Why is this butterfly so important?

• Monarch butterflies act as pollinators.
• They act as natural pest control, playing an important role in their food cycle — acting as prey and predators.
• Monarchs are indicator species, meaning they can tell us about the current state of our environment and its health.

What can you do?

You can help by planting a pollinator garden. Not only will this help with the declining monarch butterfly population but it is an excellent educational opportunity over the summer months for your children.

You can plant a garden anywhere. It doesn’t have to be complex or fancy, just a simple, native flower garden will attract beautiful butterflies to your yard and help pollinators stay healthy. In addition to nectar from flowers, monarch butterflies need milkweed to survive.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offers seven easy steps to build a butterfly garden:

• Choose your location — Butterflies enjoy basking in the sun.
• Take a look at your soil — If you find that your soil type doesn’t match the plants you’d like to plant, consider building a raised bed or using flower pots.
• Prep your soil — Additional dirt will be helpful no matter the location and is necessary for raised beds and flower pots.
• Choose your plants — Find a nursery near you that sells native and local plants and milkweed for your area. Native plants are the ideal choice because they require less maintenance and tend to be heartier.
• Choose plants that have not been treated with pesticides, insecticides or neonicotinoids.
• Plant perennials to ensure your plants come back each year and don’t require a lot of maintenance.
• Choose a diversity of plants that bloom throughout the seasons to ensure pollinators benefit in the spring, summer and fall. This will also ensure that your garden is bright and colourful for months!
• Choosing seeds or small plants — Small plants that have already started growing in a nursery are simple and show instant return on pollinator visits, especially if you are planting in a small space. Seeds are best if you have more time.
• Plant your flowers and milkweed — For small plants, dig holes just big enough for the root system. Cover the roots with dirt and reinforce with dirt or straw mulch to reduce weed growth. For seeding, spread seeds across your freshly prepared garden and cover them with dirt. Consider adding some flat rocks so butterflies can bask in the sun!
• Wait, watch, water and weed your garden — It may take some time, but you will eventually see butterflies and other pollinators enjoying your garden. Make sure to weed and water your garden to keep it healthy.

Help track monarch movements, milkweed growth and monarch life stages by reporting your sightings at journeynorth.org/monarch.

For more information on monarch butterflies and other pollinators, visit:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — www.fws.gov

Learn About Nature — www.learnaboutnature.com.

The Red River Basin Commission (RRBC) is a grassroots organization that is a chartered not-for-profit corporation under the provisions of Manitoba, North Dakota, Minnesota, and South Dakota law. Contact the Winnipeg office at 204-982-7254, or you can check out the website at www.redriverbasincommission.org.

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Compost is one of nature’s best mulches and soil amendments. Most gardeners know the value of this rich, dark, earthy material in improving the soil and creating a healthful environment for plants. Understanding how to make and use compost is in the public interest, as the problem of waste disposal continues to grow.

A few of the many benefits of compost are:

• Reduction in garbage volume.
• A rich, natural fertilizer cuts back on use of chemical fertilizers.
• Improves soil aeration and drainage.
• Helps control weeds.
• Decreases the need for costly watering.

The following tips are from the River Keepers, and for more information on building your own composter, go to riverkeepers.org.

• As soon as decomposition begins, the volume of the pile will decrease. Don’t be tempted to add more materials at this point, as this resets the clock on that batch.
• You will maximize your composting efforts if you aerate by turning or mixing the heap about once a week. A garden fork or hay fork work well.
• Finished compost is usually less than half the volume of the materials you started with, but it’s much denser. When finished it should look, feel and smell like rich, dark soil. You should not be able to recognize any of the items you originally placed in the pile.

Some common problems to watch for are:

• If the compost is too wet, turn it more frequently or add dry brown material.
• If the pile doesn’t heat up, add more green material to the compost; may need to add water; may need to aerate.
• If there is an ammonia or rotten egg smell, turn the compost or add brown material to dry it out.
• If large amounts of dropped apples or kitchen scraps attract wasps or other unwelcome pests, turn more frequently.

Here’s some ways to use finished compost:

• Mix compost into the soil to improve it.
• Spread compost on lawn to fill in low spots.
• Use as mulch for landscaping and gardening.
• Mix compost into potted plants.

Key materials for composting are nitrogen-rich ‘greens’ and carbon-rich ‘browns,’ water, and air. Examples of greens are green leaves, coffee grounds/filters, tea bags, plant trimming, fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells and fresh grass clippings. Examples of browns are dead plants, sawdust from untreated lumber, twigs, and dried grasses, weeds, straw and leaves. Water allows microbes in your compost to grow and help decompose material. The compost should be moist. Air aids in decomposition and controls odours. A good recipe is one part green to four parts brown.

Some items not to compost are:

• Meat, fish and animal fats — These materials may attract unwanted visitors to your compost pile.
• Shredded newspapers or office paper — The paper may contain chemicals that are not good for your compost. Recycle them instead.
• Ashes from your grill — Wood ashes can be very useful in small quantities, but BBQ grill ashes should NEVER go into your compost pile.
• Dog and cat feces — These materials can add diseases to your compost, and they have an unpleasant odour. Use chicken, horse, cow, and rabbit manure instead.
• Sawdust from treated lumber — Sometimes lumber is treated with harmful chemicals.

With a small investment of time, you can contribute to the solution to a community waste disposal problem, while at the same time enriching the soil and improving the health of your yard and garden.

The post The importance of composting appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

In many places in the basin, however, farmers are noticing areas of fields not producing well in recent years.

Could these two phenomena — tilling practices and plant growth problems — be connected?

Turns out the answer is yes. Tilling is a primary way salts trapped in deeper layers of the basin’s soil rise to the surface. The resulting salt-ridden or saline topsoils cause decline — often dramatic — in crop production.

How does tilling cause salts to rise? Well, salts tend to follow water in the soil — they go where the water goes. Tilling causes water to rise in the soil, and the salts rise with the water. Because tilling also dries out the layer(s) of soil it impacts, the salts that have followed the water upwards get stranded in upper layers.

When the phenomenon gets repeated year after year, enough salts make their way up to root level and above to cause loss in the soil’s production capabilities.

And this appears to be what is happening in the basin, where areas of saline soil in crop production fields are increasing with every year. In the North Dakota portion of the Red River basin alone, according to a 2007 mapping, an estimated two million acres have become, or have the potential for becoming, saline.

Once the salts have risen, solutions do not come easily. The movement of salts in the soil can be a complex phenomenon, and, even with best efforts, producers continue to depend on tilling practices. As one researcher from North Dakota State University (NDSU) put it at a recent field demonstration on saline soils, “salinity wipes the easy button off the map.”

Agencies are ramping up efforts to respond to the growing problem of saline soils. For Canadian producers, Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development is a source of information for managing salinity. For U.S. producers, the Natural Resources Conservation Service offers information, together with technical and financial assistance through its Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

Research on saline soils is also underway. Of particular interest is a long-term study undertaken by NDSU Extension that is applying various practices to saline-impacted soils under real farming conditions in order to keep economics in the equation while improving soil health.

Soil health is also a priority for the Red River Basin Commission (RRBC). A newly established RRBC work group on Soil Conservation/Soil Health has begun tracking and reporting practices from around the basin that further soil health, with the goal of improving soil health in the basin by linking efforts and information.

The post Saline soils, plant growth problems linked to tillage practices appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The types of plants used to provide food and cover will determine the wildlife species that are attracted. Select native species that flower and bear fruit or seed at different times. Plant a variety of species including grasses, flowering forbs, shrubs and trees. Shrubs that hold their fruit into fall and winter can provide food well into the winter season. Native forbs will attract butterflies. A variety of herbaceous and woody plant materials will provide a diversity of structure for wildlife cover. Depending on the species selected, these same plants can provide cover and a food source into fall and winter. Plant in groups or clusters. Single plants of native grass, forbs or shrubs will not provide the habitat needed for wildlife. Larger groups of shrubs, grass or flowering forbs provide increased diversity, cover and food in close proximity and structural heights attractive to wildlife.

Food

Learn the food needs of the species you wish to attract and plant accordingly. Provide plant species that will yield a variety of foods during the year. If you wish to attract birds, plant species that retain fruit into the winter season, such as junipers, highbush cranberry, native rose species, or species that will retain seeds into the winter such as Maximilian sunflower. Native grasses also provide seeds for birds. A variety of flowering forbs attract insects and will attract birds that feed on those insects. Hummingbirds can be attracted by planting flowers with high nectar levels. Butterflies seem more attracted to purple and white flowers than yellow.

From the Alberta Farmer Express website: Great Backyard Bird Count goes global, shatters records

Cover

Wildlife species need multiple cover types located close to food to avoid predation and exposure to harsh winter elements. The type of wildlife you wish to attract will dictate the required type of covers planted. Planting native grasses and forbs will attract birds that nest on the ground and feed on small seeds and insects. Planting a variety of trees and shrubs will attract bird species that nest in woody vegetation and use fruits or nuts as food sources. Cover must be close enough to food to provide safe access for wildlife. Cover types that provide an array of vertical structure will attract a wider variety of wildlife species. Management of cover is a key component to attract wildlife. If native grasses and forbs are mowed during the primary nesting season, nesting cover is destroyed. Leave residual cover into winter to provide adequate nesting cover in spring. To provide nesting cover, native grasses should not be mowed during the nesting season from mid-April to late July and should only be mowed periodically (once every three to five years) to provide the residual cover needed for ground- or grass-nesting birds.

Water

Wildlife needs may vary. However, they all need water to survive. Some species utilize dew on plants while other species need open water. Plan for water in your backyard. If natural water is available, protect it from sedimentation and nutrient loading with grass buffers. Artificial water can be added by use of bird baths, lined ponds or construction of a clay-lined created wetland. Year-round water is important. A heated water source can attract birds to backyards. Keep water fresh, and provide logs or rocks as escape areas around deep water sources for birds and maybe even a basking turtle. Small depressions in rocks can collect water and attract butterflies.

Spring is right around the corner. Start planning now and be prepared to get your yard ready to enjoy the wildlife it will attract. A copy of the book with pictures and diagrams can be found here (pdf file may take a few moments to load).

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Speculation about an ancient lake likely existed from early on. American Indians would have noticed the lines of deposits of earth, stone and sand from early lakeshores. Some early settlers used this information in locating homesteads.

Scientists had speculated since the early part of the century that the line of deposits stretching from southern New England and Long Island all the way to North Dakota and Saskatchewan was caused by glacial action. By 1872, one of these scientists, N.H. Winchell, explained that Lake Agassiz resulted from a barrier of receding glacial ice.

The exact size and shores of this lake, however, remained in question. The person who took on the job to find and map these shores was Warren Upham. Who was this person who almost single-handedly mapped the ancient lake that today is the Red River basin?

Warren Upham was born on a New Hampshire farm in 1850, educated at Dartmouth, and worked as a geologist in New Hampshire before moving to Minnesota at the age of 29 to study the state’s resources and geology. Because a primary task of Upham’s work was to map the shorelines of Lake Agassiz, he soon concluded that in order to achieve a comprehensive picture, he would need to bring North Dakota and Manitoba into the study as well.

It took Upham seven years and 11,000 miles of travel by wagon, horse and foot to collect information. The results were made available in a large volume describing topography, geologic formations, drift deposits, reaches of the lake at its various stages, beaches as they formed and changed, even current wells and agricultural and material resources.

As a sign of Upham’s success in breaking political barriers, the study was published by both the U.S. and Canada. The Geographical Survey of Canada published a first report in 1890; the U.S. Geographical Survey published the final Glacial Lake Agassiz in 1895.

As if one large project were not enough, Upham went on to produce a 735-page compendium of Minnesota place names, ranging from rivers and lakes to counties, towns, city streets and parks, among others. In seeking support for the work from the Minnesota Historical Society, he argued that “the value and utility” of such research for Minnesota history “can hardly be overestimated.”

This “careful student” of the Red River basin’s geology and history was given little recognition. Upham’s documents, however, stand on their own even today for their accuracy and detail. And Upham’s willingness to take on big tasks, his perseverance, and his ability to overcome impediments remain important personal models for the many who continue to study and manage the waters and land in the Red River basin.

The post Warren Upham: A man to know appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Even fewer were prepared for the flood when it hit. The dry 1930s and modest flooding of the 1940s had lulled basin communities into complacency.

Then, a winter of heavy snow followed by heavy spring rains resulted in flooding all along the main stem Red River, with discharges at Pembina exceeding the 1897 flood. Six people died in the flood, and the economic price tag was estimated at $600 million to $1 billion.

Hardest hit was Winnipeg, where multiple dikes failed, resulting in the evacuation of 100,000 people from the city on May 5.

Although additional basin flooding followed in 1951 and 1952, the weather turned mostly dry for the rest of the 1950s. With the exception of Winnipeg, which began work on permanent flood protection for the city, basin communities for the most part did little to prepare for the next big flood.

So, despite the fact that most parts of the main stem experienced damaging flooding in 1950 (and/or 1951 and 1952), the memory of the early 1950s floods appears to have quickly faded in the dry years that followed. Communities for the most part did not step up to add permanent flood protection.

As a result, when large spring floods hit again in the 1960s and ’70s, most communities had only makeshift responses. And, when the 1997 flood blew many earlier peaks out of the water, communities found themselves fighting for their lives with minimal permanent protection in place.

Some, like Grand Forks/East Grand Forks, lost the battle.

The 15 wet years that followed the trauma of 1997 have seen work in many communities to put permanent flood protection measures into place. However, many of these efforts fall short of levels of protection recommended in the Red River Basin Commission’s 2011 Long-Term Flood Solutions study.

The study shows that, of 42 main stem and tributary cities, only two, Halstad, Minn. and Oslo, Minn., meet recommended levels of 200-year protection. Only two of the five larger population centres, Winnipeg and West Fargo, N.D., meet recommended levels of 500-year protection.

Half of the 42 communities still have less than 100-year protection or no permanent protection. Of those communities with less than 100-year protection, one, Fargo-Moorhead, is a major metropolitan area, whose potential for flood damage is enormous (estimates show a $9 billion to $10 billion loss to the cities in the event of a 500-year flood event).

One lesson of 1950 is that a dry year like the present is not the time to forget. Rather, it is a time to plan for and put into place permanent flood protection for the basin’s vital communities. Is your community ready for the next big flood?

The post Are you ready for the next big flood? appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

But how often do we take these grand living structures for granted? Rather than just walking, biking or driving by and not noticing, what if we sought out the grand trees of our basin? Wouldn’t discovering an incredible tree be considered a “find?” How do we share this knowledge, so others can marvel at their glory as well?

Both Minnesota and North Dakota have compiled lists of the largest trees in their respective state and have websites devoted to their programs. The North Dakota Forest Service maintains the records for the Champion Tree Program. The link to their web page is http://www.ndsu.edu/ndfs/champion_trees_of_nd/. Minnesota’s native big tree registry is found at http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/trees_shrubs/bigtree/index.html. Several of these amazing trees are located in the Red River basin.

A Manitoba non-profit, Rivers West Red River Corridor, is currently sponsoring its Second Annual Amazing Tree Quest, with the help of the Manitoba Forestry Association. Entrants are invited to nominate the tree they find most amazing. This might mean the biggest tree, the oldest tree, the most striking tree — perhaps a community favourite. Winning trees will be announced during Canada’s National Forest Week, September 22-29, 2012. Details about the contest can be found at http://www.riverswest.ca/.

Whatever state or province we live in, any of us can add such a quest to our summer plans for enjoying the outdoors. What better way to explore the basin than to visit these champion trees or to search out a grand tree that has been overlooked, perhaps for a century or more, to be discovered?

However we carry it out, an amazing tree quest will further several important goals. It will increase awareness of the role of trees in our basin’s history. And it will promote stewardship of the basin’s trees, which, withstanding extremes of weather, continue to protect our land and water resources and amaze us with their splendour.

The post Looking for that amazing tree appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The Red River Basin Commission’s recent study, Long Term Flood Solutions for the Red River Basin (LTFS), found little consensus on the answer to this question. As a result, flood protection practices in the basin’s communities and municipalities vary widely. While the City of Winnipeg has 700-year protection, a number of basin cities lack permanent protection altogether.

The study also found that existing guidelines typically require only minimal levels of protection. For instance, FEMA continues to use 100-year elevation as the baseline for levee certification, despite the fact that areas in the Red River basin have experienced 250-year, and even 500-year, recurrence floods.

Other guidelines, such as those used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, use economic criteria that may make one community eligible for flood protection funding, but not another. And although states/provinces typically have guidelines for funding projects, these guidelines tend to follow federal minimums for levels of protection.

In short, the LTFS study found that: 1) guidelines for levels of protection in the basin are few, 2) guidelines often do not match the record of real and potential flood levels in the basin, and thus, 3) communities may have a false sense of protection when they meet minimum standards of current guidelines.

The study concluded that appropriate goals for levels of flood protection in the Red River basin could help reduce risk of damages from future large floods. Such basin-wide goals could guide local, state/provincial and federal governments’ long-term planning and prioritizing of protection projects.

To this end, the LTFS study recommends the following guidelines for levels of protection:

•  Major urban areas: 500 year or greater.
•  Critical infrastructure: 500 year or greater.
•  Cities/municipalities: 200 year or greater.
•  Critical transportation: 200 year or greater.
•  Rural residences and farmsteads: 100 year or greater.
•  Agricultural cropland: summer flood: 10 year or greater.

These guidelines were developed as part of a comprehensive, basin-wide approach to floodplain management that includes recommendation for non-structural measures and retention strategies in conjunction with raising levels of protection.

For more details on the LTFS study’s conclusions and recommendations for action, the full report is published on RRBC’s website at http://www.redriverbasincommission.org/Comprehensive_Report_12-15-11_FINAL.pdf.

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If one looks at the last century or two, it appears that flooding has been the rule in the basin in the sense that few decades have escaped significant flood events. In the last 50 years or so, flooding has become an even more common event. The number of major floods during these years, as listed by three recent studies, totals 18. That’s a big flood in more than a third of the years. If we add lesser flood events, the picture of flooding being the rule becomes even clearer.

In the last 12 years alone, together with the major spring floods of 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, the following years have also seen damage in the basin from excess waters:

•  2000: significant spring damage in Fargo-Moorhead following a severe spring rainstorm,
•  2002: damaging summer flooding on the Minnesota Wild Rice and the trans-boundary Roseau and Pembina rivers,
•  2004: late-spring flooding from Mayville-Portland, N.D., to the Canadian border,
•  2005: record-high summer stage and duration levels on the Red River,
•  2007: wet spring and summer conditions causing crop losses in areas of the basin,
•  2008: spring flood and wet fall conditions damaging to crops.

That means we’ve had basin flooding in 10 of the last 12 years.

Unless we think that we are home free with 2011-12’s unusually dry fall and winter, we need to keep our eyes on the signs or “barometers” of water in the basin.

These barometers are the areas of the basin closed to its natural drainage system. The most striking instance is Devils Lake, where water levels remain at record levels despite the basin’s dry spell.

In the last few years, water levels have also risen in other parts of the basin, in particular those Prairie pothole areas in the southern basin where the potholes have become lakes and roads have disappeared or been built up or rerouted.

But, even if these areas see reduction in water levels as a result of drainage projects or a dry spell, water always seeks the lowest level. The natural water levels of these areas still signal something of the potential for flooding in the Red River basin. That potential appears to suggest flooding as a continuing rule rather than exception.

The post Flooding: The rule or the exception? appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Landscapes of foundation plantings, trees dotted throughout the lawn, and expanses of green, lush turf originated in the East, where rainfall averages 30 inches or more and is distributed fairly regularly over the growing season. This isn’t always compatible with conditions in the Red River basin. Landscapes developed with sustainable practices improve the environment by conserving resources and reducing chemical applications. They also reduce labour inputs, making them less expensive to implement and maintain.

The key to creating a sustainable landscape is the design process. Plant selection, implementation and maintenance build on the design. The phrase, “right plant, right place,” can help you consider each plant and area’s needs for nutrients, watering and maintenance.

Maintenance is another consideration. The plants selected will determine frequency and rate of watering. Overwatering is detrimental to plants’ health and invites diseases such as root rot and verticillium. A well-maintained drip irrigation system provides the most efficient delivery.

Mulch provides moisture conservation, weed control and winter protection. There are many types, both organic and synthetic. Organic mulches are often preferred, although they must be added to from time to time. Generally, mulches work best on vegetable, flower and shrub plantings and some trees, but could be detrimental to native plantings.

Zonal planting concepts can also be adopted in your move to a sustainable landscape. With this concept, plants requiring the most water are planted close to the house, often given the term “oasis zone.” The moderate or regular watering zone would contain plants that, after establishment, require only occasional watering during an extended droughty period. The “no water zone” could have native or adapted plant species acclimated to the usual precipitation patterns of your particular region. Here, plants would need water the first year to become established and then be allowed to go it entirely on their own. Careful planning is needed, as the three zones require three different classes of plants. Local communities may have demonstration sites and information. In Winnipeg, The Living Prairie Museum (http://www.winni peg.ca/publicworks/naturalist/livingprairie/), a tall grass prairie preserve, is home to over 160 species of prairie plants. It features workshops and other educational programs and offers books and wildflower seeds in its bookstore.

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