Live Tree or Dead Tree?

Here is a tricky question? Which has more value a live tree or a dead one? The answer might surprise you. Sure, the shape, the fall color, and cool breezes under a sprawling maple suggest the live one. But not for wildlife.

The more I read about how wildlife use these tree hollows, I disagree with "clearing out a forest" with a prescribed burn or simply cleaning out a patch of forest that may be on your property. Dead trees are called "snags." There are two kinds of snags, hard and soft. The hard snags are the maples and oaks. Since the trees are sturdy and not apt to decay, these make great dens for raccoons, fishers, weasels and black bear. The soft snags are the hollow branches of an evergreen which will decay. But the good news is that the decay draws insects for the birds.

So, the next time you decide not to clean up those fallen logs or dead trees in your forest patch, remember, a dead tree is more valuable than a living tree!

Home In The Hollow

Often a dead or dying tree with a gaping hole appears to be ready for the ax. But wait, when that tree is burned (through prescribed burning programs) or felled to make bike paths, roads, or driveways, wildlife suffer. We all have read some of the prolific children's literature  featuring homes in a hollow tree for a bunny, squirrel, raccoon...and the list goes on to include the other forest mammals-deer mice, martens, fishers, porcupines, weasels, and black bear. ( One of Jean Craighead George's first nature books was titled, Hole In The Tree. Warm blooded forest denizens are only a few of the wildlife that depend on tree hallows. Songbirds like the chickadees and woodpeckers also make their own cavities in trees and white-breasted nuthatches use tree holes already formed. For the ubiquitous chickadees throughout North America dead or fallen trees offer safe nesting places.

Taking this one step further, one might ask how do these little black and gray and white birds affect our environment? Chickadees eat bad bugs year round. Who does the bark beetle fear as he munches his way from the western states to the East at an alarming rate? That's right. The little chickadee.

Share this gentle environmental nursery rhyme with a child. Then talk about how this tiny songbird has become a leader in the fight against global warming. This friendly backyard bird is fun to watch and eagerly comes to feeders filled with black seed oil or thistle. With some patience, you can train them to eat from your hand. To learn more about this issue, click here.

Tiny mountain pine beetle,

I wish you could see

Just one needle

Each one is green, green, green

But you are hungry and mean.

You nibble a path on your way

Green to red

Then all are gray.

Read All About It!

A Chipmunk At Hollow Tree Lane is a picture book by the Smithsonian.

A Tree Hollow: So Humble-So Important

It is easy to spot a tree hollow and just as easy to ignore it. Why look at a knotted hole in an old tree trunk with so many other interesting forest secrets to discover? This, literally speaking, hole-in-corner feature is just one more example of the importance of every biodiversity.

Some hollows are not easy to overlook. Let's first look at some famous tree hollows, find out how hollows form, and, most importantly, how their value and subsequent loss affects the species that depend on them. Sometimes the species being human such as the South Australian treasure: " This hollow tree trunk provided a 'home' for Friedrich and Caroline Herbig and two of their 16 children until 1860 at Springton." Shakespeare writes about the Great Oak in Sherwood Forest. Legend tells that the hollow of this tree hid Robin Hood hid from his enemies.

Read All About It: A Man Who Lived In A Hollow Tree (an Appalachian Tall Tale)

Portrait Of A Bat

Recently, one of our attic guests posed for this picture. This Connecticut big brown bat and his relatives don't deserve their bad reputation. But would you want him in your attic?

Animals At Play

Animals At Play: Rules of the Game by Marc Bekoff teaches, informs, and entertains. It looks like a picture book; but like other well-written non-fiction for children, all ages will enjoy and learn from this story. After all, Dr. Marc Bekoff is an ethologist who co-founded the Ethical Treatment of Animals with Jane Goodall. Bekoff taught biology at the University of Colorado for 34 years. Now he travels the world to teach others including prisoners, children and senior citizens. Articles in Ranger Rick, appearances on Animal Planet and National Geographic Television are also part of his resume. He also works closely with the children in Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots Institute.

What is an ethologist? This scientist is a zoologist who studies animal behavior. As Marc shows in Animals At Play, animals have rules too. One thing every animal does before chasing or tumbling with his friend is to ask if the friend wants to play. Sometimes playmates will be too rough. Bekoff asks, “What do they do?” and he answers, they apologize, of course, just like you.” Part of the attraction, however, of Animals At Play is Bekoff’s effortless connection between human and animal behavior without giving the animals anthropomorphic, or human, qualities.

Looking at the paragraph length on each page, the adult reader might mistake this book for older children. However, it makes a great read-aloud book for the four-year-old crowd. The pictures by Michael J. DiMotta are filled with the action that Bekoff describes.

Curious About Human Nature

This blog entry deviates from the Nature I like to talk about. It focuses today on Human Nature. But there comes a time when even a non-political person like myself must speak out. Having taught reading and English to high school students in a racially mixed suburban/urban setting, I find the opposition to President Obama's desire to speak to America's children and to encourage them to write letters suggesting ways to improve our country an abominable condemnation on our society. I am not sure these words fully convey my utter amazement that the media portrays these naysayers as rational objectors. If not, let me reiterate my disgust. I spent 36 years teaching these young adults who found coping with their lives (and I am referring to poverty and all its pitfalls) not only difficult but intolerable, who did not understand that education (besides a sports scholarship) was the way out and up. I know reaching these children by any means is the most important goal. Having said that, I find it deplorable that any teacher, any parent, and caring adult could find fault with the President's plan.

Where are all the other voices who value the President's no-nonsense approach to getting the job done, whether it be education or health care?

Sneezeweed

Sneezeweed, or Heliums, is also called swamp sunflowers. Even though it is the green leaves that were often used to make snuff, sneezeweed certainly makes you think it is a plant any mischief-maker, young or old, would like to find. Does it really make you sneeze? One sniff and you will know.

I do not know if sneezeweed makes a cow sneeze. But if she eats it, her milk will sour. Horses and sheep can also eat too many of the poisonous powder heads with a fatal outcome.

The Menominee Indians of Wisconsin applied a compound of dried flowers to cuts on the temple to relieve a headache or sniff the snuff to cause sneezing to clear a stuffy head or to relieve a headache.

The Meswaki Indians of Iowa used an infusion made from the florets to help a gastrointestinal problem and the snuff for colds.

The Comanche used an infusion of the florets as a wash for a fever.

The poisonous sneezeweed is nothing to sneeze at! The plant’s poison that comes from a chemical compound called sesquiterpene is more potent when is flowering. It is this chemical that gives the plant its bitter taste. Ingesting it can cause some nasty results such as weakness, bloating, staggering, salivation and irregular pulse, spasms convulsions and death to name a few. Some people have been poisoned simple because some sneezeweed mixed with the harvested wheat.

Other well-known plants that also contain sesquiterpene are chrysanthemums, ragweed, sagebrush, and the sunflower.