Michael Lannoo Interview Part 1

In an earlier interview for this blog, you said that Iowa Lakeside Lab was the place where your nineteen-year-old self decided to become a field biologist. Now some decades later, you have written a book that celebrates Lakeside as a permanent biological field station dedicated to the long-term study of nature in nature. How did this book evolve?

The summer of 2012 marked the 36th summer that I’d been associated with Lakeside in one way or another. In ’77 and ’78 I was an undergraduate taking classes and doing research, in ’80 and ’81 I was a master’s student doing research, ’88 was my first year on the faculty. While people have been associated with Lakeside longer (for example, in the 104 years of the Lab’s existence, there have been only four caretakers), few have gone through the undergraduate–graduate school academic progression, then spent a quarter of a century serving on the faculty. In total, I’ve spent about five years of my life at Lakeside. So, I’ve had plenty of time to think about the place and to consider it from different perspectives. At some point in my thinking, I got around to the question “What does this place mean?” To answer that, I had to put Lakeside in the context of its time, and to do that, I had to both document and understand its history. Only then did I have the makings—both philosophical and factual—of this book.

I realized early that if this book was to be any good, two things had to happen. First, it could not simply be a history. Instead, it had to show how Lakeside provides the information—the ecological detail—that can point us toward a sustainable society. And second, despite my history at the place, the book must not be about me. So many times when someone writes about something, it becomes primarily about them and secondarily about their subject. I consciously avoided that. There are only two places where I show up, and there was no getting around these mentions.

Michael Lannoo, author of The Iowa Lakeside Laboratory: A Century of Discovering the Nature of Nature

Carl Kurtz's Photo Essay: Woodies

In preparation for the upcoming second edition of A Practical Guide to Prairie Restoration by Carl Kurtz, we're excited to be sharing Carl's beautiful photos and observations about nature!

Carl Kurtz is a professional writer, teacher, naturalist, and photographer. He and his wife and partner, Linda, live on a 172-acre family farm in central Iowa that is one of the few prairie seed sources in the Midwest.

Small ponds congested with willows, backwaters with downed trees, small streams and rivers are what wood ducks consider prime habitat.  As cavity nesters, they utilize old trees or constructed bird houses and are known to nest in many urban environments if there is water nearby.  They are also known as dump nesters with several females laying eggs in a common nest.  As a result the occasional brood of young may have more than 20 ducklings.  Once the young leave the nest the mother leads them to a stream or river where they can find food and cover.  

October Gardening

Happy Halloween!

In October, everything seems to be dying. But in a carefully planned garden, you can expect a final burst of bloom in the autumn before the first snows hit.

Burning bush is a fall favorite because of its seemingly flaming red leaves. Mums, asters, and sedum "Autumn Joy" are also commonly planted for their fall color. Some plants produce beautiful fruits in the fall. Bittersweet, which is a vine, is a prime example.

There are many other less commonly grown plants that do very well in Iowa. Autumn crocus, for example, provides a surprising bit of color poking through the fallen leaves.


Excerpt from Gardening in Iowa and Surrounding Areas by author Veronica Lorson Fowler

Thomas Rosburg Interview Part 3

With the changing climate, are you seeing new species moving into Iowa?

Not with any certainty. In my research I have documented new plant species for Iowa and range expansion northward, but it was due to seeding in a reconstruction. There has been so much moving around of species by people planting seeds of species outside of their range that it is impossible to attribute changes in range to natural migration. One thing that does seem to be sure is that more and more nonnative and invasive plant species are being observed in Iowa (meaning higher abundances). That may be in part an indirect result of climate change, because if native species are being stressed by climate change, this could be helping to open the door for nonnative species already in the state to expand.

Besides teaching, what other projects are you involved with right now?

Research that is aimed at investigating the effects of goat browsing on savanna restoration (do goats make good partners in conservation and restoration work?). Similarly two projects are assessing the effects of cattle grazing on prairie (both reconstructed and native remnant). Do cattle make a good surrogate for bison? Another project is providing ecological data relevant to building 25 miles of new trail at Whiterock Conservancy. One part of this project involves setting up long-term monitoring plots to assess the impacts of trail use by horses and mountain bikers on plants, small mammals, butterflies, and ground-dwelling invertebrates. I am also finishing up a natural resource inventory of all the land in the Des Moines park system. This is mostly focused on mapping and delineating the plant communities present and describing their plant species composition, their structure, and their successional status.

How do you balance your teaching and writing with your hands-on research and fieldwork?

I certainly have to prioritize tasks. And that is often determined in part by the amount of funding provided. Somehow most tasks get done in a timely manner, albeit with long work days and not very many days off. My research agenda has been expanding quite a bit over the last few years, which has put a damper on some other pocket guide projects (ferns and sedges). However, I do anticipate making significant progress on them next field season. Unfortunately some of the things I most would like to work on – Field Guide to the Loess Hills and a revision of the Checklist of Iowa Vascular Plants – seem to constantly be out of reach due to the lack of funding they need in order to raise their priority.

Thomas Rosburg, author of Trees in Your Pocket: A Guide to Trees of the Upper Midwest

Picture Perfect Iowa

Come see Linda and Robert Scarth, photographers of Deep Nature: Photographs from Iowa, on Sunday at the WOW! Wonder of Words Author Fair. They will be giving a background of their books and reading selections, and speaking about why they write and their writing processes.

What: "Picture Perfect Iowa"
When: Sunday, October 28
Where: Capital Square Downtown Des Moines (400 Locust Street), in the ISU classroom on the ground level of Capital Square
Time: 1:30pm - 2:50pm

Interactive Des Moines Parking Map

Other WOW! Events

Deep Nature, photographers: Linda and Robert Scarth

UI Press Gardens update

The rain and wind of the last few days and the frost earlier in the month have pretty much finished the blooming season; fall is definitely here. We are determined to rein in the exuberance of the cup plants and the brown-eyed Susans next year and try to keep them from taking over the sidewalk; UPS and Fed Ex deliveries are now in constant danger of being snagged by overgrown prairie plants. If possible we will add another layer of mulch to the rain and the prairie gardens, and we need to clip the dead flower stalks, but otherwise there is little to do to prepare the plants for the winter ahead. After three and four summers respectively, the rain and prairie gardens are well established, healthy, and lovely. We need to increase their diversity next season, and we need to continue to fill in areas where plants are not thriving, but overall we are very pleased with the rain garden's design and with the ability of the long roots of its plants to keep water out of our basement.

Thomas Rosburg Interview Part 2

You include information about champion trees—the tallest trees and trees with the largest diameter—in your new guide. Tell us about the Big Tree program.

The Big Tree program was conceived and is sponsored by American Forests, the oldest nonprofit conservation organization in the United States. It was established about 70 years ago to find, protect, and appreciate the largest individuals of tree species in all 50 states. American Forests maintains the National Register of Big Trees, which lists the biggest trees in America. Big trees are determined by combining together three measurements – the circumference (or diameter), the height, and the diameter of the crown. More than 870 species of trees are eligible for the register. Each state has its own register to recognize the largest individuals in the state. Big trees epitomize an important natural resource value – one that is embedded in the quality of old-growth forest. For most species, big trees exist because they have lived a long time, at least relative to the typical life span for the species. That suggests to me that they deserve our respect and admiration. They are not replaceable.

Do you have favorite tree families? Favorite species?

It would probably have to be the oaks because of their predominance and ecological importance in much of the country. Also most oaks are capable of very long lives, so they provide a bridge to the past. A big 300-year-old oak was beginning its life before America fought for its independence. If they could talk, they could tell us many interesting (and ecologically valuable) stories.

Of the oaks, the bur oak is my favorite. The big old trees often display a lot of character in their gnarled, twisted, and worn-out appearance.

You’re wrapping up another project for UI Press: all-new photographs for a second edition of Wildflowers and Other Plants of Iowa Wetlands. How has this summer’s extreme drought affected Iowa’s wildflowers and plants in general?

In ways that most of us have never seen before, but mainly because of the very early phenology initiated by the extremely early spring. Many plant species bloomed up to 4 weeks early. This combined with wetlands that are or have dried up has made the task of finding wetland plants in photographic form (in flower) very difficult. The extreme drought has certainly decreased plant growth and productivity and in some cases flowering. This has generally resulted in lower vigor and photogenic quality.

Some species, however, have bloomed at their normal time, which indicates that those species are responding to photoperiod for phenology. It would have been a good growing season to study phenology and determine which species are keyed into temperature (growing degree days) or photoperiod. 

Thomas Rosburg, author of Trees in Your Pocket: A Guide to Trees of the Upper Midwest