Mini Forests are a Great Habitat Refuge

Mini Forests are a Great Habitat Refuge 

Mini Forests have been gaining traction around the world and now Eastside Audubon is working to embrace this idea.  Mini Forests have it roots in Japan by a botanist and plant ecologist Akira Miyawaki.  The idea is to create an urban area as small as a basketball court or a parking lot with densely enriched soil, adding native trees and supplemental plantings.  With enriched soil, plantings grow at a rapid rate and can quickly create a canopy teeming with life.  Birds need ecosystems to thrive, and these small urban forests offer a quick (relatively speaking) forest.  It’s like the saying, if you build it, they will come…these Mini Forests attract insects, critters, birds and additionally offer a heat mitigator to concrete surfaces.   

EAS is partnering with Bellevue’s 300Trees organization at Sammamish High School in a quasi-Mini Forest.  300Trees has been engaged with the high school’s Green Team and instructors to plant numerous native trees on unused school property.  It’s a three-year commitment that requires ongoing maintenance like summer watering and composting.  We are working on the next phase of adding plants and bushes to support a healthy ecosystem.  Now EAS wants to replicate this program with 300Trees (and potentially other organizations) at other sites/school and or cities and work to take unused pockets of land and create a woodland.  EAS will likely take on one project in the coming year as we are super excited to support this small revolution.  To see the planted areas at Sammamish High School, please check out this link.  

To learn more about Mini Forests please go online as there are a multitude of articles under Mini Forest and Mini Forest Revolution.   If you want to help either by volunteering or donating, please reach out to Jeremy Lucas at president@eastsideaudubon.org. 

Greener Living Classes From City of Bellevue!

Greener Living Classes From City of Bellevue!

Learn how to live more sustainably!

City of Bellevue Utilities are pleased to offer free, interactive Greener Living in-person and live-virtual Zoom classes.  Participants are welcome to attend a single class, any combination, or all of the classes.  Attendees will receive a digital kit of resources, tips, and tools after each virtual class or tools to take home from in person classes. All ages are welcome; however, these classes are geared towards adults and children over seven. 

Registration is required to receive the link to the class.

To register contact the City at recycle@bellevuewa.gov or 206-949-1787. You may also find more information at www.bellevuewa.gov/greener-living-classes

Preserving Greenspace in King County

Preserving Greenspace in King County

King County Proposition 1, which would restore funding for the Conservation Futures program, will be on the ballot Nov 8, 2022.  This program is one of the most important mechanisms for conserving undeveloped land within the county.  The EAS Board of Directors will be discussing whether to formally endorse Proposition 1 at the September board meeting.  The following offers background information for those interested.

King County has a long history of preserving and protecting our natural resources.  Land conservation in King County—and 13 other counties—is largely funded by the Conservation Futures Program that the state created 50 years ago. However, the Conservation Futures program is currently generating only 50% of the original revenue limiting the capacity to conserve open space.

Over the past 40 years, King County has protected more than 100,00 acres of greenspace including waterways, forests, farmland (through the purchase of development rights), trails, in-holdings within public lands, and urban parks.  Applications from the county, cities, or conservation groups are made to the Conservation Futures Advisory Board which assesses the requests and makes recommendations to the King County Executive. Generally, municipalities provide 50% of the funding with the remaining 50% coming from Conservation Futures grants.  Examples of land preserved through Conservation Futures include Cougar Mountain, Bear Creek Waterways, Issaquah Creek Greenway, Evans Creek, and EasTrail.

With all this success, why do we need Proposition 1?  The King County Land Conservation Initiative (LCI), a collaborative effort between the county, businesses, farmers, and environmental groups to preserve green space, has currently, identified 65,000 additional acres of undeveloped land with the goal of preserving them within the next 30 years.  Continued development and increasing property values have made obtaining these natural areas for the public good more difficult.  While property values have been increasing, funds from the property tax levy used for preserving land through acquisitions has been shrinking. 

In 2001, the legislature capped property tax increases at 1%/year.  This has brought down the Conservation Futures funding from 6.25 cents/ $1,000 to 3.12 cents in 2022 and will be only 2.84 cents in 2023.  This halving of the funding has occurred while property values have increased which has significantly limited the ability to purchase land for conservation.  Conservation Futures funding has simply not kept pace with property values of the remaining open spaces.

What does Proposition 1 do?  If passed, Prop 1 will restore Conservation Futures funding back to the original $.0625 cents per $1,000 assessed property value.  Cost for the average homeowner would be about $2 more per month.  This $2 per month would double our ability to protect the most important open spaces within a single generation. 

Why protect our remaining green space?  Besides providing habitat for birds, protecting our remaining greenspace confronts climate change by protecting mature forests, adds equitable access to greenspace in underserved areas, preserves salmon habitat, protects more homes, farms, and roads from flooding, provides more land for recreation, and protects farmland from development.

Don’t Forget the Insects!

Don’t Forget the Insects!

Written by Jim Rettig

Birders spend a lot of time (and money) looking at, learning about, and photographing birds.  It’s a terrific hobby:  it gets you outside, keeps you active, opens up the beauty and complexity of the natural world, helps you make new and lasting friends, puts you in touch with conservation organizations locally and around the world, and can get you active in local conservation efforts. And it also opens up other areas of interest, such as insects:  dragonflies and butterflies to name two.

Insects and other invertebrates play key ecological roles in the complex and intricate natural world, and are critical to the survival of countless other species.  According to Merrill Peterson, “The diversity of life . . . reaches a pinnacle in the insect world. . . . Indeed, according to current estimates, insects account for about two-thirds of the species of multicellular organisms [and] the variety of insects is enough to boggle the mind.  Here in the Pacific Northwest, there are more than 30,000 species of insects, and if you were to thoroughly sample the fauna of your backyard, you would almost certainly find more species of insects than the entire diversity of birds in the U.S. and Canada.” ¹

Western Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly by Jim Rettig

Herbivorous insects drive plant diversity by making plants evolve new defenses so they aren’t always eaten.  Herbivores  limit the ability of a single plant species to dominate the landscape (except when we use pesticides and herbicides that enable invasive species to push out natives).   As pollinators, insects enable flowering plants to thrive.  They feed on dead matter which facilitates microbial breakdown thus recycling nutrients and make them available to other plants.  And, of course, insects become food for birds, fish, amphibians, and mammals such as Grizzly Bears in Montana which eat migrating moths.  Insects provide humans with honey, silk, wax, dyes, and, in some cultures, food. They are also essential subjects in medical and basic biological research.  

Unfortunately, just as bird populations are decreasing, so too are populations of insect species. 

You know the reasons:  among them are the increasing use of herbicides and pesticides, monocultural farming, habitat loss, and invasive species that offer no food to local insects.

So in urging all of us not to forget the insects, I offer eight things we can do to create insect-friendly habitats.  The eight listed here summarize an article written by Akito Y. Kawahara and others, which appeared in a National Academy of Sciences publication.²

1. Convert lawns into diverse natural habitats.  In the United States alone there are over 40 million acres of lawns, all biodiversity deserts.  Even if we converted only 10% or our lawns, that could significantly aid insect conservation.  And if every school and local park did the same, usable habitat for insects would increase by millions of acres.

2. Grow native plants.  Members of Audubon know this already.  Native insects and birds need native plants, plants they they have evolved with over millions of years.

3. Reduce pesticide and herbicide use.  Or stop using these products altogether.  They not only kill insects and plants, many are harmful to humans in various ways.  

4. Limit the use of exterior lighting.  Light pollution attracts nocturnal insects.  Artificial lights are powerful sensory traps that can kill insects through exhaustion or predation.

5. Lessen soap runoff from washing vehicles and building exteriors, and reduce use of driveway sealants and de-icing salts.  Soaps, sealants and salts produce significant quantities of pollutants that can drain into local water systems killing aquatic insects.  Use biodegradable soaps, soy-based sealants, and shovels or snowblowers to get rid of the snow and ice.

6. Increase the awareness and appreciation of insects by countering negative perceptions of insects.  Get to know the benefits that insects bring to humankind.  Such benefits can easily be remembered as the “5Ps”:  1) Pollinators, 2) Prey, 3) Physical decomposers, 4) Progress — helping science and technology, 5) Pleasure — they bring beauty, delight, and fascination to those who look.

7. Become an educator, ambassador, and advocate for insect conservation.  Point them out to your children and grandchildren.  Join The Xerces Society³ which is dedicated to conserving, enhancing, and protecting insects and other invertebrates.  It publishes a new activity book called X Kids that uses story-telling and science-based activities to help children discover the environment around them.

8. Get involved in local politics, support science, and vote!  Political action at the local level can significantly advance insect conservation.

Golden Crab Spider with Fly by Jim Rettig

A few years ago, my two sons and I hiked into Yellow Aster Butte in the North Cascades.  When I walked out a few days later I took lots of time getting to the car because I was photographing such a wide variety of blooming flowers.  Very impressive.  And when I think of how insects drove plants to evolve to defend themselves from these predators, resulting in such a great variety if blossoming beauties, I give thanks to the Creator for both the flora and fauna.  

Don’t forget the insects.

¹Merrill A. Peterson, Pacific Northwest INSECTS, Seattle Audubon, 2018

² If you’d like to get a copy of this article, contact me at jrettigtanager@gmail.com.

³Contact The Xerces Society at xerces.org or call toll-free 855-232-6639. 

The Difficult Trek to Using Less Plastic

The Difficult Trek to Using Less Plastic 

Written by Lori Danielson

More than two years ago, I wrote about my journey to reduce plastics in my life. I want to reduce my contribution to the problem of plastics in the environment that kill birds and sea life, pollute land and oceans. I’ve learned that it’s probably impossible to avoid all plastic and it’s difficult to even reduce it, so there’s still a lot of plastic in my life. The pandemic made it even harder. But I thought I’d share a few of the changes I’ve made to stop buying plastic. 

Early on, I learned the best way to avoid plastic around food is to buy at farmer’s markets, locally-owned bakeries, butchers and seafood shops, bringing your own clean cloth or glass containers. They are the vendors most likely to sell unpackaged food and willing to put it into your container. So I have located my favorite local shops and buy as much as possible from them.

Finding a grocery store near you that sells food in bulk is also a good way to avoid plastic. The pandemic stopped most self-serve bulk food, but stores are starting to resume now. My own clean glass jars (with the tare weight recorded on the outside by a store clerk) or paper bags are how I transport the bulk food home, where I store it in glass containers.

I avoid single-use produce bags by bringing reusable nylon mesh or cloth bags for store-bought vegetables and fruit, and washing the bags after use. I look for things like peanut butter, mayonnaise and salad dressing packaged in glass jars or bottles. My glass jars take on a second life at home by storing many of the bulk food products or else they get recycled. I also store food in beeswax-coated cloth wraps and bags in the fridge and freezer to avoid plastic wrap and zip lock bags.

You may have deduced that I cook a lot from scratch to avoid plastic-wrapped food, and you’re right. Nearly all ready-to-eat and prepared food comes in plastic, so I made a commitment to cook more like my grandparents and great-grandparents did. It’s an important part of the effort.  

Besides food, lots of plastic enters my life from products used in the bathroom, such as soap, shampoo, toothpaste, floss and cosmetics, and this plastic is even more difficult to avoid. But bar soap and shampoo bars have become my new habits, as well as using silk floss and brushing my teeth without toothpaste. I know that sounds a little radical. Each of us needs to decide what is acceptable for ourselves. 

An internet search for “plastic free” or “zero waste” will result in many online stores, articles and blogs about how to reduce plastic use. I’ve found the products at etee.com and zerowastecartel.com have helped me in my journey. I’d love to hear your tips and favorites too. Write me at president@eastsideaudubon.org.