Nature Calls: Conversations from the Hudson Valley

This episode covers the second part of our interview with the four authors of the field guide “From the Hudson to the Taconics”, which is an ecological and cultural field guide to the habitats of Columbia County. The authors of this in-depth study of thirty two habitats are Conrad Vispo, Claudia Knab-Vispo, Anna Duhon and Gretchen Stevens.

Jean Thomas and Tim Kennelty both remark on the quality of the preface of the book, saying it reads like a novel because it incorporates the culture and ecology missions so clearly. Each author has deep personal connections to the county, developed over decades of studying its flora and fauna, and want to share their appreciation for the habitats. Conrad calls it “hallowed ground” made so by personal connections to a site. When pressed, each author described their own favorite among the habitats listed in the guide, with the caveat that favorite status may change from day to day.

They mentioned the “Ancient Forest”, a concept different from the more familiar phrase “Old Forest”. The ancient forest is an area that has somehow escaped being entirely decimated, retaining an uninterrupted native community. Swamp Forest. Bog Lakes and Exposed Rock Outcrops are also favorites among the writers. The description of Rock Outcrop habitat inspired a side trip to marvel at the behaviors of butterflies and the practice of some varieties to congregate in “hill topping.”

The conversation then returned to various habitats, especially the “bonus” habitat of the Hudson River. It is a counterpoint to the terrestrial habitats, and unique even among rivers in its freshwater/saltwater habitats. This section is a reminder that everything we do on land affects and is affected by the river that flanks one entire side of the county. Most of the county, in fact, is a watershed into the Hudson, which has had a huge impact on the county historically as a commercial highway.

There are other “bonus” habitats in the volume. “Ghost Habitats” take a keen eye. One is the remnant of the chestnut forest that once dominated the landscape, and another is traces of sand barrens, similar to the more familiar Pine Bush of Albany County. These ghost habitats can be thought provoking as we consider what we have now that might become ghost habitats and how we might need to react to threats.

The conversation swings back to the larger picture of the goal of the guide. The goal of reaching the maximum number of users is facilitated by having multiple “entry points” for various audiences, hopefully becoming a tool for those using and stewarding the land, with a deeper sense of connection. Availability is widespread. Most libraries through the Hudson Valley already carry copies, and it can be easily purchased through the publisher, Black Dome Press, as well as Barnes & Noble and any Independent booksellers. The episode concludes with our traditional “Hope” question, and the responses are all upbeat, culminating with the observation that there seems to be an increased interest among the younger generations.

Guests: Anna Duhon, Gretchen Stevens, Claudia Knab-Vispo, and Conrad Vispo

Photo by: Teresa Golden

Production Support: Linda Aydlett, Deven Connelly, Teresa Golden, Tim Kennelty, Amy Meadow, Xandra Powers, Annie Scibienski, Jean Thomas

In this episode, Master Gardeners Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas sit down with all four authors of the most comprehensive field guide available of a single county in New York State: From the Hudson to the Taconics”An Ecological and Cultural Field Guide to the Habitats of Columbia County by Anna Duhon, Gretchen Stevens, Claudia Knab-Vispo, and Conrad Vispo for the HAWTHORNE VALLEY FARMSCAPE. This conversation is in two parts because of, not only the number of participants in the interview, but the size of the topic.

The interview begins with an introduction to the organizations responsible for making such an effort possible. The Hawthorne Valley Association is the overriding organization, and supports the Farmscape Ecology Program. Hudsonia is the other organization participating in the production of the guide. Hudsonia is a non-advocacy group focusing on data collection and guidance to local governments and advocates in land use decisions. The authors are: 

The guide is informed by decades of original research and enables readers to get to know 36 distinct habitats including: 

When asked why and how they were able to assemble such vast amounts of data, Conrad explained that it was the way they found to communicate informed compassion for the natural world. They devised the concept of habitat descriptions to best express the sense of place, describing the specific geography clearly while remaining aesthetically pleasing. Interestingly, the scope included agricultural habitats and suburban ecology as well as “wild” places.

The volume of historic data collection in Columbia County is staggering, dating back as far as the early 1800s, and continuing to the present. The researchers talked to hunters and farmers, foragers and conservationists, and even children in their quest to reference all types of people using the land. Their idea was that the more users were consulted, the wider the audience for the field guide. People with different perspectives who used the land differently could all use the guidebook successfully. The goal was to raise awareness of differing habitats and connect with each.

The layout of the book is divided into thirty two habitats, each describing the plant and animal life, interrelations between the organisms, then bringing in the history of its land uses and discussion of possible future use. There is often a perspective from the people who actually make use of the habitat, and each section closes with an interactive suggestion to invite reader participation.

Tim was curious about the value of the guide in other New York counties and whether it was transferable. The immediate answer is that while features of some habitats are universal, it's better to take the information as a suggestion in another region. While many things are the same, the type of habitat can often be blended in another site. The idea of the guide is to be able to study as deeply or casually as one chooses. It is meant to be a tool used as the user wishes.

Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas 

Guests: Anna Duhon, Gretchen Stevens, Claudia Knab-Vispo, and Conrad Vispo 

Photo by: Teresa Golden. Production Support: Linda Aydlett, Deven Connelly, Teresa Golden, Tim Kennelty, Amy Meadow, Xandra Powers, Annie Scibienski, Jean Thomas 

This episode of “Nature Calls, Conversations from the Hudson Valley” is a retrospective look at one of the early radio interviews from our precursor show, “Digging in With Master Gardeners,” aired on WGXC, 90.7 FM. Teresa and Jean interviewed Master Gardener Volunteer Kathryn Schneider about birds. Kathryn was introduced to the joys of birding by her mother who was a birdwatcher. She took it about as far as you can, since she now has a PhD in Ornithology and has written a guidebook called “Birding the Hudson Valley.” The purpose of the book was to allow people to understand their area and go birding. She started by covering the basics on bird identification and the recording of observations, where to find particular birds, and the importance of knowing the bird's biology. Learning about how birds feed and what they do helps guide successful birders.

The second half of the book is a list of sites in the Hudson Valley where birdwatching is rewarding. Actually feeding birds is the second biggest hobby in the country. But we don't feed birds for ecology and the good of nature. We tend to feed them to amuse ourselves watching them. We can prevent getting bored by providing the correct food for the birds we want to watch, so a little research can improve the view.

The conversation concludes with specific topics including the population biology for birds, the Christmas Bird Count, and specific discussions about robins, bluebirds, ravens and vultures.

Jean and Teresa interview fellow Master Gardener Volunteer Tim Kennelty about pollinators. Tim is also a Master Naturalist with Cornell Cooperative Extension, and has served as a board member for the Columbia Land Conservancy.The conversation starts with the definition of a pollinator. Tim explains that a creature that goes from flower to flower to feed will get pollen stuck to itself. The creature then carries the pollen to the next flower and “delivers” it in exchange for the nectar. This is an arrangement that has developed over millennia to benefit both the flower and the creature. While most pollinators are insects, there are birds and bats that serve as pollinators, too. The insects are most commonly of the bees/wasp groups, butterflies/moths groups, and beetles. The Xerxes Society is a valuable resource to learn more about native pollinators and plants.

The discussion then moves to why we should care. It all boils down to the food chain. Insects are at the bottom of the food chain, and many rely on plants for life. Their symbiotic relationship helps both to thrive and serve as food for others further up the chain. This is so basic as a foundation for our existence that any disturbance in the connection will ripple upward, affecting the entire food chain. Risks included are mostly man made. Habitat disturbance leaves gaps between the links, and climate change disrupts the balance of timing between plant and insect (or animal) synchrony. Flowers blooming at the”wrong” time or migrators arriving too late for the usual diet can result in disaster for whole populations. Indeed, the statistics are alarming. Forty per cent of all insects are in steep decline, resulting in decreased populations all along the interconnected chain of life forms, ultimately in extinction for many. Specifically, Tim mentions bees which are mostly “designed” for pollination.

Honey bees must be considered separately because they are actually treated and considered as livestock. Interestingly they are not native but are handled by beekeepers, and are essential for much commercial fruit production. Sadly, they, too, are at risk from climate and pollution caused threats.

Native bees are a fascinating study. There are about four hundred species in North America, with several hundred living in New York State. Ninety percent are solitary, which may be contrary to popular expectations due to our familiarity with honey bees. Most are dedicated pollinators that have co-evolved with particular flowers. Also unlike honeybees, most can't sting. Those that can, will only do under great threat of their own death.

Resources

Tracey Testo-Smith returns to Nature Calls: Conversations from the Hudson Valley to share her knowledge and experience about foraging. In this episode, Tim and Jean sit down with Tracey Testo-Smith, Agroforestry and Natural Resources Program Manager at Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) of Columbia and Greene Counties, to discuss the practice of foraging. This interview was originally recorded as part of the Digging In With Master Gardeners radio show on WGXC 90.7FM and now repurposed for a podcast format.

Tracey reviews some of the misconceptions about what foraging actually is. Foraging doesn't need a vast array of information about everything in the forest. The main thing to know is whether a plant is useful, either for food or medicinal purposes. Tracey leads foraging walks in the spring at the Hudson CCE campus and in the fall at the Acra campus. Her classes before the walks teach folks how to identify individual plants before they even step into the woods. She often brings in co-presenters to expand their access to expertise. The public can enroll online and sign up for quarterly newsletters at http://ccecolumbiagreene.org.

There are always common sense caveats:

know the history of the site you're collecting from... for example, a former farm may have residual pesticide contamination.

Tracey finds salad greens in chickweed and blue violets, and bittercress. While these can be eaten raw, always stay aware of the possibility of pollutants when using plants near water. Ramps are famously a popular dish in restaurants, in season. These are wild leeks, and very specific as to their growing conditions. They are very slow growers, taking up to a decade to reach maturity. Tracey advises that you be exceptionally thoughtful if collecting in the wild. The leaves and bulbs are both edible. Don't try to take them home to grow because they will not survive the removal. There are now growers who can sell you bulbs to start at home without disrupting fragile populations.

Teas are another way to use foraged plants. Most mints are amenable to teas, as are clovers and yarrow. These are all amenable to drying as well, so can be stockpiled for winter use. Plants are not the only target of foragers. Tracey covers the practice of mushroom hunting. Different seasons produce wild crops of different varieties of mushrooms. Early spring is for Morels, midsummer for Chanterelles, and autumn for Chicken (or hen) of the woods. Tracey reviews what the warning signs are of poison mushrooms, and reviews the possibility of growing your own, with CCE classes available. Every mushroom, by the way, is safe to handle, even if toxic.Going deeper into the subject of what's poisonous, the environment can alter the nature of a plant. Stinging nettle can absorb heavy metals from a polluted site. Know your location's history if possible. There are plants that are a contact risk, like poison ivy or water hemlock. It's wise to know the plants that grow around your foraging target plants. 

Tracey advises to harvest moderately, so as to insure the future of the plant. The exception to this practice is invasives. If a plant is invasive... eat it all. The example she uses is Japanese knotweed. Sprouts taste like asparagus blended with rhubarb, it's full of antioxidants. The leaves can even be utilized in a paper making process.

Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas

Welcome to another Retrospective episode, this time about wildflowers. This was originally recorded in 2019 as part of the radio show, Digging in with Master Gardeners on 90.7 WGXC FM. The content is still very relevant today, so we've repurposed it for our podcast format.

In this episode, Tim and Jean sit down with Tracey Testo-Smith, Agroforestry and Natural Resources Program Manager at Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) of Columbia and Greene Counties. Tracey considers the Agroforestry Resource Center in the Siuslaw Teaching and Model Forest as her “specialty.” She leads frequent forest walks, and Part I of this interview is a chat about the wildflowers she observes. She explains the Siuslaw Forest's evolution from a logging resource to one of four model forests in the New York City/Catskill Watershed area. The forest is an education source and is frequently open to the public.

So, when you want to learn about wildflowers and attend one of Tracey's walks, what should you expect? Tracey says to keep in mind three main features of most : wildflowers are;

With these three basic observations, you can begin to “key out” an iID for the plant you're looking at. Newcombe's Wildflower Guide is Tracey's favorite reference book. On her walks, Tracey likes to point out the more subtle flowers, while still admiring the showier “stars”, of course. There is also a grey area about non-native introduced flowers that have coexisted peacefully with the natives for, in some cases, centuries. These are acknowledged for their beauty and usefulness, too.

In the Spring wildflower walks, the Ephemerals show off. These are plants with a specific lifestyle habit of appearing early in the year, growing to full maturity and producing seeds before disappearing, plant and all, until the next year. Tracey points out that sometimes plants are misnamed as ephemeral but arent because the foliage perseveres into the summer. One example of this is the Hepatica.

A field trip, whether into the Siuslaw Forest or, often, the Hudson CCE campus, consists of the group gathering and reviewing how to use field guides before venturing outside to explore. Phone apps are discussed as well. Tracey admits a partiality to the Springtime. She points out that at that time of year, we're hungry for color and fresh plant life as the forest reawakens. When Tim asked about the rarest plant she'd observed, she described the green fringed orchid, a very subtle beauty that seems to “move around” from year to year. It's listed by the state as not “rare”, but “vulnerable.”Some plants are hunted, specifically ginseng. Once almost eradicated because of its value to herbalists and over-harvesting by landowners and poachers alike, wild stands of the plant are often kept secret by those who find them. Ginseng planbts typcally don't thrive when transplanted, so Tracey warns against thinking you can bring them home to grow them in “safety”. In fact, she advises against digging up any wild plant... it's usually a death sentence because its growing requirements are very specific. Other threats beside loving them to death (moving them) include climate change and invasive plants. Climate change interferes with the interrelations

The other major threat to wildflowers is deer browse. Tracey describes experimental “exclosures” build within the forest and observed over a number of years for

Hosts: Tim Kennelty and Jean Thomas

Resources

This episode, originally aired as a Digging In With Master Gardeners radio show interview on WGXC 90.7FM, is a discussion about the many virtues of growing your own vegetables. Tim Kennelty interviews Teresa Golden and Jean Thomas about the multiple facets of home vegetable gardening. The first and most obvious benefits to gardening for your own pantry are that you have arguably the freshest possible vegetables, a wider assortment of varieties to choose from, and definitely the most

economical access to good food. Teresa advocates “listening to the plant,” explaining that being aware of the plant's silent signals can lead to optimal quality. She says that the color or strawberries 'say' when to pick them, but that tomatoes are more forgiving when picking them early to ripen off the vine.

Jean reminds the listener that there are three main groups of veggie families, the cucurbits, the cole crops, and the tomato/eggplant/pepper clan. The most valuable preparation, once the bed is ready to plant, is this: read the seed package because it conveys a wealth of information. The squash family (cucurbits) includes cucumbers as well as zucchini, yellow squash and the winter squashes. Once the summer squash begin to produce, they are persistent and must be harvested consistently. Winter squash have a much longer season and can be harvested when just about everything else is cleared away. Their hard shells make it possible to store in a cool, dry place well into the winter season. Brassicas are the cabbage family, including cauliflower, broccoli and brussels sprouts. Cabbage must be picked at just the right time, and requires good soil and plenty of water, Cauliflowers are ready when the heads are heavy with the florets not yet separating. Broccoli is prolific and easy, and Teresa offers tips on harvesting both broccoli and brussels sprouts. All the cabbages go well into the Fall, extending harvest season.

Jean, Teresa and Tim discuss the battle with cabbage worms. Tim wonders what about beans, and reminds Jean and Teresa about another large family full of great

Melons are the next logical crop that comes to mind. They can be tricky, with a need for adequate water at the right times, and soil temperature is critical. Smaller melons might be best as the region has a fairly short growing season. There are clues to ripeness, like skin color and texture and stem slippage. Storing them at 70 degrees F and chilling them prior to serving is best. Watermelons require 20 square foot per plant, and there are many tricks and challenges to growing them. Teresa says “heft” is important and Jean and Tim discuss checking the “bellybutton” for ripeness.

Root crops are discussed, as are the onion family, which includes garlic. The conversation circles back to tomatoes and their relatives, with tips galore about growing,

Resources

This episode of ”Nature Calls: Conversations from the Hudson Valley” is a retrospective from one of the early radio interviews from our precursor show, “Digging in With Master Gardeners” which aired on WGXC, 90.7 FM. Teresa and Jean interviewed Master Beekeeper and Emeritus Master Gardener Volunteer Linda Aydlett. The original was aired as episode 14, and can be found on the Digging in with the Master Gardener page. Linda Aydlett has been a beekeeper for over a decade, tending from two to thirty hives in various years. She got started at a workshop by the Catskill Mountain Beekeeping Club, studied via books, internet and youtube videos, then became a Master Beekeeper through Cornell University.Our conversation continues with further descriptions of the castes of bees in the hive. Drones, the only males, are a small portion of the population, with a few hundred or up to a maximum of a thousand per hive. They are larger, and have huge eyes, so are easy to identify. They have no nest chores, and rely on the worker bees for everything.They are evicted from the hive in the Fall.

Moving on to disease risks, Linda itemizes the symptoms as well as disasters that can happen in a hive. CCD, or colony collapse disease, was a big issue for a while, whereby all the workers disappeared without a trace, leaving the queen, drones and larva unattended. They were helpless and would not survive on their own. Never diagnosed fully, it seems to have abated for now. Other threats include Varroa mites, which act in a similar way to ticks, being disease vectors. However, they are gigantic parasites compared to the size of their host bees, and can be debilitating.They tend to attack when the colony is at its weakest, usually the winter solstice. There are methods of dealing with these mites, but the beekeeper must always remain vigilant.

In light of all these risks to the bees and the need for honey bees as pollinators, is the whole food production system at risk? Linda says there are several documentaries about the commercial migratory route followed by beekeepers who truck hives around the country following the bloom time of various crops. These include the Hudson Valley, where there is a thriving fruit growing industry. The results would be disastrous if anything wiped out the honey bees. Besides commercial transport, there are threats to local bees in a “normal” year. Every summer is the “dearth”, when nectar can become scarce between flowering seasons, and the beekeeper must supplement food, so the bees don't use up the store that they will need for the winter. The average person can help by allowing stands of Asters and Goldenrod to grow. Both provide the needed nectar when other flowers are no longer in bloom. On a small scale, the gardener can increase the yield of their vegetable crops in the home garden by planting flowers nearby to attract honey bees.They have favorites just like we do. First annuals and perennials, then herbs and mints. In early spring, bees exist on dandelions, and then clover.

To become a beekeeper is not easy. The beginner must consider many things:

Once committed to the effort, how do you start? Woodware (the actual physical hive structure), equipment and bees must be acquired. Linda lists sources in the area and online for all three. Bees are shipped either as a “package”, the equivalent of a little bee apartment, or nukes, a much larger number of bees , almost a small hive. Once established, there is one other enemy to be faced, if you live in bear territory. In that case, the best, and probably only, way to go is with an electric fence, and it must be put up before the bear discovers the hive. Once he knows it's there, he'll persist regardless of the electrical charge. Solar power for the fence is also best, because few hives are placed near outlets.

The last big threat to bees is the universal one: climate change. The alliance of plants and insects that co-evolved over millennia is changing. It may no longer reliably signal to the bees when to start egg laying, or when specific plants are producing pollen. The beekeeper just goes on, monitoring the hives and adapting wherever she can.

This episode ofNature Calls, Conversations from the Hudson Valley is a retrospective look at one of the early radio interviews from our precursor show, “Digging in With Master Gardeners”, aired on WGXC, 90.7 FM. Teresa and Jean interviewed Master Beekeeper and Emeritus Master Gardener Volunteer Linda Aydlett. The original was aired as episode 14.

Linda Aydlett has been a beekeeper for over a decade, tending from two to thirty hives in various years. She got started at a workshop by the Catskill Mountain Beekeeping Club, studied via books, internet and Youtube videos, and then became a Master Beekeeper through Cornell University. Linda tells us there is a special relationship between bees and their keeper, quoting author Mark Winston : “The world slows down to focus on bees and their world.”

There are 20,000 bee species worldwide. Honeybees are the only insect providing food eaten by people. They are most commonly managed by people. There are twenty sub-species and they are now found in all habitable parts of the world, but are not native to North America. Some key details about honey bees include:

One third of our food supply relies on the presence of pollinators. Honeybees can be directly connected to 75% of fruit crops and 53% of seed production. Direct production from honey bees includes honey. It is nectar brought back to the hive and stored at an 18% moisture content. It takes millions of miles of flight and visits to two million flowers to produce 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey. Propolis is a glue produced from the sap of evergreens for maintenance of the hive. It is also valuable to humans for certain antimicrobial properties, and is also used as a wood varnish. Beeswax is excess nectar, and is the infrastructure of a hive. Humans have multiple uses for the wax, including the popular beeswax candles. Even the venom has a use. Although its removal kills the bee, the venom is used to inject “heat” into arthritic joints.

Bees are often considered livestock and overseen by departments of agriculture in many states. Nectar is the reward to the bee for transporting pollen from flower to flower. Linda goes on to describe the fascinating details of a forager bee's life. They find the flowers (and are flower “constant” while a particular flower is in season), and collect the nectar. They return to the hive and transfer it to another bee. They also perform a “waggle dance” to transmit information about direction of the nectar source. Linda describes both the dance and how researchers decoded it in 1927.

There are three castes of bees, and Linda describes the duties of each in detail, from the queen to the drone to the worker. There is considerable drama to the choice and emergence of new queens. Learn about a substance called royal jelly which is exuded from the foreheads of nurse bees to feed the queen larvae. The larva of worker bees emerge to assume one or more of the duties of a worker bee. There are, in addition to nurse bees, mortuary bees, ventilator bees, guard bees and others. Eventually each of these can be promoted to a forager bee, usually for the last half of their life (eight weeks on average). There are even some bees known as winter bees. They are born in September or October and can survive the winter. They are of necessity less active and their main duty is to keep the hive warm... around 90 degrees F. They can unhinge their wings and then shiver to produce heat, all the while rotating from the inside to the outside of the bee cluster. New egg laying starts in February and March when activities revert to traditional good weather behavior. Ideally, there was enough honey stored in the hive for the population to survive the winter.

Bees are fascinating species. Learn more about them in the upcoming Part 2 of this conversation.

This episode continues our conversation with Kristopher Williams of PRISM and a frequent guest on Nature Calls: Conversations from the Hudson Valley. Kris is our go-to expert about all things invasive. We have talked to him about invasive plants, insects and diseases. Today we asked Kris to tell us some of the success stories about his long career as an environmental advocate. We have spoken to Kris in previously aired episodes 23, 24, 31,and 189, in case you want to look a little deeper into his work. First a reminder of the definition: PRISM stands for Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management. It is one of eight regional districts in the state devised by NYS DEC and funded by the EPA to try to control the onslaught of invasive species of all kinds into the state.

Tim then changed the subject to an invasive he's particularly irked by... Japanese stilt grass. Possible solutions were discussed, including some failures. It all ended with a positive note, though. Kris had cleared stiltgrass from an area and replanted with natives. The following season checkup revealed NO stiltgrass. The natives had prevailed. As an added note, there is some