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the Outdoors
Volunteers seed native plants in U.P. for forest project
by Christie Bleck
As a newbie to Marquette, having moved here in September 2011, I keep my eyes peeled on local landmarks as I drive through the city. I now know the right lanes to navigate as I head to the grocery store on McClellan. I know where best to locate diving ducks during migration time. I can handle the roundabout heading into the downtown area with considerable ease.
One place that always intrigued me was a turquoise building at 1030 Wright Street. The yard seemed relatively well kept, yet the building never seemed occupied. Turns out it isn’t, but there’s lots of activity in the greenhouse behind the mystery building.
The Marquette Mining Journal had published an article about people being needed for the Hiawatha National Forest Native Plant Program, which incorporates volunteers to plant seeds in flats, water the seedlings and other duties.
Having left behind a native plant garden at my home in Lansing and having started a yet-to-flourish garden at my new home in Marquette, my botanic needs weren’t being met completely. So, volunteering for the native plant project seemed a worthwhile thing to do.
I showed up one March morning for the first of many “volunteer days” for me, as well as other like-minded individuals. I met with Deb Le Blanc, West Unit plant ecologist for the Hiawatha National Forest, who patiently showed me the forms to fill out and how to get started nurturing the native plants-to-be.
Native plant restoration has been going on at different places in the Hiawatha National Forest since the early 1990s, according to Le Blanc, with the first sites restored located in the sections of the Great Lakes Gas Pipeline.
Le Blanc said federal agencies are required to provide for the restoration of native species. Even if this requirement didn’t exist, Le Blanc said it’s important to put native plants back into the landscape. Native plants are adapted to the environment from which they came, and the unique relationships with species of wildlife also are crucial—such as the common milkweed being the host plant for monarch butterflies.
“There are so many beneficial reasons to use native plants in restori ng ecosystems, from restoring plant diversity to improving the ecological integrity of a site,” LeBlanc said.
Have you ever seen numerous fields so choked with downy sunflowers you’d have a hard time walking through them? Didn’t think so. Have you ever seen numerous fields so choked with spotted knapweed you’d have a hard time walking through them? Thought so. Non-native, invasive plants have replaced many natives, making the Michigan wildflower scene much different from what it was many years ago. Let it be known, I have nothing personal against Queen Anne’s lace and other nonnatives. They just belong in their native habitats.
That is where people like the volunteers with the Hiawatha National Forest Native Plant Program come in. At the greenhouse, they participate in several kinds of greenhouse activities, including mixing soil, placing it into flats, planting seeds in the flats and watering the fragile seedlings. The seeds themselves were gleaned from the Hiawatha National Forest to retain the native genetic pool. After careful nurturing in the greenhouse, the seedlings will be transplanted back into the forest. And there are many of these baby plants. Le Blanc said 90,000 plants came out of the greenhouse in 2011. Nature’s cycle continues, and I’ll be part of it, even indirectly.
Generally, working in the greenhouse is not physically demanding work, although my fifty-two-year-old body might beg to differ sometimes (it helps to sit on a chair while planting seeds instead of standing). For me, the trickiest part has been trying to get a single seed into a single cell. That’s not so hard when it’s a larger seed like milkweed, but more challenging when it’s a tiny seed like wild columbine, and my eyes aren’t what they used to be. It’s also challenging for someone with a decreasing amount of short-term memory to remember which row of cells in a flat she just seeded. As with many worthwhile programs, funding is a challenge.
“Grants are critical for the continued success of the program, along with our volunteers. It is important to continue working with partners who support the native plant program such as Superior Watershed Partnership and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northern Research,” said LeBlanc. “Without these partners we could not continue at the level we are currently at, and we would not be able to restore degraded lands back with native species as quickly as we can now with the use of seedlings.”
Le Blanc said without these partnerships, it’s likely there wouldn’t be the native plant program there is today—growing thousands of native plant seedlings to improve habitats across the Hiawatha National Forest. There’s also the benefit of providing areas to view “watchable wildlife,” such as the “old farm field” site at the Grand Island National Recreation Area and the native plant pollinator garden at the Munising Ranger District.
The Hiawatha National Forest Native Plant Program also provides educational opportunities. In April, students from Powell Township School planted milkweed seeds in plants and toured the greenhouse. The Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve has been working with the school throughout the year, and will create a video through a Nickelodeon Big Green Help Grant for other “green schools,” with footage shot of the students planting seeds in the greenhouse.
Putting seeds in dirt is one thing. Learning why you do it is another. Le Blanc explained metamorphosis to the kids, in this case how milkweed is a host plant for monarch caterpillars, which grow into monarch butterflies. Planting milkweed on Grand Island, she said, makes for a refueling point for migrating monarchs.
“And just think,” Le Blanc told the students during their field trip, “you’re doing this for the monarchs.”
That notion was not lost on nine-year-old student Rachel Brown.
“I think it’s really fun because we’re helping the monarch butterflies,” she said. “They really need this milkweed to grow.”
Le Blanc appreciates the volunteers who make the project possible, from native seed harvesting to all aspects of greenhouse work to planting the seedlings in the wild. Beverly Braden of Gwinn, who’s been a volunteer for more than ten years, likes “just working with the plants.”
For me, a native plant enthusiast and frustrated amateur naturalist, it’s a way to take part in a project with important benefits. Just think: Somewhere out there a ruby-throated hummingbird might dip its bill into a wild columbine courtesy of me or another humble volunteer. Or, as Le Blanc put it: People should never doubt what a small group of committed people can do in making a difference in the world.
It’s not too late to make a difference in the life of a pollinating bumblebee or migrating monarch. Volunteers are needed throughout the summer to pull invasive plants such as garlic mustard and thistle from wild areas. There also will be restoration planting on Grand Island to treat invasive species. Contact Le Blanc at 387-2512, extension 19, for details.
––Christie Bleck
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