Fall & Winter 2012: Volume 33, Numbers 3 & 4 - Missouri Prairie ...

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Education on the Prairie with Jeff Cantrell cyndi cogbill The Milkweed Connection Advancing the Conservation Efforts of a Species with an Outdoor Learning Station. PART THREE Favoring many open and semi-open habitats, the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is probably America’s most recognizable butterfly. Always a delight to see in the wild, monarchs are also a welcome find in the home garden or a school outdoor learning station. An outdoor learning station landscaped with natives that provide both nectar sources attractive to monarch butterflies, as well as specific milkweed host plants for their larvae, will entice these impressive migrators. As discussed in detail in Part One in the spring issue, ideal nectar sources include stiff-leaved aster (Aster linariifolius), southern prairie aster (A. paludosus), goldenrods, and other early summer to early fall-blooming prairie plants. The caterpillars feed exclusively on milkweed species. While children can learn much by observing monarchs that visit outdoor learning stations, the stations also help Randy Haas the butterflies during their migration in spring and fall. In fall, scores of adults spin off from the huge, loose flocks of hundreds and often thousands of migrators heading toward only ten—now extensively logged—mountain areas of central Mexico, their winter habitat. As native sources of nectar and host plants become scarce due to land conversion for human uses, remnant natural communities, “idle” land, and outdoor learning stations become progressively vital to the population’s existence. Learning stations have the potential of making a major contribution to conservation, by serving as an example for educating the public and also directly aiding butterfly populations. If you don’t have a “milkweed connection” of your own, this fall is a great time to plan and plant. Becky Wylie; inset CYNDi COGBILL Monarch Facts Monarch Life Cycle: • Egg: 3–4 days • Larva/Caterpillar: 10–14 days • Pupa/Chrysalis: 11–14 days • Life Span: 2–4 weeks for adult summer generations. These butterflies will mate and lay eggs, sometimes several times until late summer. • Adults emerging in late summer/early fall won’t mate or lay eggs until the following spring. Instead, they prepare for migration. These adults will live up to 8 months. Behavior and life history: • Females may lay eggs directly after the first mating. • The female may lay eggs in areas well distanced apart, sometimes on different plants. • Adults remain the same body size after emerging from the chrysalis. • Compound eyes help them find the native asters and other nectar sources, and the proboscis draws it in, but it is the monarch’s feet that taste the sweet nectar. Recommended resources: The Life Cycles of Butterflies by Judy Burris & Wayne Richards ISBN 978—1-58017-617-0 Monarch Magic, Butterfly Activities & Nature Discoveries by Lynn Rosenblatt ISBN 1-885593-23-6 http://www.learner.org/jnorth/ http://www.monarchlab.org/ http://www.monarchwatch.org/ Monarch butterflies have long captured people’s attention with their slow flap and gliding flight, easy-to-observe life cycle, and stunning fall migration. Their range spans throughout the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico. They travel much farther than all other tropical butterflies—as much as three thousand miles—and they are the only butterflies to make such a long, two-way migration every year. Flying in masses to the same winter roosts, often to the exact same trees, individual monarchs make the round trip from Canada or the United States to wintering grounds in Mexico only once. (Some western monarchs also winter in a small part of California.) Five generations of monarchs can live in a year, and somehow, the great-great-grandchildren of butterflies that left the previous spring find their way to the same wintering habitat in fall. Missouri Grade Level Expectations: Living Organisms: 1.A.1.a., 1.A.6.a., Ecology: 1.B.6.a., 2.A.3.b., 2.A.3.d., 3.C.4.b., 3.C.4.c, 3.C.4.d., 3.C.6.a., 3.C.6.b., Inquiry: 1.B.4.a., 1.B.4.b., 1.B.5.a. 24 Missouri Prairie Journal Vol. 33 Nos. 3 & 4
Susan Hilty Moving Forward from the Drought The Drought of 2012 was the big news this past summer. How long will it last? Previous droughts have been multiple years more often than single years. The 1810s drought lasted six years, the 1860s drought lasted seven years, the 1930s drought was eight years, the 1950s and the 1980s droughts lasted five years. Wet years often occur during droughts; for example the worst years of 1934 and 1936 were separated by a wet 1935. Likewise, 1982 was exceptionally wet, breaking a string of dry years. There have been several two-year and single-year droughts; the most recent were 1988 and 2006. So, which will this one be? It already is two years if you include the southwest last year. Even if it’s a short-term drought, don’t expect any appreciable moisture until at least March. Throughout the summer, Missouri has had the worst pasture condition of any Midwestern state, rated 99% poor or very poor. It isn’t that we have been that much hotter or drier, but the state of our pastures is in part a reflection of decisions to convert 99.9 % of the tallgrass prairie to coolseason pasture, trees, or cropland. Isn’t fescue great?! Remember all that money made on fescue seed went to pay for fertilizer to ensure high seed and hay yields. Not much left over to buy hay now. As happened during previous droughts or dry summers, I received a lot of inquiries this past summer about planting native warm-season grasses for forage that would perform substantially better during dry weather than tall fescue. I also heard from past cooperators with native grasses who swore the grasses saved their farm or cow herd. You’d think more producers would take note, but many are willing to wait for a government handout. I’ve even seen some mowing their pastures even though there’s nothing but a couple goldenrods to clip off. Habits are hard to break, even in difficult economic times. The following article from Don McKenzie, Director of the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, sums up the opportunity to improve not only habitat for grassland wildlife, but improve the future for livestock producers throughout the Midwest. Don drafted a letter to the USDA, signed by a number of conservation organizations and agencies, that suggests a longer-term approach be taken following this drought that encourages producers to plant drought-resistant native grasses on part of their acreages. Encouraging for the future of native grasses is an article on cattlegrazing behavior by cattle producer and independent writer Heather Smith Thomas in the July, 2012 issue of Stockman Grass Farmer. Heather quotes Holly T. Boland, Ph.D., (Associate Research and Extension Professor, MAFES Prairie Research Unit, Mississippi State University) on Boland’s grazing studies in Virginia and Mississippi. “A lot of [New Zealand] focus is also on forage-finishing beef animals without grain. Here we’re studying pastures Native Warm-Season Grass News A Landowner’s Guide To Wildlife-Friendly Grasslands we’ve renovated back to native warm-season grasses such as indiangrass, [native] bluestems, etc., that were common years ago, before non-native species such as bermudagrass were introduced,” says Boland. In recent years many stockman planted or sprigged monocultures of introduced forages and many native species died out. Yet when cattle have a variety of plants from which to select, they eat a mixed diet rather than eat only one type of forage. “The first year we did this, native grass pastures out-performed the bermudagrass and the cattle looked good,” Boland says. We are taking a multi-disciplinary approach with wildlife personnel monitoring nests of different grassland birds, insect populations, and effects on different pollinator species. We’re trying to look at it as an ecosystem service as well as optimizing cattle-growing conditions,” says Boland. Boland also said it really didn’t matter what proportion of grass or legume was in the pasture, animals “... consistently ate about 70% of their diet as legume and 30% as grass.” Even if grass was predominant, they sought legumes to balance the diet. Planting monocultures or bicultures, using aggressive introduced grasses and legumes, spraying broadleaf herbicides, and some grazing systems can jeopardize animal health and performance, soil health, and wildlife habitat values. Range conservationists know that animals eat a variety of forbs in native rangeland, not just legumes. This makes herbicides to control broadleaves, including legumes, counter-productive as well as expensive for producers. Given the opportunity, grazing animals will select for a high quality, healthy diet. While it is true that some native forbs as well as introduced weeds have toxic properties, animals seldom eat them or enough to make them sick; or if they do, they will dilute their diet with other nutritious plants. Drought does cause concerns, however, because forbs and shrubs may be the only thing still green in many pastures and starving cattle may eat plants they would not ordinarily eat. Best not to starve them. Yours for better grasslands, Steve Clubine MDC Mike Gaskins with the Missouri Department of Conservation standing between two hay fields this past July in Shannon County: native prairie grasses and wildflowers on the left and non-native cool-season grasses on the right. Both had been hayed earlier in the year. Vol. 33 Nos. 3 & 4 Missouri Prairie Journal 25
Page 1 and 2: Fall/winter 2012 Volume 33 Numbers
Page 3 and 4: Contents Fall/Winter 2012 Volume 33
Page 5 and 6: MPF’s Third Annual Prairie BioBli
Page 7 and 8: Carol Davit Carol Davit carol davit
Page 9 and 10: Brian Edmond ATCHISON HOLT NODAWAY
Page 11 and 12: 2012 Campaign for Prairies Please k
Page 13 and 14: allow mosquitoes to swarm. We used
Page 15 and 16: Fate of 67 nests of radio-collared
Page 17 and 18: Max ALleger For the rest of our ann
Page 19 and 20: “The purpose of the park is to ma
Page 21 and 22: DNR FILE PRAIRIE STATE PARK JUSTIN
Page 23: SCOTT WOODBURY Carol Davit SCOTT WO
Page 27 and 28: Cattle producers can benefit both c
Page 29 and 30: Prairie Postings Cécile Lagandré
Page 31 and 32: tion Lifetime Members Don Lowry Kay

Fall & Winter 2012: Volume 33, Numbers 3 & 4 - Missouri Prairie ...

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