Chapter 3: Earthworms, and Turtles, And Deer, Oh My!

We have moved from flora to fauna. Here are some things I didn't know.

White-tailed deer: I was always taught the number of points on a rack told you how old a buck was. Not so says the textbook. "Contrary to popular belief, a buck's antlers are NOT (my emphasis) an indication of age but, rather, an indication of the overall fitness of the owner, his size, and how well he has grown that year." So my dear hunting friends, he may not be as old as you think, just mighty healthy. Ha!

Deer ticks and Lyme Disease: "If you do find a tick burrowed into your skin, you generally have a 24-hour grace period before the (Lyme) spirochetes make their way from the tick into you. Consequently, check yourself early and often!" That makes a tick sighting a wee bit less frightening.

Earthworms: They're considered an invasive species. They are NOT native to Minnesota  There are approximately 15 species of worms in Minnesota, all brought here by humans, either "unintentionally with soil and plants brought from Europe in the late 1800s and early 1900s, but many have been brought here intentionally as fishing bait."  Who knew!? Earthworms can destroy the part of our forest floors that makes them springy, and a great place to grow seedlings--the future forest. Destroy any leftover worm bait next time you fish, and save a forest.

What I did know, and was reemphasized in this chapter, is that animal (2-legged [humans], 4-legged, winged, finned, and creepy crawlers) survival is dependent or coexistant with habitat, and habitat's survival is dependent or coexistant with animals. Change one, change all.

All About Trees

I've moved on from rocks to forests in my studies.  I didn't realize how many products came out of trees. Here's a quick listing: Adhesives, Carpeting, Cellophane, Chewing Gum, Cosmetics, Crayons, Erosion Control, Fences, Furniture, Imitation Leather, Lumber, Medicines, Mulch, Nuts and Fruits, Paper Products of All Sorts, Perfumes, Plywood, Printing Ink, Renewable Fuel, Syrup, Waxes,

Wind Breaks.

I dated a man in the late 70s, early 80s who was going to the University of Minnesota at the time for a program called "Forest Products Production Management."  I really didn't understand what it was at the time, but I do now, especially after reading the latest chapter. I cannot stress how important fires actually are to a forest ecosystem. back in the day before humans stepped in. Back in the day, before humans stepped in, that was how forests renewed themselves. Now, many forest conservationists will let forests burn, unless it endangers buildings or humans. As my textbook states, "In fact, fires are integral to the continued health of many ecosystems because they clear out shrub and brush in the under-story, recycle nutrients, and keep species that depend on fire and the diverse mix that makes up our native forests. For example, the jack pine has cones that are so gooey with  sap.. that they actually need a fire to heat up and "melt" the sap a bit so the cones scales can open and it's seeds escape. This is a strategy for the jack pine to keep it's seeds safe until the conditions are right for them to sprout and grow. Not so coincidentally, those conditions include abundant light and nutrients, which tend to be available after a fire"

Something else I didn't realize is that Dutch Elm Disease was actually a fungus. It was brought to the United States in shipments of logs from the Netherlands.

Although I already know about the Hinckley Fire of September 1, 1894, I didn't realize that it resulted from the combination of enormous amounts of what is called logging slash (prior to 1900, loggers left large amounts of tree debris, known as slash, to decompose in place), combined with an extremely hot and dry summer. According to the book the "... fire burned 266,000 acres, destroyed six towns, and killed more than 400 people."

During the summers spent growing up at Lake Jenie in central Minnesota, I spent a lot of time amongst the trees. Some of our neighbors out there would collect the sap from the maple trees and make homemade maple syrup. They would mark the trees in the fall with a brick so they would know which trees to go to in the spring. Some of the bricks are still by the trees even though the original owners are long gone.  Our home base when playing softball was a big Basswood tree that just recently died of old age.  Where our cabin was located is called Eagle Point because the clump of trees on the point once held an eagles nest. The clump was gone by the time I could remember. The corner posts of our cabin were rough-hewed logs. Tree houses were a part and parcel of my childhood. 

This is my backyard, South Park.

I've been taking pictures every fall of that burl, following its changes. It's a fungal infection.

The city started taking down so many trees, for various reasons, that I started taking pictures of what I call a tree's fingerprints, its roots.

A friend of mine, a Cree Indian Medicine Woman, taught me about the chief tree. She said it was usually much taller than the trees around it, for some distance. She said the chief tree is the heart of that area and when it dies the rest of the trees will begin to die as well.  Scientists have since proven that trees have an interconnected system.  https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/07/world/secret-life-of-trees/index.html She also taught me to watch the base of trees during late winter. She said when the snow starts melting away from the entire circumference of trunk, the trees are waking up and the big warm up would not be far away.

The tribes of South America believe the rainforests are the lungs of Mother Earth.

When I die I want to be cremated and my ashes placed in a BioUrn. https://urnabios.com/urn/  I want to be a tree. A vintage Cottonwood (I call them singing trees) perhaps, or a vintage Sugar Maple (Spring will always be sweet. ;) ) LOL

I love trees. 

WE'RE NOT NUDISTS!

Well, Minnesota Naturalists, or atleast the authors of the textbook, have a sense of humor.  The Minnesota Master Naturalist (MMN) motto is, "Explore, Teach,  Conserve." But the textbook goes on to say, "One significant misconception concerning the term centers on spelling naturalist without the "al." Naturists are people who enjoy running around in the buff… Because of this potentially embarrassing confusion, one person suggested that our official slogan should be 'We're not nudists! We're simply Minnesotans who like to be outdoors!'." Ha, not quite sure what to say about that.

A New Adventure Begins

As many of you know, I am out every single day, during the warm months, in my power wheelchair down by the local river, my beloved river, on the river trails. I have often wished I knew more about my surroundings than I do, and now is my chance. I have begun studying to become a Minnesota Master Naturalist. It's offered through the University of Minnesota Extension Office. This particular class is called "Big Woods, Big Rivers" and concentrates on the area of the state from approximately the Fargo/Moorhead area in the northwest corner of Minnesota and angeling through the middle of the state down to the southeast corner of Minnesota. The title of the textbook reads "Big Woods, Big Rivers--An Introduction To The Natural History of Minnesota's Deciduous Forests".

My first education into the environment in which we live was when I was in 10th Grade. My homeroom teacher was also my biology teacher and he started a class called "Ecology". Although I had grown up at our lake cabin deep in the woods, this was my first journey into the education of what I was seeing around me. That man's name was Roland Johnson, and he started something called "The Ecology Site" down by the Crow River (named after the Sioux leader Taoyateduta, also known as Little Crow) just across the street from the high school. This was in the early '70s.  Last summer (2017) the site was dedicated to Mr. Johnson, and rightfully so. I remember during that class we were each given a one inch patch of grass outside the building. We were to observe and make a record of every different thing we saw, from a blade of grass, to bugs, to mosses, to dirt quality, etcetera. All in a one square inch patch of earth.. From that one inch patch he taught us how everything is interconnected and that if you change one thing, you change everything. That tiny little patch of grass expanded wider and wider until we could see just how much we were affecting our planet Earth.

Now over 40 years later, I get to learn even more about this world around me. As a part of the program we are required to do 40 hours of volunteer work, spreading the word about environmentalism and conservation and trying to light new little fires in our young ones. I'm not sure what my project is going to be but I think I'm probably going to use this format to pass on what I've learned, perhaps using pictures and videos as well.

So, week one I have two chapters to read. The first chapter is an introduction to the Minnesota Master Naturalist Program.  The next chapter is entitled "Rocks, Ice, and Dirt--Geology of the Big Woods. Minnesota is located right on the edge of what has become known as the Big Woods, and the tall grass prairies.

I really am quite excited about this. I feel like I can use my brain again. I can begin to pass on what I've learned on my own, and when I've finished this class, I will try to teach the next generation of environmentalists and conservationists  just how important their surroundings are and that what they do affects everyone and everything around them. I hope to try to raise awareness of how important our environment is and that the biggest changes start at the smallest levels, in this case our babies