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November 29 program:
After giving thanks for the earth's bounty on Thanksgiving, join us at our November meeting to learn more about what makes this bounty possible: healthy soil. Or, as the movie we're showing for our November meeting calls it, "dirt." It's especially appropriate this year to remember the importance of soil since 2015 has been declared by the UN to be the International Year of Soils.From the Dirt! The Movie website:
DIRT! The Movie -- narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis -- brings to life the environmental, economic, social and political impact that the soil has. It shares the stories of experts from all over the world who study and are able to harness the beauty and power of a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with soil.
But more than the film and the lessons that it teaches, DIRT! The Movie is a call to action. "When humans arrived 2 million years ago, everything changed for dirt. And from that moment on, the fate of dirt and humans has been intimately linked."
Our meetings are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Bring a friend!
WHEN: Sun. Nov. 29 at 2:00 pm
HGCNY Election
As a chapter of Wild Ones, we hold an annual election in November, and all Wild Ones members are eligible to vote. Thank you to all members who voted!
(If you didn't get an email notice of the election, maybe your membership expired or you aren't yet a member? If so, please renew or join; information is below.)
More about soil
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN has produced some animated videos about soil issues. Here are a few: * World Soil Day - 1 min.
~ Janet Allen, President, HGCNY Wild Ones Chapter |
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| Goldfinch enjoying a meal of
anise hyssop seeds |
Nine reasons to be thankful for plants
Project BudBurst, a citizen science program that tracks plants throughout the seasons, reminds us of 9 reasons to give thanks for plants.
Here are three of them as described by Kayri Havens of the Chicago Botanic Garden:
Oxygen:
Plants create the oxygen in our atmosphere through photosynthesis. They (along with some photosynthetic bacteria) are solely responsible for providing the air we breathe.
Medicine:
Most medicines are originally isolated from plants (and some fungi too). Examples of important drugs coming from plants include aspirin from willow bark and the potent cancer fighting drugs, taxol from a yew tree and vincristine from a periwinkle plant.
Water:
Plants play an important role in the global water cycle by transpiring soil water into the atmosphere. They also play a critical role in purifying water. Native plants on the shorelines of lakes and rivers can prevent eroding soil and contaminants from entering our waterways.
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Thankful not just for turkeys, but for turkey vultures, too!?!
The Rodney Dangerfield of birds: they just don't get any respect! But turkey vultures (and other vultures) are part of nature's clean-up crew.
Though not as large as an eagle, it's a large bird, with a wingspan of about 70 inches. It's always a treat to see these birds soaring overhead, looking for carrion. (And no, they don't grab your pets!)
Cool facts
Here are some cool facts about turkey vultures from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds:
* The Turkey Vulture uses its sense of smell to locate carrion. The part of its brain responsible for processing smells is particularly large, compared to other birds. Its heightened ability to detect odors -- it can detect just a few parts per trillion -- allows it to find dead animals below a forest canopy.
* Vultures in the Americas look a lot like the vultures in Europe, Asia, and Africa, with broad wings, bare heads, and the habit of eating dead meat. But surprisingly, they're in different taxonomic families, meaning they're not particularly closely related. They evolved many of the same features as they exploited the same kinds of resources in different parts of the planet. This process is known as convergent evolution.
Learn more cool facts about turkey vultures on the All About Birds website.
Today they are among the most common large carnivorous birds in North America. However, because they live on rotting meat, like California Condors, they can fall victim to poisons or lead in dead animals. The main concern is lead shot that ends up in carcasses or gut piles left by hunters. The animals eat the shot and eventually suffer lead poisoning.
Other threats include trapping and killing due to erroneous fears that they spread disease. Far from it, vultures actually REDUCE the spread of disease.
Learn more about identifying turkey vultures, about their life history, and explore the audio and video of them on the All About Birds website. |
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| | Billions in a teaspoon of soil |
And even thankful for soil microbes
Here are some excerpts from just three of the many resources on new discoveries about the importance of soil microbes. A National Wildlife Federation's blog post "It's in the dirt!" notes that:
"Dirt can be good for us! Mycobacterium vaccae, a bacterium in soil, has been found to trigger the release of serotonin, which in turn improves mood and possibly even brain function."
And researchers at the Sage Colleges in Troy, NY note, "Gardeners inhale these bacteria while digging in the soil, but they also encounter M. vaccae in their vegetables or when soil enters a cut in their skin...From our study we can say that it is definitely good to be outdoors-it's good to have contact with these organisms."
"Healthy soil microbes, healthy people" by Mike Amaranthus and Bruce Allyn in The Atlantic
Just as we have unwittingly destroyed vital microbes in the human gut through overuse of antibiotics and highly processed foods, we have recklessly devastated soil microbiota essential to plant health through overuse of certain chemical fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides, pesticides, failure to add sufficient organic matter (upon which they feed), and heavy tillage.
These soil microorganisms -- particularly bacteria and fungi -- cycle nutrients and water to plants, to our crops, the source of our food, and ultimately our health. Soil bacteria and fungi serve as the "stomachs" of plants. They form symbiotic relationships with plant roots and "digest" nutrients, providing nitrogen, phosphorus, and many other nutrients in a form that plant cells can assimilate.
"The Surprising Healing Qualities of ... Dirt" by Daphne Miller, M.D., also author of Farmacology.
I'm even beginning to wonder whether Hippocrates was wrong, or at least somewhat misguided, when he proclaimed, "Let food be thy medicine." Don't get me wrong -- food is important to our health. But it might be the soil where our food is grown, rather than the food itself, that offers us the real medicine.
Check out the articles for more fascinating information about the importance of the soil microbiome to our health.
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Time for Project FeederWatch!
Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America.
FeederWatchers periodically count the birds they see at their feeders from November through early April and send their counts to Project FeederWatch. FeederWatch data help scientists track broadscale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance.
Anyone interested in birds can participate. FeederWatch is conducted by people of all skill levels and backgrounds, including children, families, individuals, classrooms, retired persons, youth groups, nature centers, and bird clubs. Participants watch their feeders as much or as little as they want over two consecutive days as often as every week (less often is fine).
They count birds that appear in their count site because of something that they provided (plantings, food, or water).
NOTE that our habitat plantings count, not just bird feeders!!
Sign up to be a FeederWatcher by clicking the red button at the top right of the homepage. There is a participation fee ($18 for non-Lab members and $15 for Lab members); in other words, less than the cost of a couple of movie tickets or fast food meals for a whole winter's worth of enjoyment and contribution to bird conservation! This year, Project FeederWatch starts on Nov. 14 and runs to April 8. If you miss signing up before Nov. 14, you can sign up anytime and still participate.
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Your land and your conservation opportunities: It's your choice
On November 20th, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Onondaga County will be hosting a workshop on land conservation opportunities from 8:30am-1:00pm at the Skaneateles United Methodist Church at 26 Jordan St.
The workshop is aimed towards farm and forest landowners interested in land conservation and open space programs to help maintain the long-term goal to keep land open and working into the future.
There is no fee, but registration in required by contacting CCE Onondaga at 315-424-9485 or by email at rlw294@cornell.edu. Morning refreshments and a light lunch will be served.
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Horticulture Educator
Part-time Job Opportunity
Cornell Cooperative Extension is looking for someone to coordinate the Master Gardener program and serve as a source of horticultural information.
To learn more about this position, go to the CCE website
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| | Stopping by on its way to Mexico |
Flight of the Butterflies at MOST's iMax Theater
It's a treat to see monarchs in our yards in the summer, but their annual migration to Mexico is one of nature's miracles.
A movie about this migration is playing at the MOST. Here's the description:
Weighing less than a penny, a monarch butterfly makes one of the longest migrations on Earth to a place it has never known. Join hundreds of millions of real butterflies on an amazing journey to a remote and secret hideaway, and one scientist's 40-year search to unravel the mystery of where they go each fall. Runtime - 45 minutes
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Join Wild Ones
We welcome everyone to our meetings, but we encourage you to become an official member. Since HGCNY is a chapter of the national organization Wild Ones, when you become a member of Wild Ones, you're automatically a member of HGCNY, too. And since Wild Ones is an official not-for-profit organization, your membership is tax-deductible. It's easy to become a member, receive the bimonthly Wild Ones Journal, and support our mission. Just go to the Wild Ones website or call toll-free (877) 394-9453. |
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Join us on Facebook
As more of us participate on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/hgcny, this will become a useful resource for asking (and answering!) local HGCNYers' questions about habitat gardening. |
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Learn more: Habitat gardening
This is an example of a local habitat garden. It also includes links to more information and inspiration to get started on your own habitat garden. |
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Learn more: Edible gardening
This is an example of a local edible garden. It also includes links to more information and inspiration to get started on your own edible garden. |
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