Great Natives Of Mid-western Ecotype

President-Elect Obama will shred the Bush administra-tion's energy policies and introduce a major climate change bill in an attempt to bring the US back into the international environ-ment fold according to his senior advisers. Look for a focus on carbon emission caps and invest-ments in “Green Energy” fields. These are the areas that most experts in the climate change field are expecting big moves in. The big picture is the fact that climate, energy, food, and the economy are now hopelessly intertwined, and that trying to solve any one of these problems without taking on the oth-ers simply makes all of them worse.

Something on this magni-tude simply is not a na-tional issue– it a truly global one. Hope has given Barack Obama an opportunity to become an international leader on climate change.

Will those hopes be real-ized? Here is a first step to watch for: Will he go to Poland next month for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and in so doing electrify the inter-national talks over carbon? Time will tell.

Volume 2 , Issue 1

THE BIG PICTURE

November 11 , 2008

Did you know...

• Over the course of 50 years, a single tree can generate $31,250 of oxygen, provide $62,000 worth of air pollu-tion control, recycle $37,500 worth of water, and control $31,500 worth of soil ero-sion?

• In just one year, the average American consumes enough wood and paper to make up a tree 100 feet tall and 16 inches in diameter?! (For you fact fans, it breaks down to 43 cubic feet of wood and 681 pounds of paper per American per year!)

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Rattlesnake Master 2

Native on the Net 2

Best Books 2

Organization Spotlight 3

Native News 3

Planting with a Purpose 3

Focus on the Future 4

G.N.O.M.E NEWS

F I N D T H E G N O M E !

This picture was taken as video on a cell phone in General Guemes, Argentina. Locals there say that this “creepy gnome” stalks the streets at night and has the townspeople scared to leave their homes.

I thought It might be fun to steal an idea from Birds and Blooms magazine and have a scavenger hunt in each issue. Look for the word gnome within the text (no logo). I will vary the ways it is pre-sented. It might be the first

letters of five consecutive sentences, it might be cross-word style, or something more creative. Let me know if you find it and maybe I will include your name in the next GNOME News!

Election spurs hopes for a “greener” future.

Did you participate in the “Name that Native” at either website this month? If you did, you might recognize the photo below. It is the bloom of the Rattlesnake Master.

This plant has been traditionally found in the eastern half of the U.S. and is associated with prai-rie sites– both wet and dry.

Eryngium is Greek for "prickly plant" and yuccifolium is Greek for "yucca leaves." By casual

appearance, one might think this is a plant of the dryer southwest. It is a true prairie plant though, and, interestingly, a member of the carrot family.

The plant will grow from 2-6 feet tall including flower stalk height. The leaves are usually 1-2 feet in length and from 1-3 inches across. The

coloration of this plant is usually blue/grey green. The flower bunches are white and honey– scented.

Faunal associations include long-tongued bees, short-tongued bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, skippers, moths, beetles, and plant bugs. It is also the host plant of the rare Papaipema eryngii (Rattlesnake Master Borer Moth). This is a great unique ac-cent plant. I prefer to use it in odd numbers and with native grasses. It fits well in natural or traditional set-tings.

This book is scientific to its core, but is written in an eas-ier-to-read style than some of his other books.

Anyone who has walked in Tho-reau’s foot-prints or can appreciate clear scientific thought will enjoy this de-tailed explana-

This is one of my favorite na-ture authors. Winter World will amaze you.

Bernd Heinrich, the award-winning author of Mind of the Raven (1999), physio-logical ecologist, and pro-fessor at the University of Vermont studies animals as life is "played out on the anvil of ice and under the hammer of deprivation."

tion of the fauna of the woods during winter. Heinrich has

given us a won-derful tour of animals in winter-time, covering their habitats, physiology, and evolutionary ad-aptations.

If you enjoy na-ture writing, this is a must read!

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N A T I V E O N T H E N E T

E R Y N G I U M Y U C C I F O L I U M - R A T T L E S N A K E M A S T E R

B E S T B O O K S

There is more information here than most people can use, but you should be able to find specifics on about any plant you are looking for.

The “Fact Sheets & Plant Guides” section have plants organized by scientific and common name. There is de-tailed info on most plants.

The site is updating the data-base and should be even more user friendly in Novem-ber.

Be sure to check out the “Invasives and Noxious Weeds” section too. You will be surprised to find many commonly sold plants on there!

There are literally thousands of links out there related to native plants. In this section I will share sites that I think have a lot of merit and are useful to other native plant enthusiasts.

This month’s featured site is :

USDA PLANTS Database

http://plants.usda.gov/

“If one way be better than

another, that you may be sure is Nature’s way.”

Dried blooms of this plant were used by Native Americans as rattles.

Volume 2 , Issue 1

Heinrich provides truly amazing insight in a readable style.

- Aristotle

G.n.o.m.e News

“The Chicago Wilderness consortium is an alliance of more than 200 public and private organizations work-ing together to protect, re-store, study and manage the natural ecosystems of the Chicago region, contribute to the conservation of global biodiversity, and enrich local residents' quality of life.” “Chicago Wilderness is a re-gional nature reserve that in-cludes more than 225,000 acres of protected natural ar-eas. It stretches from south-eastern Wisconsin, through northeastern Illinois and into

northwestern Indiana. The protected areas of Chicago Wilderness are forest pre-serves, state parks, federal lands, county preserves, and privately owned lands. There are also many unpro-tected natural areas that offer refuge to native wild-life.”

Quotes taken from their organization site: http://www.chicagowilderness.org/

The Chicago Wilderness consor-tium does not currently offer individual membership opportu-nities. However, many of the organizations that belong to the consortium do offer individual

and family memberships. The website has a member list if you are interested.

Get some hands-on experi-ence to go with your knowl-edge! Visit a site today!

There are several low growing turf grass mixes available on the market. This is probably the easiest to get a hold of and perfect for the northern Midwest. Some food for thought- 30% to 60% of urban water is

“Lawn! It’s a part of the Ameri-can landscape. Where else can you play ball or sun your-self on a beautiful summer day? But why waste your pre-cious free time mowing the yard? Now there’s Prairie Nursery’s “No Mow” Lawn Mix!” At less than $6 a pound, price is comparable to tradi-tional seed. Deep roots make this a great choice to reduce water use and expense!

used for watering lawns. 10,000 gallons of water are

used per summer on the average 1,000 square foot lawn. Now you can have your lawn and enjoy it too!

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N A T I V E N E W S : R OA D S I D E S H E L P I N G B E E S T H R I V E

ORG A N I Z AT I O N SP O T L I G H T: CH I C AG O WI L D E R N E S S-

P L A N T I N G W I T H A P U R P O S E :

idea that roadsides could be potential habitat for animals and could also be a haven for plant species." So she began investi-gating bees’ success in these areas. She found that there were nearly twice as many bees in the re-stored roadsides compared to the non-restored. "Even if there were a ton of exotic flowers, the

roadsides that had native flow-ers in them still attracted more bees," Hopwood said. Many Midwestern states are currently utilizing roadside restoration of native plants. Potentially there are 10 million acres of valuable habitat avail-able. Now that is something to buzz about!

Bee population crashes have been in the news the past few years. But there is some good news: States that plant native plants along roadsides are see-ing an increase in bee numbers.

Jennifer Hopwood, a graduate student in ecology at the Univer-sity of Kansas in Lawrence “became really interested in the

“Where flowers bloom so does

hope.”

-Lady Bird Johnson

Explore your world!

Mow no more with Prairie Nursery's “No Mow” seed mix!

Primary Business Address 1753 Wick Way Montgomery, IL 60538

Great Nat ives Of Mid-western Ecotype

that childhood physical activ-ity is of manifest importance our increasingly obese Amer-ica.

The NCLI Act is to couple the physical activity component with sound environmental practices necessary for re-sponsible world citizenship.

Many people, especially those involved in educa-tion, know what NCLB means– No Child Left Behind. But have you heard about the No Child Left Inside Act?

On September 19, 2008 the US House of Representatives ap-proved the No Child Left Inside Act of 2008 by a vote of 294 to 108.

This is an environ-mental education initia-tive that has a goal of educat-ing the “public to be wise stewards of the very environ-ment that sustains us, our families and communities, and future generations.”

While there are too many details to go into here (feel free to look them up), it has been increasingly obvious

One major purpose of this movement is to secure des-perately needed funds to bolster training and imple-ment things like State Envi-ronmental Literacy plans. It will also encourage environ-mental issues to be pre-sented in a cross-curricular fashion, instead of in isola-tion.

Going from a sedentary cul-ture to one of more activity will be difficult. Never has there been a bigger need for change in the thinking of America. One consideration

when looking at changing the lives of children is how one acts them-selves. Modeling more active life-styles would go a long way to cre-ate this change in our youth. Eve-ryone will need to pitch in to create this change, and that won’t be easy. But if we look to our most important natural resource, our children, maybe, just maybe, we can become a part of the solution.

FO CU S O N T H E FU T U R E

E-mail: GNOME.Native@gmail.com

There’s no place like GNOME!

Turn off the TV and turn outside!

GNOME

Great Natives of Mid-western Ecotype (GNOME) is an organization focused on the preservation and expansion of native floral and faunal species. The mission is to provide a net-based forum where members can share their passion, plans, ideas, and questions with other people having a common interest in native species.

Join our facebook group! Add the “groups” application and search for us!

(http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45643568296)

This is our primary forum location. The newsletter as well as open discussions are there and also other links to people and groups that focus on natives.

We are also in the blogging world. If you would like to be added as an author to our blog, please email us at GNOME.Native@gmail.com. We can get you set up!

If you have articles or photos that you would like to share, please email us. We would love to add others to the creation of this newsletter.

We’re on the Web! http://gnomenative.blogspot.com/