Guest Contributor - Prairie Rivers of Iowa

In Your Nature: Lawn … Care?

by Guest Contributor | Jul 22, 2025

Jim Colbert serves on Prairie Rivers’ board of directors. This essay originally appeared on his Substack on June 16.

Hi. My name is “Jim” and I’m a lawn deviant. With less effort, less money, less water, and zero use of herbicides and fertilizers you could be a lawn deviant too. You’ll still have to mow.

Somewhere along the line, a lawn composed of a monoculture of Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) became the cultural ideal for the yard surrounding a well-maintained suburban home. There can be a significant amount of “social pressure” to conform to this ideal. The entire business model of some commercial endeavors is designed to promote this ideal. Kentucky bluegrass is a pretty shade of green, and it smells nice when freshly mowed. It’s unclear whether it’s native to North America though you certainly wouldn’t have any trouble finding a specimen of Kentucky bluegrass here in the lawns of Iowa. I readily admit that baseball outfields of carefully mowed Kentucky bluegrass look appealing and make for a uniform playing surface. I also agree that a mowed area in the immediate vicinity of one’s home is comforting. Short grass makes it far easier to spot venomous snakes, should there be any in your region. It also decreases the likelihood of being bitten by ticks (arachnids in the order Ixodida), or ending up with intense itching caused by “chiggers” (mites in the family Trombiculidae) embedded in your skin, after spending some quality time in your backyard. But I encourage you to ponder whether a monoculture of Kentucky bluegrass is the best solution for these non-trivial issues.

Populations of many insect pollinators have been experiencing concerning declines in Iowa and across the United States. One approach to address this issue is to plant “pollinator gardens” to provide nectar and pollen for hungry pollinators. Kentucky bluegrass is of no help in this regard because it is “wind pollinated” (i.e., no insects needed), and it is typically mowed before it can flower anyway. It’s possible to spend considerable time, effort, and money to plant lovely, and effective, pollinator gardens and I certainly encourage that effort. But similar results can be achieved more easily by “doing nothing”. Simply allowing your lawn to be unmolested by watering, fertilizers, and herbicides provides a buffet for pollinators. Here in the Midwest allowing your lawn to “go wild” results in the presence of numerous “weed” species. Weeds are plants growing where they “want” to grow rather than where you want them to grow.

ant on dandelion covered in pollen Katelyn Rinicker

So, they’re plants. Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) are a very familiar, and often disparaged, “weed” in lawns. They are also an important early season food source for various pollinators including bees, butterflies, hoverflies, and beetles. The common blue violet (Viola sororia) is another early season “weed” that feeds pollinators, especially fritillary butterflies. Later in the season other “weeds” provide food sources for various insect pollinators. These include creeping charlie (Glechoma hederacea), black medic (Medicago lupulina), and white clover (Trifolium repens), amongst others. For me it’s like putting up a sign that reads “Eat at Jim’s”. You could have your own sign.

Deviant lawns have benefits beyond feeding pollinators. You don’t need to water or fertilize such lawns. That, of course, saves time and money. This leads to the additional benefit of needing to mow your lawn less often. I certainly have many better things to do than mow my lawn. You probably do too. No fertilizer also means decreased nutrient run-off from your lawn during heavy rains. Nutrients leaving your lawn in rainwater don’t “magically disappear”. These nutrients continue into storm sewers and enter rivers and streams causing algal blooms in various bodies of water and can contribute to the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. There’s also no need for herbicides in a diverse lawn. More time and money saved, plus the chemicals don’t leave your lawn potentially killing plants elsewhere that nobody wants killed. Lawn diversity has another benefit: some parts of your lawn are almost always “green” during the growing season. Regardless of whether the conditions are dry or wet, some species will be doing well. Crabgrass (Digitaria species) tolerates, and remains green, under much hotter and drier conditions than Kentucky bluegrass. Broadleaf plantain (Plantago major) also deals well with hot and dry conditions. Meanwhile, your neighbor with a Kentucky bluegrass monoculture must choose between lots of watering (maybe even installing an irrigation system) and having a crispy brown lawn. Nature abhors a monoculture. Sadly, that means you’ll still have to mow (a little) when your neighbor doesn’t.

The look of a uniform, neatly trimmed, lawn seems to have a widespread appeal. Homeowners Associations and neighbors may look askance at a healthy population of dandelions. But the costs of conformity are high. Less food for struggling pollinators. Contributions to nutrient pollution. Time, money, and effort spent on watering, fertilizing, herbicide treating, and more mowing. Is the goal of the perfectly manicured lawn worth it? Allow me to be brutally honest for a moment. Major League Baseball is NEVER going to contact you about hosting the World Series in your backyard. So, do less and accomplish more by being a lawn deviant.

Can Things That Don’t Matter Make a Difference?

by Guest Contributor | Jul 1, 2025

Jim Colbert serves on Prairie Rivers’ board of directors. This essay originally appeared on his Substack on May 22.

From September 1998 through September 2017, I developed and led an effort facetiously called the “Skunk River Navy”. I had lots of help. The goal was to give first-year Iowa State University biology students hands-on interactions with local biodiversity (primarily benthic macroinvertebrates), while allowing them to work together to make a positive contribution to their local community. Over those 20 years we did 51 “trash patrols” involving about 2,400 first year ISU biology, as well as other, students. Friends, colleagues, and local community members also participated.

All together we removed over 80 tons of trash from about 30 miles of our local streams – the South Skunk River and Ioway Creek. We used canoes as trash barges (our “naval vessels”) and hauled out beer cans, plastic bags, tires, barbed wire, bicycles, washing machines, recliners, 50-gallon barrels, tennis shoes, pieces of agricultural equipment, used condoms, water heaters, port-a-potties, livestock watering troughs, fishing bait containers, fence posts, picnic tables, lawn mowers, corrugated metal, parts of cars, microwave ovens, grocery carts, and on one occasion, an open and empty home safe. It was hard work in wet and muddy conditions, but it did lead to an “esprit de corps”.

It was hard work in wet and muddy conditions, but it did lead to an “esprit de corps”. We would ask the students to share their post Skunk River Navy thoughts in written reflections after they had showered and eaten a warm meal. Here’s a few examples:

“I think the most important thing I learned that day was the fact that so much trash gets dumped into rivers each year. It’s amazing how much people don’t care about the environment. Maybe one day they will.”

“I envisioned that there would be a lot of garbage, but I never imagined that people could treat the Earth with such disrespect… The Skunk River Navy was an educational as well as character building experience for all of us.”

“I have always been amazed by the biodiversity of life on our planet, but being exposed to a thriving example of that vitality in only a fraction of an imperfect stream is almost beyond comprehension.”

“Upon returning from the Skunk River Navy, I have a completely new view of the river environment, and I also realize how ignorant and inconsiderate some people are about the environment.”

“After being tired, sore, cold, and thirsty I was able to look at the huge heap of trash I had helped pick up and know that I had done something good for the entire community.”

“One of the best parts of the day was everybody’s teamwork. We worked well getting the canoes over the dam, and also when we had to carry the trash up the hill and clean out the canoes.”

“The best part was Mrs. Colbert’s chocolate chip cookies!”

Our local efforts reduced the total amount of trash in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean by… well, I’m not sure that they make numbers that small. Trash is both an aesthetic (it’s ugly) and a significant (microplastics, toxins, various harms to wild creatures) problem. Given the global scope of the problem our efforts effectively “did not matter”. And that’s not even the most significant way in which the efforts of the Skunk River Navy did not matter. The major problems impacting our local streams aren’t the accumulation of trash. The major problems are:

High levels of nutrients, primarily from agricultural fertilizers and waste from confined animal feeding operations
High sediment loads mostly from erosion in row crop fields and high water induced collapse of stream banks
Large fluctuations in stream flow resulting from development and historic drainage of wetlands for agriculture
Loss of biodiversity (e.g., freshwater mussel species) due to the preceding issues.

The well-intentioned efforts the Skunk River Navy did nothing to address these major issues.

Cyanobacteria bloom in the South Skunk River

erosion on Ioway Creek between Grand Ave and S Duff Ave

A combination of advancing age, competing demands, and increased liability concerns, amongst other factors, led to the end of the Skunk River Navy after a final trash patrol in September 2017. It is totally unsurprising that, to date, the effort has not been resurrected at Iowa State University. The efforts of the Skunk River Navy didn’t matter but did they “make a difference”? That’s a hard question to answer. One can hope, I certainly do, that none of the Skunk River Navy participants ever thoughtlessly threw trash in a river after their experience. I don’t know whether that’s the case. Maybe some of those participants went on to have careers that focused on protecting natural resources. I hope so, even though such careers are undervalued and typically don’t pay well. The natural world needs all the help it can get in the face of the human juggernaut of technology and the desire for ever more profit.

Final Skunk River Navy trash patrol in 2017. Photo credit: Dan Haug

One can also hope that one’s efforts, as insignificant as they may be, might inspire others. On Saturday 3 May 2025 I believe I got a glimpse of that inspiration. Prairie Rivers of Iowa, in cooperation with the City of Ames, Story County Conservation, the Skunk River Paddlers, and the Outdoor Alliance of Story County, sponsored their 5th annual stream clean-up (which they’re now calling PACRAT: Paddle And Cleanup Rivers Around Town), this year on a section of Ioway Creek. This effort began in 2021, only four years after the demise of the Skunk River Navy. I take no direct credit for the efforts of these groups, but I hope that the previous efforts of the Skunk River Navy helped inspire them to continue to care for Ioway Creek.

Editors note: It sure did! I participated in SRN as a biology student in 2001 and 2002 and moved back to Ames in time to join the last trash patrol in 2017. -Dan Haug, PACRAT planning committee

Due to an opening in my rather aggressive turkey hunting schedule, I was able to participate. I was happy to be do to so, especially given that none of the responsibility was mine. We passed through a section of Ioway Creek that the Skunk River Navy had worked on several times in past years. I had the pleasure of sharing a canoe with a young woman who was just about to complete 4th grade. I enjoyed the opportunity to teach her how to hold, and use, a canoe paddle. It was her first-ever experience in a canoe. She was amazed at how “beautiful” this rather abused urban stream was. We saw Canada geese, blue-wing teal, and tracks of deer, raccoons, and beavers. After some initial hesitation, she enthusiastically picked up trash, of which there was no shortage, partially buried in the sand bars we disembarked on. Overall, 33 people participated and just over 1.5 tons of trash were removed from about 2.5 miles of Ioway Creek.

Group photo from PACRAT 2025 creek cleanup

The natural world is under tremendous pressure from human activities. Pollution, climate change, impending mass extinction. It will take a great deal of “inspiration” (and perspiration!) to protect and maintain it, while hopefully also maintaining the status of humans as a “non-extinct” species. The specific efforts of the Skunk River Navy and Prairie Rivers of Iowa may not “matter” in the big picture, but maybe they can help inspire all of us to work together to make a difference.

Subtle Spring

by Guest Contributor | May 14, 2025

Spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) by Dan Haug

This essay by Jim Colbert (a retired biology professor and new member of our board) first appeared on his Substack and is reprinted with permission.

“Leaf peeping” in the fall gets a lot of “glory” for the rich reds, oranges, and yellows of deciduous trees preparing to drop their leaves before winter arrives. Early spring in Iowa’s largely leafless woodlands can seem much less colorful and enticing, especially if you’re just driving by in a vehicle. But early spring has a more subtle beauty of its own.

I was about halfway through my undergraduate studies when I took a class entitled “Plant Taxonomy”. Like most young people, I had grown up being far more interested in animals than in plants. Birds and mammals are pretty cool, but I was willing to give plants a chance. The professor was frightening, chaotic, and engaging all at the same time. This was the point in my education when I was first exposed to “dichotomous keys”. They are called “dichotomous” because at each step in the process of identifying an organism there are a pair of choices. Is what you’re looking at “this way” or is it “that way”. Each choice leads you down a path that will, hopefully, provide the name of what you’re looking at. Knowing the “name” of something may seem trivial, but in actuality a name is the gateway to learning whatever may be known about the organism you’re wondering about. What I didn’t know, but learned very quickly, is that “dichotomous keys are written by those who don’t need them for those who can’t use them”. Experts write them for novices and they can be quite challenging to use. Successful use of a dichotomous key typically requires a substantial knowledge of arcane terms with very specific meanings. In the context of identifying a flowering plant that might include such questions as: “is the ovary inferior or superior?” Or, “how many carpels does it have?” Maybe even “is the plant monoecious or dioecious?” It’s easy to make the incorrect choice and end up with a name that looks nothing like the plant you hold in your hand.

Siberian squill (Scilla siberica) by Jim Colbert

I was sitting in the grass near the edge of the road next to my dorm pondering a small plant with striking blue flowers. Other students walked past looking at me with considerable skepticism. One young woman stopped and asked what I was doing and I explained that I was trying to figure out the name of this plant. She was apparently expecting some deep philosophical or spiritual insight and immediately went on her way. I was confused by the features of the blue-flowered plant and continued to muddle my way through the dichotomous key, past various “dead ends”, until I arrived at name that fit: Scilla siberica; “Siberian squill”. It wasn’t as easy in those days, but in today’s world knowing the name “Scilla siberica” allows near immediate access to a wealth of information about this lovely little plant. For example, it’s not native to Siberia. It’s native to southwestern Russia and Turkey. Even scientific names can be confusing and misleading. Siberian squill has been widely planted as an ornamental. It spreads easily and, in some instances, can become invasive. Some regard it as a “classic case of gardening gone awry”. Be that as it may, the sense of accomplishment I felt after successfully identifying Siberian squill was profound and helped lead me to a lifetime of studying plant (and fungal) biology.

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) by Dan Haug

Having one successful solo plant identification under my belt emboldened me to seek to learn the names of the native early spring wildflowers blooming in the nearby Iowa woodlands. I had previously spent a great deal of time wandering around in Iowa’s woodlands, but until that spring I had taken very little notice of the “spring ephemerals” that decorated the floor of Iowa’s early spring woodlands in their quest to produce progeny that would ensure the future of their species. I starting taking walks in the woods with the express purpose of finding, and seeking to identify, spring wildflowers. I had been “not noticing” a lot.

White trout lily (Erythronium albidum) by Dan Haug

I came to be on a first-name basis with “blood root” (Sanguinaria canadensis), “eastern spring beauty” (Claytonia virginica), “liverleaf” ( Hepatica americana), “toothwort” (Cardamine concatenata), “false rue anemone” (Enemion biternatum), “white trout lily” (Erythronium albidum), and “Dutchman’s breeches ( Dicentra cucullaria) amongst others. Each species exploding in a small, but colorful, display of sexual reproduction before the leaves on the trees emerge and shade the forest floor. By early summer these spring ephemerals have returned to a dormant state waiting for spring to once again rouse them to produce leaves and flowers on the sunny floor of a leafless woodland.

For reasons that are not clear to me it’s very easy to be oblivious to things you don’t know the name of. Once you know the name it seems to be near impossible to not notice its presence – or even its absence. You notice the people you know the names of even in a large crowd and might find yourself enquiring about an absent friend, “hey – where’s so and so?” I cannot walk through an Iowa woodland in spring and NOT notice these plants. Many of us go through life largely oblivious to our non-human neighbors. It’s very hard to care at all about things you don’t notice. But preserving and protecting Earth’s biodiversity will require exactly that – “caring”. So, go out and learn the names of some of your neighbors, and not just the birds and mammals. Maybe if fewer of us are oblivious and more of us care we won’t drive quite as many of our neighbors to extinction.

More Bees, Please – Creating a Pollinator Friendly Ames!

by Guest Contributor | May 14, 2025

Article guest written by Lisa Kuehl, a volunteer member of the Pollinator Friendly Ames group

DID YOU KNOW that the City of Ames is a national leader in pollinator conservation? An exciting new 10-year plan, developed in 2023, aims to support bees, butterflies, insects, and birds through education, research, and collaboration. The Pollinator-Friendly Ames Plan is a dedicated effort between the City and Prairie Rivers of Iowa, with partnerships growing between many businesses, organizations, schools, homeowners’ and neighborhood associations, and, of course, the residents of Ames.

Thanks to the hard work of the Ames Pollinator-Friendly Community Task Force, this detailed plan is now in place, providing guidance and goals for helping Ames help our pollinators. Among these goals are creating more diverse habitats in yards, parks and green spaces, monitoring the numbers and kinds of pollinators observed, reducing pesticide use and sharing with the citizens of Ames ways in which they can help and become involved.

Why is any of this important to you? Because if you like to eat, chances are you can thank a pollinator! These busy insects, primarily bees, are what allow our fruits and vegetables to become our food. Other pollinators, such as butterflies, moths, insects and birds, scatter pollen, helping to grow beautiful native plants. Native plants are also what help purify our drinking water through their long, deep root systems that filter the groundwater. And native plants host caterpillars which provide critical food sources for many species of baby birds.

So, how can you be part of this amazing effort? Caring and supporting pollinators can be as simple as reducing your use of lawn pesticides, potting one native plant on your porch or converting part of your lawn into a diverse habitat to nourish pollinators in every stage of their lives. The City of Ames has many great resources for helping you get started! You can visit the City website or the Prairie Rivers of Iowa website to learn more.

On both websites you and your family will find ways to be a “Butterfly Bestie” and start taking steps towards helping the City meet its goals. Remember, even the most simple of actions can make a very big difference for our pollinators! If you’d like to know more about volunteering your time and talents, you are welcome to join one of the Plan’s four current committees: Education, Policy, Research or Partnerships. We would love to have you on board!

Pollinator-Friendly

Ames Needs You!

Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, you can help. Join the Pollinator Team and contribute to protecting bees, butterflies, and other essential pollinators.

Do you have pollinator habitat in your yard? Self report your habitat to help our group keep track of the pollinator friendly sites in Ames!

Pollinator habitat is an area that has any blooming flowers, whether on fruit trees, veggie gardens, or flower gardens!

Are you interested in learning more about the plan and what your group can do to help? We will present to your group/club/organization! Just click the button below to sign up.

Join The Committee

Self Report Habitat

Request a Presentation