Accent on Natural Landscaping

Donna VanBuecken

Senators Vote Unanimous – April 2021 Is National Native Plant Month

It finally happened! In a grand bipartisan move, the U.S. Senate authorized this April 2021 as National Native Plant Month.

We hope the benefits of our native plants lead to an understanding of our pollinators that depend on it. Royal catchfly (Silene regia) outstanding among the bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta). Photo by Joan Rudolph.

Senate Resolution 109 was introduced and co-sponsored by Rob Portman (R-OH) and Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) to the Senate on March 15th. It was passed by unanimous vote on March 25th. Please join us in thanking our senators for supporting this resolution.

The two senators recognize the importance of native plants to environmental conservation and restoration, as well as in supporting a diversity of wildlife. Senator Hirono also co-sponsored the “Botany Bill” which seeks to improve management of botanical resources on federal public lands.

Supporters

This resolution includes Wild Ones and the Native Plant Societies of Florida, Oregon, Washington, and North Carolina, as well as our partners, the Garden Club of America and Doug Tallamy.

Here is the Wild Ones response: “Native Plants, Natural Landscapes promotes environmentally sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration and establishment of native plant communities. Recognition of a Native Plant Month supports education and advocacy efforts in many organizations to restore native ecosystems and support all of our efforts to heal our planet,” said Jen Ainsworth, Executive Director of Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes.

What can you do to help?

Please take a minute to mention this to like-minded friends, colleagues, and professional acquaintances, letting them know that April 2021 is Native Plant Month for the United States. Let’s see if the House of Representatives will agree.

You can help by reaching out to your representatives to let them know you support the bill and to ask them to co-sponsor/sign-on to the bill. E-mail or call your representative to ask them to introduce or co-sponsor a House companion resolution to Senate Resolution 109 designating April as National Native Plant Month. The benefits of native plants to the biodiversity, beauty, resilience, and economic security of this nation are grossly under-appreciated. This resolution will help raise awareness about the need to enjoy, conserve, and restore our country’s unique native-plant communities. Find Your Representative.

If the House sponsors a resolution, there is a renewed hope! We must keep the Botany Bill legislation alive.

Read: Botany Bill S2384.

Read: Botany Bill HR1572.

We hope this new recognition of the benefits of our native plants leads to an understanding of the circle of life. Who knows? The native plants may harvest carbon dioxide more efficiently through photosynthesis.

Read the full Press Release for the Resolution.

Read the Resolution.

 

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It’s Time to Reauthorize Wisconsin’s Stewardship Program

In 1989, Governor Tommy Thompson and the Wisconsin legislature created the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program to preserve valuable natural areas and wildlife habitat, protect water quality and fisheries, and expand the opportunities for outdoor recreation. Normally, the Stewardship Program is on a 10-year cycle, but it was only budgeted for three years until 2022. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) has recommended that Governor Evers’ next biennial budget include 10-year reauthorization of the program through 2031. The Nature Conservancy was deeply involved in crafting this recommendation and will work with the governor, state legislators of both parties, and the WDNR to ensure that this recommendation is adopted in the next state budget.

We have time to get a coalition of partners from other conservation, hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation groups to increase funding for the program, and reauthorize it for a longer period of time.

What Does the Stewardship Program Do?

One of the projects that was helped by the Stewardship Funds. This is the Guckenberg-Sturm Marsh on Little Lake Butte des Morts. Photo taken by Donna VanBuecken.

More than 90 percent of Wisconsinites recognize the importance of reauthorizing the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program to protect our state’s lands, waters, and wildlife, fight climate change with natural solutions, maintain our mental and physical well-being, and grow our outdoor recreation and local economies. (The Nature Conservancy)

  • Clean Water — Protecting the forests, wetlands and grasslands that filter out pollutants in runoff before they reach our lakes, rivers, and groundwater.
  • Groundwater Protection — Protecting the lands that are essential to replenish the groundwater is critical to ensure a consistent supply of clean, safe water.
  • Flood Protection — Protecting grasslands, wetlands, and forests along rivers upstream to store water and help reduce the risk of severe flooding downstream.
  • Recreation Economy — Protecting hundreds of thousands of acres of land and hundreds of river miles for hunting, fishing, wildlife watching, and other types of recreation.
  • Urban Outdoor Opportunities — Providing outdoor opportunities near home for all Wisconsin residents, including more trails and parks for those living in cities and surrounding urban areas.
  • Wildlife Habitat — Protecting large blocks of wetlands, forest, and prairie for birds, waterfowl, pollinators, bats, small and large mammals, and other rare, protected, and endangered species to roam.
  • Working Lands — Protecting working forest, prairie, and rivers in Wisconsin, along with the jobs and products they provide.

Nonpartisan Program

The Stewardship Fund is a nonpartisan program. It was named after former governors Warren Knowles, a Republican, and Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat. It’s the right thing to do for Wisconsin’s land, water, and wildlife. We have to make sure our lawmakers know how important land and water protection is for our state.

Write the legislature today.

Please let them know what you think about it.

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The e-mail photo courtesy of WDNR.

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Warranted but Precluded

Recently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced that the
Endangered Species Act Listing for the monarch butterfly was “warranted, but precluded” by work on higher-priority listing actions.

First monarch of the season nectaring on Virginia Bluebell (Mertensia virginica). Photo courtesy of Donna VanBuecken

With this decision, the monarch becomes a candidate for listing, and its status will be reviewed each year until it is no longer a candidate. In the case of the monarch butterfly, the USFWS states that they plan to propose the monarch for listing in fiscal year 2024 if the listing is still warranted (as prioritized by the National Listing Workplan).

ESA and Habitat

Trump’s administration finalizes the “new” Endangered Species Act before the end.

Monarch butterfly on Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) at the WILD Center. Photo courtesy of Donna VanBuecken

On December 20, 2020, USFWS defines habitat under ESA: “Habitat is the abiotic and biotic setting that currently or periodically contains the resources and conditions necessary to support one or more life processes of a species.” This definition prohibits the federal agencies from designating areas that are not currently occupied by the species as habitat and would further ecosystem restoration improvements to become suitable habitat. It would also prohibit federal agencies from protecting areas that could become important habitat for rare species under climate change.

Another finalized rule allows USFWS to exclude areas from critical habitat designations for endangered species if the critical habitat designation would cause negative economic impacts or harm national security or outdoor recreation opportunities.

We Can We Do?

Monarch butterfly ovipositing onto the host plant milkweed. Photo by Candi Sarikonda.

“This scientific review of the population status clearly demonstrates that monarchs need our urgent support. Voluntary, proactive conservation is necessary, and this work goes beyond monarchs; by conserving monarchs, we benefit grassland habitats and countless organisms. This supports the delicate balance of biodiversity and helps mitigate the decline of many species, before they need ESA protections.” (Monarch Joint Venture)

Share knowledge to create habitat and educate the community about monarchs and pollinators. Help researchers better understand these trends. Report findings of citizen science to community science projects like Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper or Journey North. If you are able to document this behavior of monarch larva at the same site(s) on a weekly basis, we strongly encourage getting involved in the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project to keep a more detailed account of your observations.

Check out USFWS Questions and Answers: 12-month finding on a petition to list the monarch butterfly and watch for more updates on the USFWS monarch butterfly page. Find contact information for your House and Senate representatives to write them and express your opinion.

States have their Monarch Conservation Strategy

Monarch nectaring on Rough Blazingstar (Liatris aspera). Photo courtesy of Donna VanBuecken

According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), the  Natural Heritage Conservation “will continue to support the Wisconsin Monarch Collaborative to implement the twenty-year Wisconsin Monarch Conservation Strategy. That strategy seeks to enlist homeowners, farmers, utilities, and other groups in voluntarily adding native milkweed and wildflowers to their property, with a goal of adding around 120 million more native milkweed stems, along with nectar sources, to the Wisconsin landscape by 2038. Habitat loss is the primary driver for the 80 percent decline in the eastern U.S. population of monarchs that breeds in Wisconsin during the summer.” (WDNR)

Connecticut Butterfly Atlas Project

Illinois Monarch Monarch Initiative

Indiana Monarch Monarch Conservation Plan

Iowa Monarch Conservation Strategy

Kentucky Monarch Conservation Plan

Maryland Monarch Conservation

Michigan Monarch Strategy

Mid-American Monarch Conservation  Strategy
(Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin)

Minnesota The Monarch Joint Venture

Missourians for Monarchs

New Jersey Monarch Butterfly Guide

New York Pollinator Conservation Association

Environment North Carolina

North Dakota Monarch Butterfly and Native Pollinator Strategy

Ohio Pollinator Habitat Program

Pennsylvania Save the Monarch

Texas Monarch Flyway Strategy  and  Gulf-Houston Monarch Flyway

Western States Monarch Conservation Plan(California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah)

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The e-mail photo is by Judy Kesser.

 

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Whitebark Pine to Be Listed Under Federal Endangered Species Act

Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis) leaves are in fascicles (bundles) of five, and the cone is dark purple when immature. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

On December 2, 2019, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis) as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act. The tree’s range covers more than 80.5 million acres in seven western states (Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada) and Canada. Whitebark Pine is considered a keystone species because it regulates runoff by slowing the progress of snowmelt, reduces soil erosion by initiating early succession after fires and other disturbances, and provides seeds that are a high-energy food source for some birds and mammals.

Importance of the Listing

The proposed listing is important for several reasons:

First, Whitebark Pine is a widespread species, and it is a keystone species. Dominating high-elevation forests, it lives in cold, windy, high-elevation or high-latitude sites in western North America. It also occurs in scattered areas of the warm and dry Great Basin (portions of California, Nevada, and Oregon).

This is a dying Whitebark Pine forest. It has faced an invasive disease and voracious insects that had not previously been able to thrive in cold Whitebark territory. Courtesy of Natural Resources Defense Council.

Second, the species is in extreme decline. White pine blister rust, a non-native fungal disease, mountain pine beetles, climate change, and fire suppression all negatively affect the species’ health.

Third, despite the obvious effects of climate change on forests worldwide, Whitebark Pine is the first tree to be proposed for protection under the Endangered Species Act because of climate change, and it will not be the last.

Finally, in 2008, when the National Resources Defense Council filed their Petition to List the Whitebark Pine as an Endangered Species, studies showed that 80 percent of the Whitebark Pine forests in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem were already dead or dying, and for more than a decade had been in serious decline.

Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis) at Mount Rainier National Park. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

As a federally threatened species, protections for Whitebark Pine would include prohibiting the removal of Whitebark Pine from federal lands and prohibiting its import, export, and activities related to interstate and foreign commerce. The government did not designate critical habitat for Whitebark Pine.

The scope of the catastrophe for this widespread keystone species dramatically shows how apathy, climate change, and other human damage is destroying the life-support system of our country and planet. Plan to comment today!

The Federal Register

The Federal Register will accept comments received or postmarked on or before February 1, 2021. Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov. In the Search box, enter FWS-R6-ES-2019-0054, which is the docket number for this rulemaking.

The above was taken partially from the full story at NPCC News: Whitebark Pine Is First Tree to Be Listed Under Federal Endangered Species Act Due to Climate Change.

Read U.S. Fish and Wildlife Press Release for the proposal.

Read Natural Resources Defense Council: Feds Say Climate is Killing Whitebark Pine Trees.

 

 

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