Purple Loosestrife update

Remember when we started our pots of purple loosestrife for the beetle rearing project? On March 20, they looked something like this:

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Not too exciting, are they? Some dirt, some dead sticks, and a little bit of fertilizer.

Well, with a little bit of time and some careful monitoring, the plants took off! Now, a month and a half later on May 2, our plants look like this:

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We have a number of shoots that are already about a foot tall, and as you can see they all look very healthy. Taking almost daily growth measurements of these plants really shows how fast purple loosestrife can grow! They grow more slowly when it's chilly and raining, but a couple weeks ago when it was warm, some plants grew from 3 inches tall to almost 8 inches in just  four days! Can you image if you were able to grow an inch a day?

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As soon as the shoots grow to be a foot tall, we start pinching off the apical meritstem, which is the area of cells at the very top of the shoots. The apical meristem is what causes the plants to grow taller, but we want them to be as bushy as possible to feed our beetles. By pinching off the top bud, we force the plants to grow more leaves along its stem.   The same thing happens to your shrubs or bushes at home! That's part of the reason why we prune them.  If no one pruned their rose bushes, the rose stems would grow very long, there wouldn't be as many leaves, and you wouldn't get as many flowers.

Speaking of the beetles, over-wintered adults have emerged! We found some in the wetlands on Monday, munching away on purple loosestrife leaves. Now we just have to wait until our potted loosestrife plants are tall enough, and then we can start collecting the beetles!

Patriots' Day

History is one of the SuAsCo's five Outstandlingly Remarkable Values, and with good reason. Our area is steeped in history, and is commonly known for its role in the American Revolutionary War. The battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 were the first instances of open, armed conflict between British soldiers and the colonists, and mark the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

Last Monday, April 16th, was Patriots' Day (observed), a Massachusetts state holiday that commemorates the events of April 19, 1775.

Reenactors gather from surrounding towns at Old North Bridge in Concord to reenact portions of the battle and to commemorate the deaths of British soliders whose bodies were burried at the bridge.

Britsh Regulars cross Old North Bridge

 Acton and Stow Minutemen gather to face the British

The Stow Minutemen  gather early in the morning of Patriots' Day and retrace the steps that the original Minutemen took on their march to Old North Bridge. They begin at 4:30 am and march through sleepy towns, playing fifes and drums and firing volleys from their muskets. The march is a little over 11 miles long, and they arrive at Old North Bridge just before 9:00 am, in time for the ceremonies at the Bridge.

Old North Bridge is part of Minuteman National Historical Park, which offers a wealth of information, activities, and events for visitors of all ages. They even have a Junior Ranger program! Visit the link to download one of their Junior Ranger booklets - one for ages 4-7 and one for ages 8-11.

Snapping turtles - Cute, but feisty!

The Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord Rivers flow through some pretty developed areas, so you might be surprised to learn what sort of wildlife we have right in our backyards!

This little guy (or lady!) was hanging out by the wetlands near Puffer Pond at Assabet River NWR.  This turtle is a snapping turtle, and you can tell right away that it's a snapping turtle by its shell. Snapping turtles have ridges on and serrated (toothed) edges on their top shell, called the carapace. The ridges are often more evident on younger turtles, like this one here. Snapping turtles have a wide natural range in the United States, extending from the East coast as far west as Montana!  They can also be found even farther west in California, Oregon, and Washington but they didn't naturally occur there. The United States Geological Society calls them "native transplants" because they are naturally found in this country, just not in those states.  Check out this cool interactive map to see where they live!

 

Unlike other turtles you may be used to seeing, snapping turtles don't usually bask on sunny rocks or logs. They are very adaptable though, and frequently go on overland excursions, looking for food or a new watery habitat. They are generalized omnivores, which means that they will eat pretty much anything they can get their beaks on. You can see from the photo above that snapping turtles have beak-like mouths, which helps them grab their prey. They will eat invertebrates, plants, carrion, frogs, fish, and sometimes even small birds!

Anything that wanders too close is fair game, including your fingers! So always be careful if you come across a snapping turtle.  You should always respect wildlife when you come across it, but especially respect animals that could hurt you. You would be most likely to come across a snapping turtle when it is on land, and that is where it is most aggressive. They cannot pull their heads and legs into their shell as a defense, so they must take action to protect themselves. Snapping turtles got their name because they will extend their neck and lunge at a threat while snapping and biting at them. We typically think of turtles as being very slow-moving creatures, but snapping turtles can move quickly! They have long necks and strong beaks so they can reach farther than you might expect. 

Female snapping turtles lay their eggs during the spring and summer in the soil or in piles of vegetation, including muskrat and beaver lodges. Hatchling turtles are only the size of ping pong balls and their nests can be some distance from the water - so watch where you step! The little turtles need to make it to the water quickly so they can find food and stay safe.

 

This turtle is relatively small, only about six inches long, but they can grow to be up to 12 or 18 inches!

Galerucella Beetle Rearing Facility - Just in time for spring!

Happy spring equinox! Over the past few days, Amber at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and Katrina, a Student Conservation Association fellow working with the Refuge and the National Park Service, set up our Galerucella beetle rearing facility.  The pools are housed at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge visitor center.

Creating the beetle rearing facility is a multi-step process. First, we must go find existing purple loosestrife plants in the wild that are large enough to survive being transplanted. After those plants are dug up, they are brought back to the facility location.

After we have all of the root balls back to the facility site, we have to wash them to remove all soil, debris, and roots from other plants. We do this because we want to grow the purple loosestrife and raise the beetles in as controlled an environment as possible.

We plant the loosestrife roots balls in large pots within children's wading pools. We will fill the pools part way with water to simulate the loosestrife's natural wetland environment.

Even though purple loosestrife is an invasive species, we want our samples to grow well while they are in the pots. To encourage their growth, we add fertilizer to each pot.

After all of our plants are potted, this is what they look like! It may not look like much, but over the next several weeks the plants should sprout and grow leaves. We will carefully monitor their progress and growing conditions, trying to make them feel right at home!  By May, our cultivated loosestrife plants should be large enough to feed our beetles.