Summer Safety Tips - Dealing with Ticks

It’s summer time and we are all generally excited to be outside!  Whether we are swimming at the lake or hiking trails, it is important to be thinking about how best to deal with summer insects, especially ticks.  The warmer months of the year, April through September are when ticks are most active and it is also when we are most likely to encounter them, even in our yards.  The ticks people encounter in the Midwest that most commonly transmit disease are the American dog tick, Brown dog tick, Blacklegged tick, and the Lone star tick. 

Ticks are known carriers and transmitters of a variety of diseases.  Lyme disease, babesiosis, erlichiosis and tularemia are examples of some of the diseases that can be transmitted from ticks to people.  A press release from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) earlier this spring noted that there is a new tick-borne disease showing up in the Midwest called the Heartland virus that has been associated with the Lone star tick.  As of March of this year, eight cases have been reported in Missouri and Tennessee beginning in 2009.  Unlike many of the tick-borne illnesses which are bacterial and readily treated with antibiotics, Heartland is a virus so the CDC is working hard to develop new tests and treatments.

While avoiding ticks is the best prevention, it is not always an option.  To reduce the risk of tick bites, the CDC recommends that people:

• Avoid wooded and bushy areas with high grass and leaf litter;

• Use insect repellent when outdoors;

• Use products that contain permethrin on clothing;

• Bathe or shower as soon as possible after coming indoors to wash off and more easily find ticks that are crawling on you;

• Tumble clothes in a dryer on high heat for an hour to kill remaining ticks.

• Conduct a full-body tick check after spending time outdoors; and

• Examine gear and pets, as ticks can “ride” into the home and attach to a person later.

  For more information, please visit www.cdc.gov/ticks and http://www.cdc.gov/ncezid/dvbd/heartland/index.html and Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Heartland virus -- What do I need to know? 

Why Should Cities Avoid Suburban Expansion?

Photo credit: Keith Stanley

There are many reasons cities should curb the suburban "sprawl" that has been common in the U.S. since the post World War II boom, but new research leaves no question; sprawl must go if a city is to financially excel. According to a study co-authored by the Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis at George Washington University School of Business and LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors, the more dense and walkable a City is, the more money it makes. 

Makes sense. Denser development puts more money-making industry in a smaller footprint, meaning less cost for infrastructure construction and maintenance. But density itself doesn't form the draw for those who earn bigger wages and create products and jobs that boost the local economy. A dense city must operate comfortably for people. That means it has to be more walkable as well.

Check out Alissa Walker's Gizmodo article for more on this.  

Let it Rain

On drier days, the neighborhood's rain gardens are just that - gardens.

We haven't been short on rain lately with about 4-6 inches falling in the last three weeks. On top of it all, most of that fell just in the last two days. But that's what rain gardens are for. Fox 4 News just stopped by our Middle Blue River Basin green solutions project at about 75th and Lydia to see just how well the rain gardens, bioswales and pervious pavement are working to keep the city's overtaxed sewers from filling up entirely.

http://fox4kc.com/2014/06/10/rain-gardens-help-ease-the-burden-on-citys-sewer-overflow-problem/

Federal assistance available from new Local Foods, Local Places program – Apply by July 15

Communities are invited to apply for assistance from Local Foods, Local Places, a new program supported by EPA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), and the Delta Regional Authority (DRA) to help create more livable places by promoting local foods. Together, the agencies are investing $650,000 in the Local Foods, Local Places program, which aims to:

• Boost economic opportunities for local farmers and businesses, and foster entrepreneurship;
• Improve access to healthy local food, particularly among disadvantaged groups with limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables; and
• Revitalize downtowns, main street districts, and traditional neighborhoods by supporting farmers’ markets, food hubs, community gardens, community kitchens, and other kinds of local food enterprises, and by providing people with affordable choices for accessing those amenities, such as walking, biking, or taking transit.

Local Foods, Local Places will provide direct technical support to selected communities to help them develop and implement action plans promoting local food and downtown revitalization. Special consideration will be given to communities that are in the early stages of developing or restoring local food enterprises and creating economically vibrant communities. Selected communities in Appalachia and the Delta region will be eligible to receive financial assistance to help them implement those plans.

Local Foods, Local Places builds on the ARC-EPA-USDA Livable Communities in Appalachia partnership, which works to promote economic development, preserve rural lands, and increase access to locally grown food in Appalachian towns and rural communities.

Eligibility

Communities anywhere in the United States are eligible to apply. Particular consideration will be given to communities in the following places:

• Areas served by the Appalachian Regional Commission in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
• Areas served by the Delta Regional Authority in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee.
• Federally designated Promise Zones in the Choctaw Nation region of Southeast Oklahoma; Los Angeles, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; San Antonio, Texas; and Southeastern Kentucky.
• USDA-designated StrikeForce counties in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.

How to Apply

Communities are invited to submit a letter of interest of no more than two pages that describes the community’s needs and goals related to local food and the revitalization of downtowns and traditional neighborhoods. The letter should indicate a primary point of contact and other members of the community or organizations that would participate in the technical assistance process. Communities are strongly encouraged to seek the support of their local development district or regional development organization, or, alternatively, a local community college or university, and to indicate this partner organization in their letter of interest. Letters of interest may be submitted by any community representative, including representatives of local government and nongovernmental organizations.

Applicants will be evaluated on their commitment to USDA’s Seven Strategies for Economic Development and the HUD-DOT-EPA Partnership for Sustainable Communities’ Livability Principles, as well as their potential for success in:

• Producing and distributing healthy local food;
• Creating economic opportunities for local farmers and businesses;
• Expanding access to healthy foods among disadvantaged members of the community;
• Revitalizing existing downtowns, main streets, and neighborhoods; and
• Partnering with local agricultural producers, business, government, transportation, education, and other relevant organizations.

Submit letters of interest by email to Ed Fendley at lflp@epa.gov by July 15, 2014. Please include “Local Foods, Local Places” and the name of the community in the subject line of the email.  

Urban Wildlife Encounters: Birds and Windows

Photo courtesy CBCM (http://www.birdmonitors.net/)

The temperatures are warming up and the grass is growing taller which means we are all going to be outside.  Whether doing house maintenance, yard work, gardening, or hiking, do you know what to do when you have an unexpected encounter with wildlife?

Some of the most common calls I used to get when I was the Urban Wildlife Biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation had to do with undesirable encounters with wildlife.  These encounters included everything from those pesky cardinals beating themselves against the picture window in the dining room to squirrels and raccoons in the attic.  Birds hitting windows are a common occurrence in most neighborhoods and even for commercial buildings.  Cardinals, those brilliant red birds, have a reputation for being persistent in their attacks on windows during the spring breeding season.  So, why are they doing this and what do you do about it?  Most of the time, it’s because they are seeing their reflection in the window and consider the reflection to be another bird attempting to hone in on their territory.  It can also be that they see actual vegetation such as house plants or the reflection of trees and shrubs outside and think they should be able to fly to it.  Even landscape elements such as lighting can affect birds and cause them to fly into windows.

Whatever the reason, here are a few things you can do to help minimize bird hitting your windows:

• Check your windows for reflectivity.  Do you have trees or shrubs nearby that they can use to see themselves or the vegetation?
• Move houseplants away from windows and consider changes to your landscape that would lessen the reflection.
• Apply silhouettes of hawks to the window.   You can purchase these at most wild birds stores or nature centers.
• Place mylar tape or other lightweight streamers on the outside of the window.  Mylar tape is shiny silver on one side and bright red on the other and moves easily in a light breeze.  It is generally available at bird stores and even some hardware stores.
• Let your windows stay a little dirty so that they don’t reflect images as readily.
• Move bird feeders at least 30-feet away from windows.
• Utilize shielded outdoor or other dark sky friendly light fixtures.  Turn off unnecessary lights from dusk to dawn from mid-March through early June and late August through mid-November.

To learn more about this topic, go to:

Adubon Society:  http://audubonportland.org/wcc/urban/windows

American Bird Conservancy:  http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/collisions/pdf/collisions_flyer.pdf

International Dark-Sky Association:  http://www.darksky.org/

Top 10 Birds that Work for You in the Landscape

VIREO Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/faulkners_fowl_shots/

Few things are more disheartening than watching a horde of insects devour a landscape or garden you just invested mass resources and brute strength installing. And this is the time of year those pesky predators swarm. Luckily, for many parts of the world, these plant-eating predators have their own higher-up-on-the-food-chain predators to keep them in check. What are they? Birds.

Your ticket to reducing damage to your favorite landscape is to bring in the birds that feed on the insect pests. But, how? By providing a welcoming environment with food and appropriate cover for the species you wish to attract. We call that “creating habitat.”

Is it enough to put up a birdhouse? Nope. Birds will only nest where they find suitable habitat for keeping themselves and their babies fed. So plant native species of plants, provide a water source, and provide several nesting options like a nest box, brush pile, shrubs and trees - even dead ones. “A dead tree?!” you ask. Dead trees provide great nesting locations and food sources for insectivores; just make sure the dead trunks and limbs don’t pose a safety hazard for people and property.

What kinds of birds should you attract? That varies on your location and the species of birds that naturally range there. In the U.S., great, insect-devouring friends exist in the following top ten bird families:

1. swallow,
2. vireo (naturally our favorite),
3. sparrow,
4. woodpecker,
5. warbler,
6. bluebird,
7. nightjar,
8. phoebe,
9. oriole, and
10. wren

Find out which ones are near you and what you can do to attract them in this original article on eNature.com.

Sugar Creek's newest park

The City of Sugar Creek, Missouri just dedicated its newest park to former Mayor John C. O'Renick, but it has Vireo written all over it. The park may not be the area's largest, coming in at just about an acre, but it creates a new entry statement for the city itself and will serve as the trail head for bike/pedestrian trails currently in the design phase. The Kansas City Star talked to Vireo's Project Manager Chad Potter and the 9/11 memorial's designers:

http://www.kansascity.com/2014/05/27/5049958/named-for-a-former-mayor-new-gateway.html

Whoa! Be careful - locally grown isn't always greener.

If you're set on making a positive impact on the environment by only buying locally grown produce, heads up. Know the source and how your foods are grown. Even if they come from just down the street, if they are produced in an indoor "plant factory" there may actually be a negative environmental impact. And that's compared to foods grown at a great distance.

Here are some of the highlights of Dr. Lou Albright's research that originally ran in GrowerTalks magazine.

Warehouse growing faces the big issue of carbon footprint. This was spelled out quite clearly by Dr. Lou Albright, professor emeritus from Cornell, who gave a talk on these new indoor “plant factories.”

Lou showed in calculation after calculation that the production costs for growing without sunlight costs more in electricity than the crop can possibly support. For instance, a single butterhead lettuce plant would cost 20 to 30 cents in electricity just for lighting it (when grown with zero sunlight).

And how much of a carbon footprint does that electricity have? He calculates 8 lbs. of CO2 emitted for every 1 lb. of lettuce produced. That’s three 55-gallon drums of CO2. Tomatoes would be worse, needing 18 lbs. of CO2 per lb. of tomato.

Urban plant factory proponents would argue, “But they’re produced locally, so you don’t have to ship them.” Yes, but to ship that lettuce from California would require just 0.7 lbs. of CO2. Meaning those dreaded “food miles” are a lot more sustainable than one might think.

And if you think you’re going to run those lights with photovoltaic panels, think again: To light one acre of indoor growing space you’d need 9.3 acres of photovoltaic panels.

Mayo Clinic Names Coreopsis Cultivar as their "Flower of Hope"

The Mayo Clinic, a nationally recognized leader in advanced medical treatments, understands the importance of nature in the healing process of their patients. As an extension of that knowledge, the Clinic recently named a hybrid coreopsis that will grow at all of their campuses as their official "Mayo Clinic Flower of Hope™".

The hybrid cultivar called 'Electric Avenue' from ItSaul Plants of Alpharetta, Georgia will be marketed across the country under the Mayo's trademarked name.

To learn more, visit the Mayo Clinic's website at:
http://150years.mayoclinic.org/events/mayo-clinic-flower-of-hope.php

What’s in a [plant] name? Part duex.

Yesterday we answered why there are two names for plants. Today I want to know, are some of the other details in plant naming confusing? How do you know what word to capitalize? Why are some words in quote marks? What’s the difference between a trademarked plant and a patented plant? And what’s up with those abbreviations and numbers on some ID tags?

Capitalization

According to The Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing, it is proper to capitalize and put in italics the genus of plants; yet, do not capitalize the specific epithet or the common name.  There are exceptions to this rule which can be lengthy to explain, but you’re generally safe only capitalizing the genus and any proper nouns.  Example: Aralia racemosa or American spikenard. Cultivars are also commonly capitalized.

What is a cultivar? The term is derived from the words “cultivated variety” and according to Oregon State University, is defined as: “an assemblage of cultivated plants which is clearly distinguished by one or more characters, and which when reproduced retains its distinguishing characteristics."

Quote marks

In addition to being capitalized, cultivar names are the portions of plant names you’ll find highlighted with single quotes. As a side note, you might recognize that cultivar names are not italicized like their friends the genus and specific epithet are.

An example of a plant name with its associated cultivar is ‘Crimson King’ Norway maple (Acer platanoides ‘Crimson King’).

Patented plants

Cultivars that are patented have the letters “PP” and a series of numbers following the cultivar name. For instance, Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow' PP21401 is patented and its patent number is 21,401.

You may also see the letters PPAF following a plant’s name. That stands for “plant patent applied for.”

Patented plants can only be grown by the grower that originated the cultivar (or by growers they choose to license) for 20 years following the receipt of the patent.

Trademark names

Both patented and unpatented plants can be trademarked. With trademarks, federal protection isn't applied to the growing of plants, but instead to their names in order to indicate a proprietary source of origin. It is used to set apart or brand a particular grower from other growers. An example of a trademarked name is The Knock Out® rose. Notice the ® symbol? That means this trademark has been federally registered. If you see a ™ symbol, it hasn’t.

Varieties (var.)

Like a cultivar, these plants have characteristics unique from their species. Unlike cultivars, those characteristics came about on their own in nature – not as a process of selective breeding by humans.

Hybrids (x)

Sometimes it is possible to obtain a new offspring by crossing two species. When this is done, the “x” falls between the two words in the name. Example:  Fragaria x ananassa is the cross between two strawberries; Fragaria chiloensis and Fragaria virginiana.

Occassionally, growers can produce a cross-genus hybrid. When this happens, the “x” is placed before the genus in the name. Example:  x Fatshedera lizei is the intergeneric hybrid of English Ivy (Hedera helix) and Japanese Fatsia (Fatsia japonica).

Is that enough to keep your head spinning? It is for me! And now you’ll know what you’re looking at next time to review the tags on your next plant purchase. Happy landscaping!