Privet Explorations

I'm a retired professional gardener living in a post-horticultural world. I have the luxury of wandering Halibut Point State Park free of caretaking responsibilities or concerns. I'm grateful that the paths and vistas are kept open but in regard to plant ecology I'm a minimalist, a cheerful libertarian. I favor curiosity over intervention.

A privet hedge gone au naturel

Once upon a time privets were planted near the Park Visitors' Center in the usage we all recognize, a straight-line hedge serving some architectural purpose. Privets respond to hard shearing by greening out obligingly into fine-textured garden walls. People who have never enjoyed their natural tree-like  form can start by admiring this group at Halibut Point.



A naturalized privet in bloom

One way or another privets have spread throughout the Park as plants re-colonized the pasture lands and quarry zones. They have been successful competitors in a free-for-all.

A bee pollinating privet flowers

They produce a multitude of flowers that perfume the Park in early summer, attracting pollinators in exchange for nourishing nectar. The pleasure or offense of this fragrance draws mixed reviews from human noses. For myself it's an emblematic scent extending the equally controversial odor of Rosa multiflora that bloomed prolifically just before the privets. I appreciate it as a phenomenon, one of the distinctive smells in the seasonal succession.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail in privet service and reward

Comparing the relative length of the flower tube to that of the decurved petals provides the only sure way of distinguishing these Border Privets Ligustrum obtusifolium of Eastern Asian origin, from Common Privet Ligustrum vulgare of European origin. Both were widely planted in American landscapes and have escaped robustly enough to draw scrutiny as 'likely invasive' species in the Northeast. The more tender but vigorous Chinese privet Ligustrum sinense merits no such equivocation in the Southern States where it is regarded as a rampant scourge.

Privet berries

The berries that result from the flowers offer only modest ornamentation to our summer eyes. They are small, black and recessive in the demure manner of the white flowers.

Privet in snow

However they persist on the branchlets into winter as a conspicuous novelty after other fruits have disappeared.

Cedar Waxwings harvesting privet berries in winter

Repeated frosts increase the fructose content of privet berries, soften the pulp, and make them more palatable to birds as winter progresses. The berries sustain Robins and Cedar Waxwings that might not otherwise survive in our latitude.

The birds are the privet's principal agents of seed dispersal in a symbiotic equation. They are changing the countryside as their individual needs and abilities find fulfillment in the other. Following on opportunities from human reconfigurations of the land they push toward a new order that sweeps in with fresh considerations for our concept of beauty.

Universal Access Conversations

A Universal Access Program outing at Halibut Point State Park

The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Universal Access Program sponsors special events and provides adaptive recreation equipment to expand access to State parks for people with disabilities.

Everyone Outdoors, the DCR Universal Access website blog, features articles such as "The Power of Play!," "Paragolfers," and "Want to Learn to Steer a Kayak? No Vision? No Problem!"

LeeAnn LaRue in hat

"We come to Halibut Point State Park for the accessible trails. It's one of those unique opportunities to see something different from other places in the State," says DCR staffer LeeAnn LaRue. "It's visually appealing....One of the things you hear over and over again is people say, 'I never thought I'd be doing this ever again.' Or as parents, 'I never thought my child would be able to do this.' And here they are, out here doing it."

LeeAnn's own daughter, partially disabled by a brain tumor at three, is thirty years old now. "In the wintertime we go to Wendell State Forest where they have a program. She sits in the ski seat. One way or another they pull her up that hill. When I can get her outside doing things with me it's awesome."

Matt Mitchell lending a hand

DCR Equipment Specialist Matt Mitchell delivers and maintains adaptive equipment across the Commonwealth with a mission of helping people do "what they once were able to do, or what they normally wouldn't be capable of. That's the coolest thing. I think everyone deserves that opportunity."

He recalls stories about submersible beach chairs that enable people with disabilities to cross the sand on inflated tires for their first ocean experience. "Huge smiles! From some nonverbal participants, a lot of yelling, and that is yelling out of excitement. Little things like that really, really matter. They're life-changing things for some people"

Park Interpreter Ramona Latham recounts the Halibut Point story

Matt notes "one of the special things about Halibut Point is this place has history. We love to be interactive in our hikes. We look for the social aspect and the sociability for the whole group. We look for the exercise. We take a step back and enjoy nature."

A Freedom Chair

" One gentleman who comes to our programs a lot was injured when he was 20 years old. He's 29 now. He said that for nine years he never went outside because he didn't know what to do. Then he jumped in one of these Freedom Chairs. Now he's taking his nieces and nephews hiking. The guy's life is officially changed. He's a vegan now. He's healthy. He exercises. His motivational level has increased through the roof."

"I would say that a lot of the people we work with have a better understanding of life and more appreciation for life because of the limitations they have or how they are looked upon. This is a way of embracing their disability, of proving everybody wrong, or proving themselves wrong in some cases."

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For more information or to see the calendar of upcoming events please visit the website www.mass.gov/dcr/universal-acccess.

Gypsy Moth Dispatch 2018

Winter in July at Seaside Cemetery--
defoliated oak trees make a morbid landscape

We're experiencing a gypsy moth outbreak such as hasn't struck our area since the early 1980s. Back then we feared massive deforestation or at least the elimination of vulnerable tree species. The threat abated after a few years, possibly due to the importation from Japan of Entomophaga maimaiga, a fungus lethal to the gypsy moths' insatiable larvae. Few other solutions have effect. There are too many of the critters, and we've come to understand the folly of counter-attacking broadly with chemical pesticides.

Caterpillars skeletonizing an oak leaf

The past couple of years have brought widespread destruction by gypsy moth larvae during the spring months. Uncountable numbers of the caterpillars are suddenly, voraciously present. Eating and growing through several molts they have gained the attention of anyone outdoors, crawling over every surface and suspended by silk threads that carry them wind-blown to adjacent trees. Their resurgence may be due to relatively dry conditions in recent spring seasons that impeded the dispersal of Entomophaga maimaiga spores.

A male gypsy moth on the wing this week

Last month the caterpillars pupated, meaning they secreted themselves within cocoons to accomplish the metamorphosis into winged adults. The moths won't eat again in their brief maturity, having the singular goal of procreation. The males hatch first and fly ceaselessly in search of a mate. Myriad numbers of them are filling the air just now building up tension for that primal imperative. The flightless females will soon emerge with an alluring fragrance.

A motion of mid-summer reverie

In my back yard I sit in the thin shade of leafless oaks. Begonias beside me are scalded by the unaccustomed penetration of sunlight through the tree canopy. Male moths flutter inquisitively over every surface sometimes brushing against me with fairy kisses. They diffuse through the garden as though trying to maintain equidistance from each other, searching obsessively but without conflict. To innocent eyes they make a delicate if prolific ballet with no apparent appetites.

Defoliated apple tree, Halibut Point State Park

The damage came earlier at the ravenous jaws of the wormy stage. Besides oaks they are fond of apple trees. The trees lost their sugar-producing leaves at an early stage of development of the fruit. They will probably put forth new leaves at a considerable energy cost. We'll have to see if that comes at the expense of maturing the fruit. 


Defoliated oak tree, Halibut Point State Park

  An adjacent Scarlet Oak tree suffered similar damage.

A branch of the same oak tree re-foliating

New leaves are beginning to form on the oak tree giving hope for its survival if not for a crop of acorns to sustain squirrels and turkeys.

Gypsy moth caterpillars at work

The caterpillars' bristly armature and perhaps its foul taste protect them from many foraging birds, although white-footed mice relish them on the ground.

A Black-billed Cuckoo in the oak tree prior to defoliation

Personally I hope that the gypsy moth outbreak supports an influx of one ardent predator, the furtive black-billed cuckoo that I haven't yet managed to photograph clearly.

A male gypsy moth approaching a female

Meanwhile the prospective parents of proliferation begin their courtship.

Females laying egg masses on an oak tree trunk, next to their cocoon shells. That distance from their cocoons spans their life journey.

The impact of gypsy moths on our oak trees exacerbates the damage caused earlier in the year by winter moths whose populations have reached historic proportions locally. Weakened trees become more susceptible to other pests and pathogens. The shifts and imbalances may be related to weather patterns associated with climate change.

The ecological consequences of gypsy moth defoliation are not necessarily catastrophic in the view of Cape Ann naturalist Chris Leahy who has observed the species enrichment and diversification following fires that preserve meadow lands or create open spaces in forests. Flooding caused by beaver dams can have a similar localized effect.

Entomologists have high hopes that the Entomophaga maimaiga fungus will regain control of gypsy moth populations under propitious rainfall patterns in coming years. They believe they understand the mechanisms but acknowledge these operate within uncontrollable complexities.

Property owners concerned to safeguard individual plants can explore various options with an experienced arborist.

 
 
 
 

Flocking to the Visitors' Center

One dark and gloomy afternoon crows descended like pall bearers on the Halibut Point Visitors' Center. Finding no heartbeat in the building they pronounced it deceased.

They well knew that the structure had been shuttered by mold and deterioration the previous season. They could see signs of exploratory surgery but the Center lay inert.

The crows notified their Brethren of Hades that post mortem gleanings might be had.

The vultures swooped down toward the scent of demise.

They assessed the possible cadaver expertly but realized it had not yet breathed its last.

A  declaration of resuscitation had been posted by the Commonwealth. A security fence went up around the infirmary.

Temporary opportunities abounded within the decrepitude for useful occupation.

Various winged species investigated.
 

A pair of phoebes recognized that the fence protected their design on an alcove.

They managed to tend to their brood as the clamor commenced in earnest.

The new roof, weatherproofing, and mold removal that the Department of Conservation and Recreation has accomplished have made the building habitable again, not just for the birds. Interpretive displays on flora and fauna, geology, industrial and military history have been developed with an overall unifying theme of being "on the edge" according to DCR preservation planner Jessica Rowcroft.

Amidst all the progress, equipment movement around the Visitors' Center has created some dandy ruts supplying building materials to barn swallows.

They try not to swallow it on the return to their own construction site.

Public meeting rooms and possibly a gallery will occupy the second floor when it reopens in the spring, giving the mockingbird something to crow about.