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Nature at Night: Ornithology 101 (Part 1&2)

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Join Blake Goll, Education Programs Manager, for a virtual two-part session that introduces the study of birds. We will begin with some basics of ornithology like where birds came from and what makes a bird a bird.  Then we will delve into exciting topics like bird song and nesting as well as migration. 

From their beauty and song that inspires and uplifts us to their incredible migratory feats and daily dramas that leave us awestruck, birds are the perfect gateway to conservation.  They have the power to awaken us to the natural world; what we do for them, we do for the planet and ourselves.

We will wrap the course up with a discussion of the state of birds today and the importance of bird conservation. We will delve into the latest technologies for studying birds as well as other tools like bird banding.

Leave the course with a better understanding of your avian neighbors and the resources to keep learning more and doing everything you can to help birds!

Nature at Night: Ornithology 101 (Part 1)

Nature at Night: Ornithology 101 (Part 2)

The Bees of Rushton Farm: A Pollinator Perspective on Willistown Conservation Trust & Environmental Education

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One Sunny midsummer day in 2012 on Rushton Farm, the bees decided to swarm. Noah, a certified apiarist–and the sustainable gardening manager teaching our cohort agro-ecology best practices–knew exactly what to do, and quickly sprang into action. He was able to quickly and safely locate the queen bee and remove the correct branch the swarm had formed on. It was a quick and mesmerizing event that created a lasting memory for all us interns and students who were there for the swarm…and then it was back to tending the row crops we were growing for the community supported agriculture (CSA) and food donations. It was a unique and fun way to work and learn, and an experience that would only have been possible due to the efforts of the Trust to not only create and restore the 6-acre sustainable farm but to make it accessible to us city dwellers and students that would have otherwise never known what existed beyond the hedgerows.

This experience reminded me of a time growing up in the Midwest. While playing outside in my backyard on a south facing slope, I discovered bees entering and exiting a nickel sized hole in the ground. Curious to see what they were doing, I went inside and got a jar. Then I put the jar over the hole, and for about 5 stings worth of time, or 20 minutes or so, I could study the bees. This event, like the swarm at Rushton, created an indelible and memorable window of observation that I would forever remember. As the interns and I worked with the staff and hosted student groups at the farm, I could not help but be reminded how such events can make a lasting and meaningful impact on young people as they begin to explore their natural world and make ecological connections. 

As my internship progressed as part of the Penn MES program, the opportunity to study bees, and specifically native pollinators, arose. Working with Lisa Kiziuk and Fred de Long, I was able to reach out to bee expert Sam Droege from the Beltsville, MD bee lab. He assisted me with designing a baseline pollinator survey, told me where to get the glycol for the pan traps (painted yellow, blue and white solo cups with PVC holders) I would hand make and deploy in three areas around the farm, and even where to get the specimen collection bags and how to store the specimens for later ID (which Sam’s lab and interns there performed). 

I would soon conclude my field research at Rushton after collecting the specimens from the pan traps throughout the summer and sending them to the Bee lab for ID. Thanks to the sustainable farming practices, focus on native plantings and abundant open space, we were able to identify 49 unique species of bees at Rushton Farm.

My capstone project at Penn would focus on deadly and pervasive insecticides and crop protection products called Neonicotinoids–which are used as seed treatments on over 95% of corn and soy planted in the U.S–and which were not used anywhere on Rushton Farm. At the end of 2012, after all the Rushton farm crops had been sustainably grown and harvested, I published “The Producer Pollinator Dilemma: Neonicotinoids and Honeybee Colony Collapse.” This project was the most in-depth project I’d taken on to date, and it began with “The Bees of Rushton Farm, A Pollinator Perspective on Sustainable Agriculture,” which was the independent project preceding the capstone, and where we published our baseline pollinator survey with the native pollinators we observed and collected in and around the farm that summer.

What began as a summer internship spurred a lifelong academic and ecological interest in native bees, agro-ecology, and how we can all work together to restore our land with an optimal mix of wildflowers, native grasses, and sedges. This is how the PollinatorPatch nonprofit campaign to restore One Million Acres, One Backyard Patch at a time, soon evolved from my new job with Applied Ecological Services as part of the large scale Restoration Field Crew in the Midwest, and then Project Manager for the Wetland Reserve Program in Iowa, in conjunction with the NRCS and State DNR.

It was during these projects and assignments that I realized a pollinator optimized seed mix was needed, by eco-region, and bloom period, and with more than the CP42 standard of 9 forbs (3 in each bloom period). On Earth Day in 2015 PollinatorPatch.com was launched to offer folks the best available 30+ species seed mix for their backyard and to show them why it’s important to help the bees, just like Noah did that one sunny midsummer day on Rushton Farm when the bees swarmed. 

This past summer the entire experience came full circle when Monarch Joint Venture conducted a vegetation survey to see what native plants and wildflowers particularly were in bloom from a pollinator-optimized seed mix in the 3rd year of maturation.

“Everything is everything,” and we are all connected on our planet and by our collective actions. Small events can lead to bigger learning experiences and the unique and memorable outdoor education offered at Rushton is invaluable and makes bigger impacts in time thanks to the work of the Willistown Conservation Trust and its dedicated team.

Ben Reynard | was an Intern at Willistown Conservation Trust’s Rushton Farm in 2012. After earning a Masters’s degree in Environmental Studies at Penn, Ben went on to work for Applied Ecological Services as an Ecosystem Restoration Supervisor. Additionally, he has launched the nonprofit, Pollinator Patch to restore backyard habitat. Ben is father to a three year old son and is restoring a 3-acre goat prairie and an 1850’s pioneer cabin he hopes to make into an eco-home for his son to learn eco-homesteading and ecological restoration. To learn more about Ben and his path visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-reynard-03a4b358/ or https://www.lps.upenn.edu/degree-programs/mes/community/0514.

Road Salt and Its Impact on Fresh Water

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As winter quickly approaches so does the threat of salt pollution. Since the 1940s, salt has been the number one choice for fighting road ice in the United States. Over the last five years, PennDOT used an average of 844,000 tons of salt per year to keep Pennsylvania’s roads free of ice during the winter months. As effective as salt is at melting ice, it can cause major environmental problems after it washes off roads and into nearby waterways. Scientists have known for a long time that salt can be a serious pollutant in freshwater ecosystems, affecting multiple species of fish, insects, amphibians, and plants. More recent studies have shown that road salt is the main culprit of salt pollution in the northern United States.

According to a USGS survey, 84% of streams in urbanized areas of the northern United States have seen increases in chloride levels attributed to road salt. While 40% of streams have experienced levels that are considered dangerous to aquatic species. Furthermore, 29% of those streams have seen spikes in chloride levels during the winter that would make the water unsafe for drinking. 

Armed with this knowledge, PennDOT and local municipalities have made efforts to limit the amount of salt laid on roadways. PennDOT limits salt treatments to high-traffic areas and dangerous intersections or curves. At the same time, municipalities have started mixing sand in with salt to improve traction and reduce the overall amount of salt used. Unfortunately, these changes might not be enough as private businesses and homeowners still contribute significantly to the amount of salt introduced into the environment. Over-salting of sidewalks and parking lots is far too common since private snow shovelers are understandably more concerned with the safety of pedestrians than the environmental costs associated with using salt. 

However, there are ways to achieve a balance that prioritizes safety while also taking into account the risk of salt pollution. The most straightforward solution could be sweeping up salt from sidewalks after the ice has melted but before a snowmelt or rain event can wash the salt away. Not only does this prevent salt from reaching our freshwater ecosystems but the salt can be reused during the next snowstorm to save some money. Adding salt before snowfall rather than after is another technique that could reduce the amount of salt needed to keep sidewalks free from ice. Another option is to reduce the amount of salt used by cutting it with sand or even beet juice like some Canadian cities have successfully experimented with. All of these methods can be implemented by anyone who finds themselves shoveling snow during the winter.  

Even those of us who do not have any snow shoveling responsibilities can play a big part in addressing this issue. The Izaak Walton League is a national organization that trains citizen scientists to measure the amount of salt in their local streams, especially after snowstorms. This kind of data can help determine the local impact or source of salt pollution. Maybe more valuable, measurements collected by citizen scientists will increase the national dataset used to help scientists and policymakers make decisions about mitigating the effects of our increased reliance on road salt.

For more information about becoming a volunteer citizen scientist, you can visit iwla.org.

A New Path Forward – Our Statement on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

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Dear Friends,

It has been nearly six months since I wrote to you about the tragic death of George Floyd and the systemic racism that persists in our country. At that time, I pledged that the Willistown Conservation Trust would take intentional steps to examine what we, as an organization, can do better to help heal the wounds of injustice and to make the Trust, and the land trust movement as a whole, more relevant to all people regardless of background. We recognized that, to make a meaningful difference, we must strive to make our organizational structure, our natural resources and all of our programs more welcoming, inclusive and accessible to all people.

I am pleased to share that over the past several months we have made significant progress toward addressing these complicated issues. Early on we formed a working group, the Committee For Equity and Inclusion (CEI), consisting of several dedicated Trustees and staff members and co-chaired by Trustees Alice Hausmann and Alex Zozaya. This committee was charged with creating a path forward for the Trust to become an organization that reflects diversity and inclusion at every level, from internships and volunteers, to staff, to our board of Trustees. After a thoughtful examination of internal perspectives, and with input from a number of outside individuals, the Committee has taken an important first step in creating the path forward by developing a Statement on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion which I am excited to share with you. It reads as follows:

WILLISTOWN CONSERVATION TRUST 
Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

The Mission of the Willistown Conservation Trust is “To preserve and manage the open land, rural character, scenic, recreational, historic, agricultural and natural resources of the Willistown area and nearby communities, and to share these unique resources with people of all ages and backgrounds to inspire, educate and develop a lifelong commitment to the land and the natural world.”

Historically, the voices and experiences of certain groups, including Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, have been and continue to be underrepresented in the land conservation movement. Willistown Conservation Trust believes that nature and open space are for everyone and embraces all forms of identity including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and class, religious or spiritual belief, age, and ability. As conservationists, we celebrate the vast diversity of life on our planet, and work each day to preserve and protect these natural resources for future generations. Guided by this ethos, we commit to including a broader and more diverse group of people in our work.

To fully realize our mission, we as an organization, must make a concerted effort to weave DEI into the fabric of our organization at all levels. In pursuit of that end, Willistown Conservation Trust commits to:

  • An ongoing effort to reflect on and actualize our commitment to diversity throughout all levels of our organization. 
  • Examining our organization’s culture and business practices to ensure equity in our operations. 
  • Actively seek opportunities to learn about biases and injustices in the conservation field, and how we as an organization can better promote inclusivity across our programming.

As we commit to this work, we recognize that the process will be dynamic and ongoing. Working alongside other groups endeavoring to diversify conservation efforts in Chester County and beyond, we strive to recognize, amplify, and engage the voices and experiences of underrepresented groups for the benefit of not just our communities, but of the natural world. 

This guiding statement on DEI was formed with the consensus of every Trustees and staff member, each of whom has committed to support the actions needed to ensure that the Trust becomes an agent for the kind of change that will help the healing process and assure a better future for all. Change that will serve to make not only our organization, but the land trust movement as a whole, stronger and more meaningful as we bring more people together with a shared passion for the land and our precious natural resources.

As we continue this important work, I invite your insights, comments, and questions. The Committee for Equity and Inclusion continues to meet monthly, working to establish concrete goals inspired by the Trust’s statement on DEI, including board and staff retreats, participation on the WeConservePA DEIJ Council, continued participation in the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed’s DEIJ Workgroup, and an exciting new internship opportunity for minority students which will launch in the New Year.

Meanwhile, enjoy the upcoming Holidays! Be safe, be healthy, and may your New Year be EVERGREEN!

Warmly,
Bonnie Van Alen, Executive Director

Flappy Hour: Secrets of the Saw-whet Owl

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The Trust has been studying the populations of this small migratory owl for the past 10 years as part of Project Owlnet, a continent-wide effort to study the movements of saw-whet owls. Education Programs Manager, Blake Goll, will explore what we’ve learned over the years through our owl banding program, teach about the life history of this secretive species, and discuss its conservation.