Keller Lake, MN

Notice of pesticide treatment. Keller Lake, Apple Valley, MN. 11 July 2023.

In the ‘land of 10,000 lakes’ (Minnesota), some of the 10,000 are in need of help. The best method is prevention, after that it becomes a lot more work. Keller Lake was a spot we chose to paddle based on proximity to family we were visiting. It was actually a pleasant little lake, but it does have issues. It is a shallow little lake that has probably always tended toward the eutrophic (nutrient rich) end of the lake spectrum and this will make future management more difficult.

A water quality monitoring team with a canoe laden with water quality monitoring equipment. Keller Lake, MN. 11 July 2023.

Keller Lake is within the greater Minneapolis urban sprawl and lake’s watershed is dominated by suburban homes. The lake is designated as impaired by the Clean Water Act (303d list) and has a TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) for phosphorus. The lake is shallow and the entire lake bottom produces vegetation, which when it dies can release phosphorus, but the lake also recieves generous amounts of phosphorus from external sources. Even though it isn’t blatantly stated in the management plan, I would be willing to bet that lawn fertilizers are playing a major role in the phosphorus loading. The local government has hired a contractor to monitor water quality, which is a very important first step in characterizing (and eventually solving) the problem.

Paddling. Keller Lake, MN. 11 July 2023.

Of course, the lake also has invasive species like: goldfish and Eurasian watermilfoil. The Eurasian watermilfoil is bad enough that the herbicide triclopyr is being used to combat the weed. Herbicide treatments like this are difficult because you can’t treat the entire lake at once because the decaying dead aquatic vegetation will suck up all the dissolved oxygen and kill the fish. So the lake gets treated piecemeal, which knocks back plant populations such that the lake can be enjoyed by recreationists, but is unlikely to remove the offending invasive plant. Reducing nutrients (especially phosphorus) will also help reduce the aquatic plant load, but it is a harder way to go as it will require the actions of many homeowners.

Ceratophyllum demersum a native aquatic plant. Keller Lake, MN. 11 July 2023.

Managing public resources, especially in areas with homes is difficult because, people are living right on the lake, everyone has different values, and everyone is an expert on what they wish to do with the lake and what is best for the lake. As stated earlier, even in a pristine state, this lake likely tended to be weedy and eutrophic. I hope Apple Valley, MN can solve the problems in Keller Lake without too much pain.

Household IPM: Ampelopsis and Phylloxera

I was pulling weeds from our fence line and was very surprised to see leaf galls of grape phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae) on the invasive plant Ampelopsis brevipedunculata. I left the plant because it would be pretty exciting if grape phylloxera could be as bad for Ampelopsis brevipedunculata as it is for non-native, Vitus vinifera, wine grapes.

Leaf of Ampelopsis brevipedunculata with grape phylloxera galls. NE DC. 28 June 2023.

Grapes (genus = Vitus) and Ampelopsis brevipedunculata are both in the family Vitaceae. Grape phylloxera are North American insects and our native Vitus species have been in an evolutionary arms race with these insects for some time. European Vitus species have not. European wine grapes had serious issues with grape phylloxera when brought to the US. Entomologist C.V. Riley figured out that European vines could be grafted onto American rootstocks which confers some protection from the very damaging root phase of this insect. This was very important when the grape phylloxera was accidentally introduced to Europe in the late 1800’s.

The life cycle of the grape phylloxera is very complex. Screenshot from Krebs.

If this non-native, non-Vitus grape (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata) is killed or severely weakened by grape phylloxera, then leaving the vine in the ground will allow the grape phylloxera to reproduce and hopefully take out future vines. If not, I still know how to pull weeds.

Backyard IPM: invasive tree removal without herbicides

Ailanthus altissima, tree of heaven, is an invasive species of tree that is fairly common in the eastern USA. It is the larval host for Atteva aurea, a colorful non-native moth, and prefered host for Lycorma delicatula, the spotted lanternfly. Lycorma delicatula is a kill-on-sight invasive insect that has potential to become a serious agricultural pest. Removal of Ailanthus altissima is a proactive step to limit Lycorma delicatula spread.

Ailanthus altissima, NE DC, 13 June 2023.

Non-native species are very common in the DC area. Total removal of all non-native plants from the DC area would require significant resources, understanding of what roles these non-natives are playing in our environment, and an intensive native planting program to replace the non-natives. My neighbor wishes to remove these trees from their property and tried cutting one only to have it resprout. The USFS (Forest Service) recommends using glyphosate and triclopyr herbicides to kill the plant, but my neighbor has desirable plants nearby and doesn’t want pesticides on their land. A friend mentioned that they killed a grove of Ailanthus altissima with oyster mushroom spawn, Pleurotus pulmonarius, and also got some delicious oyster mushrooms in the process.

A bag of mushroom spawn. NE DC. 13 June 2023

My friend kindly set us up with some spawn plugs for my neighbor and I to innoculate the Ailanthus altissima with. Hopefully, tree death and mushroom goodness will ensue.

Herbicide damage to the curry tree – again.

New growth on our curry tree (sapling – the older tree was killed last year) is curling which indicates exposure to an auxin mimic herbicide. NE DC. 18 May 2023.

We live in DC and we have a large garden were we grow food. Which we choose to grow food without pesticides, however; we do not get choose alone. In our neighborhood we have several households that do use pesticides or hire a lawn service to apply lawn pesticides for them. I think many people (including professional applicators) do not inderstand that pesticides are poisons and these poisons have cascading environmental effects. Pesticides can be misapplied and this can cause movement from the application site via drift, volatilization, run off, etc. In my case it appears that drift or volatilization are the issue.

A larger curry tree was killed outright by 2-4 d last year and last year we had damage on our native beds too. DC has many problems: given the amount of litter, disregard of traffic laws, gun violence, car theft, etc. it appears that law enforcement is not a priority in DC. I doubt the city of DC will send a task force out to investigate a trespass of lawn pesticides. This is the classic: “the right to waive your fist should end at another person’s face”. My neighbor’s need (right?) for lawn chemicals should not supersede my desire to raise an organic garden. While it sucks to have my food plots drifted upon, I really worry about the native plant beds that we raise for pollinators – there is no benefit to inviting pollinators to a garden just to poison them. I have Echinacea and curry saplings that are currently showing auxin mimic herbicide damage. 

One day we, as a society, will embrace a new lawn paradigm. Until then I guess pesticide drift will be an issue for all of us.

An invasive stonecrop

Sedum sarmentosum. parking area, NE DC. 17 May 2023.

There are some areas in my neighborhood that have a stonecrop (genus Sedum) growing on rock walls, etc. I always enjoy Sedum when see’um because as a young biologist in plant physiology class I had to learn about CAM (Crassulean acid metabolism) as a method for photosynthesis – there are always trade offs, but CAM allows these plants to excel in hot, dry, rocky areas where many plants would wither and die.

While I may enjoy the plants in someone’s landscape, it is often difficult to identify them as they could be from any where on the planet or even domestic selectively bred human created plants. So I will enjoy garden plants, but not engage them. When I find plants ‘in the wild’ I feel a need to engage them because I feel more compelled to know and understand plants that are able to reproduce and disperse on their own.

When I found the neighborhood sedum 300 meters from any plant source in a parking lot, I knew I had to learn more about it. Sedum sarmentosum is an Asian plant not native to North America and considered invasive in West Virginia. The plant is considered a choice vegetable and I think if served a salad made from Sedum sarmentosum leaves in a restaurant I would be intrigued. The plant growing in the asphalt parking lot had a pleasant, near pickle taste, but I do not recommend eating plants from questionable habitats, and I just took a nibble.

The plant is easy to propagate by cuttings – most sources say just put a leaf or stem in contact with soil and it will root. However, this ease of propagation is tempered by the fact that a plant running a normal photosynthetic metabolism will out-compete a CAM plant in a normal setting – weeds can be a deal breaker. CAM plants require hot and dry conditions to flourish and individual plants can persist for decades in suitably harsh environs – like an asphalt parking lot.

So yet another non-native plant is present in DC – not that parking lots are prime habitats for native plants. I will keep my eyes open for this plant as I travel around the city, who knows what I will find?

Household IPM: Embrace a new lawn paradigm

IPM (or Integrated Pest Management) is a conceptual framework for making decisions with regard to activities used to maintain systems. At the core of IPM are human values, the idealized landscape and what we want from it are the standards to which the system in question is compared. If the system is not attaining our goals, then what activities will bring the system in line with our goals? We then choose to perform an activity and re-compare to the ideal. Of course the activities are have costs and an important aspect of an IPM framework is the concept of economic threshold which can be thought of as either ‘bang for the buck’ or ‘cost and benefit’. Given that a weed or pest species is a human construct, what happens when the human values that guide IPM change? This blog post examines that conceptual change.

Close up view of a lawn that receives water, fertilizers, pesticides, and at least weekly mowing. NE DC. 11 April 2023.

A recent post told a story of a lawn and pesticide use associated with a church.  Every house I have owned I have replaced portions of the lawns with garden beds, no-mow strips, native plants, shrubs, and trees. Additionally, my lawn care routine has consisted of minimal water, minimal mowing, no supplemental water, no fertilizers, and no pesticides. I just do not understand why people would want a chemical-drenched, water-intensive, and biodiversity-impoverished monoculture of a (more often than not) non-native grass.

Close up view of a lawn that receives only occasional mowing. NE DC. 11 April 2023.

This blog post is accompanied with photos of two lawns that are across the street from each other here in NE DC that are very differently maintained. One I don’t even like to walk my dog on because of all the pesticides used – the little signs a commercial applicator installs after a lawn pesticide treatment are there because pesticides are poisons. Being mortal I tend to avoid poisons. The other lawn is at the home of a hard working gentleman, who when he isn’t working is often helping other people – as such his lawn receives minimal care and does just fine because of it.

Overview of a lawn that receives water, fertilizers, pesticides, and at least weekly mowing. NE DC. 11 April 2023.

Up close, the first thing you notice is the low maintenance lawn is much more colorful. Next you will notice is that the high maintenance lawn is primarily one species of grass while the low maintenance lawn may not even be predominantly grass, however, among the grasses in the low maintenance yard are prized native species like little blue stem (Schizachyrium scoparium). The low maintenance yard has butterflies and bees visiting the low growing flowers, while the high maintenance yard does not. I have not done cover plots, but to my eye, both lawns have a similar amount of bare ground.

Overview of a lawn that receives only occasional mowing. NE DC. 11 April 2023.

From a distance, both lawns currently look pretty much the same. The high maintenance lawn will not change much, while the low maintenance lawn will have a seasonality as the spring weeds yield to summer weeds which will yield to fall weeds. The low maintenance yard will get about a foot tall between mowings.

The big difference between the two lawns is the high maintenance lawn represents increased ( perhaps unnecessary) fertilizer and pesticide run-off into the Chesapeake Bay. The high maintenance lawn represents pesticide drift and contact exposure to pesticides for any animal that happens to cross the yard. The high maintenance lawn means all the noise of equipment and applications. The high maintenance lawn represents so many resources wasted to achieve an aesthetic paradigm that any idiot willing to poison themselves, their neighbors, and their environment could achieve. To me it is just ugly.

The agro-industrial lawn complex has spent a great deal of money and time selling the beauty of a high maintenance lawn to consumers. Lawns are important. Lawns can create a fire defensible space around a house, lawns are important as spaces to recreate, and lawns help moderate urban heat island effects. I do not hate lawns, I hate toxic, bio-impoverished, environmentally hazardous lawns. There is a difference, and the choice is up to you.

WWJS – what would Jesus spray?

Another herbicide application. NE DC. 11 April 2023.

We live with a church as a neighbor. As neighbors go, you could do worse. They are nice folks and good for the community. However, for the past month the annual herbicidal barrage towards perfect lawns has begun. The church feels the need for a perfect lawn and therefore is using monthly applications of pesticides to accomplish the goal. This is not a benign process. Even though we do not use lawn pesticides at our house, we have been impacted by herbicide use in our neighborhood. Herbicide applications leave the application site via: drift, volatization, aqueous run-off, erosion or soil movement, percolating into ground water, and via transfer of plants. Additionally, herbicides are released into the environment by: sloppy handling, spillage, accidents, applying to the wrong location, inappropriate handling of used pesticide containers, and poor waste handling practices. David Pimental (1995) found that less than 0.1% of pesticides applied for pest control reach their target pests and 99.9% of pesticides used move into the environment. This 99.9% of pesticide released into the environment affects public health, beneficial organisms, soil, water, and the atmosphere.

Pesticides can be magical, I like to think of them as the Genie in the bottle where the wish may not be granted as desired. I have seen insecticides used on beneficial insects and insects that were no longer present. I have also seen multiple herbicide applications used on plants that were not correctly identified and not susceptible to the herbicide used. In these instances the entire application is without a beneficial impact.

Because herbicides are historically new (herbicides are very new – like cars), religious texts are not entirely up to the task of informing integrated pest management schemes. Just as the religious texts do not entirely explain air traffic control principles. Still, I would like to think a Christian church might think about how Jesus may have dealt with an issue they are facing – like weeds

Jesus was a carpenter, not a farmer or lawn care technician, so I really do not know where he may have stood on pesticide use. In fact, the new testament has very little advice for carpentry, so it isn’t surprising that the New Testament doesn’t provide guidance specifically for pesticide applicators. If Jesus did use pesticides, you can be pretty certain that the motivation would be love and the purpose of the treatment would be to praise God. Which is why Jesus might have taken the approach of nurturing the lawn, rather than poisoning the weeds – but, as stated previously, the New Testament is not entirely clear on Jesus’ lawn care preferences.

Reference:                                               Pimentel, D. 1995. Amounts of pesticides reaching target pests: environmental impacts and ethics. Journal of Agriculture and Environmental Ethics 8(1):17-29

The yard violets of Ms. Elaine

My neighbor, Ms. Elaine, is a very nice person. Kind and funny she always has a good word and all the neighborhood dogs love her. It is no surprise that Ms. Elaine’s yard also has some of the most beautiful weeds in the neighborhood. This time of year the star of the show is Ipheion (Tristagma) uniflorum a beautiful ‘lily’ in the family Amaryllidaceae. However, Ms. Elaine also has three species of violets growing in her yard – and that is pretty cool also.

Left to right: Viola arvense, Viola rafinesquei, and Viola sororia from Ms. Elaine’s yard. NE DC. 22 March 2023

Viola sororia is a native, perennial violet that uses a wide range of habitats. Taxonomists have given this plant many subdivisions, and types. In lawns in this area Viola sororia flowers can be blue to purple or pale blue-gray to white. I have handled specimens that felt hairier in other places, but in DC the plant is not very hairy. Viola sororia differs from the other two species in Ms. Elaine’s yard as it doesn’t have a central stem and does have a very robust and thickened root system.

Viola sororia, Ms. Elaine’s yard, NE DC. 22 March 2023

Viola rafinesquei is annual violet. It has a central stem and no basal leaves. It has been lumped with a European Viola species and had its nativity questioned in the past, but is now fairly well accepted as a native North American species of Viola.

Viola rafinesquei, Ms. Elaine’s yard, NE DC. 22 March 2023

Viola arvense is also an annual violet with a central stem, stem leaves, and basal leaves. This is a non-native plant and I am aware of soybean field that received pesticide treatments to combat this plant. It can get fairly tall and is very robust when compared to Viola rafinesquei.

Viola arvense, Ms. Elaine’s yard, NE DC. 22 March 2023

I tend not to eat a lot of weeds growing in DC because I am unsure of pesticides and chemicals that the weeds may have been exposed to. Plant species in the genus Viola tend to be edible, I have eaten more than my share of Viola sororia flowers and leaves and enough Viola arvense flowers to say they are not bad.

I hope you enjoyed this tour of Ms. Elaine’s yard weeds. I encourage you to keep your eyes open and see what cool plants you can find in your neighborhood.

A little more about Langdon Forest Patch

I first became aware of Langdon Forest Patch in the spring of 2022. Allison Clausen contacted me about the blog post and we scheduled a get together for me to learn a little more about the patch.

Allison (L) and Mary Pat (R) at the patch. Langdon Forest Patch, Langdon Park, NE DC. 28 September 2022.

It is always an honor to meet botanically aware people who are also heavy duty and unafraid to do great things. I could tell you the story of how the Langdon Forest Patch came about, but Mary Pat can do it better in this video.

This sycamore, Platanus occidentalis, was struggling to hold its own in a hopeless tangle of invasive, non-native vines. In 2020 this tree was the same height as Mary Pat. By simply cutting the vines and using them as mulch around the trees, Mary Pat and Delores have drastically altered this trees life trajectory. Langdon Forest Patch, Langdon Park, NE DC. 28 September 2022.

Mary Pat and Delores had a guerilla botany project rescuing all these baby trees under cover of the pandemic. Allison became aware and joined in the work. A neighbor, whose backyard shared a border with the park, also took advantage of the pandemic shutdown and illegally cleared a section of small trees. When notified the city came in and contracted Casey Trees to plant some young trees. Soon after, they noticed tree seedlings were coming up everywhere around the planting and notified Mary Pat and Delores!

The cleared area of the forest patch. Langdon Forest Patch, Langdon Park, NE DC. 28 September 2022.

Forest regeneration should never be a surprise, but it always is. Natural systems can recover on their own from disturbance, but when the disturbance is too large, frequent, or pervasive, failure to regenerate is also an option. Allison established some research plots with differing treatments to discover the best way to nurture the young trees coming from the old forest’s seed bank.

Research plot, Langdon Forest Patch, Langdon Park, NE DC. 28 September 2022.

I learned so much from Allison and Mary Pat. Langdon Park has a lot of mowed terrain. Frequent mowing will exhaust a seed bank. The invasive vines in the forest patch are a pain in the ass for the mowers and best avoided. An unexpected silver lining of invasives in the park is that they have extended the forest perimeter. 

Mary Pat showed me an old fence that was most likely the end of the outfield fence of a nearby ball field. This was a mowed area that was slowly but surely taken over by invasives, and eventually forest seedlings grew up in their midst, extending the forest edge.

 I have never thought of invasive weeds this way, they are removing invasive vines from the interior and from tree rescue areas but allowing the vines to provide a mower impenetrable, ever expanding perimeter ‘fence’ is brilliant. 

Mary Pat (L) and Allison (R) have tagged all the forest tree seedlings – look at all the tags! Langdon Forest Patch, Langdon Park, NE DC. 28 September 2022.

Mary Pat, Delores, and Allison are now working with several DC government agencies, numerous neighbors, Casey Trees, and volunteers. They even allowed me to tag a Platanus occidentalis seedling. Hopefully, I will live to see it grow big and strong – really dig this tree species.

Platanus occidentalis seedling as tagged by yours truly. Langdon Forest Patch, Langdon Park, NE DC. 28 September 2022.

Mary Pat, Delores, and Allison demonstrate that by boldly attempting to do the impossible, you may surprise yourself and succeed. They are making a difference. By sharing freely, they are infecting others with a ‘can-do’ spirit. In the process they are developing a new ethic that isn’t so much forest restoration as it is a lovingly guided forest regeneration and is entirely of place.

Note: Delores, Mary Pat, and Allison greatly improved this posting by editing it for content and style. Thank you.

A scrappy native plant

Ageratina altissima is an awesome native plant that can be found in very urban environments. It is in the sunflower family, Asteraceae, and blooms late in the year to the delight of all the butterflies and bees in the vicinity. What I think is cool is it has a very low key presence and then suddenly in late summer/early fall our fence line is hidden by 4′ tall plants and an explosion of tiny white flowers! Of course, it goes without saying, that being a member of the Asteraceae, the tiny white flowers are made of a composite of tinier white flowers, hence the older botanical epithet: ‘Compositae’

Ageratina altissima tiny white flowers made of composites of tinier white flowers. NE DC. 21 September 2022.

Ageratina altissima has toxic properties. It has killed cattle who graze on it and people who drink milk from those cows. Because of this it has been subject to eraditication efforts. Most plants in the Asteraceae taste bitter and cows will avoid them. Under heavy grazing pressure plants that taste good to cows drop out, because continued grazing is similar to weeding, meanwhile plants that taste bad to cows are left intact, are freed from competition, and actually increase population under heavy grazing pressure. By this mechanism cows are eventually forced to consume plants that they would otherwise avoid. The plant isn’t at fault as much as poor grazing practices. If Ageratina altissima graces your yard, remember not to eat it yourself and not to let your cattle graze upon it.

A bee just hanging out on Ageratina altissima. NE DC. 24 September 2022.

The really cool thing is Ageratina altissima  only becomes obvious in the fall, even though it is present all year. It will provide the local pollinators and I a month or so of enjoyment, then I will pull and compost the stems in late fall. Of course, you can always beat an opportunistic plant like this just by weeding ruthlessly throughout the growing season, but why? It is so much fun to enjoy the show!

Ageratina altissima taking over the fenceline and wood pile with a sudden ‘pop’ of white flowers. NE DC. 21 September 2022.