how the Obendorf Hop Farm first clips the bottoms of the plants and then pulls them down and gathers them into a truck.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG5aIzVYeDhphg_m_5ii-ONlDaTeJ6PIxzHxrMtSh2eScwhyWFvm7_SnDqDsJxiZSZSvFDJWsM-xLVVqaxglbzWy4HjopN8YwaddOaP3wZH6MtuYsmetJC4HdXKV7JMZsho9KUtf7tupby/s1600/151004IMB_0833.J.E.C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG5aIzVYeDhphg_m_5ii-ONlDaTeJ6PIxzHxrMtSh2eScwhyWFvm7_SnDqDsJxiZSZSvFDJWsM-xLVVqaxglbzWy4HjopN8YwaddOaP3wZH6MtuYsmetJC4HdXKV7JMZsho9KUtf7tupby/s400/151004IMB_0833.J.E.C.jpg" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.sageecosci.com/Salo/Salo1409EIS.HoppinHops.pdf" target="_blank">My story</a> in last fall’s Edible Idaho describes the action at the picker/drier and shows how the hop fields of Wilder have changed with the popularity of hoppy craft beers. An <a href="https://sageecosci.blogspot.com/2015/05/stringing-hops.html" target="_blank">earlier blog post</a> shows how workers install twine for the young hop plants to climb in spring.Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-54888776810394383802015-09-16T15:51:00.001-06:002021-02-19T19:49:40.228-07:00Do sagebrush steppe grasses need to be grazed?A rancher in southwestern Idaho and I have been having the same conversation for years. We both enjoy it and we always have something to talk about. My friend, the rancher/cow whisperer, thinks our native perennial grasses are better off when they’re grazed. By better off, he means greener and more vigorous, without old, dead leaves. <br />
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Rancher/Cow Whisperer told me about perennial grasses growing in a steep canyon, where his cattle can’t reach them. The grasses are choked with dead leaves and their centers have died. Grazing would have kept the grasses trim, green, and vigorous.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
I tell Rancher/Cow Whisperer that I also prefer green plants to dormant or dead ones. I’d rather see lush green lawns, pastures, and alfalfa fields than dry, brown ones. When I see big, thick summer grasses bucking and waving in the wind of the Dakotas or the Great Plains, I want to roll in them. <br />
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But, are sagebrush steppe grasses embarrassed by their old leaves? Do they worry about their dead centers?<br />
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I remembered my on-going conversation with Rancher/Cow Whisperer when I saw a piece by a writing rancher. Rancher/Writer had visited one of my favorite places on the Sagebrush Sea, where management includes restrictions on grazing. She wondered if there wasn’t too much bare ground and if appropriate grazing could help fill in between the plants. As a plant ecologist, I see bare ground and I’m reminded of the admirable tenacity of our native perennial grasses. <br />
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Bare ground reminds me that sagebrush steppe grasses grow in clumps so they can use the water and nutrients in the space around them. The plants have to do all their growing in the limited time between the “too cold” of winter and “too dry” of summer. They have to grab all the water and nutrients they can, as fast as they can, from as large an area as they can. <br />
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Our native bunchgrasses aren't altruistic. They won't cut consumption so other plants can grow around them. If they left water and nutrients for others, the other might be cheatgrass, which would increase the chance of fire. Cheatgrass is fuel for fires; bare ground is a firebreak that helps protect bunchgrasses. <br />
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Rancher/Writer noticed dead grass leaves and wondered if appropriate grazing could rejuvenate the plants. I see dead leaves and dead grass centers and I’m reminded of how well the plants are protecting the soil. <br />
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Dead leaves remind me that the material will decay and release nutrients into the soil for the plant to use. When the center of a bunchgrass dies, the dead material goes on protecting the soil, its water, its nutrients. The plant cries, “It’s just a flesh wound!” and keeps growing out around its edges--finding more water and nutrients. <br />
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Do our native sagebrush steppe grasses need to be grazed? If we look at it from the plants’ and the soil’s point of view, I don’t think so.<br />
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I’ll slow down to enjoy the sight of green irrigated pastures and breathe in the fragrance of a just-cut alfalfa field. Someday, I might stop to roll in the lush summer grasses on the plains. I'll also be amazed by our native perennial grasses. These bunchgrasses grow in challenging country and can do an exemplar job protecting our soil and keeping cheatgrass out of the Sagebrush Sea.<br />
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Instead of focusing on their unkempt appearance, let's thank our sagebrush steppe grasses for all the work they do.Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-53744255066392742592015-08-04T22:39:00.000-06:002020-05-27T13:00:47.257-06:00Who should monitor federal rangelands?“The fox guarding the henhouse.” That's what Linda Price expects some to say about a new rangeland monitoring program. I quoted the manager of the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Field Office in Salmon, Idaho, in a <a href="https://www.cindySalo.com/Files/Salo150619PostRegF&R.Monitoring.pdf" target="_blank">recent article</a>. <br />
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The Idaho State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) saw the need for more information on the condition of BLM rangelands in the state and <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/natural-resources/rangelands-and-grazing/success-stories/idaho" target="_blank">came up with a solution</a>. Brooke Jacobson, ISDA’s coordinator for the project, helps ranchers get start collecting vegetation data on land they lease for livestock grazing. Meanwhile, the BLM’s vegetation specialists are stuck at their desks doing paperwork. A steady stream of time-sucking lawsuits provides job security, but keeps agency employees away from their monitoring duties.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwQkUOptnSBRjVKmKwnoV2CePCvZWhBMe7HZQQ_dVF3fXaNOcuJRyGfiGuR5nqZCmu5Yg19kkS1XtNv_ZT-Mk5eQzT8ubIaV54i4kWmZjpPcQGdpyJnUzxbR3dG8Hokb_Tzhq7Tw6bnfV/s1600/IMG_0056A.R..E.C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwQkUOptnSBRjVKmKwnoV2CePCvZWhBMe7HZQQ_dVF3fXaNOcuJRyGfiGuR5nqZCmu5Yg19kkS1XtNv_ZT-Mk5eQzT8ubIaV54i4kWmZjpPcQGdpyJnUzxbR3dG8Hokb_Tzhq7Tw6bnfV/s400/IMG_0056A.R..E.C.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Brooke shows ranchers how to take annual photos at BLM monitoring sites and send their data to the agency. Ranchers can also attend one of the University of Idaho’s monitoring workshops. In this pilot program, ranchers will monitor only upland rangelands, not sensitive riparian areas. They won’t be measuring, or even counting, vegetation; they’ll be collecting photographic data. <br />
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Even with training and help from Brooke, some people might not think ranchers are up to the task. The skeptics must never have worked on a veg crew.<br />
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When I hired crews to collect vegetation data at the U.S. Geological Survey, I didn’t ask if applicants knew how to count plants. I asked the hard question: “Can you handle a summer living out on the Sagebrush Sea?” Anyone who can tolerate boring, repetitive tasks can learn to collect data; only a few hardy souls can sleep in a tent, haul water, and build a toilet with a shovel all summer. Data collection ain’t rocket surgery.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqHr8I7t-SKuuTIXkEJJcpyNSvyzdo2rkYifx5u0n1CW_dDvIr_ZKzMgUlcdpkq8vbQV_6rVD4cQyFmSKSh6muQ4UrSIwGILjJRH7k1OiRWyC_5MBhhxyruuqYmZYIVOxsci_cGui1likC/s1600/150804DSCN1416.C.E.C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqHr8I7t-SKuuTIXkEJJcpyNSvyzdo2rkYifx5u0n1CW_dDvIr_ZKzMgUlcdpkq8vbQV_6rVD4cQyFmSKSh6muQ4UrSIwGILjJRH7k1OiRWyC_5MBhhxyruuqYmZYIVOxsci_cGui1likC/s400/150804DSCN1416.C.E.C.jpg" /></a></div>Nonscientists collecting data is nothing new. Amateur and professional scientists work together on the North American <a href="https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBS/participate/" target="_blank">Breeding Bird Survey</a>. They receive the same training and their data go into the same <a href="https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBS/bbsnews/Pubs/Birding-Article.pdf" target="_blank">valuable dataset on bird </a>numbers and distribution. Citizen scientists also record the seasonal changes in plants and animals for the <a href="https://www.usanpn.org/" target="_blank">National Phenology Network</a>. This information helps scientists identify patterns of global climate change, which helps planners address the social and economic stresses that result. <br />
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You could argue that ranchers might fudge the data when monitoring their grazing lands. If you did, I’d point out that anyone could be tempted to blink at the wrong time while reading data. Every BLM employee has an opinion on livestock. Researchers have their favorite hypotheses. Even universities listen to their supporters, legislators, and alumni, all of whom have biases.<br />
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Software developers are making data collection easier and more accurate for both citizen and career scientists. Before Amazon ever heard of drones, Terry Booth, at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Cheyenne, WY, was <a href="http://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/30501000/ARS-Mag-land0911.pdf" target="_blank"> photographing rangelands from light aircraft</a>. The photos were clear enough to count plants and measure bare ground. In other words, they were detailed enough to monitor rangelands. <br />
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It’s been years since I saw a rancher with a flip phone (four months since I gave up mine). Smart phone cameras take excellent pictures and a University of Nebraska app makes photographing the <a href="http://centralsandhills.unl.edu/GrassSnap" target="_blank"> same spot every year...a snap</a>. <br />
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Ranchers and BLM employees look through the same viewfinder, but they see different things. Most agency workers move several times during their career. Most ranchers stay put for decades; their families often stay rooted for generations. Ranchers experience many El Niño and La Niña years on the same land. They see swings in precipitation and note the effects on plants and livestock. Ranchers are on the land 24/7/365 and they see things.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT9QZr60-8SUR1b-vHqHWXWlMac2aM1SQd-7ytmFZptSHmn2_WeB-G-kXuVVf6v0b2IlO_StvagEDfZQfIiL2pocg5qZWKeIMuWQ3YDfezap40nSL8Z-Xfx92QoKQ8bciXhkFtejVJx8QF/s1600/150804IM__4437.J.E.C.S.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT9QZr60-8SUR1b-vHqHWXWlMac2aM1SQd-7ytmFZptSHmn2_WeB-G-kXuVVf6v0b2IlO_StvagEDfZQfIiL2pocg5qZWKeIMuWQ3YDfezap40nSL8Z-Xfx92QoKQ8bciXhkFtejVJx8QF/s400/150804IM__4437.J.E.C.S.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>When my friends Jake Weltzin and Steve Archer investigated why mesquite trees were invading Texas grasslands, they asked the local ranchers. Guy and G. D. London told my friends that mesquite moved in after they killed the prairie dogs. Jake and Steve <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2266055?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents" target="_blank">tested the ranchers' hypothesis</a> and found that prairie dogs keep mesquite out of grasslands by clearing away seedpods and stripping bark from seedlings.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2HeRiH8As_aGnKAQZ0Qr5WoIMbkQwlS0oh_S-4cOcoCt3OlZp0ZN6H8Qj1D40wGH-XtwSSuj4GiTHQF4l5oZd4dhI_xl3Ln0puij6DHUtOwpU97UcNeESfVuM1O2Mz2L3525UVdY-zgAh/s1600/150804IM__2399.W.E.C.S.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2HeRiH8As_aGnKAQZ0Qr5WoIMbkQwlS0oh_S-4cOcoCt3OlZp0ZN6H8Qj1D40wGH-XtwSSuj4GiTHQF4l5oZd4dhI_xl3Ln0puij6DHUtOwpU97UcNeESfVuM1O2Mz2L3525UVdY-zgAh/s400/150804IM__2399.W.E.C.S.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Rumor has it that ranchers remember three years: this year, last year, the best year. Researchers know memories fade and insist on written data. In the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSUMBBFjxrY" target="_blank">words of Adam Savage</a>, one of Discovery channel’s MythBusters,“The only difference between screwing around and science, is writing it down.” <br />
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Ranchers will go one better when they monitor their rangeland: they’ll take pictures. Then they're write down when and where they took them.Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-70371880677640978472015-07-02T14:49:00.001-06:002021-06-24T12:05:12.867-06:00Three degrees, no garlic scapesIn three agriculture degrees, several botany classes, and decades as a plant ecologist, I never ran into garlic scapes. I know and use terms such as “homoploid hybrid species” and “<i>Pseudotsuga menziesii</i>.” But, until last Saturday, I’d never met a garlic scape.<br />
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Jessica and Jeremy of <a href="http://www.swiftriverfarm.org">Swift River Farm</a> introduced me to the curvy, green flower shoots at their booth at the <a href="https://www.lemhifarmersmarket.com/">Lemhi County Farmers Market</a> in Salmon, Idaho. The couple, who also sell subscription shares in their farm’s produce, spun an improbable tale of sex and scapes. <br />
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Long before humans began sautéing cloves or warding off vampires with the heads, garlic dispensed with seed. The plants gave up sex. Each of these Shakers of the plant world eschewed others of its kind and simply produced garlic heads that grew into plants that produced garlic heads. <br />
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Jeremy and Jessica embrace garlic’s celibacy and plant individual cloves, which grow into plants that produce full heads. Each plant is genetically identical to its single parent, which is identical to <i>its</i> single parent, and so on back through time. <br />
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Oddly, some kinds of garlic still produce flowers, as if trying to blend in with the rest of the plant world. While other plants produce flowers with male and female parts that swap genes with the opposite flower parts to form seeds, garlic flowers form bulbils. Bulbils look like tiny cloves and grow into plants identical to their parent.<br />
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The scapes I discovered at the market are garlic flower stalks with developing bulbils. I cut open one of the largest developing flower clusters.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAhPrfLIUkjMdL0bX6ZR72fz_gXYDHfUEOJe_2DPFZigG8PfoOYJ6F_cpD0Vn1jfWF7ZiqtU6HPXiDRGiRC3xVr86NULmZV4xIodsxJnHW3kGi3NjBFR-KDADvg9URpdK3lcliaWp11FU6/s1600/IMG_3764.W.E.C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAhPrfLIUkjMdL0bX6ZR72fz_gXYDHfUEOJe_2DPFZigG8PfoOYJ6F_cpD0Vn1jfWF7ZiqtU6HPXiDRGiRC3xVr86NULmZV4xIodsxJnHW3kGi3NjBFR-KDADvg9URpdK3lcliaWp11FU6/s400/IMG_3764.W.E.C.jpg"></a></div><br />
I’ve also learned there are two kinds of garlic: soft neck and hard neck. The garlic in grocery stores is the former, as it stores well enough to keep the produce bins stocked all year. I might be excused my garlic-scape ignorance, as they are only produced by hard neck garlic. These types are grown in cooler climates and usually consumed locally, as they don’t store well. <br />
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My new friends, the garlic scapes, gave me the perfect excuse to skip my usual toast-and-yogurt breakfast and linger over an omelet-and-garlic-scape-potato Sunday brunch. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8FZDUVWvBD9WmBsq0gaqqyNYMMxv0zVsY7jwkyqeD-u9F5krq8pxly28rNiouHq7ep-1Wsn811fxyuXZ9vi4AkNRaRPOFBFkindVNZ4AyvmpYRCUSkEcH-jq_8LHewrTp5uy-XfS2NjhU/s1600/IMG_3775.W.E.C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8FZDUVWvBD9WmBsq0gaqqyNYMMxv0zVsY7jwkyqeD-u9F5krq8pxly28rNiouHq7ep-1Wsn811fxyuXZ9vi4AkNRaRPOFBFkindVNZ4AyvmpYRCUSkEcH-jq_8LHewrTp5uy-XfS2NjhU/s400/IMG_3775.W.E.C.jpg"></a></div>Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-68215385222276776892015-06-27T17:21:00.001-06:002020-05-27T13:07:11.274-06:00Smooth Brome in Full Glorious BloomIn Salmon, Idaho, the springtime blues of lilac and larkspur are fading to yellow sunflower, mullein, and mum. Their colors echo the intensifying sun, as it pauses to catch its breath before marching south again. The gardens bursting with blooms catch our eye and make it easy to overlook the grasses. Although many people don’t think of them as “flowering plants,” bromes and bluegrasses bust out with intricate, usually overlooked, flowers.<br />
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A pickup truck stopped while I was photographing smooth brome flowers on a late spring morning. The passenger-side window motored down and the designated questioner asked if I had found a fawn. “No,” I said, “I’m photographing the bromegrass in full, glorious bloom. Who could resist?” DQ smiled through his snort. “I could.” The designated driver drove on.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCdTHRMPuWNVxZ38UVvFXUkFqRJVjXod0GiqU6QmMZLGyWIiGE5S0cOcNc6wydjm6pGFBCguLGax5OQNmcqgs8a3SJUBG7nyOWo4t6haw__GuK3mnTcseKsI4wfbMahqgRH-ATBfBiGEzB/s1600/IMG_3594.W.E.C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCdTHRMPuWNVxZ38UVvFXUkFqRJVjXod0GiqU6QmMZLGyWIiGE5S0cOcNc6wydjm6pGFBCguLGax5OQNmcqgs8a3SJUBG7nyOWo4t6haw__GuK3mnTcseKsI4wfbMahqgRH-ATBfBiGEzB/s400/IMG_3594.W.E.C.jpg"></a></div><br />
Each grass flower's yellow anthers are full of pollen and easy to see. The feathery stigmas, which catch the pollen, are tiny white flecks. <a href="http://c8.alamy.com/comp/BFHEX1/johnson-grass-sorghum-halapense-grass-florets-stamens-and-flower-parts-BFHEX1.jpg">Here's a detailed photo</a> of johnsongrass flowers. <br />
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The beauty of grasses is subtle, but their gifts to people are not: grasses feed the world. Corn, plus wheat and its cousins oats, rye, and barley dominate agriculture in the U.S. Rice is the staple food of more of the world's people than any other. Millet and sorghum are the main food crops in West Africa, where I was a Peace Corps volunteer. Grasses even provide dessert: sugar cane is a grass.<br />
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Grasses have even earned their own field of study. My friend Matt Lavin teaches <a href="http://www.montana.edu/mlavin/454/index.html">agrostology</a> at the University of Montana. He shares his artful images of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=35478170%40N08&view_all=1&text=grass">grasses</a>, and other <a href="https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=35478170%40N08&view_all=1&text=legume">plants</a>, on Flickr. No telling how many DQs have stopped to wonder about Matt.Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-54943030582736438582015-05-16T20:45:00.000-06:002016-09-28T11:54:55.771-06:00Stringing HopsWhile Midwest corn and soybean farmers waited for April’s muddy fields to dry for planting, southwest Idaho hop growers were already helping their crop reach for the sun. Corn and soybeans grow from tiny seeds each spring. Hop plants get a jump on the season by resprouting from sturdy roots. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN6zq4x7wJIfhART7nSnq4xvgCDCzve6gEQvxdxz6rCJFFDHqsLVdydzr6EFb8LCmGAeHRsF8J0X0c5ShGVS-Y-M4UGrdzXAE9P9gsTa0LYoV9amh-1RcdSzNrxnGYex_pm6tT_4l-e8N3/s1600/150516IM__2614.W.E.C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN6zq4x7wJIfhART7nSnq4xvgCDCzve6gEQvxdxz6rCJFFDHqsLVdydzr6EFb8LCmGAeHRsF8J0X0c5ShGVS-Y-M4UGrdzXAE9P9gsTa0LYoV9amh-1RcdSzNrxnGYex_pm6tT_4l-e8N3/s400/150516IM__2614.W.E.C.jpg"></a></div>As the first lobed and toothed leaves appear, sticky hairs on the stems attach to anything they can find to stretch toward the sky. Commercial hop growers in the Greenleaf-Wilder area of Idaho provide trellises and twine nearly 20 feet tall. <br />
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This is one of only <a href="http://www.usahops.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=hop_info&pageID=1">four places in the U.S.</a> where the crop is grown commercially. You might be tempted to call these champion climbers, “vines,” but botanists call them “bines.” Vines grip with curling tendrils; bines use stiff hairs. <br />
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This April, workers at Jackson Hop Farm rode across the hop yards while standing on a platform a dozen feet above the ground. A tractor pulled the contraption perpendicular to overhead wires that stretch among sturdy posts. As the tractor passed under a wire, five men on the platform each picked up a 20-foot long piece of twine from a supply hanging over the partition in front of him. Then five thickly-gloved hands executed a flip and a twist with a tuck and the end of the twine was tied to the wire. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixjbydtqq7S9q3zE8NRJw2aUpWKC00ds7IK6B_pgcbcu-8AOx39Jfv6VrF8eY36PllcRIVmcn6S-nvsPwb5UNeZqJVZT9aeY8OeknoMwAg88X5y3UIQCqfJiyTEqPboRs3FQHD7CqVbuPk/s1600/150516IM__2671.W.E.C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixjbydtqq7S9q3zE8NRJw2aUpWKC00ds7IK6B_pgcbcu-8AOx39Jfv6VrF8eY36PllcRIVmcn6S-nvsPwb5UNeZqJVZT9aeY8OeknoMwAg88X5y3UIQCqfJiyTEqPboRs3FQHD7CqVbuPk/s400/150516IM__2671.W.E.C.jpg" width="400"></a></div>Occasionally, one of the men missed his dally. A shout from the platform would stop the tractor and back it up for another loop. <br />
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The platform cowboys weren’t the only ones wrangling hops. A ground team flowed in the wake of the tractor and tacked the other end of the twine to the ground. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NkP_fEe04tg/VVftQLdaFTI/AAAAAAAACzU/lmrIAIZrsAk/s1600/150516IM__2627.W.E.C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NkP_fEe04tg/VVftQLdaFTI/AAAAAAAACzU/lmrIAIZrsAk/s400/150516IM__2627.W.E.C.jpg"></a></div>As a left hand caught a swaying twine, a right hand aimed a driver loaded with an M-shaped metal clip. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNPIG1WPBN6vaUiq50wJmxiHkYQTpx8bbTHMviuNs3-Bzt3rKSp5LISgfCP0by6fJ1P-TyWhV7dZeEHA7wJ6osPkhuBGlUrAhuN46gog777PFENfPnn0rYBqHR8qXr690Zni8ILbfNhIof/s1600/150516IM__2688.W.E.C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNPIG1WPBN6vaUiq50wJmxiHkYQTpx8bbTHMviuNs3-Bzt3rKSp5LISgfCP0by6fJ1P-TyWhV7dZeEHA7wJ6osPkhuBGlUrAhuN46gog777PFENfPnn0rYBqHR8qXr690Zni8ILbfNhIof/s400/150516IM__2688.W.E.C.jpg" width="400"></a></div>Catch-point-set-step-push and another family of glossy new leaves had a home to grow on.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ-yxi7_7mx4SMRAw3LZbtZw1YIPmFkjCTLyn_ofKIkFd_LHQMI1En-VWdXFbN-3bpj1xzx4HR43UZClaJ7ew_cflm_wMs6QKoychIVdNMBNqenaFW_S4crhfoTjPBSXxpetsKZNyqfl01/s1600/150516IM__2640.W.E.C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ-yxi7_7mx4SMRAw3LZbtZw1YIPmFkjCTLyn_ofKIkFd_LHQMI1En-VWdXFbN-3bpj1xzx4HR43UZClaJ7ew_cflm_wMs6QKoychIVdNMBNqenaFW_S4crhfoTjPBSXxpetsKZNyqfl01/s400/150516IM__2640.W.E.C.jpg" width="400"></a></div>(This is a brand new hop yard, established just this past winter. Red straws marked the spot where each cluster of roots was to be buried.) <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPuuXuqjJOBJZK7oOoTTo8693ZkQSSHLGo1YRJGxuMcveD2nCrHDnrscn0vZ5uHLtPcTH6pPrZDNTwD_8IOoKbYrqyFed2fKqO1q3jwGeNDCI05d9_Q5FnqLHcRRwXqaGfnC14EeynAtdX/s1600/150516IM__2665.W.E.C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPuuXuqjJOBJZK7oOoTTo8693ZkQSSHLGo1YRJGxuMcveD2nCrHDnrscn0vZ5uHLtPcTH6pPrZDNTwD_8IOoKbYrqyFed2fKqO1q3jwGeNDCI05d9_Q5FnqLHcRRwXqaGfnC14EeynAtdX/s400/150516IM__2665.W.E.C.jpg" width="400"></a></div>The crew will be back during May to teach the bines to climb, clockwise, to the top of the trellis. Hop plants only make right turns and always follow the clock. <br />
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By mid-June the plants will be nearing the tops of the trellises.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIzZX1CCUqKNtit9o1IiklI0ZNWndzIAbuZ6LM4V8zEHKzhAemgYRYvbNH9VBl5azOIgv34jr5NSL6rEZE2-BB_3jBYboBihDEboiYazp03vUTDTlISlaHEpP5Bu2UbzLUnIgMwnuBAztj/s1600/150516IMB_0141.J.E.C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIzZX1CCUqKNtit9o1IiklI0ZNWndzIAbuZ6LM4V8zEHKzhAemgYRYvbNH9VBl5azOIgv34jr5NSL6rEZE2-BB_3jBYboBihDEboiYazp03vUTDTlISlaHEpP5Bu2UbzLUnIgMwnuBAztj/s400/150516IMB_0141.J.E.C.jpg"></a></div>At harvest, long hallways of broad green leaves will be festooned with lighter green cones oozing with hoppy goodness. <br />
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I <a href="http://www.sageecosci.com/Salo/Salo1409EIS.HoppinHops.pdf" target="_blank">wrote about the fragrant harvest</a> in the Fall issue of <a href="http://edibleidaho.ediblefeast.com/" target="_blank">Edible Idaho.</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX5Z1pUcNxktKdN4v6JFKiyz_TiXsziEvYdnmSYWB3c1sym1G3q-xOhMX5yaA4DGgqq7mCPiBLdZRnVGQc5pAdMEl6c1CWTmGxnIyhOC6T0eTevP3ZBEnZf7qfiT51-rEvZbJtKPndVF-D/s1600/150516IMB_0814.J.E.C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX5Z1pUcNxktKdN4v6JFKiyz_TiXsziEvYdnmSYWB3c1sym1G3q-xOhMX5yaA4DGgqq7mCPiBLdZRnVGQc5pAdMEl6c1CWTmGxnIyhOC6T0eTevP3ZBEnZf7qfiT51-rEvZbJtKPndVF-D/s400/150516IMB_0814.J.E.C.jpg"></a></div>Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7448805802839922663.post-54833912402608816302015-02-08T21:56:00.000-07:002020-05-27T13:10:18.881-06:00Red, not Golden, WalnutsCalifornia, home to fruits, nuts, and the world’s largest <a href="http://www.worldslargestthings.com/california/artichoke.htm">artichoke</a>, lays claim to walnuts. The claim is based on the state's rank as the world’s largest producer of the golden nuts. California exports millions of pounds of shelled and in-the-shell walnuts each year, perhaps even to the forests of southwestern Asia where the trees are native. <br />
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Idaho, home to sagebrush, spuds, and the world’s largest <a href="http://dogbarkparkinn.com/">beagle</a>, boasts two trees that produce red walnuts. Inside normal-looking walnut shells nestle red-seed coated nutmeats that are creamier and milder than their golden-coated cousins. <br />
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When I visited the two trees late last summer, their unusual nuts were cleverly disguised as regular green walnut fruits.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx74T2g7XVUjTcExikdhaHJtDqg9GC9HvB7fDhRBviui79VqF8_MSXQ0S6tHJqYeKWQTewbvs0jz-7ChjD0RKu8G0nHtNA77jfj9IXhOyJRHNrEdmT16tREOI7F-KYgc2h1GwajABj9gBy/s1600/IMB_0776.J.E.C.S.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx74T2g7XVUjTcExikdhaHJtDqg9GC9HvB7fDhRBviui79VqF8_MSXQ0S6tHJqYeKWQTewbvs0jz-7ChjD0RKu8G0nHtNA77jfj9IXhOyJRHNrEdmT16tREOI7F-KYgc2h1GwajABj9gBy/s400/IMB_0776.J.E.C.S.jpg"></a></div>Idaho’s red walnuts are descendants of a single tree in Europe, where the unusual nuts have been rediscovered and renamed many times. Recent converts rave about the nuts in online discussion boards and ask others for more information on the trees. Others respond with reminiscences and reminders on the virtues of sharing.<br />
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A researcher in Austria is an admirer of the ruddy-skinned nuts. His <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/frutticetum/sets/72157628876332621/">Flicker photostream</a> show a range of colors, from pink to burgundy to deep violet. He has a red-seeded walnut tree in his garden and research into the genetics of the rare nuts on his bucket list.<br />
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I wrote about <a href="https://www.cindysalo.com/Files/Salo1412EIS.RedWalnuts.pdf" target="_blank">Idaho’s red walnut trees</a> in the Winter issue of <a href="http://edibleidaho.ediblefeast.com/" target="_blank">Edible Idaho</a>.<br />
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Cindy Salohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02715863886359333227noreply@blogger.com0