Cadwallader C. Washburn Spring

Cadwallader C. Washburn Spring, named for the former Wisconsin Governor, (1867-1871) who, when he lived at Edgewood, lined the spring with stones and stocked it with trout.  Photo by Stephen B. Glass.

Formerly known at the Edgewood Big Spring or Deep Hole spring (Noland, 1951), the Cadwallader Washburn Spring is next to the Edgewood College boardwalk, along the Lake Wingra shoreline.   By the 1980′s and 1990′s the spring had become overgrown with brush, forgotten, and relegated to the annals of local history, until it was “re-discovered” in about 2000 by Edgewood College biology professor, Jim Lorman.  (Lorman recounts his re-discovery of Washburn spring,  in a podcast for Unseen Madison.com.)

Northern Blue Flag (Iris versicolor) growing near the Washburn Spring.  Photo by Stephen B. Glass.

The Noland (1951) report: “The Hydrography, Fish, and Turtle Population of Lake Wingra”,  is critical for anyone interested in the ecology of Lake Wingra.    An undergrad at the time he wrote the report,  Noland produced what is still considered one of the best natural histories of Lake Wingra.

Noland devoted several pages to active springs around Lake Wingra and a post-mortem of those that were then dry or no longer to be found.

The Lake Wingra shoreline, including The Washburn Spring, and the nearby “New Millennium Spring” formerly known as the “Big Fish Spring” (Noland, 1951) and rediscovered by Lorman in about 2000, are easily accessed  from a lakeside footpath and a boardwalk installed a few years ago by Edgewood.   The boardwalk makes it easy to get right down to the shoreline, provides seating areas, and wonderful views of the Lake Wingra skyline.

Car and bicycle parking and bike rentals are nearby at the intersection of Edgewood Avenue, Edgewood Drive (no cars), Vilas Park Drive and Vilas Avenue on the west side of Vilas Park.

Educational Opportunities of Restoration Projects

While we’re on the topics of stream restoration and habitat enhancement, let’s mention another exemplary project that combines ecological restoration, civic involvement, and public outreach and education.  This salmon habitat improvement project case study comes from the City of Santa Maria, California in Santa Barbara County.    Here, according to the Santa Maria Times  ”a creek side trail will give middle school students a hands-on education in creek monitoring, restoration and preservation will be showcased at a public open house today (May 19).”

The project is sponsored by Central Coast Salmon Enhancement, Inc.  and is rich in partnerships and stakeholder involvement.   Project participants included:

“The city of Arroyo Grande helped with the permitting process, and Lucia Mar Unified School District provided access to the site. Paulding Middle School Creek Explorers Afterschool Program also participated in trail development.

“Boy Scouts and Master Gardeners helped restore and enhance the riparian habitat by removing exotic plant species and planting native species, and two Boy Scouts constructed information kiosks as their Eagle projects.”

 

Malletts Creek Stream Restoration

Let’s return once more this week to our topic of restoration of urban streams.  I know it’s Friday and we may not want a heavy topic to think about over the weekend, but this is an important matter to urbanites.

Many urban waterways suffer from “urban stream syndrome”.  According to Meyer, Paul, and Taulbee (2005) attributes of urban stream syndrome include: “elevated nutrients and contaminants, increased hydrological flashiness, and altered biotic assemblages.  Ecosystem function probably also varies with the extent of urbanization although there are few stream networks in which this prediction has been studied.”

A more recent study, Violin, et all ( 2010)  “compared the physical and biological structure of four urban degraded, four urban restored, and four forested streams in the Piedmont region of North Carolina to quantify the ability of reach-scale stream restoration to restore physical and biological structure to urban streams and to examine the assumption that providing habitat is sufficient for biological recovery.”  Their conclusion was:

“that reach-scale restoration is not successfully mitigating for the factors causing physical and biological degradation.”

Other Stream Restoration Goals

Nevertheless, there may be other restoration goals and outcomes, such as improved water quality, reduced storm water flows, and channel stabilization,  that can be achieved,  and create modest habitat improvements.  One such example is Malletts Creek Stream Restoration in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The blogger recently had a chance to visit the restoration project site two Sunday’s ago as part of a field trip sponsored by the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Midwest-Great Lakes SER Chapter May 4 to 6 at the University of Michigan.  (For more reporting on the Midwest/Great Lakes 4th Annual Meeting see the May 22, 2012 post at Invasive Plant News).

The field trip brochure described the restoration project:  ”Malletts Creek and its tributaries flowing through County Farm Park are being restored to improve water quality, reduce flow volumes, and channel stabilization.  The Malletts Creek Stream Restoration project is focused on reducing erosion, and annual phosphorus loads entering the Huron River.  Malletts Creek is the largest waterway in Ann Arbor and transports the greatest share of pollutants to the Huron River.  Treatment features include creek bank stabilization, stone check weirs, and wet meadow storm water mitigation basin.” construction.”

A recent story in Ann Arbor.com provides more details and a slide show of the project.

Underused Garlic Mustard Control Strategy?

The question of the day for all you garlic mustard pullers out there is this: Are you using all the tools and best management practices that you know of to battle the pest species?

Of course you are, but what if I told you of a promising new control strategy? Would you give it a try? Maybe some of you have seen it employed by private citizens on public land? Perhaps it’s just an urban legend but today I first learned of this new control strategy called the “Queen Plant approach”. It works like this: for every garlic mustard population there is a Queen Plant (similar to the Queen Bee of a bee hive). If only you can the Queen Plant (or the Queen Bee), the rest of the population (or colony) dies.

You have probably seen this technique used many times and, like me, just not recognized it for what it is. You know, you’ve seen those little piles of two or three freshly pulled garlic mustard left by the side of the bike trail, (like those pictured below.)

A Queen garlic mustard plant pulled by a concerned citizen and left by the side of the trail. The rest of the garlic mustard population will soon die without its leader.

Like me, you may have surmised that someone came along to try to pull the entire population but just ran out of time or steam, and would come back later to complete the task. But no, according to my morning warbler walk leader, this is the little known and little used Queen Garlic Mustard Plan control strategy. But it only works if you find the real Queen plant. But the Queen plant is hard to identify and sometimes, he said, with tongue firmly planted in his cheek, you have to pull the entire population to make sure you get the Queen plant.

Let me know how it works and remember I am just kidding.

Pheasant Branch Streambank Stabilization

Our topic today is ecological restoration and stream bank stabilization of urban streams– in this case the popular Pheasant Branch in Middleton, Wisconsin. The City of Middleton had previously restored and stabilized the bank of Pheasant Branch between Park Street and Century Avenue and has been praised for its use of ecologically sensitive techniques.

Pheasant Branch is an area rich in springs and groundwater seeps but is also afflicted by increasing volumes of storm water runoff and associated sediment and nutrient loads that eventually wind up in Lake Mendota. The City of Middleton could have chosen the easy, predictable, and inefficient, solution to storm water management, by building a series of storm water ponds and channelizing Pheasant Branch. Instead, the City used innovative bio-engineering techniques such as root wads, large woody debris and flow re-direction; ecological restoration techniques that favor insects, amphibians, and birds.

Birders in this mornings’ Madison Audubon Society warbler walk (PB is one of the most popular spots in Madison to view migrating spring warblers) got to see first-hand the work along this stretch of the Pheasant Branch stream corridor and bikeway.

If you want to see this stream bank restoration you can park your car at Parisi Park near where Park Lawn Street meets Park Street in Middleton, WI; or better yet, take a bike ride, or birding walk along Pheasant Branch.

Should We Eat Garlic Mustard, or Not?

A recent article in the May 9 issue of Conservation Magazine online called “Recipe for Disaster? raises concerns about the long-term unintended consequences  of making certain invasive species part of our regular diet.  The article says that concerns include the possibility that:

“People might also start to value an invasive species more if it is successfully integrated into local cuisine. Once residents start making money by hunting or raising these animals, they may oppose removing the species entirely, the researchers suggest. Some invasive species could even become an important part of local culture. The non-native wild boar, for instance, is now strongly linked to cultural traditions in the Hawaiian Islands.”

Here in Wisconsin, the pest plant with the highest edibility quotient is probably garlic mustard.  Wisconsin and other parts of the midwestern United States are the epicenter of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) and although some folks here have taken to making garlic mustard pesto, adding it to salads, and as a garnish on sandwiches, it does not seem that these food uses will remove garlic mustard from the pest plant “most wanted list.”

City to Continue Weed Control on SW Bike Path

City Engineer Robert Phillips, P.E. announced yesterday that City (of Madison) Engineering will fund a second year of work to contain, and eventually eradicate,  Japanese knotweed from areas bordering the SW Bike Path.  (See earlier blog post on the status of Japanese knotweed along the SW Bike Path.)  This year’s funding is a continuation of a two-year project begun last year using the professional restoration services of NES Ecological Services of Green Bay to control invasive plant species along portions of the SW Bike Path.

While last year’s weed control project targeted a variety of pest plant species, the focus of this year’s work will be Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) to devote as much concentrated effort as possible to start to bring this predatory plant under control.

The City’s pest plant control program has the support and encouragement of a collation of Volunteer Bike Path Stewards from five neighborhood associations along this emerging “Bird and Butterfly Corridor.”    Tony Fernandez, spokesperson for City Engineering on Bike Path matters, said  ”It’s great that the volunteers from different  neighborhoods are working together and I would strongly encourage continued coordination and organization. Whatever we can do to strengthen the public-neighborhood partnership on this path will benefit path users, adjacent residents and the overall ecological health of the watershed.”

 

Restoration Goals for Novel Ecosystems?

A novel ecosystem: garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) infestation in a stormwater floodplain near Secret Pond, UW-Madison Arboretum. Photo by Stephen B. Glass.

A novel, or emerging ecosystem, is one without an analog in the natural environment that develops in response to radically altered environmental conditions caused by social, economic, or cultural activities.   Novel ecosystems include those with urban soil contaminated by storm water runoff; systems with altered ground and surface water flows; or systems with soil disturbed by ditching, dredging, or drainage

The woodland pictured here is a typical novel ecosystem.  The site has, for decades, been subjected to all the disturbances listed, and more;  it also has a significant component of herbaceous pest species like garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata),  Dame’s Rocket              (Hesperis matronalis), and Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum or Fallopia japonica).    Few of the original native wetland and sedge meadow species grow on the site.  The historic and modern-day disturbances like storm water runoff continue.

Storm water floodplain forest with garlic mustard. Photo by Stephen B. Glass.

 Planning Restoration for a Novel Ecosystem

Let’s start with some questions:  Where does the restoration ecologist start with a site like this?  What are practical goals?   Can the altered hydrology be restored?  What can one do about the dried and disturbed peaty soils?

Is the top priority the eradication of pest species?   Does the restoration learn to live with some of the pest species?  If the pest species are removed, what will replace them?  Will this site support a restored system based upon historic models?  Or, will restoration of this novel ecosystem require novel approaches and ecosystem models?

If you have any suggestions, let us know.

 

 

 

Garlic Mustard, Control Advice From the Front Lines

From the wonderful Northern Illinois restoration blog: Prairie Piece: living in harmony with nature comes a new post with comprehensive educational information and control options for dealing with garlic mustard ( Alliaria petiolata).

The restoration blogger, VJ Cepa,  speaks from experience and offers a short history of the plant’s introduction into the United States, the invaders’ life cycle and culture, some of the threats it poses to native plants,  tips on field identification (GM does have some native lookalikes) and a range of sensible and effective management tactics.

Two Native Spring Wildflowers

Trillium recurvatum, or prairie trillium is a native Wisconsin wildflower that requires moderate moisture. It grows easily in woods or prairies and makes a wonderful perennial plant for the home garden. Photo by Stephen B. Glass.

 

Starry false Solomon's-seal, (Maianthemum stellatum). LIkes full to partial sun and dry to moderate moisture. This native Wisconsin wildflower grows in many of the same situations as the prairie trillium. This fine plant is easy to grow and has a place in the home landscape. Photo by Stephen B. Glass.