Osborne

Oracle Fall 2015 Clayton County Conservation Vol. 38 No.2

Remembering Iowa’s Father of Falcons by Pat Schlarbaum, Iowa DNR Biologist Noted raptor biologist, Bob Anderson, of Decorah

eagle-cam fame, passed away suddenly on July 27 from

atrial fibrillation. Bob was 64. His passing is a great

loss….and there is greater inspiration.

At a Midwest Falcon Mini-symposium in 1994, Bob, the

Director of the non-profit Raptor Resource Project, intro-

duced himself by saying “I want to be a part of anything

that happens on the River.” As a falcon breeder, Bob had

provided numerous falcon young for releases into urban

areas around the nation. He was adamant in his belief that

we needed to release falcons on cliffs for them to imprint

on the cliff habitat. When Minnesota was reluctant to ap-

prove Bob’s plan to release falcons, he moved his entire

Peregrine Falcon project to Ridgeway, Iowa in 1996.

In 1998 the federal government removed Peregrine Falcons

from the Endangered Species list. Urban areas had 99 nest-

ing pairs which produced 205 young that year. However, there were no pairs nesting on their historic cliffs of the Mis-

sissippi River. To address this disparaging detail, Bob’s Raptor Resource Project ramped up efforts to release birds on

the cliffs. Visitors near these sites marveled at the splendor of these magnificent birds adjusting and maturing into their

natural role of raptor extraordinaire of the flyway. The young eyases were prospering.

In 2000, for the first time in over three decades, wild peregrines were produced on Mississippi River cliffs. Pioneering

on the cliffs was not gradual. It went from zero to five nesting pairs in one year. They were all in the Upper Mississippi

of Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. At Alliant Energy plant in Lansing, Bob Anderson had installed a nest box at a

nearby cliff, a historic peregrine nest site. Four young fledged: one female and three males. Bud Tordoff, Chairman of

the Midwest Peregrine Falcon Recovery Team, said, “These were the first young peregrines known to fledge from a

cliff nest in the Mississippi River valley since the extirpation of the original population by DDT in the 1950s and

1960s.”

Since that time there are as many as a dozen pairs on the cliffs each year. Bob Anderson’s falcon work made

this happen. Bob is the “Father of Falcons” to Iowans. His passing is a great loss….but his life is a great

inspiration

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The New Guy by Kenny Slocum, Clayton County Naturalist

My first visit to Clayton County happened on a weekend road trip with my father

when I was just a wee lad. We packed a tent, a cooler, and some fishing poles into a

wood trim station wagon and departed our home outside of LeClaire, Iowa on a sunny

morning during summer break. Our destination: Pike’s Peak State Park.

I still remember that trip. It was my first introduction to the Driftless area. That

first view looking down on the Mississippi from Pike’s Peak is burned into my mind for-

ever. How could it not be? Little did I realize that two decades later, in June of 2015,

after a long strange journey around the country, I would get to call this amazing

landscape my home by taking a job as a Naturalist with Clayton County.

The summer after graduating from Augustana College I joined the Montana Con-

servation Corps. I couldn’t tell you why I did it—my identity then was not the type to go “full Mountain Man”

as my friends called it. Looking back, I can only say that fate stepped in. I had an incredible placement in Mis-

soula, MT, and worked running chainsaws and cutting trails in Idaho and Western Montana.

I’ll never forget driving a crewmate home one day, watching the Bitterroot Mountains roll by,

positively enraptured with the dramatic scenery, and lamenting the lack of wildness in the Quad Cities where I

had grown up. My crewmate Max—a Colorado native—pointed out how enthusiastically I spoke of my time

paddling and mucking around the primal bottomlands of the Wapsi river at a friend’s private hunting grounds.

“I mean, that sounds pretty cool. I’ve never really seen something like that. Everywhere has something

worth exploring,” Max said. “Sometimes you just have to explore somewhere else to appreciate it.”

He was right, of course. You have to go there to come back. That season in the Northern Rockies

taught me more about my own backyard than I had learned in 22 years running, paddling, and biking all

around the Hawkeye state.

My time in the MCC launched my life in a whole new direction. In the summer of 2011 I landed a job

at Effigy Mounds National Monument. I had never visited the monument, but I remembered my trip to Pike’s

Peak. With a newfound appreciation for the unique treasures of our state, I fell in love. Driving into

Guttenberg stunned me even more than it had in my youth. Somehow, my time across the country had cast

new light on an old friend.

When my season at Effigy Mounds ended, I fell into the typical rhythm of a seasonal NPS ranger. I

packed up my Saturn and drove to Carlsbad Caverns. Six months later to Wind Cave in the Black Hills. Six

months later to Zion in southern Utah. Back to Carlsbad. Back to Zion. Back to Montana. Down to that little

park called Yellowstone, where I spent my days explaining the mechanics of a geyser eruption in front of one

of the most iconic natural features on the planet, Old Faithful.

But still, all these places just made me love Iowa that much more. Once, between seasons, I caught

“peak spring” at my parents’ farmhouse. My mom laughed at me as I stared at a pear tree in full bloom. I tried

to explain to her how incredible it looked, how I’d been in the arid west for so long, how the pink of it’s

blossoms almost burned my eyes after seeing only shades of brown, punctuated by the occasional Prickly Pear

green or dull orange of a blooming Ocotillo after a rare sprinkling of rain.

I am so thankful for the chance to help other Iowans appreciate their own backyard. So many people

have asked why on earth I would come back here rather than stay out west. I point to the local forests, and

their staggering diversity. It shocks them to learn that a bastion of natural wonder like Yellowstone has, in

most places, just 2 or 3 tree species.

For a naturalist, Iowa is a paradise. In June I would awake to a dozen or more different bird calls. As

spring advances, one trail looks like an entirely new place with each passing week. Most places have seasons.

Some only get one or two. But Iowa has all four, and then some. Spring ephemerals. Monarch migration.

Plums ripening.

I had to go there to come back, but I’m glad I did. Iowa is, and always will be, my home.

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Heritage Days Sat & Sun, October 10th-11th, 10:00-4:00 Osborne Park Go back in time to the small community of Osborne to glimpse the pioneer era. Enjoy exhibits, demonstrations, pioneer church service, food and much more.

Wreath Making Workshop Friday, November 13th, 6:00 pm Osborne Center Nothing says “season’s greetings” like an evergreen holiday wreath. Learn to make your own at this workshop. Basic materials will be provided, but bring pruners if you have them!

American Indian Stories Monday, November 23rd, 5:30 PM Osborne Park Join Albert LeBeau, the Cultural Resource Program Manager from Effigy Mounds and a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, for an evening of traditional storytelling by firelight.

Holiday Walk: Christmas in 1867 Thursday, December 3rd, 6:00 PM Osborne Park Take a walk on a crisp Iowa evening and encounter characters from 150 years ago, telling the story of Iowa’s past. Follow it up with snacks and hot chocolate! Reservations Required

Winter Survival Skills Workshop Wednesday, December 30th, 3:30 PM Osborne Park Learn to live simply during a harsh Midwestern winter with this introductory workshop focused on primitive skills.

Snowfest

Saturday, February 6th, 10AM-3PM Shake off the cabin fever and stretch your legs with naturalists from Clayton and Fayette counties. Attendees will have the chance to learn to use snowshoes and cross country skis at this free clinic. Reservations required.

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For more information on any of these programs, call 563-245-1516 or visit

http://www.claytoncountyconservation.org

The Osborne Center is located 5 miles south of Elkader, Iowa on Hwy 13.

Clayton County Conservation Board’s

Up Coming Events & Programs

Motor Mill tours are finished for the season.

See you next year!

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Clayton County Conservation Board

Wish List Light weight sewing machine

Quart mason jars

Canoe paddles in good condition

Battery-powered tea lights

Fog machine

Chicken wire

“Great stuff” expanding foam

Pioneer costumes: vest and trousers, bonnets, aprons,

skirt

“Fun in the Outdoors” Looking for an excuse to get out of the house, make

some new friends, enjoy a good meal while exploring our area? Join us for

Older Wiser Livelier Souls, the 3rd Thursday each month at 11:00 a.m. with

an optional luncheon after. March through November.

October 15: “Froelich Tractor Museum”

November 19: “Trim Aquaponics”

Looking forward to 2016, O.W.L.S. will be participating in Clayton County

Development’s new program called the Mystery Mingle Munch, Mob.

The idea of the program is to get area people out into their communities to

learn about, promote, and support the towns and businesses in Clayton

County. Each month will feature a different monthly mystery tour of a

Clayton County community. The “Mob,” made up of interested partici-

pants, will descend upon a community for a day of learning, eating and

shopping. Each participant is asked to spend a minimum of $20 that day

to support the businesses of that community. So get excited about joining

the Mystery Mingle Munch Mob in 2016.

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The Living Cloud by Kenny Slocum

In September the vibrant birdsongs of early summer have given way to the white-noise

hum of grasshoppers. Running along the highway in late afternoon, they gather by the

hundreds, soaking the last warmth from the pavement before the night’s chill sets in.

The sheer density of these creatures is incredible. Each step causes half a dozen to spring

clumsily into my legs. I can audibly hear them smacking against my shins as they flee for

the cover of the tall grass by the roadside. And yet, this is nothing.

Throughout the 19th century, the Rocky Mountain Locust featured prominently in the annual struggles of pio-

neers and homesteaders throughout the country. Farms and townships in the path of the swarm would see their

crops devastated, their trees defoliated, even their horse blankets and clothing consumed by the insatiable

mandibles of Melanoplus spretus.

It’s difficult to fathom today. Reports from the era describe clouds so big they blotted out the sun. Laura

Ingalls Wilder famously described the swarm as having the sickening sound of a hail storm as they hit the

ground. Indeed, the largest mass of living insect matter ever witnessed by modern man occurred right here in

the midwestern US in 1874. A cloud of locusts tracked by telegraph measured 110 miles wide, and 1800 miles

long, stretching from the Canadian plains to the Texas border.

Frontier farmers had tried everything to mitigate the swarms, using fire, gunpowder, or tar to trap them. One

Missouri entomologist came up with a recipe. Nothing worked. Finally, in 1877, a concerted effort was made

to eradicate the pest. Young men were forced to spend at least two weeks per season killing locusts at hatch-

ing time. A bounty was issued. Less than 30 years later, the species was extinct.

Not all grasshoppers are locusts, but all locusts are grasshoppers, of the family Acrididae, or short-horned

grasshoppers. Grasshoppers are largely solitary, but the right conditions trigger swarming behavior. Prolonged

drought will force grasshoppers into smaller and smaller patches of suitable vegetation. Eventually, their con-

centrations force them to contact other grasshoppers. When a creature’s legs get rubbed by another enough

times, its body produces an excess of Seratonin—the same neurochemical that makes us feel happy—and a

gregarious locust is born.

Outbreaks have occurred this year in Russia. Australia faced a major swarm in 2010. Africa’s 2004 swarm

was large enough to show up on weather radar, consuming the ivory coast. The devastation to crops is

immense, but these creatures matter to their ecosystems. Their appetites convert huge quantities of organic

matter back into carbon, continuing the carbon cycle.

Today, only Antarctica and North America do not see the spectacle that is a living cloud, destroying every-

thing in its path. The last documented locust was seen in 1902. Our eradication efforts were successful—if the

extinction of a species can ever be considered a success. While they existed, few specimens of M. spretus

were collected, because it was thought that no creature so ubiquitous could go extinct. It is a tale echoed by

the passenger pigeon, about our species’ collective underestimation of our power.

But it is also a tale of hope. In less than 30 years, a concerted effort accomplished the impossible. If there is

any good to be gained from the loss of a species, perhaps it is the knowledge that with the combined effort of

our collective minds and will, we can solve even the most seemingly intractable

ecological problems.

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The Clayton County Conservation Board does not discriminate against anyone on

the basis of race, color, sex, creed, national origin, age or handicap. If anyone be-

lieves he or she has been subjected to such discrimination, he or she may file a

complaint alleging discrimination with either the Clayton County Conservation Board

or the Office of Equal Opportunity, U.S. Dept. of Interior, Washington, D.C. 20240

Clayton County Conservation

Osborne Nature Center

29862 Osborne Rd, Elkader IA 52043

(563) 245-1516

Conservation Board Members:

Gary Kregel, Garber……………....Member

Vacant………………...….…….. ..…..Chair

Larry Stone, Elkader……...…….Vice-Chair

Deanna Krambeer, St. Olaf……….Secretary

Liz Jaster, Garber………………......Member

Staff Jenna Pollock…………………… .Director

Marty Mulford……....Operations Supervisor

Tucker Anderson….…..Ranger/Special Proj.

Harry Luster………....…….Office Manager

Joyce Schoulte……...Secretary/Receptionist

Abbey Harkrader….……………...Naturalist

Kenny Slocum…….…………… ..Naturalist

Tammie Kraus…….…….…Office Assistant

Amber Burlage…………...…...Maintenance

The mission of the Clayton County Conservation Board is to promote the health and general welfare of

the people and to encourage preservation, conservation, education, and recreation through responsible

use and appreciation of our natural resources and cultural heritage.

Monday-Saturday

8:00am - 4:00pm

Sunday

12-4pm

Native Wildlife Exhibit Hours

Everyday 10am-Dusk

Clayton County Conservation Board meetings are the

second Tuesday of every month at 6:00pm in the

Osborne Center Auditorium.

Meetings are open to the public.

Visit: www.claytoncountyconservation.org