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A Wet Prairie Restoration Mystery: The Case of the Missing Creek…
January 11, 2021 January 19, 2021 / Cam Mannino	/ Leave a comment
The Wet Prairie on the Paint Creek Trail surrounded by a tree-covered rim of soil, spoils of historical sand and gravel mining.
Text and photos by Cam Mannino
Yes, I'm returning to the Wet Prairie again even though we visited that special habitat in October. The reason is that another amazing restoration effort has been going on there since late November. It's revealed something I'd heard about but never actually seen – the original, winding bed of Paint Creek that disappeared about 100 years ago.
A Quick Trip Back to the 1870's
In 1871, the Detroit and Bay City Railroad Company (which later became Michigan Central Railroad) began work on a railroad line between these two cities with a flag station in the village of Goodison. This line carried both passengers and freight, including farm produce and other products back and forth from Detroit. According to former Parks Commissioner, Colleen Barkham, some time around 1920, a local entrepreneur, Mr. Frier, bought the land that is now the Wet Prairie and other areas along the tracks and began mining sand to ship to industries in the big city.
1963 aerial image with the old route of Paint Creek (blue) and one of the rail spurs for sand and gravel mining (yellow) highlighted. The current restoration area is outlined in red. The core wet prairie habitat is labeled in green text. Image a screenshot from the Oakland County Property Gateway (https://gis.oakgov.com/PropertyGateway/Home.mvc).
He called his company Goodison Sand and Gravel, and what made shipping sand feasible then was the handy availability of the train. Colleen, co-chair of the Oakland Township Historical Society, generously shared a photo of the operation from the Society's archives.
The Goodison Sand and Gravel company loading a freight car with sand somewhere along what is now the Paint Creek Trail, c. 1920. Photo provided from the Oakland Township Historical Society archives
You can see how it worked – the sand coming down the chute from the land above right onto a freight car on the railroad line! Now I had an answer to the first part of the Wet Prairie mystery: Why is the Wet Prairie encircled by a rim of treed hummocks? (See the top photo in the blog.) Apparently, the land in the center of the current Wet Prairie was skimmed off to get at the sand, leaving a bulging rim of soil around the site. Wow. Quite a dramatic change of habitat, eh? Perhaps that explains why the mineral-rich water table that feeds the Wet Prairie's unusual autumn flowers is so near the surface. The soil above the water table was removed about a hundred years ago!
An Earlier Dramatic Change in the 1870's
Paint Creek's current stream bed along the Paint Creek Trail
But there's more! Back in the late 1800's, when the railroad track was being laid, a problem arose with Paint Creek which looped and switch-backed across this section of the railroad's property. No problem, said the engineers of the time; we'll just move the creek! And that's exactly what they did. That's why today Paint Creek runs in a such a neat straight line along big sections of the trail. The narrow bed created for the creek has probably deepened over the years, since the creek now has only a small flood plain to stretch out in after heavy rains or snow melt. So 50 years or so after the railroad's decision to move Paint Creek, Goodison Sand and Gravel reaped the benefit from an easy means of transporting their sand by rail.
So, where did Paint Creek run before it was moved?
When I learned of the changed path of Paint Creek several years ago, it occurred to me to wonder what happened to the old bed of Paint Creek. Our stewardship manager, Dr. Ben VanderWeide, knew the answer but couldn't show me; the original stream bed was buried in a monumental tangle of invasive shrubs and vines. But no longer. Ben and his stewardship crew has taken on the task this fall and winter of removing the invasive undergrowth that covered the forest floor where Paint Creek once meandered across a moist forest of Bur Oaks (Quercus macrocarpa). Let me show you the miracle that the crew is performing just north of the Wet Prairie.
Some members of the stewardship crew taking a break from clearing the forest floor west of the trail. From L-R: Grant VanderLaan, Dean Johnson , Jon Reed, Tylor Roberts, and Ben VanderWeide.
Since the 1920's when the sand was hauled away, the native wildflowers that bloomed on the Wet Prairie had been bathed in sunlight. But over the years, trees began to spread from the forest, providing too much shade for sun-loving species. So restoration required removing some trees that encroached on the Wet Prairie's sunny expanse. This fall, the stewardship team began an ambitious and arduous effort to clear away that thick layer of aggressive and invasive shrubs beneath the canopy in the woods north of the Wet Prairie. Here's the type of wild tangles that confronted them – a jungle of privet, common buckthorn, glossy buckthorn, autumn olive, multiflora rose, and oriental bittersweet.
The dense tangle of shrubs and vines that covered the area north of the Wet Prairie and along the Paint Creek Trail
And look what they accomplished just along the edge of the trail!
The area north of the Wet Prairie near the Paint Creek trail cleared of invasive underbrush after restoration began.
What follows that effort is now weeks of hard slogging to remove invasive shrubs deeper into the woods. Because of the moist soil in the woods, small trees, shrubs and vines must be removed without large machinery and then piled carefully into high stacks in clear areas where they can be burned late this winter when the woody material has dried.
A pile of invasive shrubs and vines cut and stacked in preparation for burning .
That work has already begun to unveil the original wandering path of Paint Creek. In December, I finally got a chance to see where the creek once ran. The crew has spent weeks clearing the banks of the former stream bed. Water fills its ancient path through the woods, but not running water. Rising ground water, snow melt and rainfall settle in the old bed, so it's clear where the creek used to flow.
A section of the original path of Paint Creek winding through the forest
What an amazing sight! I was looking at the remains of the path nature chose for Paint Creek until about 150 years ago! Since the photo above was taken on December 23, a huge amount of work before and after the holiday break made impressive progress. Look below at the piles of vines and shrubs removed and stacked as of Friday, January 8.
Piles of invasive plants will be burned once the woody material dries
A lot of work remains to be done to restore this special, fragile space – more cutting and removal. As shrubs are removed, the crew carefully dabs each trunk with a stained herbicide to prevent it from re-sprouting.
Stumps of invasive shrubs are dabbed with a sponge containing a stained treatment which will keep them from re-sprouting.
Then Ben will wait to see which native plants emerge after the removal of the invasive shrubs that have smothered them for all these years, benefiting now from more sun, more rain or simply more space to grow and propagate. Ben tells me that while pulling garlic mustard in the spring, he saw a large patch of delicate Starry False Solomon Seal (Maianthemum stellatum) beyond the area currently cleared, some Yellow Lady Slippers (Cypripedium parviflorum) and huge spreads of Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) in the wet areas. I hope I'll be able to visit here with him in the spring or summer to see what else bursts forth after the restoration!
Starry Solomon Seal by Andy Fyon at iNaturalist (CC BY-NC)
Ben has seen Yellow Lady Slipper here in the later Spring
As the exotic-looking blossoms of Skunk Cabbage wither, the green leaves emerge to feed underground growth.
A selection of wildflowers already seen in this forest. More will likely emerge in the spring/summer as restoration continues.
Ben showed me an old tip-up where a huge two-trunked Bur Oak had fallen in two directions – one into the forest and the other across the old creek bed, making a bridge of sorts to an island once surrounded by flowing water in the original Paint Creek channel. The tip-up left a deep hole where the roots were ripped out. Ben tells me that tip-ups can create two habitats – a watery one in the hole below, and a green one above with mosses, ferns, grasses or shrubs eventually growing over the root ball. He's seen forested wetlands in which tree trunks had decomposed completely, leaving only a hollow in the earth beneath a mossy hillock to indicate the presence of an ancient tip-up.
One trunk of a two-trunked Bur Oak that fell toward an island in the original stream bed
The second trunk of the Bur Oak fell the opposite way into the forest
Ben examining the deep hole left by the tip-up of the Bur Oak
A mighty oak with two trunks that fell in opposite directions, pulling the tree's roots right out of the ground.
In early winter the only green I could spot in this woods were stretches of Scouring Rush (Equisetum hyemale), a kind of horsetail with enough silica in it to make it useful long ago as a scrubbing tool. The bright orange disk of a crustose lichen (a composite organism of algae and fungi) caught my eye in winter's gray light as well as a log sporting a nice collection of Turkey Tail mushrooms (Trametes versicolor). Ben pointed out the fertile fronds of Ostrich Ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris) which carry the spores which may germinate to grow new ostrich ferns.
Scouring rush has silica which made it useful for scrubbing pots.
A crustose lichen, a composite organism of algae and fungi.
Turkey-tail mushrooms on a snowy log at the Wet Prairie restoration
The fertile fronds of native Ostrich Ferns
Ben also introduced me to the largest Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) that I've ever seen. Cottonwoods can be aggressive trees, spreading like crazy with multiple seeds attached to cottony strands. So they're not always welcome in areas where Ben is trying to restore an area's natural diversity. This tree though was impressive. According to Wikipedia, cottonwoods grow quickly to 65 -195 feet, but in most habitats live only 70-100 years, not long in the world of trees. Ben can't help admiring this one, so it will be left to prosper. Here's my husband Reg standing next to it to give you a sense of its girth and height.
My husband Reg testing out the girth of a large Cottonwood with one of its sizable offspring in the distance on the right.
A Janus Moment: Imagining the Past and the Future at the Same Time
A section of Paint Creek's former stream bed
Janus is the Roman god after which January is thought to have been named. He is usually depicted with a double face looking back to the past and forward to the future. How appropriate, then, that this January, during a transitional time at the Wet Prairie, I was lucky enough to imitate him. Standing at the edge of Paint Creek's original stream bed, camera in hand, I happily immersed myself in imagining the past: the glint of the water wending its way through some large, widely dispersed Bur Oaks with wetland flowers and ancient sedges painting the dappled shade with color. I could picture native Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), their stippled scales flashing, as they navigated their slender bodies around the island in the creek. Iridescent Ebony Jewelwing damsel flies (Calopteryx maculata) may have darted above the surface, delicately landing like dancers on surrounding greenery. I wondered about the indigenous people who may have picked their muddy way among these trees and what they might have noticed and enjoyed along the creek.
Today as the stewardship crew gradually clears away the smothering snarl of invasive shrubs, it feels to me as if the oaks and the huge cottonwood can breathe more easily, bathed in more sun and rain. I let my thoughts turn to the spring, when the Lady Slippers and that patch of Starry Solomon Seal bloom again unhindered by overhanging vines and shrubs. And I can't help hoping that seeds that have waited for decades will wake in the warming earth once more and begin their cycle of growth. Today Paint Creek may be bustling its way beyond the busy trail to the east, but its ancient bed will still gather water from the sky and earth when it can. Moistening its surroundings, it will now have a chance to once again nurture the diverse community of native plants that shared its habitat for centuries. What a gift that will be to all the native grasses, sedges, wildflowers and wildlife – and us as well! And what a pleasure to have the "Mystery of the Missing Creek" solved during this ambitious restoration project.
December 21, 2020 / Cam Mannino	/ 4 Comments
Watershed Ridge: Changes Afoot!
December 8, 2020 December 8, 2020 / Cam Mannino	/ Leave a comment
The field above the western marsh at Water Ridge in late autumn
Until now, Watershed Ridge Park's 170 acres have been a challenge to explore. A visitor needed to be ready for waist-high fields and of course our township's wonderful wetlands in all their wet-footed glory. But in early November, Dr. Ben VanderWeide, the Oakland Township stewardship manager, laid out its first trails which were created by the maintenance crew. The new trail skirts the edges of fields still sown and harvested by local farmers who keep invasive species at bay until this rolling landscape can be restored to the wildflowers and grasses that are part of our historical legacy. But even in the autumn, the hedgerows and woods that edge the fields provide shelter and sustenance to a variety of birds and this November, even one special migrator, as you'll see below. And in summer, birds sing and nest, wildflowers bloom in profusion and butterflies, moths, bees and other insects enjoy the bounty.
Text & Photos by Cam Mannino
So come take a walk with me along the edges of the newly created path which starts from the parking lot. It's a very muddy path right now, so I recommend wearing old shoes! Or maybe you can walk just off the edges in the tall grass to save the grass seed planted on the paths in anticipation of next spring. Follow along on the map that Ben's provided to show you the route.
I'll introduce you to a few creatures that make their home here and some that are just passing through. But mostly, I want to give you the "lay of the land," and show you some stewardship projects underway that will make this park even more beautiful for us and nourishing for wildlife as the years go on.
Follow along by looking for the letters in the blog post indicating spots of interest on my hike.
The Path West to (what I'm calling) Southwest Field 1 (A on map)
The new trail crossing Southwest Field 1 to the hedgerow cut
This trail begins in the parking lot, follows Buell Road west and then gently curves north. The parking lot on Buell can be a great place to stand quietly and look for birds in the tall trees and in the tangle of vines that weave through them. On my first November visit, I watched European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) wheeling down into the treetops. Eventually one moved close enough for a photo. Its iridescent breast glowed emerald in late afternoon sun, accenting the white dots of its winter plumage. Despite being aggressive birds, their swooping flocks, called "murmurations, " that rise, fall, flow and ripple through the sky are truly mesmerizing.
A solitary European Starling in its winter garb. Quite a beak, eh?
A House Finch pair (Haemorhous mexicanus) peered out from the vine-covered shrubbery. The male's cherry red head and breast gets its color from the pigments in the food it eats. For that reason, red fruits are particularly favored since the brown and white striped females prefer the males whose red is most vivid. [Click on photos to enlarge.]
A male House Finch searches in vain for fruit among the tangle of vines.
A female House Finch chooses a mate with the cheeriest red plumage.
I followed the curving path to where it cut between Southwest Field 1 and the next one north, which for now, I'm calling Southwest Field 2.
Creating a Wetland Extension (B) in Southwest Field Two (C)
The hedgerow cut between Southwest Fields 1 and 2
As I stepped between the two fields, a small bird landed on a shriveled wildflower lined with seeds. At first, the red patch above its eyes made me think it was an oddly colored House Finch – but, no. I knew that scarlet crown, pinkish breast and dramatic striping had to be some unfamiliar bird – one I'd never seen before. It turned out to be the Common Redpoll (Acanthis flammea), a winter finch that rarely comes this far south in Michigan; this little guy flew all the way from the Arctic, the boreal forests of Canada's far north or Hudson's Bay! In fact, Cornell Ornithology Lab says a Redpoll banded in Michigan once showed up in Siberia! (Check out the link for other amazing facts about these little birds!) Redpolls are unpredictable, erratic migrators. This year significant numbers of them chose to land in our area, according to Ruth Glass, local birder extraordinaire. I feel very lucky to have seen this one!
A Common Redpoll which is not so common in southeast Michigan which is the extreme southern edge of its winter range.
Once past the hedgerow, I walked over to the edge of the slope to look down on one of Watershed Ridge's new wetlands. Ben, our Stewardship Manager, wanted to restore wetlands in some of the fields that have been agricultural for so long, often in areas that had been tiled or ditched to drain wetlands when the area was first farmed. The restored wetlands will capture and filter nutrients and sediment from the water before it enters creeks, streams and lakes downstream. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) helped design the grade of the slope around the new wetland to gather the rain water that runs down from the fields above. They also provided the crew and equipment to insure that the grades of the slopes were created accurately according to their design so that they would hold water. The construction took place in October and seems to have worked beautifully; the pool was beginning to fill nicely after late autumn rain.
The expansion of the wetland in Southwest Field 2
Now the stewardship team will wait to see how the wetland works over the next year. For example, will it dry like a vernal pool or have some standing water all year? Then Ben can decide which plants will thrive in or around this new water feature. It may look like a modest pool at the moment, but in time, we can hope it will flourish with aquatic and wetland plants that will feed and protect wildlife.
A flock of other winter visitors, the Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis), fluttered from one corner of this huge field to the other. A solitary Junco let me capture its portrait at the shadowy edge of the woods to the north. In contrast to the Common Redpoll, this sleek, black-and-white sparrow with its white outer tail feathers is a regular winter visitor from the Canadian forests.
Dark-eyed Juncos are often the first winter migrants to arrive from northern Canada.
Nearby a year 'round resident of the area, a male Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) spiraled around a branch searching for food beneath the loose bark. It looks like it's given this perch a good going-over! These little woodpeckers often like to hang out with mixed flocks of birds for protection from predators.
A Downy Woodpecker drilling for insects or insect eggs on a dead branch
When I visited Watershed Ridge Park in early November, some insects still kept me company. At the muddy edge of a tilled field, a Carolina Locust (Dissosteira carolina) crept slowly over the furrows, perhaps looking for the soy beans left after the harvest. The least destructive of locusts, these insects do eat grasses but sometimes beans are their preferred diet, according to the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Field Station.
A Carolina Locust may have been looking for soybeans left behind after the farmer harvested them.
The Field Two trail turns back east and heads for Field Three (E) just east of the parking lot by cutting through a hedgerow (D).
Cut through the hedgerow from Southwest Field 2 to Field 3
Following the Trail into Field Three (E), Then Off Trail Through the Forest (F)
Trail from Field 2 through the hedgerow to Field 3
From the hedgerow cut, the trail runs alongside the forest and then circles the field to return to the parking lot. But my choice one November afternoon was to go off trail through the woods. This moist woods is alive with frog song in the spring months. But now it's almost silent, so that the crackle of my footsteps on the deep layers of Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra) and White Oak (Quercus alba) leaves sounded loud and a bit intrusive.
Red Oak leaves have pointed lobes tipped with bristles and White Oak leaves have rounded lobes.
Among the leaf litter, I noticed a Northern Red Oak leaf with a peach-colored pom-pom attached. With help from Dr. Gary Parsons at Michigan State University's Entomology Department, I learned that it was a Woolly Oak Leaf Gall, the winter abode of a very tiny insect larva called a gall wasp. Callirhytis lanata, this particular gall wasp, would look like a dot on your finger tip; it's only 1-8 mm long, about a third of an inch! When the wasp lays her egg on a Red Oak leaf, either she or the larva which hatches from egg secretes a substance that stimulates the leaf to create these gall tissues that form the pom-pom. Inside the gall, the larva eats those tissues, pupates, and a tiny new adult wasp emerges in the spring. If the gall isn't invaded by a predator, the fuzzy little pom-pom is a safe, cozy spot to spend the winter!
A Woolly Oak Leaf gall forms a warm, enclosed getaway where the larva of tiny wasp can spend the winter.
Farther east in this woods, I was confronted by what appears to be the deadly effects of invasive species, those life forms that may be relatively harmless in their native lands, but become destructive where they are not native. I came across a graveyard of large trees (G) that had died and fallen rather than been cut by humans. Ben's best guess was that they were likely Ash trees (genus Fraxinus) decimated by the Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis). Ash trees in the native range of Emerald Ash Borer in northeast Asia share evolutionary history with this insect and can protect against damage; trees in North America and Europe are naive to this insect and not yet resistant. Since it was discovered in our area in 2002, Emerald Ash Borer has killed millions of ash trees just in southeast Michigan. Ben tells me that this insect infestation continues to be a problem in our township. In the same way that Dutch Elm Disease affected elms years ago, it is still killing small ash trees before they get a chance to mature. So please don't transport firewood from our area which can further spread this kind of devastation!
A large area of fallen ash trees killed by the Emerald Ash Borer between 2002 and the present.
Lichens and moss appear on fallen logs throughout this forest, but I tend to notice them most in the austerity of autumn. Wikipedia describes lichens as "self-contained mini-ecosystems" or composite organisms made up of a variety of fungi and either cyanobacteria or green algae along with other tiny microorganisms. (Their scientific names vary based on the fungi species within them.) These tiny ecosystems survive on all kinds of surfaces, in all kinds of habitats, all over the world. Though they are not plants, the algae or cyanobacteria in lichens can produce sugars through photosynthesis to feed the fungi and the fungi in turn create a protective structure that gathers in the water and minerals needed for the photosynthesis, a symbiotic relationship. Some lichens are thought to be the oldest living organisms, settling in on the bare rock of the early planet.
This may be a "cructose" lichen with flakes on the surface that Wikipedia describes as "a bit like peeling paint."
In November, the mosses (Bryophyta) at Watershed Ridge Park were thinning and less lush. But when I took a moment to focus on them, I could imagine the small community they host on each log. In her book, Gathering Moss, bryologist (a botanist specializing in mosses) and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Robin Wall Kimmerer describes moss as "the most ancient of land plants." These tiny plants inhabit nooks and crevices worldwide and in doing so, Kimmerer compares their roles in the forest to the roles corals play in oceans – removing water impurities and hosting within their structures a myriad of tiny creatures necessary to the larger ecosystem in which they exist. Mosses also slowly help process logs into soil over decades and even rocks into sand over eons. I'd love to see the tiny creatures moving within these land-based "reefs" of moss, in the same way fish and eels inhabit an ocean reef. But I'll need a magnification loupe and a lot more training before I can do that!
Mosses purify water and host tiny invertebrates that play their role within the life of a forest.
Off in the distance, at the eastern edge of this forest, a Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) huddled over, apparently eating prey on the forest floor. Suddenly it flew up, skimmed quickly along the tree line and then headed out for the larger forest beyond the field.
A Red-tailed Hawk foraging just beyond the forest at the edge of the Eastern Field.
Years ago a farmer had dredged a ditch to drain the eastern wetland that stretches behind the eastern fields. To this day, the ditch carries water to another wetland. I turned to follow that stream back west to explore the area around and beyond that western marsh.
Water running through an old drainage ditch from the eastern to the west marsh.
Exploring the Meadow (H) Above the Western Marsh (I)
The slope above the eastern marsh, now covered with Showy Goldenrod
Walking back west, I arrive at a restored meadow that slopes down to the Western Marsh. During the summer, this lovely hill is covered in grasses and wildflowers. In this season, the field becomes an expanse of burnt golds and browns with the dried flower heads of various goldenrods. I'm learning to recognize wildflowers during their seeding season and this autumn, I mastered a few more. So here are four goldenrods in the sloping meadow as they appeared in the summer and as they look now, for those of you who share my interest in knowing the names of the plants and animals that share our local habitat with us.
Grass-leaved Goldenrod (Euthamia graminifolia) in summer
Grass-leaved goldenrod seeding in the autumn
Riddell's Goldenrod (Solidago riddellii) in summer
Riddell's Goldenrod in autumn
Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) in summer
Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) in autumn
Showy Goldenrod (Solidago speciosa) in summer
Showy Goldenrod plume in autumn
As I stepped from the forest, a small orange butterfly popped up from among the goldenrods and sailed off into the distance. I pursued it, of course, but it never settled again. Luckily, I think I recognized it from its pattern, size and color. The small, orange and brown Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma) produces two generations each year and they look slightly different. The adults that emerge from logs or tree hollows in early summer have orange forewings, but much darker hindwings like this one:
The summer form of the Eastern Comma
The summer adults produce the winter adult that I saw at Watershed Ridge Park, which has similar patterning, but the hindwings are more orange. I think what I saw was a member of the winter generation which either overwinters or sometimes migrates. These butterflies feed on rotting fruit, tree sap or sometimes dung or carrion (!). So it's not entirely surprising that I saw one fluttering above the goldenrod on a cool November day. Here's a photo taken in November of a winter form Eastern Comma by a photographer just named "thoughton" at iNaturalist.org.
Winter form of the Eastern Comma by iNaturalist photographer "thoughton" (CC BY-NC)
A few days later I was treated to a sight that I'm learning to anticipate in autumn – the dance of the Winter Crane Flies (genus Trichocera). These fragile little insects rise from dead grasses in cool weather and bob up and down in small mating swarms of mostly males. Females evidently only join in to find a quick mate and then lay eggs in the ground. The adults overwinter in logs or under leaf litter and emerge in the late afternoon of warm spring, fall and occasionally even winter days.
The blurred wings of Winter Crane flies dancing in a swarm in the the meadow above the marsh
With some persistence, I was able to follow one of these crane flies to where it rested for a few moments on a blade of grass. Now I could see the delicate legs and body of this cool weather dancer. Winter crane flies are harmless and completely ignore humans. In fact, as I walked on, I strolled right through a troupe of them that just continued bobbing up and down around me. Such a light-hearted performance to a human eye!
A closeup of the Winter Crane Fly as it rests on a plant stem
Extending the Western Marsh
The sere edge of the western marsh to the west.
Red twig dogwood adds a blush of color to the east end of this marsh
The farmer who built the ditch running from the eastern marsh to the western hoped, I imagine, to drain both to gain more tillable ground. So the drainage ditch water used to quickly run on beyond the western marsh – but not anymore.
Back in October, the Fish and Wildlife Service helped Ben created an elegant plug for the ditch (J) which will keep water in the western marsh and let it rise to the level it likely obtained before the farmer's ditch lowered the water level. The Wildlife Service also scooped out a shallow spillway that will allow the water to flow around the plug and slowly re-enter the ditch beyond the plug. That will keep the plug from being eroded if the water rises too high in the marsh. Look how attractive and useful this new barrier is! (Marsh to the right, ditch to the left.)
The large plug created to hold more water in the marsh also makes a path between two fields.
The Northern Field and Its Newly Created Wetland (K)
Until recently, I didn't know this huge agricultural field was part of Watershed Ridge Park!
The long agricultural field off Lake George Road constitutes the northern section of Watershed Ridge Park
One afternoon in early October, my husband and I walked the long length of the north field to see if we could catch a glimpse of the north edge of the familiar western marsh. We walked carefully along the edge of the farmer's field in order to preserve his crop and then headed into the woods. Just a few steps from the field, we were immersed in a lush, green area of the park that neither of us had never seen.
My husband, Reg, in the woods above the western marsh
A little more sorting our way through the undergrowth and we were rewarded by a lovely sight – the north side of the marsh with abundant tall reeds and surrounded by large trees. I can't wait to see this area in the spring and summer!
The northern side of the western marsh in October
Ben thought of a third water project for this park. As part of the October work, he asked the Fish and Wildlife Service to design a new wetland in the northern field, near the ditch plug. By mid-November, it had already begun to collect runoff from the slopes above. Like the other projects, the goal of this hydrological restoration is to regain wetlands that were lost to tiling farm fields and ditching streams. The restored wetlands will capture runoff from the adjacent fields and filter the water. What a sight to see this wetland full enough to reflect an autumn sky!
New wetland in the northern meadow at Watershed Ridge Park
It appears that wildlife is already taking advantage of a new water source. Deer tracks encircled the water's edge. No doubt other smaller animals and birds will make their way here once the wetland is surrounded by plant life, rather than the wide open agricultural field. But that change won't take place for a few more years.
Deer tracks surrounding the new northern field wetland.
Making Watershed Ridge Park More Welcoming – for Us and Other Species!
Acres of wetland surrounded by natural berm in the forest at the far eastern edge of Watershed Ridge Park.
Stewardship is a multi-faceted effort in our township: removing invasive species, mapping and surveying natural areas, monitoring vernal pools, sowing native seed, restoring native landscape, educating the public so they can more fully enjoy the nature around them, and so much more. And now Ben, our Stewardship Manager, has added the restoration of degraded wetlands to that list of tasks.
These pools, though relatively small now, will be a welcome addition to the parks, enriching the diversity of plants and animals around us. Water is just as crucial for other creatures as it is for humans. That's why I always seek it out, muddy shoes and all, when I explore our parks. If they function as we hope they will, in the future butterflies, dragonflies and other insects will flutter and dash above these wetlands, courting, mating and producing young. Birds will dip their beaks on a hot summer day and the deer at the water's edge will be joined by more nighttime creatures eager to slake their thirst in the darkness. Nature will find a warm welcome once the rolling landscapes sway and dance again with a rich assortment of native flowers and grasses .
And of course, with our new trails (and more to come), we humans can more easily be there too, enjoying that diverse natural world. Once the trails turn green, I hope you'll find the time to follow these very accessible, gentle trails and perhaps venture beyond them to see all this remarkable park offers. It will grow only more beautiful in the years to come.
A solo dance by one Winter Crane Fly near the western marsh
Lost Lake Nature Park: In Autumn, It's the Little Things
November 3, 2020 / Cam Mannino	/ 2 Comments
Autumn color edges Lost Lake on a crisp fall day
Autumn begins to pare nature down to a few essentials. Earlier, cold nights and warm days provided a riot of color which has now begun to mellow into golds and russets. Glamorous flowers subside in the chill, and butterflies have either departed or completed their brief lives. Bird song is replaced by chitters and calls, except for the call-and-response bugling of geese and sandhill cranes as they wheel and soar high above us, heeding the siren call of the south.
So I always imagine that making discoveries to share with you will be more difficult in fall and winter. And to some extent that's true. But what's really required is that I pay more attention to the little surprises that nature always has in store. What's moving in the leaves beneath that tree? What's that peeping I hear in the reeds? What tiny saplings emerged this summer that I'd missed in the hubbub of a summer day?
So please join me for a relatively short, virtual hike around this fifty-eight acre park. Maybe you'll be as intrigued as I was by the variety of its habitats and by the "little things" that went unnoticed until autumn began its work.
It's Called Lost Lake, so Let's Begin at the Dock
A Great Blue Heron winging its way across Lost Lake
As I approached the lake on my first visit, I looked up between the autumn treetops to see the graceful silhouette of a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias). Between the slow, powerful beats of its magnificent wings, it glided swiftly through the thin, blue air. These stately birds will travel just far enough in the fall to find open water where they can feed. I just learned that they have special photoreceptors in their eyes that allow them to feed at night as well as in daylight. Wouldn't it be magical to see one fishing in the moonlight?
But down on the surface of the lake, only one calm, female duck cruised the chilly water. I wondered why she was alone – no mate yet? But she seemed quite serene as she silently surveyed her surroundings.
A solitary female Mallard seemed to enjoy being the only bird on the lake.
She wasn't alone for long though. Behind me the raucous honking of a flock of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) broke the silence that she and I enjoyed. About thirty of them appeared from behind me and circled the pond, constantly announcing their arrival. At one point, they flew right above me so that I could hear the snap of the joints in those powerful wings and the air pouring through them. They descended to the surface and formed a long, single-file line on the far edge of the pond and went completely silent. Peace descended again around the pond.
At the east edge of the lake, a solitary goose kept company with two small companions – a pair of Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus). You may have to look carefully for the second one; it's near the goose's tail feathers with its back turned away from the camera.
A Canada Goose rests while two little Killdeer forage in the mud nearby.
I say "kept company," because though the killdeer lifted their angled wings to fly off to other muddy edges, for some reason, they kept returning to their very calm, large companion. I imagine some particularly yummy food source lay buried in the mud there – maybe snails, aquatic insect larvae, or even the odd crayfish. But the harmony between the species was a peaceful sight.
Later I saw the Killdeer foraging on a mud flat on the north side of the lake with a small, brown and white bird with yellow legs. When I researched at home and then consulted expert birder, Ruth Glass, she confirmed that I'd seen a Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla) and she added that seeing them at this time of year was "a rarity." How exciting! This sandpiper searches out much the same food as the Killdeer, though with its sloping beak, it can probe a bit deeper in the mud. Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds website informs me that they "probe damp mud for buried prey, using the surface tension of the water to transport the item quickly from their bill tips to their mouths." Neat trick! Here's my somewhat blurry photo of the two smaller birds; my lens didn't quite reach two small birds on the north shore of the pond. So I hunted up a better photo of the Least Sandpiper taken by jmaley at inaturalist.org.[Click on photos to enlarge; hover cursor for captions.]
A Least Sandpiper and Killdeer on the far edge of Lost Lake
Least Sandpiper by jmaley at inaturalist.org [Public Domain]
Another little Sandpiper – perhaps the same one – also showed up near two huge Sandhill Cranes (Antigone canadensis), but I didn't get a decent photo before it flew. The two big cranes preened and foraged on the east edge of the lake. Both the little Sandpiper and the Cranes will soon migrate south, the Sandhills to Florida or the Southwest and the Sandpipers to the gulf states. I'm glad I got to enjoy a rare sighting of the sandpiper and to bid farewell to all of these water birds before they started their long journeys.
Two Sandhill Cranes at the lake edge
On an almost spring-like morning a week or so ago, as the sun glittered on the water, I watched a Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) make a bee-line across the lake. The wake it created with its head made it seem that it was pushing a splash of sunlight. This furry little rug of a creature was using its webbed feet and side-swishing tail to propel itself speedily across the lake!
A muskrat creating a wake as it quickly crossed Lost Lake
I followed it until it dove with a small splash and finally discerned on the west side of the lake, a large, well-camouflaged lodge at the water's edge piled with the stems and leaves of Fragrant Water Lily ( Nymphea odorata) and other aquatic plant material. The entrance to its spacious home is underwater with an entrance way that slopes upward to keep the living quarters dry. When I looked around to see if I could tell the direction from which it had come, I noticed the beginnings of a small feeding platform. During the long winter months, the muskrat, breathing slowly, will periodically cruise under the ice, taking the food it can find – mostly plant material – up into the fresh air for a meal and a bit more oxygen. It had deposited a freshly harvested lily pad on it when I arrived the next morning.
The muskrat's lodge with an underwater entrance
The slowly accumulating material of the muskrat's feeding platform
But it was the tiny creatures around the pond that surprised and delighted me most. On one warmish fall day, I kept hearing an odd twittering croaking coming from the reeds on the east side of the pond. What was that? Small birds? No sign of a flock. Crickets? Maybe, but it seemed very fast for crickets. It sounded a bit like frogs, but it had been so cold at night. Why would frogs be singing in the autumn?
The next day, I made it a point to explore the east edge of the lake, edging as close as I could to it from Lost Lake Trail, where I hoped to find a clue to the mystery chorus.
The southeast end of Lost Lake from the dock.
The scarlet berries of Michigan Holly/Winterberry (Ilex verticillata), a wetland shrub, would no doubt be feeding birds and perhaps other animals during the winter months, while propagating itself around Lost Lake. This cheerful, native holly loses its leaves but keeps its bright red drupes (a fruit with one seed or pit) well into the snowy winter months. If you have a wet spot on your property, you might think about this native ornamental beauty!
Michigan Holly is a native bush that is reportedly easy to grow with few diseases or pests.
Walking through dry leaves near the lake, something tiny jumped near my feet. I stopped and took a long look and finally tracked down a very tiny (maybe 1-2 inch?), very pale frog clinging to a stick at the foot of a tree. I was totally mystified – a tiny frog in the autumn? And when I got home and looked at the photo more closely, I was astonished to seed the "x" markings on its back – a Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer)???!
A Spring Peeper appeared in the woods at Lost Lake, an odd sight in the autumn.
After a bit of online research, I found the website of the Orianne Society in Vermont whose mission is to help preserve habitat for amphibians and reptiles. Generally, Peepers quiet down once their mating season concludes in late spring. But evidently on cool, wet fall days, spring peepers are known to call and the reason isn't entirely clear. But one hypothesis is that by late August, peepers are almost fully mature. But they will soon begin to shut down their metabolism to survive the winter, freezing almost solid, protected by internal anti-freeze. So the theory is that on warmish days, they may try out their spring songs out of an abundance of hormones. What a surprise!
However, the chorus by the lake didn't sound a bit like a chorus of spring peepers; it was much too fast and not melodius. My best guess now is an unseen twittering flock of crickets or small birds that just stayed down in the tall aquatic vegetation at the lake's edge. I never saw a flock of birds emerge and eventually the chorus went silent. So the mystery continues.
I went back to the dock, curious if there were any other frogs that I'd missed there. As I scanned with the binoculars, I suddenly noticed a small upright form near the edge of the dock. Another frog – but not a peeper! I approached stealthily with my camera, pausing periodically, moving very slowly. Eventually I got close enough to see a distinguishing field mark – a thin ridge of skin running from the back of the eye and curving around the tympanum, the frog's round eardrum. My best guess is that this little frog was an immature female because her throat was white rather than yellow and she was very small. It can take up to three years for a bullfrog to mature. I hope this silent little one found her way back onto the muddy bottom of the lake before the night temperatures dropped again.
An immature female Bullfrog sitting quietly near the lake edge on a warmish fall day
A mowed area surrounded by trees and wetland just west of the lake hosts a shining stand of Yellow Birch trees (Betula alleghaniensis). I love to see them on a sunny afternoon because their bronze bark shines silver in the sunlight and forms lovely curls and frills like other birches. Yellow birches are one of the tallest of their kind.This particular one had a definite list to the east, probably caused by wind and the moist soil it prefers. If you love birches and have moist soil, this glamorous bark adds some serious pizzazz to the landscape!
The bronze bark of the Yellow Birch turns silver in bright sunlight.
Yellow Birch is one of the tallest of all birches.
Into the Forest With a Different Pair of Eyes
A wise pair of "eyes" peered out from a fallen log among the leaves.
A huge smile and a little "Oh!" accompanied my discovery of this log in the forest at Lost Lake. I'd been thinking about my need to pay attention, to look closely at this moist, wooded habitat because I remembered that small, special moments can occur in nature once autumn arrives. And suddenly, these seemingly ancient, Yoda-like eyes were staring at me from a fallen log! I love that it also appears to be winking!
Leaving the lake behind and starting down the woodland trail beyond the caretaker's house at Lost Lake always feels like I'm moving into another world. On the left the forest sweeps upward into a rolling landscape.
The forest at Lost Lake stands on rolling slopes that rise to the sledding hill.
On the right as you walk farther in, the land continues downward to a moist wetland area full of mosses and mystery.
The forest trail slopes down toward a moist wetland area.
The trees within the moist lower area of the forest grip the wet soil with roots that grow above the ground. Dr. Ben VanderWeide, our township stewardship manager, told me that these "buttressed roots" probably provide extra support in the soft soil. I also read that in poor soils, they can provide a wider area for seeking nutrients, though that may not be an issue in this forest at Lost Lake Nature Park.
Buttressed roots provide the trees in the wetland area with more support and more nutrients.
What's especially enchanting in this forest are the mossy gardens that form over the tops of these buttressed roots. Moss, ferns, leaves and some small plants have created a plush cushion surrounding this maple tree.
Moss forms a plump cushion over the buttressed roots of this tree.
Intermediate Wood Ferns (Dryopteris intermedia) are tucked close to the trunks of several trees in this part of the woods. This fern glows emerald green for most of the winter in the moist shade of this part of the forest. It spreads by spores like other ferns, but doesn't spread easily, so it could be successful in a continually moist shade garden, I imagine.
Intermediate Wood Fern loves the moist shade of the wetland area and will stay green throughout the winter.
By looking carefully downward as I walked, I spotted several tiny saplings emerging from the fallen leaves. In the lowland area, the moist soil suited a tiny Swamp Oak (Quercus bicolor), whose four leaves had gathered all the sun available in the forest shade. It's got a long way to go before reaching the 40-60 feet possible for this species of oak.
A Swamp White Oak sprouting in the moist shade of the lowland forest area
The steep slopes of the Lost Lake forest create a lot of fallen logs. Without the distractions of flowers, insects and birds calls, I focus on them more in the autumn. Besides the peering knothole eyes above, I noticed an aging log with the bark peeled back to reveal its reddish brown sapwood which carried water and nutrients up to the treetops or down to the roots when the tree was alive.
Under the bark of a log, the sapwood of the tree glows rich red-brown in the forest shade.
And of course, mushrooms are at work recycling the nutrients of fallen trees back into the soil. The cold nights have done in most of them, but I appreciated the ruffly edges and autumn tones of these aging Turkey-tail Mushrooms (Trametes versicolor).
Turkey Tail mushrooms decorate a fallen log in the moist areas of the Lost Lake forest.
A Quick Trip to a Possible Future
Oakland Township Parks and Recreation also has a small piece of property across Turtle Creek Lane, a private road on the west edge of the park. I walked north up the lane a short distance and found the "Park Property" sign to be sure I wasn't on private land. Native Huckleberry colonies (Gaylussacia baccata) flourish in the dappled shade of this more open woods. As a shrub, Huckleberry produces black berries and its leaves turn lovely shades of red in the fall.
A native Huckleberry colony on park property across the road.
I walked up into that lovely wood and headed north a short distance to the edge of the marsh. In the distance, a stand of yellowing trees interspersed with green conifers towered over the spongy soft earth of a huge, circular bog.
A marsh west of Lost Lake Park with a bog in the distance.
The Michigan Natural Features Inventory defines a bog as a"a nutrient-poor peatland characterized by acidic, saturated peat and the prevalence of sphagnum mosses and ericaceous [acid-loving] shrubs." Often bogs are the remains of glacial lakes that formed and then drained away as the 2 mile thick ice sheet withdrew from Michigan about 10,000 years ago. In fact, Lost Lake itself is a "kettle lake" that formed from a melting block of glacial ice. This marsh and bog are part of a spectacular piece of land that the Parks Commission hopes to purchase in the future if we are fortunate enough to receive a matching grant from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund. Keep your fingers crossed, please!
Standing at south edge of the marsh, I could see the yellowing needles of Tamarack trees (Larix laricina) and their bog-loving companions, Black Spruce (Picea mariana). Here's a closer look:
The Tamaracks' needles turn yellow and drop in the fall. The spruces stay green.
Despite being conifers, the Tamarack's needles turn yellow and drop in the autumn leaving them bare during the winter like other deciduous trees. The spruces earn the name "evergreen," by regularly shedding only their older needles as newer needles take their place. Both of these species thrive in very cold temperatures with soil that is acidic and continually wet. According to Wikipedia, Tamaracks, for example, tolerate temperatures as low as -85 degrees Fahrenheit! Black Spruces prosper in the snowy boreal forests of Canada and the Arctic. But here they are in Oakland Township, remnants of the Ice Age!
Back to the Park, a Climb Up the Hill and Down
Looking down the sledding hill at Lost Lake Nature Park
Returning to Lost Lake Nature Park, I started up the forest trail that leads to the top of the sledding hill. On the way up, I passed small patches of Blue Wood/Heart-leaved Aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium), one of the late season asters that appears in August and lasts into October and can fit itself into a wide variety of habitats. It was accompanied by one of my favorite grasses, Bottlebrush Grass (Elymus hystrix) whose seeds are carried on the wind by arrow-shaped "awns." Nearby, lichen and mosses made a mosaic of green on a large rock. I begin to crave color as autumn and winter move on.
Blue Wood/Heart-leaved Aster added their bit of color to the hill trail at Lost Lake.
Bottlebrush disperses its seeds on arrow-shaped awns.
A stone patterned with mosses and lichen.
Near the hilltop, I met up with a tiny cricket pausing on a fallen Sassafras leaf. I thought perhaps it was a Tinkling Ground Cricket (Allonemobius tinnulus) because they live in wooded areas and sing in the fall – and don't you love the name? But when I contacted Dr. Parsons of the Michigan State University Entomology Department, he informed me that five crickets in the genus Allonemobius live in our county and sing in the fall, but, as is often the case with insects, he couldn't really make a firm identification from the photo. He could assure me, though, after listening to a short recording I made by the lake, that neither of these crickets were in the unseen chorus. So that mystery remains a mystery. But I was pleased to meet this little creature and watch it slip under a leaf as I walked on.
A cricket on the forest trail, sitting on a sassafras leaf.
Just over the east edge of the sledding hill, a group of young Sassafras saplings (Sassafras albidum) wobbled in the wind, their tiny trunks supporting large leaves. I always admire nature's strategy of equipping saplings with huge leaves for gathering in the sun. The roots of Sassafras were once used to make root beer, though now the root bark is considered a carcinogen. But you can still get a whiff of root beer from the stem of a freshly cut leaf or twig. Sassafras trees are often identified by their three-lobed, "mitten-shaped" leaves, but actually unlobed, two-lobed and three-lobed leaves often appear on the same tree. Here are the trembling Sassafras saplings and an unlobed Sassafras leaf bejeweled after a rain.
Sassafras saplings on the sledding hill at Lost Lake
An unlobed Sassafras leaf
I decided to skirt around the rim of trees that surrounds the sledding hill rather than plunging straight down. And I was happy I did when I came across this tiny Eastern White Pine sapling (Pinus strobus) thrusting its way through the leaf litter. This little native pine is another fine example of how autumn causes me to look more carefully and be delightfully surprised. I have a soft spot for White Pines, the tallest conifers in Michigan, with their blue-green, silky needles and I doubt I would have noticed this tiny tree in the color and bustle of the spring and summer.
A tiny Eastern White Pine sapling emerging from the leaf litter
When I reached my car to return home, there in a White Oak (Quercus alba) by the parking lot hung a giant abandoned residence, the nest of some sort of Yellow Jacket Wasp (genus Dolichovespula or Vespula), possibly the Bald-faced Hornet (Dolichovespula maculata), which is actually a species of Yellow Jacket, not a true hornet (genus Vespa). These social insects make nests above and below ground out of chewed wood pulp. The colony dies in the fall, except for the fertile queens that overwinter in tree bark or leaf litter and start a new nest each spring. The gratuitous beauty of these nests constructed by small insects never fails to inspire awe in me. How do they sculpt it using only tiny legs and mouths? I headed home happy to have seen one more small miracle.
A wasp or bald-faced hornet's nest in a Bur Oak tree at Lost Lake.
In Autumn, Little Things Mean A Lot
Lily Pads floating over fall reflections in Lost Lake
See what I mean about autumn giving emphasis to the small, the unnoticed? Because this more austere season gets down to essentials, I'm pushed to pay closer attention. And when I do, wow, there's a rare sighting of small brown bird with yellow legs, a miniature pine, a pair of ancient eyes peering from a log or a pale spring peeper scrambling among the fallen leaves. In the warm seasons, I might have missed these little surprises and I'm very thankful that I didn't. And I'm especially grateful that I get to share them with you, too. Thanks for joining me.
The road home from Lost Lake in mid October.
The Wet Prairie: Unusual Fall Blooms Host A Variety of Guests
October 6, 2020 / Cam Mannino	/ 5 Comments
I'm always cautious when I write about the wildflowers at the Wet Prairie along the Paint Creek Trail between Gallagher and Silver Bell Roads. Many of the wildflowers here are very fragile and quite unusual, so this natural area needs to be treated very carefully.
Because I'd like to help residents understand just how special the Wet Prairie is, I'm occasionally allowed to take a very careful and slow walk with my camera. Here's the beauty – and the fascinating strangeness – I came across on two short trips there last month.
Restoration of a Special Place Yields Special Flowers
Butterfly milkweed seeding with Smooth Blue Aster and Gray Goldenrod in bloom.
Restoration of this 10-acre natural area by Dr. Ben VanderWeide and his Parks and Recreation stewardship crew has worked wonders over the years. Years ago when I first saw the little flower with the exotic name, Grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia glauca), one blossom stood alone on the prairie. I loved it the moment it caught my eye. This year the prairie was covered with these striped beauties, the most I've ever seen!
Grass-of-Parnassus has grown increasingly abundant at the Wet Prairie with restoration continuing there.
According to the Illinois wildflower site (a favorite of mine), Grass-of-Parnassus loves moisture and chalky (calcareous) soil, but doesn't like a lot of competition from other plants. A high water table keeps this prairie wet for a good portion of the year. In some places, the unusual soil prevents water from draining away, pooling in the spring and drying out in summer sun. Occasional use of prescribed fire suits many of the plants that grow here. They're fire-adapted after growing for millennia in landscapes that burned frequently, not to mention fires in the last few hundred years started by lightning or by the trains that passed on the nearby railroad. Ben and his crew have consistently removed invasive shrubs and encroaching trees to keep the area open and sunny. Grass-of-Parnassus, no doubt a long-time denizen of the Wet Prairie, celebrated all of these unusual conditions and the restoration work this summer with an abundant bloom!
The prairie also hosts another airy fall wildflower that prefers little competition. Flowering Spurge (Euphorbia corollata) grows along the drier areas near the trail. A wide variety of native bees and butterflies find their way to its bright white showy bracts, which are modified leaves like the red bracts of poinsettias. The white bracts of flowering spurge highlight the yellow flowers at the center. I love their simplicity; they remind of the flowers I drew as a child. Their leaves are safe from deer browsing because they contain a toxic white latex.
Flowering Spurge avoids competition and can tolerate the dryness near the trail.
Flowering Spurge is monoecious, which means separate male and female flowers are produced on the same plant. Once pollinators do their work, the fertile female flowers are replaced by a capsule with a seed in each of its three chambers which appear right at the center of the female flowers! Below is a closeup look at their bulbous seed pods which will eventually eject the seeds when they're mature.
Seed capsules forming on Flowering Spurge.
Tucked down among the grasses, Cylindrical Blazing-star (Liatris cylindracea) makes itself known through the whirling effect of its purple blossoms. Each flower head is crowded with 15-20 individual tube-shaped flowers. A two-part curving "style," emerges from each one. The style is the slender stalk that connects the stigma, the surface on which the pollen lands, to the ovary below in the blossom. These lovely wildflowers last about a month in late summer/early fall and tend to appear singly like many of the flowers on the Wet Prairie, preferring little competition. The name Blazing Star seems particularly appropriate in this wildflower, since the styles spin out from each flower like the stars in a Van Gogh painting.
Our long-tongued native Bumblebees can easily pollinate Cylindrical Blazing-star's crowded flower heads.
Shrubby Cinquefoil (Dasiphora fruticosa) thrives in the moist, chalky soil of the Wet Prairie. A small, woody bush, only 1.5 to 3 feet tall, it attracts native bees, honeybees and a variety of other flying insects to its bright yellow flowers during the summer and early fall. It also benefits from being of little interest to deer.
A small bush, Shrubby Cinquefoil provides nourishment to a big variety of insects.
On the early September walk, I explored the wetter areas at the back of the prairie and came across an elegant stem of Turtlehead (Chelone glabra) with a haze of dusty lavender Joe Pye (Eutrochium maculatum) dancing in the distance. The turtlehead's two-lipped flower performs two functions: the top lip forms a protective hood for the flower's stamen and pistils and the the lower serves as a landing pad for foraging insects. Like many of our native plants, it protects itself from deer – in this case by having bitter leaves.
Turtlehead blooms first at the bottom of its florescence.
On the far back slopes of the prairie, a Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) made a swirling explosion of seeds, each attached to its silky white parachute. What a delicate abstract design with its central slender pod shape!
Butterfly Milkweed going to seed in a spectacular fashion!
Early in September, I spotted a yellow wildflower growing on the steep bank above Paint Creek across the trail from the Wet Prairie. It turned out to be a wildflower I rarely see, Wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia), a very tall (3-8 feet) plant that often finds a home on river banks or near wetlands. Their sunbursts of raggedy yellow flowers contain a rim of "ray florets" that look like petals but are each a separate fertile flower and a disc floret filled with individual tubular flowers that together create a pin-cushion effect at the center. (Petals, as opposed to "ray florets," are actually non-fertile modified leaf-like structures.)
Wingstem is a tall wildflower that loves river banks like the one across from the Wet Prairie.
Two stalks of a modest wildflower that I'd never seen before stood alone above the creek. Ben identified it as White Lettuce (Prenanthes alba). The drooping blossoms are cross-pollinated by those masterful native pollinators, the bumblebees (genus Bombus) seeking nectar with their long tongues. I watched as two of them foraged busily, the one on the left probing for nectar vertically within the blossom, just the lower tip of its body showing, and the one on the right with a yellow "pollen basket" on its back leg.
Bumblebees buzzing quietly as they seek out the nectar of White Lettuce.
Nearby a non-native Japanese Beetle (Popillia japonica) explored the abundance of the tiny disk florets that make up a Snakeroot flowerhead (Ageratina altissima). These wildflowers thrive in disturbed soil, especially at the edges or openings of woodlands. They spread quickly both by rhizomes (underground stems) and by achenes lofted to new locations by small tufts of white hair called pappus. I look forward to them, because they are often the last wildflower to bloom in the fall.
Early settlers thought this Snakeroot was good for snake bites. On the contrary, its roots and leaves are toxic to both cattle and humans!
When I arrived later in September, the Grass-of-Parnassus was fading. But the Wet Prairie was dotted with Smooth Blue Asters (Symphyotrichum laeve) – small, erect sprays of lavender sprinkled generously across the landscape. According to the Illinois Wildflowers site, this seemingly delicate wildflower is a major food source for pollinators, including at least six species of native bees, honeybees and as you'll soon see below, butterflies. Tree Sparrows, Wild Turkeys, Ruffed Grouse and White-footed mice enjoy the seeds and the caterpillars of several moths browse on their leaves. A small plant with a big benefit to wildlife!
Smooth Blue Asters dot the prairie in the fall providing abundant food sources for wildlife.
Within the exclusion fence at the back of the prairie, New England Asters (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) tossed and nodded their purple flowers in the autumn breeze. New England Asters rely on non-native honeybees, native bumblebees and other long-tongued bees to pollinate them. The short-tongued bees and hover/syrphid flies visit to collect pollen, but are generally too smooth-bodied to be effective pollinators. This aster also hosts the caterpillars of many species of moths, which feed on the leaves. Those caterpillars can provide important nutrition for adult birds and their nestlings. For those reasons and their sheer beauty, I was happy to see these purple wildflowers with their golden centers dipping and rising in the late afternoon sunlight.
New England Aster provides its pollen and leaves to insects as well as leaves that their young can eat and grow to maturity.
As September progressed, I counted on finding two favorite wildflowers on the Wet Prairie and was not disappointed. Where water seeps to the surface on the south side of the prairie, Bottle Gentians (Gentiana andrewsii) produce their strange indigo blossoms that never open. These large bud-like flowers wait instead for the big, bustling bumblebees to force their way inside looking for nectar and pollen. Once within, the bees produce a high-pitched buzz with their flight muscles, using their legs and mouth parts to direct the vibration toward the pollen-laden anthers inside. The pollen explodes into the air within the enclosed Bottle Gentian, clinging to the bumblebee's fuzzy bodies. Have a look and listen to this short video of a bumblebee" buzz pollinating" some poppies. What a clever way for the bumblebee to collect pollen and for the Bottle Gentian to be pollinated!
Bottle Gentian flowers never open and bumblebees have to force their way inside!
Another deep blue Gentian is unfurling the artfully fringed and overlapping lobes of its blossom in the short grass of the prairie. The Fringed Gentian (Gentianopsis crinita), like the Grass-of-Parnassus, thrives in the chalky (calcareous), generally moist soil of the Wet Prairie. Several species of bumblebees frequent these gentians and once fertilized, it forms pods filled with tiny seeds that are carried away by either wind or water. Can you believe that blue?
Fringed Gentian's four-lobed blossoms spout like small purple fountains from the grass of the Wet Prairie
Beautiful Autumn Blossoms Get Plenty of Visitors
In general terms, a host plant is one that provides food and shelter for other species – in the case of wildflowers, either nectar or pollen for adult insects, or leaves and stems for their caterpillar young. Native plants are particularly effective hosts. In the autumn, the special flowers of the Wet Prairie are providing a last minute meal for bees, beetles, wasps, butterflies and other insects by day and moths by night, including one rare one! So it's not surprising that on my two short visits, I saw a variety of "guests" drop in for a visit.
The Butterfly Guests and the Young of a Very Unusual Moth
The Orange Sulphur flies low, skimming over the tops of flowers, as this one did on my first visit.
As I mentioned earlier, butterflies seem to find plenty of nectar on the Wet Prairie's Smooth Blue Asters. I saw a Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) restlessly flitting about the field on both visits, but luckily, on the second visit, one settled down for a sip on a Smooth Blue Aster. These small flowers must pack a lot of sugary punch on a cool day! Here's a close look at this fritillary's strange spotted eyes and its long proboscis probing the flower for nectar.
A Great Spangled Fritillary sipping from a Smooth Blue Aster
On my second visit, an Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme) also rose and sank repeatedly as it flitted above the greenery. At one point, it headed straight for a Smooth Blue Aster, its proboscis curled in flight.
An Orange Sulphur on its way to sample the Smooth Blue Aster on the Wet Prairie.
Once it landed, the proboscis extended and acted as a straw to extract the sugary nectar from the disc floret at the center of the aster. The field mark for the Orange Sulphur is that orange blush on the upper (dorsal) surface of the wing, though the female's is a bit paler. The male has a wide brown band at the wing edge whereas the female's brown band is punctuated by white spots. Glad this one finally stopping scurrying around the prairie and settled in for a late afternoon drink.
An Orange Sulphur settles in for a meal on the Smooth Blue Aster
The male Eastern Tailed Blue butterfly (Cupido comyntas) looks like a small chip of blue sky bobbing along in short flights over the grass in the Wet Prairie. (The female's wings are brown on the upper side.) The Eastern Tailed Blue normally closes its wings when stopping to feed or rest, showing only the gray undersides of its wings, featuring two orange spots and a tiny "tail" on each hindwing. Fortunately, it occasionally stops with its wings slightly open to bask in warm sunlight, like the one below. That sunlight felt soothing to both of us on a cool fall afternoon.
The Eastern Tailed Blue butterfly has a tiny tail at the bottom of its hindwing.
Out in the wet areas where the Bottle Gentian blooms, my husband spotted a male Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) far back in the greenery. When I reached him, his immobility surprised me; I was able to get remarkably close. I noticed he was periodically pulsing his wings which looked fresh and flawless. My guess is that this fellow was one of the "super generation" of Monarchs that had just emerged from his chrysalis. Once his wings were fully functional, he would fly off to feed before beginning his long journey to Mexico. Isn't he a beauty? I wished him well.
A newly emerged male Monarch Butterfly pulsing his absolutely perfect, undamaged wings.
A nearby Joe Pye blossom hosted the ubiquitous Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus). Its long tongue allows it to feed on many different wildflowers. Notice the hooked antennae, a field mark for all skippers. I come upon these sturdy little Silver-spotted butterflies quite often on my walks. Maybe you do, too?
A Silver-spotted Skipper drops in for a drink on Joe Pye blooms.
I'm always attracted by the bright orange blossoms of Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), and noticed a strange quivering on the leaves of one at the edge of the trail. The cause turned out to be the avid chewing of the chubby orange and black caterpillar of the Unexpected Tiger Moth (Cycnia inopinatus). An intriguing name, eh? It certainly was unexpected for me! The Michigan Lepidoptera Facebook group identified it for me, and I confirmed their information with the huge caterpillar compendium, Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David L. Wagner.
The caterpillar of a moth that is ranked as "uncommon" to "rare," the Unexpected Tiger Moth, munched on it host plant, Butterfly Milkweed, in the Wet Prairie.
After a couple hours of research, I finally found a comprehensive article on the website of the United States Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, Eastern Region. This moth is described as "uncommon to rare and local throughout its range" due largely to habitat loss. Our caterpillar hatched in the right area, since the adult moth seeks out high quality barrens or grasslands full of butterfly or whorled milkweed.
Adult Unexpected Tiger Moths (see the iNaturalist photo below) hatch, mate and lay eggs in 2-3 weeks, never bothering to eat during their brief lifetimes. The ones that emerge in the spring produce the August brood, which probably explains the presence of the caterpillar I saw. It will eat and then transform into a pupa whose loose cocoon will fall into the leaf litter to overwinter until spring. So we'll just have to hope that the orange and black caterpillar above ate enough to mature and survive the winter, so that next spring a rare moth emerges and finds a mate along the trail. [Photo below by Chrissy McClarren and Andy Reago at iNaturalist.org]
The rare Unexpected Tiger Moth will only travel short distances in its 2-3 week lifespan. Photo by Chrissy McClarren and Andy Reago (CC BY-NC)
Other Insect Visitors, including a Cannibal!
An Eastern Yellow Jacket Wasp (Vespula maculifrons) seeks out nectar but doesn't provide much pollination because its smooth body doesn't transport pollen to other blossoms.
I came across a trio of insects that had landed on a Stiff Goldenrod (Solidago rigida), a wonderful plant with its upright posture and filigree of fuzzy, soft green leaves hugging the stem. On the left, a jazzily striped Locust Borer Beetle (Megacyllene robiniae) fed on the goldenrod's pollen. If it's a mated female, she will later scurry along the bark of non-native Black Locust trees (Robinia pseudoacacia) looking for a wound in which to lay her eggs. On the right side of the plant, two Soldier Beetles (family Cantharidae) found one cluster of yellow blossoms to be the perfect spot for quiet mating. Nice to know that one of my favorite goldenrods is such a generous host!
A Stiff Goldenrod hosts both mating soldier beetles and a foraging Locust Borer beetle
Out in the shorter grasses of the prairie, however, lurked a predator with cannibal instincts. Fortunately, it was only about 2.5 to 3.5 inches long! We spotted a non-native European Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa) who was busily eating what appeared to another of its kind. (There are no native praying mantises in Michigan.) If you look carefully in the photo below, you can see a long, angled brown and green leg very much like its own bending up from the green abdomen that the mantis holds between its spiked, raptor-like legs. I know, the photo's a bit grim, but there's no malice here. It's just dinnertime on the prairie for a hungry insect trying to survive in its habitat. I think it's important to keep reminding myself of that – and you too maybe?
Praying Mantis are non-native in Michigan and catch only live, preferably moving, prey, including their own kind.
I can't confidently determine the gender of this mantis, but females are usually larger than males with bigger eyes, so my guess is that this is a male. Now, you may know that female praying mantises are notorious for consuming their partners after mating. Actually, about 70% of the males are crafty enough to avoid becoming a quick, nourishing meal for their mates. But it turns out that mantises prey on each other even in the nymph stages, scuttling away from each other after hatching in order to survive! No doubt that's one reason that I've always seen only one Praying Mantis at a time!
Filling the "Swamp" or Valuing Water and Wetlands
Beyond a sea of goldenrod, a wetland fringed with Joe Pye and cat-tails can be seen behind the woods along the trail to the Wet Prairie.
One afternoon, standing knee deep in grass and flowers, I remembered that I grew up in a time when wetlands were scorned as nasty "swamps", damp places "infested" with bugs, places that should be dried out in order to become "more productive." Hence the common metaphor these days, "drain the swamp."
Unproductive? Ugly? There I was standing in the Wet Prairie among a colorful panoply of native wildflowers and grasses, all beautiful, some very special, even rare – and each of them serving their unusual habitat in so many complex ways. All day and all night from spring to fall, butterflies, beetles, bees, moths and other insects find their way to the wildflowers and grasses of the Wet Prairie to find sustenance and shelter for themselves and their young. Animals seek the wetland nearby and spring pools on the prairie for drinking and bathing. And below the surface, the roots of wetland plants are cleaning the water which permeates the water table to later quench the thirst of humans who don't always appreciate the services wetlands provide.
"Swamp" is actually a botanical term that technically means a wetland dominated by trees and shrubs. But for some these days, it's still a pejorative for those "nasty" wetlands of my youth. I protest! And I celebrate the restoration work that will keep the Wet Prairie blooming, beautiful, and yes, "productive" for its insect guests and for future hikers of the Paint Creek Trail.


text:
Laptop encryption is basic security measure: ICO
Samsung leads August 2011 US mobile subscriber market share: comScore
Uncategorised Back to Home
Google Earth downloads reach one billion milestone
'We're even more amazed at the way people have used Google Earth to explore the world,' says the search engine company
Search engine company Google has revealed that its offering based on geospatial technology, Google Earth, has been downloaded more than one billion times since it was first introduced in 2005.
The company said that the milestone means "more than one billion downloads of the Google Earth desktop client, mobile apps and the Google Earth plug-in — all enabling you to to explore the world in seconds, from Earth to Mars to the ocean floor."
The company also shared different ways the tool could be used by collecting stories from the Web world.
Google Earth and Maps VP of Engineering Brian McClendon said, "We're proud of our one billion milestone, but we're even more amazed at the way people have used Google Earth to explore the world."
"When we founded Keyhole, Inc. back in 2001 (the company was acquired by Google in 2004), we never imagined our geospatial technology would be used by people in so many unexpected ways. At www.OneWorldManyStories.com, we've collected stories from people all over the world who use Google Earth to follow their dreams, discover new and distant places, or make the world a better place."
Normally people use Google Earth to see places they have been, or to find out information about restaurants and other services. But the company cites some novel ways in which people have used Google Earth.
The company said that Professor David Kennedy of the University of Western Australia used Google Earth to scan thousands of square kilometers in Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Google also mentioned architect Barnaby Gunning, who, after the April 6, 2009 earthquake near L'Aquila Italy, encouraged his fellow citizens to start rebuilding the city virtually in 3D. Their online urban planning will aid city planners and architects, said Google.
"Retired English teacher Jerome Burg created Google Lit Trips, which uses Google Earth to match places in famous books to their geographical locations, encouraging students to create connections between the stories they read in school and the world they live in," said Google.
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Ed Targett Editor Ed Targett 10th August 2020
Coronavirus is challenger banks' biggest challenge yet
Edward Qualtrough Edward Qualtrough 17th July 2020
Tech Preparedness Index Shows UK Lagging Behind European Counterparts
Ed Targett Editor Ed Targett 8th July 2020

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Housing Policy Should Put More of Its Mo...
Housing Policy Should Put More of Its Money Where the Need Is
| By Will Fischer
A recent New York Times op-ed explains that the nation's housing policy focuses too much on tax subsidies for homeownership — which mainly benefit the wealthy — and too little on helping struggling and moderate-income families afford decent housing. We agree, and we've recommended rebalancing federal housing policy by creating a tax credit to help low-income families afford their rent.
More than three-fourths of homeownership tax subsidies go to households with incomes above $100,000, based on the best available data. The op-ed says more than half, citing our paper, but that figure covers spending for programs like housing vouchers as well as tax subsidies. Homeownership tax subsidies comprise the bulk of overall federal housing spending. At more than $100 billion in 2012, the deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes cost about twice as much as all federal low-income housing programs combined. The homeownership subsidies are so large and tilted toward the top that families with incomes above $200,000 get about four times as much federal housing assistance as those with incomes below $20,000, on average (see graph). Are these the right priorities? As we've pointed out, housing needs among low-income households, especially families with children, have grown sharply over the past decade. More than 7 million low-income families who receive no federal housing assistance pay more than half of their income for rent and utilities. Such rent burdens force families to shift resources away from other basic needs like food, medicine, and clothing for school or work, and place them at greater risk of housing instability and homelessness — problems that do serious harm to children's long-term health and development. There's growing talk of reforming the homeownership tax deductions in ways that would make them more efficient and help reduce the deficit. Policymakers could also use a modest share of the savings to fund measures that address unmet needs at the bottom of the income scale, such as the National Housing Trust Fund to develop housing for poor families (as the op-ed suggests) and our proposed renters' credit, which could be used in conjunction with the trust fund. As we outlined here, a renters' credit capped at $5 billion a year could:
Assist about 1.2 million of the lowest-income renter households;
Reduce each household's rent by an average of $400;
Cut the number of very low-income households paying more than half of their income for housing by about 700,000; and
Lift 250,000 families out of poverty and lift four of five of the poorest families it assists out of deep poverty (defined as having income below half of the federal poverty line).
Sheltering America's Children
Rental Assistance Reforms Would Build on Existing Programs' Successes and Save Money
The Need to Rebalance Federal Housing Policy, Part 3: Current Policies Don't Keep Up
Federal Budget, Federal Tax, Housing, Business Taxes, Funding
Will Fischer
Senior Director for Housing Policy and Research
PreviousWorking Families' Big Stake in the Expiring Tax-Credit Improvements
NextHow Much More Deficit Reduction Do We Need?


text:
Donald Trump wins Texas on strength with white, older voters
Jonathan Tilove
jtilove@statesman.com
12:55 a.m. update: Hillary Clinton won a better than 2 to 1 victory over Donald Trump in Travis County.
With all the votes counted, Clinton had 306,475 votes, or 66.3 percent, to Trump's 126,750 votes, or 27.4 percent, according to the Travis County clerk's office. The combined early vote and Election Day turnout was 64.9 percent.
Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson had 21,866 votes, or 4.7 percent, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein had 7,420 votes, or 1.6 percent.
In Williamson County, Trump beat Clinton with 104,029 votes, or 51.3 percent, to 84,252 votes, or 41.6 percent, for Clinton. Johnson had 10,205 votes, or 5 percent, and Stein had 2,038 votes, or 1 percent. Turnout was 67.6 percent.
In Hays County, Trump won 33,730 votes, or 46.9 percent, to 33,117, or 46 percent of the vote, for Clinton. Johnson had 3,622 votes, or 5 percent, and Stein had 1,055 votes, or 1.5 percent. The county's turnout was 59.3 percent.
In Bastrop County, Trump thumped Clinton, winning 16,314 votes, or 57.4 percent, to Clinton's 10,555 votes, or 37 percent. Johnson won 1,061 votes, or 3.7 percent, and Stein had 320 votes, or 1.1 percent. The county turnout was 63 percent.
10 p.m. update: Read our full story on the Texas presidential vote here.
8:30 update: Donald Trump won Texas on the strength of big margins with white and older voters.
According to exit polls in Texas, Trump won 69 percent of the white vote to 25 percent for Hillary Clinton, while Clinton won the black vote by an 84 percent to 11 percent margin, and won the Hispanic vote by a 61 percent to 34 percent spread.
The exit polls, published on the CNN site, are the work of Edison Research, the New Jersey-based firm that has conducted exit polls for the National Election Pool, a consortium of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox and The Associated Press, since 2003.
The exit polls also found a large gender gap in the Trump-Clinton contest, with Trump defeating Clinton 56 percent to 37 percent with men, and in a virtual 48 percent to 47 percent tie with Texas women.
Clinton won the vote of 92 percent of Democrats, while Trump held on to the votes of 88 percent of self-identified Republicans. Trump won among independents, 51 percent to 38 percent.
A worrying sign for Republicans as they look to the future, the younger the voters, the better Clinton did. She defeated Trump 54 percent to 37 percent among voters under 30. Trump and Clinton effectively split the vote of those aged 30 to 44, with Trump winning 47 percent to Clinton's 44 percent. Among voters 45 to 64, Trump held a commanding 58 percent to 38 percent lead, and among those 65 and over, the lead grew to 64 percent to 35 percent.
8:03 p.m. update: The Associated Press has called Texas for Donald Trump.
8 p.m. update: Donald Trump has a little better than a 10-point lead over Hillary Clinton with about half the early vote counted, according to the Texas secretary of state's office.
The secretary of state's office said more complete results being reported by CNN, purporting to show a see-saw contest with half the vote counted, are erroneous.
7:33 p.m. update: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton holds a slim lead over Donald Trump in Texas with almost half the votes counted, according to CNN.
With 46 percent of the vote in, according to CNN, Clinton had 48.4 percent of the vote to 47.3 percent for Trump, 3.5 percent for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson and 0.7 percent for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
Pre-election polls showed Trump leading Clinton by as few as 2 points and as many 14 points.
A Democratic presidential candidate has not carried Texas since 1976, when Jimmy Carter narrowly defeated President Gerald Ford. GOP presidential candidate John McCain defeated Barack Obama in Texas by 12 points in 2008. GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney defeated Barack Obama in Texas by 16 points in 2012.
George W. Bush was governor of Texas when he carried the state by a 21-point margin in 2000. He won by 23 points in 2004.
Bob Dole narrowly beat Bill Clinton by 5 points in 1996. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush only outdistanced Clinton by 3.5 points in a year in which another Texan, Ross Perot, won 22 percent of the vote in Texas.
Texas Democrats last won statewide office in 1994, the longest drought for any Democratic or Republican Party in the nation. When Greg Abbott was elected governor in 2014, he beat Wendy Davis, a state senator from Fort Worth, by 20 points.


text:
Q: Zend Form decoding data on populate Im having a bit of an issue with decoding data coming from a database.
My data is stored in the database as utf8, for this instance the data is 'corrosion & time', which is stored as 'corrosion & time'.  Now i want to populate a field of the form with this data, this field has a htmlSpecialChars filter applied.
When viewed in the browser I see:
'corrosion & time'
If I use html_entity_decode i get:
'corrosion $amp; time'
and if i also remove the filter from the form i then get:
'corrosion & time'
Is there anyway i can populate the form without removing the filter from the field?

A: you are going to have to decode the data before populating the form, the filter should not be applied to the data coming from the form until it's posted which will reapply the filter when getValues() is called.
If you know you used htmlspecialchars to encode the data then use htmlspecialchars_decode to decode the data.
Description

string htmlspecialchars_decode ( string $string [, int $quote_style = ENT_COMPAT ] )

 This function is the opposite of htmlspecialchars(). It converts special HTML entities back to characters.

The converted entities are: &, " (when ENT_NOQUOTES is not set), ' (when ENT_QUOTES is set), < and >.

A: I think a good solution would be to create a custom Zend_Filter. Within your custom filter, use htmlspecialchars_decode() to convert things such as & back to &.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


NuTiny-SDK-M4521 is the specific development tool for NuMicro® M4521 series. Users can use NuTiny-SDK-M4521 to develop and verify the application program easily.
NuTiny-SDK-M4521 includes two portions. One is NuTiny-EVB-M4521 and the other is Nu-Link-Me. NuTiny-EVB-M4521 is the evaluation board and Nu-Link-Me is its Debug Adaptor. Thus, users do not need other additional ICE or debug equipments.


text:
Q: onClick function error with typescript when build I am trying to create a submit function on a button. But when I build the application, a typing error appears. I tried different approaches but I don't understand how to solve the error.
This is the error:

I simplified the submit function which still returns the error.
  const handleSubmit = ({e}: any) => {
    e.preventDefault();
  };

#another try
  const handleSubmit = (e: any) => {
    e.preventDefault();
  };

<Button onClick={(e: any) => handleSubmit(e)} />

#another try
<Button onClick={handleSubmit} />

A: According to the type that you have set for 'e' in fact you did not use the typescript and you create a trick to handle typeScript error and warning so you can write like below:
 const handleSubmit = (e) => {
    e.preventDefault();
  };

<Button onClick={handleSubmit} />

A: Considering my comment above, something like this should work:
  const handleSubmit = () => {
    ...
    // Your handler code
  };

  <Button onClick={handleSubmit} />


text:
Bring back Gabriella Oliver
July 29, 2016 December 30, 2016 Gabriella Olivier	0 Comments EFFSC, Gabriella Olvier
On Monday the 25th of July 2016, as most students looked forward to commencing the second leg of the academic year, the University of the Western Cape (UWC) suspended me for defending workers who had been sexually harassed by the hostile private securities, employed by the Rector/ Vice-Chancellor himself, Tyroné Pretorious.
Apart from a one year suspension from all academic activities around South Africa, the sanction for standing up against patriarchy and rape culture at UWC includes a R15000 fine and an order that I undergo six months of therapy as ordered by a panel of three professionals with no psychology degrees/license or experience whatsoever.
Below are the facts of the matter:
A peaceful demonstration took place outside Campus Protection Services (CPS) offices after CPS refused to take the statement of an assaulted female worker who had been followed into the female bathroom by a sexual predator among their number. (It is not the first time justice had been denied to workers and students who report sex-related crimes). The workers requested that I go to the rectors office in an attempt to get him to come and substantively address the workers on the ground.
On my arrival at his office his lawyer lied to me and said the rector is not in the country and unavailable, when in fact the rector was in his air-conditioned office. This is the usual excuse every time students try to reach out to the rector. When he eventually relented and appeared, it took a lot of convincing, energy and negotiating with the rector to justify why he must provide answers to the workers as he is the head of the institution where employees are being sexually assaulted under his watch. The rector refused to listen to the pleas of the workers who are also labour exploited workers earning a mere R2 700 per month.
After arguing, the rector eventually gave in and said he will only speak for a few minutes. I told him he can't just brief the workers and leave it at that, more needed to be done as his employees are unsafe at their workplace, but the rector ignored us and became arrogant and hurriedly walked away from the students and workers after a worker told him to his face that she had been sexually assaulted on campus in 2013 and nothing materialized from her case.
This is how patriarchy, the guardian of rape culture, operates. The rector is an agent of patriarchy and is therefore a facilitator of rape culture on his campus. His display of arrogance in the face of desperation from the assaulted worker then provoked the workers and students, including me. That's when I threw a brick at a window to get his attention. At no stage was the rector in personal danger, and at no stage was he targeted. He then summoned his lawyer to deal with me, after which he went back to his office, presumably to continue to be unavailable (or "overseas") to those who he has charge over.
In a quick and unfair trial on Monday the 25th July 2016, UWC management suspended me for a duration of 1 year from university, R15 000 fine added to my already exorbitant fees for damages of a camera that was scratched by a piece of concrete (which the university accused me of however their video footage does not display who threw the stone).
I refuse to attend any therapy session provided by the university and recommended by unqualified people as I do not feel safe nor do I trust anything that the institution offers students. These are the same people who did not protect my interests as a student and young woman. I am offended that the university is implying I'm not mentally stable. The inference of psychological dysfunction is a well-worn weapon of misogyny when patriarchy deals with women challenging it's power structure.
I am a proud student and workers activist and will always stand for the right thing. This institution has been bullying students and workers voices for far too long. My academic suspension will not allow me to study anywhere else in the country for the time being, this exposes the serious anti-black, anti-student, anti-worker, corruption occurring at UWC. The ugly truth is that this university has a history and tendency to hide sexual assault and rape reports occurring on campus premises from the wider public. The rector as an agent of patriarchy and rape culture must be replaced in ignominy.
I accept that I should not have thrown the brick, but the punishment meted out is completely disproportionate, especially in an environment where sexual assault, a serious crime, is swept under the carpet by the institution and its agents.
This injustice has now left me without a degree and forced me to be part of the 54.50% youth unemployment rate in South Africa and therefore I will not be able to play an active role in stimulating and driving the economy. My suspension should be removed and and I should be reinstated back into the UWC community as I have the right to access higher learning education.
Furthermore, and most importantly, all incidents of sexual violence must be reported, investigated, it's perpetrators punished and it's victims protected. Those who stand for the survivors of sexual violence must not be victimized by authority as is the case here. Patriarchy must fall. Rape culture must fall. For these things to happen Tyroné Pretorious must fall.
← EFF WC bemused by Fransman's return
#ThingsMmusiDid and what it all means… →
EFF INTERVENES IN SUBJECTIVE ALLOCATION OF HOUSING IN STELLENBOSCH MUNICIPALITY
December 6, 2016 December 30, 2016 Bernard Joseph 0
Statement – DA members defect en masse to the Economic Freedom Fighters
July 1, 2016 December 30, 2016 Economic Freedom Fighters 0
Media Notice: Launch of RedTide Website


text:
Orrmyrberget är ett naturreservat i Ragunda kommun i Jämtlands län.

Området är naturskyddat sedan 2011 och är 45 hektar stort. Reservatet ligger sydväst om Orrmyrbeget och består av barrblandskog i öster och barrskog med inslag av lövträd i övrigt.

Referenser
Länsstyrelsen: naturreservatet Orrmyrberget

Naturreservat i Ragunda kommun
Naturskyddsområden bildade 2011

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Abstract: This project will measure the rise in blood levels of stress hormones such as corticosterone in response to a standardized stressor: capture, handling and restraint. This well-known response (found throughout vertebrates from fish to mammals) provides a strong assessment of whether or not a free-living population is chronically stressed or, if baseline levels of corticosterone appear normal, the stress-induced increase in corticosterone indicates potential for stress. This "field endocrinology" approach provides exact information on current stress status and the potential for stress in relation to quality and abundance of food. The project will investigate seabirds breeding in lower Cook Inlet.