Environmental Edition, Judy Keenan, Editor Landscape Design Edition, Jane Hersey, Editor

Scatter Info

As We Bloom and Grow Horticulture Edition, Gail Berthe, Editor Environmental Edition, Judy Keenan, Editor Landscape Design Edition, Jane Hersey, Editor

Volume 2, Number 4 Environmental Edition November, 2014

Letter from the Editor November is the month we give thanks for the abundance with which we have been provided. Just as we have been given much, we also have a responsibility to take care of the gifts we have received. What better way to show our gratitude than by the actions we take to protect our natural world. Judy Keenan, Environmental Editor

Act for Clean Water By Judy Keenan

I remember going to visit Lake Erie as a young child with my family. A tall fence separated us from the water in order to keep people away from the toxins. Wading and fishing were dreams of the distant past. The Clean Water Act, which recently celebrated its 42nd birthday, helped to change that. One of our natural wonders is again fit for swimming. Here in Georgia, the sewage discharge that fouled the Chattahoochee has been reduced by a whopping 99 percent. Wildlife abounds and Georgians can once again enjoy boating and fishing the Hooch. That is progress. Nevertheless, some 40,000 miles of Georgia’s rivers and streams are not protected by the Clean Water Act due to a loophole secured by developers a decade ago. Polluters still dump

some 12,621,000 pounds of toxic chemicals into our waterways ever year. In fact, Georgia ranks fifth in the nation for toxic discharge into waterways, according to a 2012 report by Environment Georgia. The Savannah River is the 4th worst river in the United States for toxic discharge, the Chattahoochee ranks 19th nationwide for discharge of cancer-causing chemicals and 14th for release of reproductive toxicants and the Coosa River ranks 14th for releases of toxicants that can cause developmental abnormalities in children and fetuses. As a nation and as a state, we cannot afford to squander our most precious natural resource—fresh water. As citizens, we can ask our leaders to step up to the plate and enforce the laws that are already on the books and penalize polluters. We can insist upon transparency in industry, so we actually know what gets dumped into our waterways. Perhaps even more important, we must stop asking ourselves, “what constitutes a safe level of toxins?” and instead ask “how can we replace poisons with benign alternatives?” thereby eliminating the problem altogether.

Botanists Find ‘Holy Grail’ of Georgia Grass By Rick Lavender

When it comes to Hirst Brothers’ panic grass, Georgia went from zero to 500--and from potential player to world leader--in one hot August afternoon. A search led by Delaware Department of Natural Resources botanist Bill McAvoy and coordinated with Georgia DNR’s Nongame Conservation Section found an estimated 500 Dichanthelium hirstii plants at a limesink pond in Sumter County on Aug. 7. That marks the first time the candidate species for federal listing

as endangered had been seen in

Georgia since 1947, and only the DNR botanist Tom Patrick at the Dichanthelium hirstii site in Sumter County third time ever. “I was very excited,” said McAvoy, of Delaware DNR’s Species Conservation and Research Program.

McAvoy is conducting a range-wide survey of Hirst Brothers’ panic grass for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Previously, there were five known populations of the grass. That includes one plant McAvoy found in North Carolina this year, a population in Delaware and three in the New Jersey pine barrens. Of the sites in Delaware and New Jersey, only one has visible plants this year-- fewer than 20 individuals. Named for two brothers credited with discovering it in New Jersey in the 1950s, Hirst Brothers’ panic grass grows in limesink ponds, or depressional wetlands, that fill with rain in winter and go dry in summer. Thousands of these pools dot the landscape in south Georgia. But many have been altered by land uses such as farming. Others, explained DNR botanist Lisa Kruse, have been overtaken by trees and woody shrubs as the fires that kept the grasslands open have been suppressed. The habitat is also under-surveyed, particularly during the autumnal bloom phase, when the tall grass is more conspicuous. So, while some botanists searched for the plant in Georgia, and many kept watch for it, none saw it. McAvoy returned to Georgia this summer because the state has two historical records of Dichanthelium hirstii--from 1900 and 1947--and the habitat considered key to the plant still seemed in place. (Both collections in Georgia were initially classified as other species, since Hirst Brothers’ panic grass wasn’t described as distinct until 1961.) Prepping for his second trip to the state in two summers, the Delaware botanist scoured aerial photographs and maps for the signature limesink habitat. He crosschecked for sites with Boykin’s lobelia, a rare plant found alongside Hirst Brothers’ panic grass. With Kruse’s help, he focused on where the panic grass had been collected decades ago in Georgia. And on the last day of his search in the field, and at almost the last pond, he and DNR botanist Tom Patrick found it. “It was everywhere, a clump here, a clump there,” Patrick Delaware DNR botanist Bill said. MacAvoy with a pressed specimen of Dichanthelium hirstii McAvoy said the population at the privately owned 10- acre pond was very healthy. Next steps include discussions with the landowner about possible conservation options, and using habitat details from the site--the plants were found in the draw-down zone of the wet savanna habitat--to fine-tune searches on other property. The effort is worth it, Kruse suggests. “To the best of our knowledge, Dichanthelium hirstii is an indicator of an extremely diverse and healthy ecosystem. Often this species is also with other rare plants … So when you find it, you know that plant community is unique and intact--it’s a special place.” Hirst Brothers’ panic grass has long been a mystery in Georgia, she said. “It’s sort of the grass Holy Grail.” A Grail that has been found.

This article has been reprinted from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources blog with permission from the author. Thank you Mr. Lanvender. For more articles from the Georgia DNR, go to www.georgiawildlife.wordpress.com.

A Land Ethic By Judy Keenan As gardeners, we must be stewards of the land. According to tradition, those first gardeners, Adam and Eve, were “given dominion” over all that lives on our planet. Some have taken that to mean the world is ours to exploit. From the moment Europeans set foot on American soil, land has been seen as a commodity and the vast animal and plant resources there for the taking. There are humans and then there is everything else. But the word dominion refers to authority over something, not ownership of, and to my mind, that entails a responsibility toward protecting what is not ours in the first place. Aldo Leopold, the father of the science of wildlife management, lays out the notion of a Land Ethic in his seminal work, A Sand County Almanac, published posthumously in 1949. Leopold, the son of a manufacturer and a child of the industrialization of the early 20th Century, called for a broader notion of community, asking us to enlarge “the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.” In other words, we need to recognize ourselves as part of the biodynamic system called Earth rather than mere consumers of it. Leopold witnessed the tragic consequences of overworking the land--Great Dust Bowl. More recently, society has sought to eke more from the earth with industrialized science, using chemical fertilizers, “Round-Up Ready” crops and GMOs. Meanwhile, male frogs are laying eggs, algae blooms suffocate our waters and who knows what the long- term effects to humans will be. In the immortal words television advertising, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”

Tips on How to turn Black Friday into Green Friday It’s almost here—Black Friday, the day blocked out by hardcore shoppers all over America. Here are several ways you can shop with a conscience:

1. Carpool to the mall or, better yet, take public transportation. 2. Bring your own bags. 3. Eschew paper receipts in favor of electronic ones. 4. Buy organic. 5. Buy locally made products. 6. Buy antiques—a nice way of saying used. 7. Buy quality, not quantity. 8. Buy products with recycled content.

And above all, remember, Green is the new Black!

Scatter Information as We Bloom and Grow is a monthly publication of the Garden Club of Georgia. Each edition focuses on one of three themes: horticulture, the environment and landscape design. Horticulture Editor: Gail Berthe , [email protected] Environment Editor: Judy Keenan, [email protected] Landscape Design Editor: Jane Hersey, [email protected]