Wildlife Sightings and Visions of Nature
By Betsy Bennett-Stacey, Curator

We recently put up a Wildlife Sighting Calendar here at the Museum and we’re hoping you can help. Any time you see an interesting animal, a new wildflower blooming or an interesting natural happening, give the museum a call or e-mail me at betsy@nature-museum.org and we’ll put it on the calendar, or you can stop by and put it on the calendar yourself.

In April and May we will be hosting the Lone Mountain Artists exhibit titled “Visions of Nature.” This collection of paintings, drawings and photographs of the New England landscape, its plants and animals. Uses a variety of media to capture a unique interpretation of the area we live in.

Through this exhibit the artists hope to promote awareness and appreciation of the natural beauty and fragility of our remarkable New England environment. Lone Mountain Artists will donate a percentage of each sale to The Nature Museum. The artists in this exhibit include Donna Allen, Martine Villalard-Bohnsack, Carole-Anne Centre, Diane Gibbons, Gundy Khouw and Evelien Bachrach-Seeger. They live throughout Southern New Hampshire.

Salamanders on the Move!

Spotted Salamanders are large, black glossy amphibians with bright yellow spots. You almost have to see it to believe it! And if you would like to see one now is the time to be on the look out.

Spotted salamanders normally live underground in the woods but on a rainy night in early spring they often cross roads as they often cross roads as they migrate to vernal (temporary) pools to breed. Generally the migration happens on the first night in the spring that is over 40 degrees Fahrenheit and rains all night. Though this sounds like a simple formula, it is not always easy to predict and every valley in the area can be different enough that the migration can happen on different nights throughout early spring.

If there are any questions or reports about this amazing phenomenon please call The Nature Museum. We love to talk about and hear about salamanders. 802-843-2111.

Antioch University Interns

Every year we have the opportunity to work with graduate students interns from Antioch University New England. These talented individuals work with us on projects in environmental education, exhibit design, facilities management, or trails.

This winter and spring, we have been lucky to have two interns working with us.

Tanya Milano is working with Springfield teachers in their classrooms. She is working with five classrooms and is designing place based programming that ties into the curriculum for that classroom. Her projects have gotten the students outside using their observations skills, having them design trail signs to correspond to their unit on raising salmon, and are having them learn mapping skills by drawing the downtown. She is passionate about connecting kids to their local communities and we are excited that she is sharing that passion with the students in Springfield classes.

Lenoir McDougal is working with the former Falls Playschool in Bellows Falls. This preschool had recently discontinued formal preschool education, leaving many young children without a structured educational gathering to attend. Working with the Museum and parents of the young students, Lenoir is designing and leading eight weekly visits that revolve around the natural world. She is engaging these young learners with fun activities and also providing them essential skills for entering Kindergarten. With each visit, she also engages the families through a newsletter filled with topical activities that they can try at home together. Lenoir is very creative and engaging with these young students and their families. We are very excited that she is working with us to bring nature education to the Falls Playschool.

Gardens and Programs
By Margo Ghia, Executive Director

With the arrival of spring, gardeners of all varieties are feeling the itch to dig into the soil and plant young seedlings or seeds. I, along with my husband and kids, are avid vegetable growers for our personal consumption. The time out in our garden is a way that we can connect with natural systems on a small scale. While we are out in the garden, we are part of the cycles of the seasons, we can delve into soil composition and the amazing critters that live there, and we can observe ecological food systems at work. Gardening is a great way for us to learn about the natural world in a “controlled” and small space.

For the past several years, The Nature Museum has offered a garden design course in the spring. The talented instructors for this course, Laurie Danforth (the Museum’s Board President), Jana Wunderlee of Terriginous Design and Laurie Bolotin of Morningstar Perennials have helped many people look at and experience their gardens in new ways. Inspired by the success of this class, the Museum is undertaking a new venture this year.

Starting this Spring and continuing through the Fall, the Museum is offering a series of programs about cultivating the earth. The series is called “Gardening with Nature.” These programs will cover such things as the basics of garden design, visiting historic gardens, garden tea parties, and basic how-to’s in the garden. Our goal is to offer a diverse and engaging series of programs that will help people experience nature through gardens, whether they be their own garden or someone’ else’s.

The “Gardening with Nature” programs are listed in a special brochure that is inserted in with this newsletter. The programs will also be listed, along with all of regular public program offerings, on the Museum’s website, in our newsletter, and on our friends of the Museum email list.

I hope you have a chance to join us in the garden this year!

Owls Aren’t Wise & Bats Aren’t Blind:
A Naturalist Debunks Our Favorite Fallacies About Wildlife

2000 by Warner Shedd (Author), and Trudy Nicholson (Illustrator)

Owls Aren’t Wise & Bats Aren’t Blind covers more than thirty North American species-some as familiar as the common toad, others as elusive as the lynx. It is written by wildlife expert and enthusiast Warner Shedd, former New England Regional Executive for the National Wildlife Federation, and resident of Vermont. Shedd captivates the reader as only an experienced naturalist could, with detailed, accurate information on such varied wildlife as muskrats, herons, brown bears, crows, armadillos, and coyotes. Owls Aren’t Wise & Bats Aren’t Blind grew out of Warner Shedd’s desire to share biologically sound information and counter inaccurate folklore about wild animals. By arming his readers with knowledge, Shedd hopes to promote a more informed and respectful view of many North American wildlife species and ultimately encourage the scientific management and conservation of all our native wildlife.

The Audubon Society Guide to Attracting Birds

Stephen Kress. Cornell University Press. 2006.

This book was written for landscapers, birders, gardeners, and naturalists. In it Stephen Kress provides a practical guide to attracting birds to any property, large or small. In Kress’s view, the best way to attract birds is to enrich habitats by improving vegetation, natural foods, water supplies, and nest sites.

The Boswell Botany Trail, Manchester VT

The Boswell Botany Trail is on the grounds of the Southern Vermont Arts Center. It has a long list of wildflowers, shrubs and ferns, some of them common, some unusual and a few that are very rare. The trail is a rambling, three-quarter mile nature trail dotted with rustic seats and benches. Though originally built in 1917 as the nature walk of the original Webster estate, the trail was re-created and greatly expanded in 2001. The Boswell Botany Trail has stately white birches, native orchids, grasses and moss, most of the 67 varieties of fern found in Vermont and a towering, 300 year-old sugar maple, all in a unique glacial microclimate. No matter which month you visit you are sure to find something interesting in bloom. But if you are interested in spring ephemerals (the plants that bloom early in the spring before the trees leaf out, and die back in the summer months) then April and May is the time to visit. In June you can see starflower, wood betony, pink and yellow lady’s slippers and golden ragwort. The trail is easily explored at a leisurely pace by most walkers in about a half-hour. If you are looking for a longer hike in the Manchester area, we suggest the Equinox Preservation Trust trail system which is linked to the Southern Vermont Arts Center land. More information and maps for the Equinox trails can be found at www.equinoxpreservationtrust.org

Directions:
The Southern Vermont Arts Center is on West Road in Manchester (802) 362-1405, www.svac.org.

Eat This Plant! Please!
• By Madeline Bodin

Garlic mustard is trouble. Unlike many other invasive plants, it doesn’t stop at the forest edge. It thrives in partial shade and so has no trouble growing in forest understories.

It can grow densely, crowding out other plants. In the forest, the plants it crowds out includes trilliums, jack-in-the-pulpits, as well as our beautiful, and often vulnerable, native orchids.

Garlic mustard also loves lime. This means it is an aggressive invader in rare habitats, such as the calcareous riverside seeps found in a few places along the Connecticut River. The delicate species found in these areas include the plant with the best plant name ever: grass-of-Parnassus, and the aptly named showy orchis, which is a two-toned magenta-and-white beauty.

Garlic mustard also does a number on two butterfly species. The mustard white butterfly and the West Virginia white butterfly (closely related to each other) sometimes mistakenly lay their eggs on garlic mustard instead of native mustards.

The results are disastrous. The eggs hatch, but the caterpillars die before they can make a chrysalis.

The rare West Virginia white normally lays its eggs only on toothwort. It is not that toothwort and garlic mustard look alike. (Although both have four-petaled flowers. Garlic mustard’s are tiny and white.) Garlic mustard gives off the same chemical that the West Virginia white uses to home in on toothwort plants.

For years, garlic mustard was on the “least wanted” list of natural area managers in southern New England. But lately, garlic mustard is moving in to Vermont and New Hampshire in greater numbers. Bob Popp, a botanist with the State of Vermont, says it’s mostly found in Vermont’s southern four counties, especially near rivers and streams.

In New Hampshire, it’s been found in Westmoreland, Manchester, Plainfield and Hanover.

This is a time of year to keep an eye out for the plant. Its first-year basal rosette, or circle of leaves, stays green throughout the winter. (Garlic mustard is native to northern Europe, so it handles cold well.)

It’s not the only green basal rosette you’ll see with kidney-shaped, scalloped leaves (violets, white avens, and other mustard species look similar). But the fact that it is green in earliest spring, and not much else is, certainly narrows the possibilities. In winter, look for the S-shaped bend at the top of the root. In spring, the leaves’ distinctive garlic odor when crushed gives it away.

There are many ways to get rid of this pesky plant. The goal is to stop the plant from setting seed. Unlike many invasive plants, garlic mustard only spreads through seeds.

Hand-pulling is the best choice, and the only choice when rare plants are nearby. But garlic mustard can take over large areas. In those cases, cutting, with a string trimmer or a lawn mower, can work, especially if you cut again and again before the plant sets seed.

Herbicide is another option. Garlic mustard grows throughout the winter on warm, snow-free days. Because of this, herbicide can be applied in late fall, winter or early spring when other, desirable plants are dormant.

According to a report by the Nature Conservancy, the search for a biological control of garlic mustard is focused on five species of weevils. The issue is whether these insects will leave our native mustards alone and only go after garlic mustard.

There is one other way to get rid of garlic mustard, and that is to eat it ourselves. This is not as gruesome as it first sounds. Garlic mustard is used as an herb in England. It may have been first brought to this continent to be eaten.

Bruce Kennedy, former chef for the Manchester site of the Bennington County Meals on Wheels/ Senior Meals Program came up with a tasty recipe for pesto using garlic mustard for a program on invasive plants in southern Vermont a few years ago.

Kennedy notes that young spring leaves are best for the recipe. The plant loses its garlic odor (and taste) as it ages.

Chef Kennedy’s Garlic Mustard Pesto
• 1 cup garlic mustard leaves
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts
• Sea salt (a pinch or two and adjust to taste)
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 4 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Place garlic mustard, garlic, salt, and pine nuts in a food processor and finely chop. With food processor running, add olive oil in a thin stream. Scrape the sides of the bowl to mix ingredients. Continue to blend until smooth. Add Parmesan cheese and blend using the pulse feature briefly.

Whatever you do, don’t plant the stuff just to eat it!! Garlic mustard crowds out rare plants and deceives rare butterflies. There is plenty of it to be had, and plenty of land owners happy to have your help pulling it up.

Spring 2008 Calendar

Astronomy at Vermont Academy

Date: Saturday, April 5

Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Place: Vermont Academy Observatory

Cost: A Free Public Program

• Meet at the Vermont Academy Observatory on Shepard Lane, off Pleasant Street. The Observatory is located in the field beyond the Chiver’s Center, Saxtons River, VT

Join the Nature Museum and Vermont Academy for a night of astronomy information and gazing at the wonders found in our sky. The evening will start with a 30 min talk on “Nature of Light and How Astronomers Use It” by Bob Anderson at the Chivers Center on Shepherd Lane, a two story building on the left. This will be followed by trip to Vermont Academy’s observatory, a few minutes up the road from the Chivers Center. There, with the help of Naturalist/Astronomer Bob Anderson and several other amateur astronomers with scopes, we will have the opportunity to view many celestial objects. If the weather is poor for telescope observing the talk will be accompanied by a discussion and/or indoor activity. We hope to see you for this exciting night of outer space exploration.

Mighty Acorns Explorers Club (Preschool Nature Day)
Signs of Spring
• Ages 3 - 5

Date: Wednesday, April 16

Time: Session 1: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Time: Session 2: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Place: The Nature Museum

Cost: Members - $5

Cost: Non-members - $7 (prices are for all participating children)

• Pre-registration preferred

Once a month, The Nature Museum will offer this fun-filled time for preschoolers and their caregivers. Participants will explore outside and visit different habitats. This hands-on time will foster observation skills and allow them to connect with the natural world.

Bears: Their Habitats and Habits

Date: Wednesday, April 16

Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Place: Rockingham Public Library, Bellows Falls, VT

Cost: A Free Public Program

Forrest Hammond from the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Service will present this program about Black Bears in Vermont. Come learn about the secret life of this unique animal and the challenges it faces with future development of the state. Forrest will discuss the role that the public can play in protecting bear habitat and in determining how many bears we have in the future. This program is part of the “Exploring Rockingham: Nature Out Our Backdoor” series, which is made possible by a grant from TransCanada.

The Past & Future of Farming in Vermont

Date: Friday, April 18

Time: 6:30 PM

Place: The White Church, Grafton, VT

Cost: A Free Public Program

Roger Albee, Vermont's Secretary of Agriculture, Foods, and Markets, will be speaking about farming in Vermont . In providing leadership for one of Vermont's largest industry, Mr. Albee's appreciation and advocacy for alternative solutions has been well received by the full spectrum of Vermont's agricultural community. He also oversees numerous food safety and consumer protection programs. His visit to Grafton is the result of a joint effort of The Nature Museum, the Grafton Grange, and the Grafton Public Library.

Growing Shitake Mushrooms

Date: Saturday, April 19

Time: 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Place: 1998 Trebo Road, Chester, VT

Cost: Members - $20

Cost: Non-members - $25
• 12 people (an additional family member - must be over 14 - can attend at no additional charge)

Join Irwin and Melissa Post to inoculate logs with shiitake mushroom spawn. After drilling holes in the logs, stuffing them with spawn, and capping them with wax, you will take home two 3' logs, which should yield delicious mushrooms for a few years. This workshop will take place at the Posts' home in an unheated shed, so please dress accordingly!

Vacation Camp - Fairies: Making Magic in the Forest & Garden
• Ages 6-8

Date: Monday, April 21

Time: 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Place: The Nature Museum

Cost: Members - $15

Cost: Non-members - $20

• Pre-registration required

Join us for a delightful day of magic. Garden and forest fairies are fanciful and fun and we'll spend the day honoring their cheery personalities and their connections to the Earth. Throughout the day, we'll go on fairy hunts, build fairy houses, and design fairy boats.

Vacation Camp: Earth Day Exploration
• Ages 6-10

Date: Tuesday, April 22

Time: 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Place: The Nature Museum

Cost: Members - $15

Cost: Non-members - $20

• Pre-registration required

Discover the diversity of wild animals living throughout the earth as we celebrate Earth Day together. We'll play outdoor games, make crafts, go on a special tour of the museum's collections, explore our local habitats and compare them to habitats around the world.

Vacation Camp: Pioneer Skills
• Ages 8-12

Date: Wednesday, April 23

Time: 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Place: The Nature Museum

Cost: Members - $20

Cost: Non-members - $25 (lunch included)

• Pre-registration required

Step back in time and learn skills that could help you survive in the woods. Learn how to tie knots and build something useful or maybe win a race; build a campfire and cook your lunch on it; learn pocket knife safety and make a woodland character. You will want to wear long pants and boots and outerwear appropriate for the day’s weather. Also, bring a pocketknife with a sharp blade and a signed permission slip from your folks to use it. Camp limited to 10 participants.

Vacation Camp: Daring Camp Day for Girls
• Ages 6-10

Date: Thursday, April 24

Time: 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Place: The Nature Museum

Cost: Members - $20

Cost: Non-members - $25

• Pre-registration required

The Daring Camp for Girls is loosely based on the book “The Daring Book for Girls” by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz which has been described as “the can-do, how-to manual for enthusiastic, unfettered adventure”. We will have a full week of this camp in August for 9-12 year olds. Camp limited to 10.

Rock Gardens, Rocky Gardens, & Garden Rocks

Date: Thursday, April 24

Time: 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Place: The Nature Museum

Cost: Members - $4

Cost: Non-members - $6

In this class, participants will learn about integrating and placing stones in the garden, with an eye for how stones can work together as a group, and how they fit into their environment. Nature will be our inspiration, and design principles our guide. Leading the class will be Christopher Keefe, a landscape gardener with training at Radcliffe Seminars, in England. He currently lives in Windham, VT.

Tibetan Travelogue - (reschedule from March)

Date: Sunday, April 27

Time: 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Place:The Chapel, Grafton, VT

Cost: Donations Welcome

Join Sally Warren, a Grafton resident, for a program describing her trip to Tibet in September of 2007. She, along with five other Vermonters, joined a large group of Argentineans, Brits and Tibetans on a pilgrimage to the Sacred Mt. Kailas. This slide show of Tibet will include shots of Lhasa, the Western plateau, the path around Mt. Kailas and a group of joyful pilgrims. There will be time for lots of questions.

Astronomy at Vermont Academy

Date: Saturday, May 3

Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Place: Vermont Academy Observatory

Cost: A Free Public Program

• Meet at the Vermont Academy Observatory on Shepard Lane, off Pleasant Street. The Observatory is located in the field beyond the Chiver’s Center, Saxtons River, VT

Join the Nature Museum and Vermont Academy for a night of astronomy information and gazing at the wonders found in our sky. The evening will start with a 30 min talk on “Mars” by Claudio Veliz. See April 5th description for general program information. This is the last astronomy night until September, when the monthly series will start again.

9th Annual Herricks Cove Wildlife Festival

Date: Sunday, May 4

Time: 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM; 7:30 AM bird walk

Place: Herricks Cove, Rockingham, VT

Cost: $2 per person; $5 per family

Celebrate Spring and wildlife at beautiful Herricks Cove on the Connecticut River. This festival includes nature presentations, activities and programs featuring live animals, guided nature walks, live music, tasty food, workshops, birding and much more. This event brings together wildlife, nature and outdoor enthusiasts for a fun and informative time for all ages. Come for an hour or stay all day. Feel free to call the museum for information. Special programs this year include: A John James Audubon impersonator, a Giant Moose display, Building bat boxes, Live amphibians, birds and insect presentations, and live music throughout the day. Sponsored by Ascutney Mountain Audubon Society, The Nature Museum, Vermont Fish and Wildlife, Central Vermont Public Service, and TransCanada Hydro Northeast Inc.

Pruning and Spring Maintenance Q & A

Date: Saturday, May 10

Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Place: The Nature Museum

Cost: A Free Public Program

Enjoy a workshop in the fundamentals of pruning taught by Will Danforth as we ready the Museum’s Wildlife Garden for the growing season.

Spring Wildflower Walk

Date: Saturday, May 10

Time: 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Place: Martin Sanctuary trail head on Bemis Hill Road, outside of Saxtons River off Westminster West Road

Cost: A Free Public Program

In this walk we will locate and identify six of the spring ephemeral wildflowers that are found in the Windmill Hill Pinnacle Association's Martin Sactuary on Bemis Hill Road. Factors such as forest community type, canopy cover, and microtopography which affect the presence of these species will also be discussed. The walk is led by Paul “Hop” Hopkins, who did his graduate school thesis field work about spring ephemerals in this same area and who currently teaches science at the Grammer School in Putney.

Under the Canopy: Shade Gardening with Native Plants

Date: Tuesday, May 20

Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Place: The Homestead Room, The Old Tavern, Grafton, VT

Cost: Members - $4

Cost: Non-members - $6

Scott LaFleur, head horticulturalist for the New England Wildflower Society, will present this program about the vast array of native plant species that thrive in full and partial shade plus add beauty and interest to your understory.

Mighty Acorns Explorers Club (Preschool Nature Day)
Pond Creatures
• Ages 3-5

Date: Wednesday, May 21

Time: Session 1: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Time: Session 2: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Place: The Nature Museum

Cost: Members - $5

Cost: Non-members - $7 (prices are for all participating children)

• Pre-registration preferred; See April 16 description

Propagation & Maintenance in the Garden Q & A

Date: Sunday, June 8

Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Place: The Nature Museum

Cost: A Free Public Program

Learn to divide garden plants in a workshop taught by Will Danforth.

Mighty Acorns Explorers Club (Preschool Nature Day)
The Garden
• Ages 3 - 5

Date: Wednesday, June 18

Time: Session 1: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Time: Session 2: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Place: The Nature Museum

Cost: Members - $5

Cost: Non-members - $7 (prices are for all participating children)

• Pre-registration preferred; See April 16 description

The Fells Historic Gardens & Boat Trip on Lake Sunapee

Date: Saturday, June 21

Time: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Place: Meeting Place To Be Announced

Cost: Members - $55

Cost: Non-members - $60; includes transportation, boat trip & tours

• Pre-registration required

Enjoy a tour of the historic Fells Estate and gardens. The Fells has one of the best and largest rock gardens in New England, and in June their spectacular collection of lilacs, azaleas, and rhododendrons should be in bloom. After our visit, enjoy the beautiful scenery of Lake Sunapee from a boat while your Captain narrates the history, landmarks and lore of this crystal clear mountain lake. For more information about The Fells, go to www.thefells.org

Nature Writing Institute

Date: June 24 - June 26

A summer teacher training institute at Moose Mountain Lodge in Etna, NH. Margo Ghia, Betsy Bennett Stacey and Michael Caduto will be the instructors, check our website, or call for more information.

Nature at the Farm

Date: Saturday, June 28

Time: 10:00 AM

Place: Westminster, VT; call for more information

This program coincides with the Westminster Cares “Gardens of Westminster” Weekend. For more information about the whole event call (802) 722-3607.

For more information please contact:

Betsy Bennett Stacey
The Nature Museum at Grafton
186 Townshend Rd
Grafton, VT 05146
802-843-2111

Email: staff@nature-museum.org
Or check our website at http://www.nature-museum.org