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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You might think it is time to start cleaning up your yard and gardens. The sun has finally come out, and everything is starting to warm up. As little flowers start popping up all over your yard, you might be tempted to pull them, but don’t, or at least hold off for a little longer!
Did you know that there are over 40 million acresof turfgrass in the U.S., and roughly 2/3rds of that is home lawns. This contributes to the habitat loss that pollinators are facing. The least we can do is let a couple of weeds grow for a while.
Dandelions, Violets, Creeping Charlie, and Henbit are only a handful of blooming weeds that help provide critical nectar resources for pollinators! Leaving the weeds also helps reduce soil erosion and soil compaction. Once other plants and trees start flowering, and it is consistently 50°F or above, you can start getting your yards and gardens ready. This is when insects are out of diapause, something we would think of as hibernation, and there are plenty of nectar resources available.
If you don’t want to leave the weeds, but still want to help the bees, here is one alternative! You can plant native early spring blooming species! This actually helps pollinators more than just leaving the weeds because they provide more nutrients and nectar resources. Our native pollinators coevolved with these native Spring Ephemerals, meaning that they actually seek them out!
Below is a list of great species you could plant in your gardens or even in pots!
Pasque Flower Anemone patens
Sun: Full
Soil: Dry, native to Loess Hills area
Height: 6 inches
Bloom time: April, May
Plant in rock or dry prairie gardens, goes well with Prairie Smoke, Blue-eyed Grass, and June Grass
Shooting Star Dodecatheon meadia
Sun: Part Shade
Soil: Dry to Medium
Height: Up to 20 inches
Bloom Time: April, June
Grows in prairies and woodland edges, naturally found in high quality sites.
Grows well with Golden Alexanders, Wild Geranium
Prairie Smoke Geum Triflorum
Sun: Full
Soil: Dry to Medium
Height: 1 foot
Bloom Time: May, June
Plant in rock or dry gardens, goes well with Pussy Toes, Nodding Wild Onion, and Golden Alexander
Dutchman’s Breeches Dicentra cucullaria
Sun: Part Shade to Full Shade
Soil: Moist, well drained
Height: 4 – 12 inches
Bloom Time: April, May
Plant in rich soil that gets a lot of shade as this plant is a woodland species.
Virginia Bluebells Martensia virginica
Sun: Part Shade to Full Shade
Soil: Moist to Wet
Height: 1 – 2.5 feet
Bloom Time: April, June
They love sun in early Spring but need a shaded area as Summer begins. These plants transplant quite well, but not tolerant of sunny dry locations.
All in all, anything you can do to reduce pesticide use, create habitat and nectar resources, or increase nesting sites is a huge help in pollinator conservation. You don’t have to do a lot to have an impact on these small but mighty creatures.
I challenge you to take a walk around your yard, garden, or some green space. I want you to take it slow so you can notice all of the life that depends on the Earth. Look at all of the insects moving around, filling their niches. See all of the birds feeding on these insects and helping control populations. Notice the squirrels spreading the seeds of trees. Observe how the breeze moves the plants or how the plants move toward the sunlight.
It is up to YOU to help keep our environment healthy and thriving.
There is poop in Iowa’s lakes and rivers! I’m sure you know this by now. The Iowa DNR monitors bacteria at 39 beaches every week during the summer and posts a “swimming not recommended” sign if the average for the month exceeds 126 E. coli/100mL. If a lake has a history of problems, another threshold (235 E. coli/100mL in a single sample) is used as an early warning system. As Iowa Environmental Council has reported, Iowa DNR issued 134 of these beach advisories last summer. Streams are monitored less often, but we can use the same thresholds to evaluate average conditions at the end of the season. Last year, all 15 streams that we monitor in Story County had E. coli levels above the primary contact recreation standard.
Story County Conservation posted a warning sign at the Tedesco Environmental Learning Corridor.
Okay, but what do we do with that information?!
I know some people who are so grossed out they won’t dip their toes in any lake or river in Iowa, even if the DNR says it’s okay. I know some other people who went ahead with a canoe trip on the Des Moines River, despite reports that just two days before, a broken sewer main in Fort Dodge had released 400,000 gallons of raw sewage into the river upstream of their route. They’ve paddled polluted waters before and figured it was no worse than usual.
Part of the difficulty is that some people translate “an unacceptably high number of beach advisories” to “lots of poop in the water everywhere all the time.” That’s not what’s happening. If you picked a summer weekend and a state park at random, and took your family to the beach, you would have had a 77% chance of swimming in water that met the primary contact recreation standard. If you subscribe to IEC’s Water Watch newsletter, you can make sure you pick the right one!
Part of the difficulty is that Iowa relies heavily on just one threshold to issue alerts and place waters on the Impaired List. Some other states have started used a red/yellow/green warning system that distinguishes between “swimming not recommended” at 235 E. coli/100mL and “beach closed” at 1000 E. coli/100mL. This is helpful if you’re a little more tolerant of risk or are doing activities that will keep your head above water. That upper limit is the same as the one used during the 2024 Summer Olympics to determine whether to hold swimming events in the River Seine.
Seine River in Paris, photo credit Erik Larson
You may recall that Paris spent $1.5 billion to clean up the Seine River in time for the 2024 Summer Olympics and still had to postpone some events because of poor water quality. Similarly, Story County Conservation has spent $3.4 million to restore Hickory Grove Lake and still had to post beach advisories four weeks last summer. There is no easy fix for these problems. However, a long-term perspective on water quality in the Seine shows how an open sewer can become a swimmable river (at least most of the time) with improvements in wastewater treatment. Yes, Iowa has more livestock than people, but I’ve been seeing some evidence that points to humans as the main source of feces and pathogens in many of Iowa’s waterways. If that’s true, then our water quality could benefit from projects to replace combined sewer systems (we still have a few), add liners to rusty sanitary sewers, get septic systems up to code, and make some overdue upgrades to sewage treatment plants.
Randy Evans was on the right track when he compared water quality in Iowa to water quality in Paris, but he only looked at one day. I’ve gone a few steps further. In the attached table, I’ve shown the best, worst, and average E. coli readings measured last year at some of Iowa’s most popular beaches and water trails. Below, I’ve put them in broad categories, benchmarked to some examples from France. I’ve also included some sites we monitor in Story County, in bold. Get ready to calibrate your disgust!
How do we measure poop in the water?
Escherichia coli is a species of bacteria found in the guts of birds and mammals. Some strains are harmless and some can put you in the hospital. It’s an easy-to-measure proxy for feces in the water, which could carry a wide variety of disease-causing microbes. E. coli can be measured directly by counting dots in a Petri dish (Colony Forming Units, CFU/100mL) or indirectly using a chemical reaction (Most Probable Number, MPN/100mL) but the results are similar enough that these units are often used interchangeably.
Typical laboratory protocols have a lower detection limit of 10 and an upper quantification limit around 24,000. With such a big range, E. coli data has to be plotted on a log scale and averages have to be expressed as a geometric mean or median—basically, worry less about the exact number and more about the number of digits.
1 digit: As clean as it gets without chlorine
Too low to detect, with typical methods (reported as <10)
A typical beach day at Peterson Park
A typical beach day at Lake Rathbun, Gray’s Lake, or Lake Okoboji
A good day at most lakes on the impaired list
Peterson Park Beach. A favorite spot for my family during COVID lockdown and consistently clean.
2 digits: Have fun in the water!
Meets Iowa’s primary contact recreation standard (geomean <=126, single sample <=235)
A typical day at a French stream running through forest or cropland
Treated effluent from Iowa sewage treatment plants with UV disinfection
A typical beach day at Hickory Grove Lake
A typical beach day at Lake MacBride (Iowa City) or Big Creek
A bad beach day at Peterson Park
A bad beach day at Lake Okoboji
A typical day at the Charles City or Manchester whitewater parks
A good day at most rivers on the impaired waters list
Kayaker at Manchester whitewater park. I tipped and swallowed water when I attempted it, but it was probably fine.
Low 3 digits: Swim at your own risk (families)
May exceed IA primary contact recreation standard (geomean >126, single sample >235)
A typical day at a French stream running through pasture
The Seine River in Paris during the women’s marathon swim
A typical beach day at Clear Lake or Lake Darling
A bad beach day at Lake Rathbun
A bad day at the Charles City whitewater park
A typical day on the S. Skunk River water trail
Kids swimming at Clear Lake. No beach advisory on this day, but there had been other weeks.
High 3 digits: Swim at your own risk (athletes), canoe at your own risk (families)
May exceed Iowa’s secondary contact recreation standard (geomean > 630, single sample >2,880)
The Seine River in Paris during the men and women’s triathlon
A typical day at Ioway Creek in Ames
A typical day on the lower Maquoketa River (near Spragueville)
My daughter playing on a sandbar in Ioway Creek in Ames. I’m sad to say it, but I don’t think kids should be playing in this water.
4 digits: No swimming, canoe at your own risk (experienced paddlers)
Action limit for beach closures in some states (single sample > 1000)
A bad day for the Seine at the 2024 Olympics; men’s triathlon postponed
A typical day for the Seine in the early 2000s (since improved sewage treatment, but before sewer system improvements)
Treated effluent from modern Paris sewage treatment plants
A bad beach day at Gray’s Lake, Lake MacBride, Big Creek, Clear Lake, or Lake Darling
A typical day at West Indian Creek, downstream of an outdated sewage treatment plant
A bad day on the Skunk River or Ioway Creek (1.5 inch rain previous night)
A bad day at the Manchester whitewater park
Canoe trip on Ioway Creek in Boone County. I collected a water sample at this moment. E. coli measured 2,390 CFU/100mL.
5-6 digits: Stay out of the water
May be too numerous to count, with typical methods (reported as > 24,000)
A typical day for the Seine in the 1980s, before modern sewage treatment
A bad day on the Seine River in 2008, before attempts to control combined sewer overflows
A bad day at West Indian Creek (1.5 inch rain previous night), downstream of an outdated sewage treatment plant
Flash flooding in the Skunk River or Ioway Creek (June 2022). No one should be in the water during these conditions.
Two bad days on the lower Maquoketa River (near Spragueville), during high water levels
A bad day at Hickory Grove beach. Previous studies have shown that the main source of the bacteria is geese and dogs at the beach.
The new Nevada sewage treatment plant should be operational this year and will have a UV disinfection system like this one. This should make it safer for kids in Maxwell to play in Indian Creek.
Cracked sanitary sewer in Ames leaking into Ioway Creek, September 2009
No picture for this one. You’re welcome!
What is the risk of poop in the water?
Recreational water quality standards are based on epidemiological studies at swimming beaches. Researchers have found that swimmers were more likely than non-swimmers to get sick with gastroenteritis (“stomach flu”) and that illness rates were higher at beaches with more fecal indicator bacteria. Symptoms can range from mild to dangerous and are often falsely attributed to food poisoning. The EPA recommended a threshold of 126 E. coli/100mL to keep the risk of illness below a certain level for swimming, water skiing, children’s play, and other “primary contact” activities, but you should think of it as a point on a continuum rather than sharp break between “safe” and “unsafe.” Secondary contact recreation standards are used less often and involve some adjustment factors.
There are many factors that can influence whether you get sick while at the beach—how much water you swallow or get on your face, whether the source of the feces is human or animal, your general health, and previous exposure to the pathogens. There are also some challenges in accurately quantifying E. coli levels in water, which can vary a lot even within the same body of water and over a short period of time. I ran across a randomized control trial from Germany that controlled for all these factors. Some 2000 people were recruited to spend an afternoon at one of four locations (3 lakes and 1 river). Half stayed on shore and half were asked to spend ten minutes in the water, dunk their head at least three times, and report if they accidentally swallowed water. Water samples were collected every 20 minutes from the center of the swimming area and tested for E. coli. Researchers tracked how many people got sick over the next week with symptoms of a waterborne illness. Here are the results.
Water quality (E. coli/100mL), by quartile
Incidence rate of gastroenteritis
Control group
2.8%
0 to 72
1.9%
72 to 181
5.2%
181 to 379
6.6%
379 to 4,600
8.2%
What about really polluted water? An academic review board would never approve an experiment to send 931 people into a bay polluted by a combined sewer overflow, but a group of Danish triathletes was reckless enough to do it for fun. After swimming 3.8 km in water with an estimated 15,000 E. coli/100mL, 42% of them got sick with Campylobacter, Giardia, or E. coli!
There you have it, these are ballpark, intuitive judgements about when to go in the water and when to stay out, but they are informed by good science. Oops, did I just give health and safety advice without running it by anyone?
Prairie Rivers of Iowa is not a medical professional and our work is not conducted under a DNR-approved quality assurance plan, please consult your doctor and refer to section 567-61.3(3) of the Iowa Code, terms and conditions apply.
Bottom line, you may disagree with the interpretation I’ve outlined here, but there’s clearly a lot of wiggle room to enjoy Iowa’s waters without taking unnecessary risks with your health.
Rain gardens are a stormwater management solution that’s simple enough to tackle as a DIY project: dig a shallow basin to intercept runoff from a downspout or paved area, plant it with ornamental grasses and flowers, and pat yourself on the back for doing your small part to prevent flash flooding, streambank erosion, and water pollution! However, I’ve noticed a few things that can go wrong. Here are some tips to avoid them!
These tips also apply to the bioretention cells you’ll see in public right-of-ways, which are similar, but have an underdrain and an engineered soil mix.
Standing Water
A rain garden may fill up with water after a heavy rain, but it should soak into the ground within 24 hours. This will prevent mosquitos from breeding and allow a wider variety of plants to thrive. To achieve this, you either need to find a spot with well-drained soil, or you need to amend the soil with sand and compost. It’s important to test the infiltration rate of the soil: a 6 inch deep rain garden would need soil that can infiltrate at least 0.25 inches of water per hour.
This bioretention cell has turned into a cattail marsh, with standing water for extended periods in the spring. I tested the soil for a school project and determined that the soil had too much clay content and had been compacted during construction.
Erosion and Debris
There are guidelines for how big to make a rain garden to handle the runoff from a given area. However, if space is limited, an undersized rain garden is better than no rain garden. The trick is to manage the overflow.
This rain garden treats the runoff from a church parking lot. Once the water level gets high enough, it enters a pipe that connects with the storm sewer. This pipe was installed in response to concerns about soil and mulch washing onto the sidewalk when water overtopped the berm. We installed a mesh barrier to keep woodchips from clogging the outlet. I’ve heard that shredded hardwood mulch is less prone to floating than wood chips and bark nuggets.
One other issue with this rain garden was erosion as water made its way from the pavement to the low point. To solve this problem, I regraded the basin so it had a level bottom (using a line level, rake, and shovel), and put some stones and gravel at the edge of the pavement to absorb the force of the water.
Dead plants and weeds
There are many lovely species of native plants that can thrive in a rain garden, once established, but as seedlings they may struggle to withstand alternating periods of flooding and drought. To improve their odds of success, you can redirect the downspout or plug the opening to the rain garden for a few months, irrigate, and protect them from rabbits and deer. If that’s not possible, expect to replace a few plants.
Just like any other garden, a rain garden can get overrun with weeds, especially when the desirable plants are just getting started. Sturdy labels or ID guides can help whoever is responsible for maintenance know what to pull and what to keep, but for a situation like this (a highly visible commercial right-of-way managed by the city) simpler planting plans are probably better.
I hope this article helps you avoid some common pitfalls but doesn’t discourage you from trying. I planted a rain garden in my backyard last spring and have already enjoyed some blooms and monarch butterflies!
Spring is around the corner and that means it’s time to plan our gardens! A fun garden to add to your yard is a sensory garden. A sensory garden involves all of your senses (taste, touch, smell, sound, and sight) making it a great learning opportunity for young children, adults with mental disabilities, or really anyone! It stimulates your mind and allows you to connect with nature. These are the plants I would use if I wanted to create an Iowa native sensory garden!
Rattlesnake Master Eryngium yuccifolium
Sense: Touch
This fun-looking plant would be perfect to stimulate your sense of touch, especially as fall approaches and it becomes more prickly. They are the larval host plant for Eryngium Stem Borer Moth and the Flower Feeding Moths. This wildflower is mostly pollinated by nectar eating wasps.
Plant Needs:
Full sun
Moist to medium soil
Swamp Milkweed Asclepias incarnata
Sense: Smell
This plant is the host plant for the Monarch Butterfly and is a brilliant purple when in bloom. The blooms smell like bubblegum!
Plant Needs:
Full to part shade
Moist soil
Pale Purple Coneflower Echinacea pallida
Sense: Touch, Sight, Taste
Pale Purple Coneflower is native to most of Iowa whereas Purple coneflower is more of a garden variety and not native to Story County. The brilliant purple petals are used for herbal teas. The seed head is spikey so use caution when touching.
Plant Needs:
Full to part sun
Medium to dry soil
Bead Grass Paspalum setaceum michx
Sense: Touch
Bead grass is super fun to seed harvest! the little seeds are like seed beads and you can just use your hand to strip the seeds off.
Plant Needs:
Full sun
Warm season grass
Dry soil
Gray-headed Coneflower Ratibida pinnata
Sense: Smell, Sight
These yellow flowers are the larval hosts of the Wavey Lined Emerald Moth. Long Horned Bees love Gray headed Coneflower and can be seen covered in pollen on top of them.
Plant Needs:
Full sun
Dry soil
Bee Balm Monarda Fistulosa
Sense: Taste
They are a pollinator favorite and one of the best forage plants for bumble bees. they are the larval host plant of Hermit Sphinx Moths and Snout Moths. They are in the mint family and have a square stem. The petals also taste minty and can be made into a tea.
Plant Needs:
Full to part sun
Prefers dry soils
Wild White Indigo Baptisia alba
Sense: Sound
They are the larval host plant of the Slouded Sulpher butterfly, Genista Broom Moth, and Black-Spotted Prominent Moth. Bumble bees are the primary pollinators of wild white indigo.
Plant Needs:
Full to part sun
Prefers dry soils
Now get out there and grow some native plants! Don’t forget to tag Prairie Rivers in your native gardens on Facebook.
