“Today, Minnesota set the strongest rules in the nation to protect pollinators from pesticides,” said Lex Horan of Pesticide Action Network. “The plan will help ensure that bee-harming pesticides won’t be used unnecessarily, and it lays the groundwork for reducing the use of neonicotinoid seed coatings. This decision is rooted in the resounding scientific evidence that neonicotinoids are harmful to pollinators. It’s past time for state and federal decisionmakers to take action to restrict the use of bee-harming pesticides, and today Minnesota did just that.” Read the whole story here. Another story from Minnesota Public Radio.
Get in the habit of bringing your own bags shopping.
I do the majority of my grocery shopping at food coops, but when I visit regular grocery stores I am appalled by the number of plastic bags leaving with purchases. I know most them aren’t recycled. My city will put fees on some plastic bags in 2017, and I can’t wait!! It will be a fabulous education tool for many people!!
Below is from Earth911.com, and contains some information I didn’t know, how the below businesses have reduced plastic bags. Please shop retailers that protect our earth. I haven’t shopped at all these retailers so please let me know if this information is accurate???
From Earth911.com: “Did you know that studies have shown that about 12 million metric tons of plastic debris, including plastic bags, has accumulated in our oceans around the world? Due to this pollution, more than 100,000 marine animals die each year due to plastic entanglement! That is a startling number – and one that doesn’t show any signs of slowing its growth.” Read the entire article here.
These are the retailers to patronize!
Adidas
Ikea
COSCO, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s
Whole Foods
Local Coops Earth 911 gives a shout out to New Pioneer in Iowa City. I shopped there while traveling this summer and recommend shopping there if you are in Iowa City or traveling along Interstate 80 through Iowa.
Have you been caught in a record rain storm and flooding this summer? Chances are that most of us in the United States and Europe have experienced a heavier than normal rainfall. My travel this summer has brought me to see displaced people following storms (nothing like Louisiana or California). I have seen lakes created from heavy rain submerging homes, closed roads and bridges, yards with 20 uprooted trees, and experienced power outages.
What is going on with these storms? July 2016 was the hottest ever recorded since records started in 1880. As the earth warms, some places get dryer, but in other places the atmosphere is able to hold more moisture dumping larger amounts back to earth. Places in Louisiana received 31 inches of rain, unbelievable! I feel sad for everyone displaced from everything they own.
PBS had an interesting conversation about our weather extremes here. Is this all part of climate change?
There are consequences to our warming earth according to meteorologist Paul Douglas, “More moisture in the air, higher dew points and heat indexes, more thousand-year rains, wet basements with greater regularity, and more expensive insurance policies.”
My back yard: Cone flowers, flox, and butterfly weed
This past week my yard was part of a “Pollinator Garden Walk” led by my neighbor, a pollinator expert. We walked, biked, or carpooled to 4 neighborhood yards. All the yards had boulevard plantings, two had no turf grass,, and three yards had rain gardens. We observed lots of bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, and caterpillars. Below are the ideas to attract pollinators suggested by the pollinator expert:
* Choose native and single-flowered plant varieties
* Go organic, eliminate pesticide and herbicides
* Leave areas of bare ground or loose leaf litter
* Plant milkweed
*Install a bee nesting house for mason bees and other stem-nesting bees
Cardinal flowers are happy this year with lots of rain!
I would add: Plant with diversity of flowers, bloom times, and colors.
Never use plants treated with neonicotinoids! Ask before purchase of plants.
The stickers on avocados say where they are grown. Say “No” to Mexican avocados!
I embarrassed to admit I have Mexican avocados in my refrigerator. NEVER again. According to this article monarch wintering forests are being removed to grow avocados.
Education is a good thing, and new information arrives daily. Please take this new information seriously and purchase avocados from California. Read the little sticker on the avocado to find out where they are grown. Yes, you might have to pay higher prices, but this is important to help save the monarch butterfly!
Also, inform the produce people at your local grocery that you will purchase only avocados from butterfly safe areas, which Mexico is not.
Smart consumerism may help the monarch!
Please comment with any new information you learn on monarch wintering grounds and other products we shouldn’t purchase??
An update to this post. First, I have been able to purchase avocados raised in California this past week. Second, this link about the monarch winter grounds is more hopeful. I hope you will choose only California grown avocados until we know the monarch winter grounds are safe! Thank you.
Look carefully and you might see a new butterfly. It has been exciting to have eggs and monarch caterpillars on my swamp milkweed, and painted lady caterpillars on pearly everlasting plants.
Eyed-Brown
In the past month I have been able to identify some new north land caterpillars and butterflies. Enjoy these pictures, but it is better to see the real thing rather than a picture! Get outside and observe!
Monarch CaterpillarsPainted Lady eggs and caterpillars on the pearly everlastingTwo Atlantis Fritillary on bee balmGrey Comma, a dull name for a butterfly beautyCommon Wood-nymph(wikepedia)
The luna moth grows to a wingspan of four and a half inches.
Credit: David Moskowitz
What do you know about moths? They are not the “Ick” insect you might of thought of as a child. Because most, not all, are nocturnal we might not experience them except caught in a window or spider web. The best ones I have seen are in the bathrooms of campgrounds, and they are magnificent! This is National Moth Week, so what better time to get out and see if you can find and observe a moth. This information is from http://www.livescience.com/
Seven facts about moths:
1.There are more than 11,000 species of moths in the U.S. alone.
Moths outnumber butterflies, their nearest relative, by more than 10 to 1, said Matthew Shepherd, communications director and senior conservation associate at the Xerces Society, a nonprofit organization focused on insect conservation in Portland, Ore. There are upward of 11,000 moth species in the United States alone — that’s more than all the bird and mammal species in North America combined.
A moth the size of a pencil tip.
Credit: David Moskowitz
2. Moths make great mimics.
Moths are notorious for their ability to camouflage to keep from being eaten.
3. Moths are important pollinators.
4. Many adult moths don’t eat.
While some moths suck nectar, others don’t eat at all. The adult Luna moth, for instance, doesn’t even have a mouth. After it emerges from its cocoon, it lives for about a week. Its sole mission in life? To mate and lay eggs
The luna moth grows to a wingspan of four and a half inches.
Credit: David Moskowitz
5. A male moth can smell a female more than 7 miles away.
Though they lack noses, moths are expert sniffers. They detect odor molecules using their antennae instead of through nostrils. Male giant silkworm moths have elaborate, feather-shaped antennae with hairlike scent receptors that allow them to detect a single molecule of a female moth’s sex hormone from 7 miles (11 kilometers) away.
6. They are important food for many animals.
Because of their abundance, moths are major players at the bottom of the food chain.
7. Moths: The next superfood?
In some places in the world they eat moth caterpillars. They are high in fat and protein.
Magnificent Lake Superior has over 300 rivers and streams that drain into it. Last week it was a brown lake because of mega rainfall in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan where many rivers dumped sediment from the storms. I am on a road trip from Duluth, Minnesota along the south shore of Lake Superior to Sault Ste Marie and the St. Mary’s River. Canada is on the other side of the lake and across the St. Mary’s River.
An ore boat leaves Lake Superior on the St Mary’s. River headed toward Lake Huron
Even though 300 streams drain into the big lake only one, the St. Mary’s River, carries boats and water away from Lake Superior. The St. Mary’s River carries about 42 billion gallons of water from Lake Superior daily.
Lake Superior, looks browner than this picture below appears. I think the sun makes it look bluer than it is.
“Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the people of the earth.” Chief Seattle
If Everyone Does a Little It Can Add up to A Lot!
Fritillary on bee balm
Have you noticed how few butterflies are flittering around this summer? Researchers find that butterfly species throughout the world are disappearing because of pollution, pesticides, and habitat loss. A newly released study says many butterflies are vanishing.
The author suggests we remove some of our lawn, and plant more flowers. Yes, we should plant more flowers, but beside planting more flowers we need to reduce the use of the chemicals we put on our lawns, in our gardens and on our agricultural fields.
Reducing chemicals and planting host plants for butterflies can make a big difference. Many of us are actively working on planting milkweed for monarchs, but there are many other butterfly species. Besides milkweed I have pearly everlasting for the American painted lady, turtlehead for the checkerspot butterfly, and golden Alexander for the black swallow-tail. Violets are great for the fritillary butterflies. This is one of the best charts I have seen on plants for butterflies from Bringing Nature Home And some ideas from the University of Minnesota for plants that are favored for butterflies an moths. Please let me know what your best plants for butterflies are?
Health4earth 