Outcasting

I don’t consider myself a tree hugger, but i do know what makes an outdoor experience fun. Sometimes we need just a little bit of nature to recharge the inner battery of our life.

But…
It looks like the date crept up on us…The day to bulldoze our local Cook County Forest Preserve. Take a walk out on the Orland Grasslands and look at the burning piles of trees and cut branches. The 100 foot buffer that is supposed to provide cover looks paltry and more like a median on a highway. Cutting down huge trees to make room for grass has to have a significant impact on wildlife. At first it was announced that only non-native trees would be removed. Now it seems the old saying of the forest blocking the view of the woods is coming true.

Please help me understand how cutting down huge stands of trees to plant grass is beneficial to our area. Have you ever hiked out there? It was fun to hike the deer trails through the woods, and through the pine grove. It was fun to stand still and watch the birds as you became part of the grove.

First horses were denied access, then bikes, and now dogs. OK, dogs were always restricted to be leashed. But recently there were signs restricting all dogs.
In the future I see the Orland Grassland becoming restricted so we won’t even be able to walk out there.
Are we one step from a huge 1,000 acre bubble and paying for access??

I thought they should have worked on the current grass population, and left the trees as a complement. It did need work for buckthorn and other invasice species. But since when did all trees become non-native. Farmers 50 years ago planted the trees.

My neighbors and friends, help me see the forest in the mess, which is now progress dressed as grass…

On this first day of the national bird count i walked out to the grasslands and left doubting the management of this area.
I’ve tried to get answers in the past from all my local, county and regional elected officials.
The response was……., its being handled and i need not be concerned.
Basically the responses were to stay out of the way..

The tree cutting is being handled by an outside contractor.
Money is provided by an outside group.
I live next to the Grasslands, it seems everybody else provided input but the residents..

I’m all ears, help me see the benefit.

Lightening Bugs

It’s a pretty routine cycle — we get heat, humidity, rain, more heat and then school starts. This is the cycle of summer in the Midwest. While outside on a recent weekend, we noticed the all too familiar signature of summer coming to a close — the lack of lightning bugs. As my kids’ bug hunter containers sat empty, I was asked why the lightning bugs come and go, and I had no clue.

With a little research I found out that the lightning bugs are of the beetle family and have a very short lifespan. At the stage when we see them, the lightning bug’s job is to meet a mate and lay eggs for the next generation. I also found out I knew very little of these illuminating critters.

What I did find fascinating was that the lightning bug has an internal organ that produces the light we see and it’s at a constant measurable wavelength. Their light is produced when two compounds in the bugs abdomen mix, and the glow is then visible through their skeleton. This pale yellow light produced is considered more than 90 percent efficient, compared to an ordinary bulb which produces light at about 50 percent efficiency. The heat the ordinary bulb produces accounts for the loss of its efficiency. And yes, they lightning bugs can control when their light goes on and off.

There is also an interesting pattern to the lightning bug’s flight. Periodically the lightning bugs turn on their light when they are flying up, then turn it off when flying down. They are also able to synchronize their light pattern between hundreds of critters at a time.

Bad news for the bugs — they are very not interested in eating at this stage. As I mentioned the main purpose of the backyard night-light dance is so the male lightning bugs can attract the female lightning bugs for creating future flying critters. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae live underground for up to two years before they begin their cycle of flying and entertaining the kids.

Even as they were held captive in my kids’ bug hunter containers, the lightning bugs would light up to entertain their masters. The practice of capturing lightning bugs is a summer tradition, which also includes letting them go. Now we know that each year we catch and release family members of years past. What a few weeks ago seemed like an endless supply of nighttime fun now fades with the start of school. Maybe we’ll see a few this weekend, if not don’t worry they’ll be back next summer.

Each year and every year since we began keeping astronomical records, there has been recorded evidence of the August Perseid Meteor shower. Even as far back as 30AD in China, a witness recorded over 100 meteors on or near Aug. 12. Through the centuries, the Aug. 12 meteor shower has been noted in almost every country and culture.

Meteor showers, falling stars or shooting stars are all terms that describe a particle (interplanetary rock, debris or even dust) speeding through the earth’s atmosphere pulled down by gravity. The flash of light we see is the result of the particle burning up due to the high rate of speed caused by friction from our atmosphere. To clarify further, the term meteorite describes a solid mass that hits the earth surviving the fiery trip that can exceed 1,000 miles per hour.

In the 1800′s the Perseids’ sighting rate ranged from 75-150 meteors per hour, with one year having an average of 250 meteors an hour. Granted they had less light pollution back then but the rate was still a staggering three to four meteors per minute. It wasn’t until the 1860′s that scientists discovered that the peak in meteor activity was the result of a comet. Years later they linked a comet to the higher rates and the annual meteors to debris from its tail.

And each year, it’s on our August calendar like in years past. The Perseid Meteor shower is easy to remember since it’s the same day as my son Michael’s birthday. This week on Aug. 12-13, the sun should be setting around 8 p.m. The moon will be near full but rising late so late viewing will be required.   On the mornings of Aug. 12 & 13th, also try to view them one hour before sunrise which is around 6 a.m.

Good news, there is no special equipment needed to view the meteor shower, just use your eyes. On the evenings of Aug. 11 and Aug. 12, look up towards the northeast, watch a specific spot and wait. If the weather cooperates, we could see up to 60 meteors an hour, or up to one a minute. For my son, searching for meteors the night of his birthday is a ritual. Hopefully the sky will clear on the evening of Aug. 12 and you’ll be able to view this free show that was visible to our ancestors, but still only comes once a year.

Sky view NE in the early AM