The National Audubon Society's Healthy
Yard program offers practical ways to make your house and yard safer
and healthier.
Visit seafood.org
to learn how to make wise decisions about fish and shellfish..
and Education
wetland
plantings
•
invasive
species •
osprey
nest platforms
•
Living
Lightly
state &
national conservation
•
ecology
scholarship
• Audubon
Adventures
Wetland plantings project concludes
Final 500 sedge seedlings installed at Westwood Park, near New Castle
Over
the last two years and eight workdays, our chapter's Conservation Committee
and other volunteers have installed 4,000 wetland plants at four different
sites throughout East Central Indiana.
The original goal was to create habitat to attract sandhill cranes as they migrate through East Central Indiana. But according to the International Crane Foundation (Barbaboo, Wisconsin), it might be possible to have nesting sandhills in our region, as the birds continue to fill up prime nesting areas to the north.
Building upon seed money provided through a $900 National Audubon Society grant, the generosity of other individuals and organizations eventually raised the total value of plants to more than $4,600.
Thanks to Spence Restoration Nursery (Muncie) and the International Crane Foundation (Baraboo, Wisconsin) for their help and advice on selecting species of wetland plants most favorable to sandhill cranes. Tussock sedge, used by sandhills as nesting material, was the primary species installed.
The four project areas – Loblolly Nature Preserve, Summit Lake State Park, Bonham Nature Area, and Westwood Park – will continue to be monitored by the conservation group.
Click on thumbnails for photos of a workday at the Bonham Preserve..
Our RCAS Conservation Committee (Jon Creek, Bill Grummer, Charlie Mason, Frank Meeker and Jeff Ray) has been busy – very, very busy! – focusing on control of invasive species.
After cutting out honeysuckle and pulling garlic mustard from a wooded area at West View Elementary School in Muncie, Charlie and Charlotte Mason and other members of the Conservation Committee gathered at the school on April 22, to celebrate Earth Day. They led 50 third-graders in planting approximately 40 native trees and taught the children why native plants matter.
At Summit Lake State Park the committee has attacked honeysuckle, autumn olive, multiflora rose and white mulberry on approximately 30 acres in the Nature Area. Their goal: to treat 230 acres (!), broken up into manageable blocks.
If you’d like to participate in a future workday, even for only two or three hours, please contact Charlie Mason, Conservation Chair, at 288-9937 or chas.mason@sbcglobal.net, or Jon Creek, Vice President, at 348-4019 or jcreek34@yahoo.com. The wildlife will thank you, and the fresh air will do you good! You can even slip in a bit of birding while you’re at it.
The team has also been working at Robin
Scott’s property, cutting and treating invasives. Once the ground
dries, they’ll plant 18 acres of prairie seed.
During
the latter half of 2007, the RCAS worked with local utility companies
to erect a total of five osprey nesting platforms in East Central Indiana.
They mark the culmination of a two-year-long project to begin reintroducing
nesting ospreys to our area –
a project that began in 2005 with the construction
of nest platforms by RCAS volunteers.
In June 2007, the Henry County REMC (a rural electric co-op) installed three platforms earlier at Province Pond Wetland Conservation Area and Summit Lake State Park, in Henry County.
In October, thanks to a collaborative effort with our local AEP/I&M office and the American Water Company, two more osprey nesting platforms were erected in the Prairie Creek Reservoir area.
Viewing the platforms
Two platforms are at each end of the dam at Summit Lake, in Henry County. Though rather secluded, the north platform can be seen from 750N; with binoculars, it can also be seen from the Sunset Shelter area. (See map for help in locating Summit Lake and the dam.)
Another Henry County platform can be seen at Province Pond, on the south side of U.S. 36, 1.3 miles west of Mt. Summit. (See map for exact location.) The osprey platform is located on the south end of the dam, which is on the west side of the ponds.
To see the Prairie Creek area platforms, visit the Red-tail Nature Preserve at the corner of 650S and 461E (easily accessible from U.S. 35; take 650 east from 35). From the parking lot take the gravel trail to the right and follow it to the hill overlooking the reservoir.
In addition to these five platforms, Jan Crider, manager of Westwood Park and an RCAS member, installed an osprey platform at the north end of Westwood Reservoir in 2006. He worked directly with John Castrale and Henry County REMC to install the Westwood platform.
Ospreys in Indiana
To
learn more about ospreys, which are an endangered species in Indiana,
go to the Indiana
Department of Natural Resources. To learn about the IDNR's Osprey
Reintroduction Project, click
here.
Click on thumbnails below to see more photos of a platform going up at
Prairie Creek.
Living Lightly – A Resource Fair for Sustainable Lifestyles, was a great success, attracting more than 1,100 visitors in June 2007.
Through speakers, vendors and exhibitors, music, field trips, and children's activities, the weekend was aimed at helping fair-goers discover strategies for living more sustainably. Practical tips for living simpler and healthier lives, alternative and renewable energy sources, construction and remodeling tips for saving energy and materials, approaches to sustainable community improvement, organic gardening, rain gardens, and landscaping with sustainable materials were just a few of the topics that visitors learned about during the fair's two days of events.
Plans are already underway to have the second Living Lightly Fair on September 20, 2008. If you're interested in helping plan that fair, email sustainablelivingfair@gmail.com.
State
and national conservation activities2
- Energy decisions that affect East Central
Indiana residents are being made in Congress, and they affect you! One
that you should know about is H.R. 6049, the Energy and Tax Extenders
Act of 2008, which would extend federal tax incentives for
energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies that have expired or will expire at the end of 2008. You can follow the bill's progress at govtrack.us. To read more about the bill in more detail, click here.Most important, call your Senators to tell them to vote in favor of the bill. It'll only take five minutes of your day!
Sen. Evan Bayh: 202-224-5623
Sen. Richard Lugar: 202-224-48 - The Natural Living Expo will be held from Oct. 3-5 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. The Expo will be a showcase for products and services that support a sustainable lifestyle.
- An Important Bird Area (IBA) is a site that provides essential habitat for one or more bird species. IBAs include sites for breeding, wintering, and/or migrating birds. Thus far, 40 IBAs have been identified in Indiana, and a coordinator for our RCAS chapter will soon begin the extensive work of nominating two East Central Indiana sites. To learn more about current Indiana IBAs or to nominate other sites, contact James Cole, Indiana's IBA Coordinator, at jcole@audubon.org.
- Birders are needed in our area to participate in the Indiana Bird Breeding Atlas this coming spring and summer. See "Other Happenings" for more information about Atlas activities in our area.
Each year, the winner of our chapter's Youth Conservation Award receives a Robert Cooper Audubon Society Ecology Scholarships.
The scholarship is created through proceeds from our annual birdseed sale and may be used by the winner to attend a week-long Teen Expeditions camp or Youth Ecology Research Adventure at Hunt Hill Nature Center and Audubon Sanctuary in northern Wisconsin.
Or it may be used to fund an ecology project that they have designed or want to participate in. Details will be posted late next winter.
For
information about Audubon camps, including camps for educators and entire
families, visit websites for Maine,
Minnesota, South
Carolina, Vermont,
and Wisconsin.
For general information about Audubon camps, visit www.audubon.org/educate/cw/.
Local teachers of 3rd through 6th grades are invited to request Audubon Adventures kits. Each kit serves a classroom of up to 32 children and contains four nature- or conservation-related themes for each academic year.
If
you are a teacher or you know a teacher who would like to use Audubon
Adventures in a classroom, please contact Pam
Kistler, Education Chair. If you would like to sponsor Audubon Adventures
classroom, at a cost of $38.50 per kit, please contact Pam
as well.
