Ghoulish Garden: Six of the World’s Creepiest Flowers

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The word “flower” usually evokes something beautiful and fragrant – maybe a classic rose, a bright peony or a stately lily. But like most of nature, flowers run the gamut from ordinary to unusual — and sometimes, they can be downright frightening. But just because they’re not dainty or sweet-smelling doesn’t mean these plants are not worth learning about.  

With Halloween approaching, it’s the perfect time to explore the creepier parts of the natural world. Take a look at these six lesser-known flowers from across the globe that are spooky enough to rival any Halloween decorations. 

Corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum)  

Native to the rainforests of Sumatra, the corpse flower draws its name from the odor of rotting flesh it produces while blooming. The flower’s inflorescence, or main cluster of flowers, can grow to be over 10 feet tall, making it the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world. It doesn’t bloom often, taking anywhere from four to ten years to flower, and when it does, it usually only blooms for one or two days.  

The putrid scent of this flower attracts insects like flesh flies and carrion beetles, which aid in pollination. The corpse flower also grows brightly colored, round fruits that are poisonous to humans. However, they do serve as food for the rhinoceros hornbill, which then helps disperse the seeds. 

The International Union for Conversation of Nature has listed the corpse flower as endangered and estimates that there are fewer than 1,000 growing in the wild. Deforestation and conversion of land to plantations are two of the leading causes of the corpse flower’s decline. 

Flor de Muerto (Lisianthus nigrescens) 

This flower’s name translates to “Flower of Death,” and it is considered the blackest naturally occurring flower in the world. This perennial is native to Mexico and Guatemala, and it’s named not only for its black petals but also for the cultural practice of planting it around graves.  

Flor de muerto has long, bell-shaped flowers that droop from the stems, looking almost like they are wilted or dead. The flower’s unusual coloration presents an eerie mystery: Since black absorbs ultraviolet and visible light, and the flowers have no odor when blooming, scientists are unsure how flor de muerto is able to attract pollinators.  

Monkey face orchid (Dracula simia) 

When looking at a flower, no one expects a face to look back — but with this species, commonly referred to as a monkey face orchid, that’s exactly what happens. The center of the flower so strongly resembles a monkey’s face that it’s difficult to see it as anything else. There are more than 100 varieties of this orchid, and some even appear to be grinning menacingly. Its shape may be the result of mimicry, as the dracula genus evolved to resemble mushrooms in order to attract fruit flies that often frequent fungi.    

These plants are epiphytes, which means they grow on the surface of trees and obtain moisture and nutrients from the organic matter surrounding them. Although rare, monkey face orchids are found naturally in the cloud forests of Peru and Ecuador, where they bloom throughout the year at elevations around 3,000 – 6,000 feet. Unlike some of the other flowers on this list, dracula simia has a pleasant fragrance of ripe oranges, so while its appearance may be off-putting, its scent is anything but.  

Black bat flower (Tacca chantrieri) 

Another flower that is reminiscent of an animal, the black bat flower’s bracts resemble large wings, with whisker-like filaments that can grow up to 28 inches long. Native to southeast Asia, this plant is related to the yam and has been traditionally used for food and medicine, although its bitter flavor may be an acquired taste. Due to the effects of climate change on its tropical ecosystem, the black bat flower is considered endangered.   

Like the corpse plant, the black bat flower also has the unmistakable smell of rotting flesh, thought to be a way to attract carrion flies. Over the years, spooky folklore has attached itself to this flower — specifically that staring at it too long will result in being stalked by the evil eye. However, with a plant this intriguing and unique-looking, it’s hard not to stare! 

White baneberry (Actaea pachypoda) 

Also known as doll’s eyes, this plant features clusters of round, white fruits with a small black spot that closely resemble tiny human eyeballs. As if their creepy appearance wasn’t enough to discourage people from disturbing them, these berries are also extremely poisonous to humans and can even blister the skin if touched. However, several bird species, including the ruffed grouse and American robin, can eat baneberry fruit without any adverse effects, so they help to disperse the plant’s seeds. A member of the buttercup family, white baneberry is native to eastern North America, including parts of Canada and the United States.  

Stinking corpse lily (Rafflesia arnoldii) 

This giant parasitic flower produces the largest individual flower in the world, which can grow to be one meter in diameter and weigh about 10 kilograms (approximately 22 pounds). They are native to the rainforests of Sumatra and Indonesia, where they grow inside tetrastigma vines as thin fibers before their large red-and-orange speckled lobes sprout out of the host. Even though their scent is similar to the corpse flower above, these two species are not related. 

Through DNA testing, biologists discovered that at least one species of rafflesia no longer has a chloroplast gene, which is typically used by plants for cellular processes like making food. It would appear that this parasitic plant was able to shed genes that were no longer useful to it in favor of picking up elements from its host’s DNA — perhaps making them the mad scientist of the plant kingdom.  

While these flowers may not be ones you’d see in a typical garden, they represent just a fraction of the sheer diversity of plant life on earth. They may be a little bit creepy — but they’re also fascinating examples of biodiversity, resilience and evolutionary change.  

Read more WHC blogs. 

From Skyscrapers to Mines – When a Workplace Becomes a Thriving Wildlife Habitat

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Workplace structures, like skyscrapers, power plants or mines, are initially built to benefit humans. However, because of the shelter they provide and their proximity to water and food sources, manmade structures like these often end up serving as habitat for native wildlife. Once animals have been spotted living in and around a workplace, how can companies ensure that these incidental habitats are as beneficial to wildlife as possible? 

Here are a few species that commonly find habitats in and around workplaces, as well as some of the methods corporations can use to enhance these habitats. 

Peregrine falcons on top of the world 

Once one of the most widespread birds in the world, peregrine falcon populations in the U.S. were drastically depleted due to the impact of DDT during the 1940s – 60s. It wasn’t until the use of DDT was federally banned and falcon recovery programs like the Chicago Peregrine Program were established that the species began to repopulate. By 1999, the peregrine falcon was no longer considered federally endangered.  

Adapting to urban settings was not a challenge for this raptor species, as they prefer tall buildings that resemble their natural cliff habitats. The height of urban skyscrapers and high-rises also makes for a safe space away from other predators. In urban areas, falcons have an abundance of smaller birds such as pigeons to prey on, and cities like Chicago that are located within a major migratory bird flyway make an ideal location for peregrine falcons to hunt.   

For building owners who have these birds as tenants, there are several ways to enhance their habitat. Consider changing window washing schedules to avoid disrupting any nests, and install a nest box to give the falcons a secure and protected area for their eggs and young. In order to help support peregrine falcon recovery, Ontario Power Generation set up three nesting boxes at two sites. By protecting the nests from fluctuations in wetness and temperature, which can be extremely detrimental to peregrine eggs, these nesting structures allowed for the successful hatching of eight peregrine falcon chicks.   

Birds who take up residence in city centers make for exciting sights for locals and tourists alike. Setting up nest cameras to monitor the birds — and making the live feeds available to the public — creates opportunities to educate community members about these birds.  

Manatees in man-made warm water 

Another species that has found habitat in manmade structures is the manatee, a migratory aquatic mammal currently listed as a protected species. The warm water discharged from power plant outflows makes an ideal winter habitat for manatees, particularly in Florida. 

Manatees were once listed as endangered species due to habitat loss and boat collisions. As natural manatee habitats dwindled, power plant owners began to notice that a large percentage of the remaining population was finding refuge at their outflows. However, because of the impact of thermal pollution on marine life, the EPA proposed regulations that would prohibit the once-through cooling plants that manatees had flocked to. When environmentalists pointed out the detrimental effect these plant closures would have on manatees, the EPA instead exempted older power plants from these regulations and required them to meet environmental standards, including a reduction in the amount of pollutants released.  

For power plants that provide habitat to manatees, keeping the warm water flowing is key to supporting the species. Develop outflow disruption plans to make sure that there is no interruption in the water discharge. Opening the facility up to visitors and holding tours or  field trips educates the public about manatees as well as the conservation strategies needed to protect them.  

Florida Power and Light (FPL) is one such company that turned their manatee habitat into an educational opportunity. They designed a manatee lagoon at their plant in West Palm Beach to provide a protected habitat for manatee herds. Along with the lagoon, FPL also built an educational center where, in addition to providing places to observe the manatees, they host children’s story times, yoga classes, summer camps and more — reaching about 125,000 visitors each year. 

Bats finding homes in abandoned mines 

Sometimes, workplaces don’t become useful for wildlife until after their use by humans is discontinued. Mines are one particular site of industrialization that, once closed for business, serve as an ideal habitat for bats. 

Bats are a crucial part of our ecosystem — through pollination and seed dispersal, they ensure the survival of various plant species, and they also help control insects like mosquitos. Over the past few decades, bat populations have been on the decline due to habitat loss and fragmentation, lack of food sources and diseases such as white-nose syndrome. The environmental benefits of bats, along with the widespread decline of bat populations, are why it’s so important to support bat habitats. 

There are an estimated 500,000 abandoned mines in the United States, and 29 native bat species in the U.S. rely on these abandoned mines for habitat. Bats require different habitat needs throughout the year — roosting in the summer, hibernating in the winter, raising their young and stopping over while migrating — and mines can accommodate those needs. 

There are several ways to ensure that mine habitats are beneficial for bats. Bat gates, structures made of horizontal steel bars at the entrance to the mine, allow bats to freely enter and exit while keeping humans from disturbing the habitat. Consider the availability of food surrounding the mine habitat as well. For example, the lesser long-nosed bat relies on agave in scrub deserts across the southwestern United States. As part of their ongoing work to support bat populations, Freeport-McMoRan worked with local partners to plant agave at several of their mines in southern Arizona. These kinds of planting events not only ensure abundant food sources for recovering bat populations, but they also serve as educational and community engagement efforts.  

Butterflies making rock quarry habitats their own  

Much like bats, various species of butterflies have made their homes at extraction sites — this time, at rock quarries. The soil surrounding quarries is often alkaline due to naturally occurring minerals like limestone and chalk. These environments, called calcareous grasslands, are ideal habitats for many butterflies, as alkaline-tolerant plants like birdsfoot trefoil are a food source as well as a place to lay their eggs. Research has shown that about fifty percent of the butterfly species in Europe reside in these kinds of grasslands. As butterflies are ectothermic (or cold-blooded), they need sunny areas to raise their body temperatures, and the plants they feed on also need full sun. Quarries meet this need as well, with their lack of shade trees and rocks that absorb warmth. Since agricultural enterprises and urbanization have encroached on the dry, warm environments that butterflies favor, the warm and calcareous nature of quarries is appealing to them.  

Closed or even active quarry sites can encourage butterfly population by planting native milkweed and other butterfly-friendly plants. In their larval stage, many butterflies require a single source of food, so learn about the host plants for the species at your quarry and add them to the site. When employees at a Covia sand mine in Wisconsin committed to creating habitat for the endangered Karner blue butterfly, they focused on planting native wild lupine, the host plant for Karner blue butterfly caterpillars. In addition to the host plants, Covia also planted a variety of forbs to provide food for the adult butterflies and ensured that stormwater ponds nearby provide adequate water. 

Co-existing with wildlife often means sharing our buildings and workplaces — and with these strategies, corporate landowners can ensure that workplace habitats support these species. 

Read more WHC blogs. 

Swap Your Lawn Mower for a Goat: The Benefits of Grazing

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For corporate landowners, vegetation maintenance is a near-constant need. It can be time-consuming, costly and environmentally harmful to maintain the grass and vegetation at a corporate facility. Depending on the acreage of the site and the frequency of mowing, professional lawn care services can cost anywhere from $150 to upwards of $700 — and even for a company that has an in-house maintenance staff, lawn care can amount to weeks of work that could be better spent elsewhere. 

Traditional lawn and vegetation maintenance often require the use of gas-powered tools that emit greenhouse gases as well as particulate matter that can negatively impact human health. According to the EPA, one gas lawn mower emits 89 pounds of CO₂ each year, and refueling gas-powered lawn equipment results in 17 million gallons of spilled gasoline a year. Fortunately, there is a method of vegetation maintenance that is more environmentally friendly: grazing animals. 

While goats have been used to manage vegetation for more than a century, many herbivores can graze in vegetated areas, including sheep, cattle, horses, deer and even donkeys. In addition to routine grazing on grassy areas, goats or other grazing animals can also clear out brush in forested areas and even remove invasive species in locations that may be difficult for people and machinery to access. 

Providing grazing land for animals has numerous benefits for both the environment and the company, such as: 

Improved ecological health 

Grazing improves soil health by cycling carbon and other nutrients back into the soil while also reducing water runoff and sediment erosion and sequestering carbon. In addition, grazing cuts down on the amount of fertilizer and herbicides needed to maintain the vegetation in an area.  

Another key added benefit of grazing animals is the boost in biodiversity. Using sheep for grazing can increase the biodiversity of an area by up to 40%, since their manure adds nutrients to the soil and attracts other insects and animals. While they’re grazing on one source of food, animals will inevitably trample on other plants, which makes it more difficult for any one plant species to dominate the area. 

Wildfire mitigation 

With wildfires increasing in frequency and intensity due to climate change, a top benefit of grazing animals is the reduction of flammable vegetation in forested areas. In areas that have a high risk of wildfires, animals like goats can cut down on grasses and brush that could potentially fuel a catastrophic fire. In fact, firefighters were able to quickly contain a recent wildfire in California because a herd of grazing goats and sheep had cleared out much of the fuel. The organic matter introduced to the soil by animal manure also helps it absorb more water, which can prevent wildfires from igniting in the first place. 

Pollution reduction 

Using grazing animals, even occasionally, decreases a company’s use of lawn equipment powered by fossil fuels. Not only does this help reduce CO₂ emissions, but it also creates less fine particulate matter in the air, which can be harmful to maintenance workers’ health.  

In addition to air pollution, mowers, trimmers and leaf blowers generate noise pollution, which can disturb people and animals living nearby. The sound of a gas-powered mower or trimmer can reach up to 85 decibels, which can cause hearing damage. Grazing animals are much quieter, especially in residential or populated areas. You may hear occasional vocalizations from them, but that only adds to the charm! 

Economic savings and growth 

In terms of saving time and money, using grazing animals reduces a company’s need to pay for outside lawn management services or to fuel and maintain their own equipment. Grazing animals are also often more efficient than human workers – for example, a herd of 60 goats can clear one acre of vegetation in just a few days.  

While they’re saving time and money, companies also have the opportunity to invest in their community either by partnering with local farms and ranchers or by purchasing the services of a local goat rental company.  

Community education 

Seeing goats or sheep outside of a farm or petting zoo is novel and often grabs people’s attention. Having grazing animals on corporate land presents an opportunity for the company to teach the community about the animals as well as the benefits of grazing and any other conservation projects they’ve undertaken. Community events, school visits, social media posts and press releases are great tactics to help spread the word when you’re using grazing animals for vegetation management.  

Considerations 

As the benefits have shown, deciding to bring grazing animals into your grassland or corporate lawn is a positive step for the biodiversity of the area as well as your company. But there are a few considerations you should take into account if you want to use grazing animals to maintain your site: 

  • Make sure there’s a way to keep the animals in the intended grazing area. A temporary, portable fence is usually sufficient. 
  • Match the nutritional needs of the animal to the vegetation at your site. Goats in particular will eat just about anything, but it’s important to make sure that nothing in the area will be toxic or poisonous to the grazing animals.  
  • Determine how often you will need to graze and how many animals will be needed.  

With these considerations, grazing animals can be a beneficial and interesting new way to maintain the vegetation at your corporate site. 

Read more WHC blogs. 

The Earth Lab’s Community-First Approach – A Conservation Conference Recap

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What is a community-first approach to environmental action? What are the challenges and considerations of partnering with local communities? How can diversity, equity and inclusion be incorporated into these approaches?

These are the questions that Jorge Calderón Trueba and Jorge Calderón Álvarez answered during their Breakfast Briefing session on Day Two of the 2022 WHC Conservation Conference. They’re a father-and-son team — Trueba is the Founder and CEO of The Earth Lab, and Álvarez serves as International Liaison.

Based in Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City, The Earth Lab (TEL) provides tools and guidance on how to create sustainable projects with a goal of helping their clients reach carbon neutral while advancing business goals. Much of TEL’s focus during this session was on their work with ejidos, or state-owned lands that are used communally for agriculture, in Yucatán, Mexico. Support from Ban.CO2 de Carbono Mestizo (BCO2M) and TEL makes it possible for ejidos to sell carbon credits, and through a collaboration with WHC, TEL has gone even further to add biodiversity uplift efforts to these projects. This made for a natural fit to have WHC’s Sara Cook, Director of Business Development, serve as moderator of this session.

Trueba began the session by defining community, a helpful start in understanding how businesses can interface with the broader community. While the more formal definition of community is “an aggregate of people who share common interests in a particular locality,” Trueba used ejidos as an example to illustrate other elements shared by communities, including land ownership, spiritual beliefs, symbiotic relationships with the environment, daily work and income and federal and local laws.

Working directly with communities is not always easy — often, it can present challenges. Trueba explained that communicating effectively, building confidence, practicing empathy and having a constant presence can be some of the obstacles that come along with community-first approaches.

Of particular importance, he noted, is taking care to preserve the communities you’re working with and within. Each community has their own traditional knowledge and values, social structures, heritage, culinary traditions, folklore and craftmanship – all developed and honed over generations. Community participation, then, is key to ensuring that environmental actions will benefit the community rather than disrupt it.

One of TEL’s signature methodologies is the use of Earth Charrettes, which are intensive workshops that include multidisciplinary audience members. These charrettes involve community members in the decision-making process, recognizing their immediate needs and taking local values and interests into account to ultimately make sure the community’s vision for a solution is realized.

Building trust with community members is one of TEL’s top pieces of advice. “Through trust, we can create in them a sense of belonging to their projects and vice versa,” said Álvarez. “This is a key component for their sustainable existence.”

While their community-first actions with ejidos focused on carbon credits, TEL has gone beyond carbon sequestration to provide biodiversity uplift as well. The Ejido Sisal site, which was WHC-Certified earlier this year, provides several great examples of conservation, education and management of natural resources. Located in the Hunucmá Municipality, Ejido Sisal is home to the “Bonos del Jaguar” carbon capture project. This project’s goal is to mitigate climate change by sequestering CO₂, recovering mangroves, protecting jaguars and educating the community about these efforts.

“The Earth Lab Mexico brings vital perspective and expertise to WHC members working in Mexico and Latin America,” said Sara Cook, WHC Director of Business Development. “The model of engagement used by TEL provides many social and environmental benefits, including providing resources and technical expertise to partner ejido communities and preserving cultural heritage and value alongside biodiversity and environmental value.”

“We hope we conveyed to our audience that communities and their participation are a fundamental part of our nature-based solutions (NbS) projects,” Álvarez said,  “because only by achieving a joint effort can these projects turn out and remain sustainable.”

 

TEL offers third-party certification as well as expertise in cities, geo-forestry, corporate/industrial areas, green finance management and even social development and gender equality. To learn more about TEL, visit , follow them on Twitter @TheEarthLabMx, and connect with Jorge Calderón Trueba and Jorge Calderón Álvarez on LinkedIn.

Restoring Eden in our Communities with Edible Forests – A Conservation Conference Recap

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On June 14-15, WHC welcomed over 400 attendees to our first in-person WHC Conservation Conference since 2019, and our first-ever conference held in Detroit, Michigan. During these two days, sustainability and conservation professionals shared their expertise on topics ranging from climate resiliency and remediation to environmental education and stakeholder engagement.

Naim Edwards kicked off the Conference with a session at the start of Day One. Edwards serves as the Director of MSU-Detroit Partnership for Food Learning and Innovation (DPFLI), Detroit’s first urban agriculture research center.

Edwards opened his session with the example of Zaruma, El Oro in Ecuador, where local fruits grow along the streets and in parks. In particular, Edwards noted that fruit is always freely accessible and affordable to buy at the market, tying this into the concept of food sovereignty. Food sovereignty, Edwards explains, is “the power to determine how food is grown and accessed.” He remarked that, even despite poverty in Zaruma, food sovereignty means that locals can still access and afford food.

Looking back to the U.S., Edwards recognized a separation between communities and food production. “A part of the issue historically with agriculture is throughout the 20th century, it became very industrial,” Edwards said in a video about the DPFLI, “and that played a role in separating people from even knowing how food grows and where it comes from.”

This separation is not only metaphorical, but physical as well. About 19 million Americans live in a food desert, where lack of access to a car or nearby supermarket cuts them off from healthy and affordable food. On this subject, Edwards suggested a change in language use — rather than the term “food desert,” which can give a negative connotation to deserts and ignores the fact that many foods thrive in deserts, Edwards recommends using the phrase “food apartheid.” This shift helps place a focus on the discriminatory policies and structures that have historically kept marginalized populations from accessing healthy food.

With food insecurity a growing problem worldwide, Edwards turned to the solution of growing food in our own neighborhoods. He focused specifically on Michigan, which, he explained, is the second most agriculturally diverse state in the country. Michigan’s climate and soil create an ideal environment for fruits such as apples, pears, berries and even figs as well as nuts like almonds, pecans and hazelnuts – all components of a healthy diet. Edwards also shared about foods that are typically difficult to find in stores, such as pawpaws, which makes the ability to grow them at home even more valuable.

So how can food sovereignty address the issue of food apartheid?

Edwards suggests the answer lies in edible communities. Edible forests, like the Fargo Forest Garden in Portland, Oregon or the Cascadia College Food Forest in Bothell, Washington, provide crops, typically fruit and nut trees, that community members are encouraged to pick. These forests are designed to grow without the use of pesticides or maintenance like mowing or weeding.

The benefits of edible forests and communities are far-reaching – not only do they provide bountiful food for local residents, but they also help reduce poverty by creating jobs. Ecologically speaking, edible forests have a wide range of positive impacts, from sequestering carbon and managing stormwater runoff to regulating the climate and enhancing biodiversity.

When starting an initiative like an edible forest that requires involvement of the community, Edwards recommends taking into account the knowledge of community members. “Often times,” he says, “we may enter spaces with the intention of teaching and ‘showing’ people a way. We may not recognize that they already know and have ways and solutions to conservation problems.” Sharing knowledge and developing community-driven solutions helps build strong relationships between conservation professionals and the local community.

“I felt the session was well received by the audience,” said Edwards when asked about Conference attendees’ reactions to the ideas he presented. “I hope the audience realized how intentionally most Americans have been systematically removed from experiencing how food is cultivated, and I hope they learned about fruits and nuts that are typically unavailable for purchase in stores.” As he showed in this session, edible forestry is one agricultural strategy rooted in food sovereignty that can restore our connections to nature and food while protecting the environment.

 

Naim Edwards earned his master’s degree in science from the University of Michigan before moving to Detroit, where he now works to connect the urban agricultural community with research opportunities. The goal of the DPFLI is to conduct urban agriculture research while engaging with the people of Detroit by providing programs, mentorship, outdoor recreation and more. Follow the MSU Extension on Twitter and connect with Naim Edwards on LinkedIn. To learn more about the DPFLI, visit https://www.canr.msu.edu/detroitpartnership/

5 Creative Ways to Reuse Invasive Species

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You may be surprised to learn how many plants and animals you see every day are actually invasive species – non-native organisms that overtake an area and make it uninhabitable for native species. For example, Japanese honeysuckle, English ivy and European starlings are all common invasive species. They may be ubiquitous, but these invasive species, like most, cause both environmental and economic harm.

Why are invasive species so harmful?

Invasive species are detrimental, first and foremost, because they compete with native species for resources. With a lack of natural predators, invasive species can spread quickly, and as they do, they take sunlight, water, food and space away from other species.

Invasion of non-native species also changes the food chain. When invasives proliferate, they may destroy food sources for native species while simultaneously not serving as a food for predators. When native species die out due to lack of food, biodiversity — which is key to a healthy ecosystem — decreases. For example, zebra mussels are an invasive species brought to the Great Lakes from Eurasia in the 1980s. These mussels eat plankton from the water, cutting down on the available food for native fish and thereby decreasing the fish populations.

The economy also suffers when invasive species take over. Invasives can impact property values, agricultural output, tourism opportunities and more. In fact, a recent study estimates that, since 2010, invasive species have cost North America more than $26 billion a year. Controlling invasive species also proves very expensive. Since 1960, managing invasives worldwide has cost at least $95.3 billion, with management strategies costing about $4.2 billion a year in the 2010s.

The importance of removing invasive species

Invasive species can be managed by using pesticides and herbicides, introducing predators, changing human behavior through education, physically removing or destroying invasives and even setting controlled fires.

Removing invasive species is an immense job, which is why having support is so valuable. Hosting community-wide events where volunteers dig up, capture or otherwise get rid of invasive species is a great way to not only solve the problem but also educate community members about the environment.

Once you’ve removed invasive species, what can you do with them?

So you’ve recognized that you have an invasive species growing on your property, and you’ve gotten a group together and worked to remove it — now what? You may be tempted to safely burn or compost the invasive species you’ve removed, but there are plenty of ways that invasive species can be reused to benefit all of us. Here are just a few things you can upcycle invasive species into:

1. Food

Invasive species can be used to feed both animals and people. Several dog food companies have started making blends that include the invasive Asian carp, and zoos can recycle local invasives like acacia trees into feed for their animals. There are also lots of recipes for humans that incorporate invasive plants, from knotweed hummus to autumn olive tarts. One New Hampshire distillery even utilizes green crabs in a whiskey drink! While the thought of eating an invasive species may seem daunting at first, using them as an ingredient creates more incentive for people to harvest and therefore control them.

2. Eco-friendly building materials

Many invasive plants and trees are perfectly suited to construct homes and other buildings. Bamboo, for example, is a highly invasive plant that is incredibly durable. It’s a particularly good choice of building material in locations where earthquakes or hurricanes are prevalent. In fact, WHC member Ramboll has been constructing bamboo houses in Indonesia that are designed to withstand earthquakes better than concrete.

In terms of interior finishes, Japanese knotweed and American signal crayfish shells can be transformed into bio-concrete tiles. This sustainable process, still in development, would reduce the amount of invasive species waste being incinerated. The raw material can be cast into any shape and can vary in appearance and finish to resemble rough stone or even marble.

3. Useful, everyday products

Beyond construction, the properties of various invasive species make them ideal raw materials for products we use regularly. In Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, an interdisciplinary group of conservation partners encouraged volunteers to gather dried winter knotweed stems that were then processed into paper products such as notebooks and paper bags. Knotweed isn’t the only invasive plant that can be turned into paper – phragmites and giant salvinia are also great candidates.

Water hyacinth is an invasive aquatic plant that is incredibly absorbent, which led a group of students from Texas State University to develop a compostable menstrual pad made out of water hyacinths. Not only would this process make use of an invasive species, but incorporating an easily accessible material could also help reduce period poverty. Other examples of invasive species being repurposed for everyday uses include an ice melt made from starfish and charcoal produced from invasive trees.

4. Further conservation efforts

The removal of invasive species alone is a positive step towards conservation. But you can go a step further and use invasives to clean up the environment. Water hyacinths are capable of absorbing heavy metals, which means they’re useful for cleaning water. One large-scale example of this is Disney’s Water Hyacinth Project, which utilizes phytoremediation, or the use of plants to clean an environment, to treat wastewater. Once the water hyacinths became too saturated to filter effectively, a process called anaerobic digestion turns them into a gas to be used for fuel.

In order to help prevent erosion along stream and river banks, invasive ivy can be woven into netting.  Some invasive plants, like Himalayan blackberry, can be used to make small fences to protect vulnerable habitats and wildlife.

5. Pieces of art

Just like other plants, invasive species can become beautiful works of art. Bittersweet vines can be twisted into wreaths, lamps, sculptures and even furniture. Sculptures made of invasive ivy and placed at the base of a tree not only beautify an outdoor space — they also encourage passersby to avoid compacting the soil around the roots. This kind of public education is another added benefit of using invasive species as art.

It can be easy to only think of invasive species as harmful additions to an ecosystem that are a nuisance to remove. But, with careful management, these plants and wildlife can actually serve very useful functions that are a net gain for the environment.

Read more WHC blogs. 

Corridors of Community: WHC and partners secure funding for alley activations in Detroit

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After a decades-long hiatus, the city of Detroit is reinvesting in its alleyways, creating new opportunities for economic, environmental and social progress. Recognizing the potential for these alleys to foster biodiversity, community-building and climate resilience, WHC and a group of Detroit-based partners have initiated, and recently secured a new source of funding for a locally focused alley activation project. 

The $50,000 award was secured through the Thriving Cities Challenge, which was hosted by the Salazar Center for North American Conservation at Colorado State University. This funding will underwrite the development and implementation of a new project in the community of East Canfield, Detroit: Alley Activation as a Neighborhood-Based Sustainability Strategy. The endeavor will be led by nonprofit community development organization Canfield Consortium, which was founded by sisters Rhonda and Kim Theus, who grew up in East Canfield and seek to revert the neighborhood’s alleys back to the thriving community spaces they were before the city stopped maintaining them over the course of the 1970s and 1980s.  

The alley activation will focus on installing green infrastructure and promoting placemaking and hyperlocal economic development within the selected alleys. WHC will continue to play an important role in the effort, using its three decades of experience supporting corporate-led conservation, community engagement and STEM education initiatives to drive corporate and youth participation in the project.  

The Road to Revitalization 

As one of the 15 finalists of the Thriving Cities Challenge, WHC and its partners, Canfield Consortium, University of Michigan-Dearborn and Detroit Ain’t Violent It’s Safe (DAVIS), were awarded $10,000 in capacity-building funding. The team applied this money towards a pilot project, which included a community tool library from which residents can borrow gardening supplies for use in the alleys or at home, a mural depicting children playing and a community member holding the earth in his hands, and a rain garden that moderates stormwater while providing habitat for pollinators. With support from the DTE Foundation, WHC organized two volunteer days: an alley cleanup event (with strong support and the donation of waste disposal from WHC member Waste Management) and a planting session for the rain garden. Each event was attended by about 20 people, a combination of East Canfield residents, corporate volunteers and UM-Dearborn students.   

Following completion of the pilot projects, the 15 finalists participated in a virtual, competitive pitch event, where each applicant presented their concept to a panel of reviewers. The Thriving Cities panel opted to fund the top eight pitches, with WHC and its partners finishing in second place. The funded projects vary greatly in scale, scope and location but all demonstrate a commitment to the challenge’s focus on promoting racial equity, leadership and climate resilience within communities of color in North America.  

A Long Overdue Opportunity 

In a recent interview with Planet Detroit, Rhonda Theus explains that, “when we were growing up, alleys were social spaces” where children played and community members held events and meetings. The city of Detroit’s decision to stop maintaining the alleys came at a time when the city’s population was declining and access to resources became scarce — the confluence of these factors caused many alleys to become overgrown and filled with litter, and residents began to avoid what were once community spaces.  

In recent years, as the city has recommitted to clearing the alleyways, various organizations have attempted to use these spaces for green infrastructure projects. Many of these efforts, however, have failed to secure community input or buy-in. Without community engagement, such projects can exacerbate existing inequalities. In contrast, Alley Activation as a Neighborhood-Based Sustainability Strategy was initiated by East Canfield residents, with community members in key leadership roles. Residents’ ideas, skills and talents have been integrated into the project design, underscoring the project team’s commitment to driving local empowerment alongside ecological uplift. In addition to the work done during the pilot project, planned alleyway activities include: 

  • Engagement of neighborhood stakeholders in process planning.  
  • Construction of kiosks for local entrepreneurs to showcase their skills and promote their products on a rotational basis and during community events. Speaking to the project’s potential for economic development and community-building, Korey Batey of DAVIS says, “The skills and talents we seek within our community, in most cases, exist just a few doors down. This project highlights the residential potential of doing business in our own backyards.” 
  • Installation of a pollinator habitat to benefit local wildlife and provide education and recreation opportunities. 
  • Development of hydrology and biodiversity curricula, created by WHC and supported by the DTE Foundation, that will teach students at nearby Barack Obama Leadership Academy to assist with important monitoring activities (measuring the water captured by the rain garden, identifying plants and pollinators). “WHC has always been a proponent of place-based STEM education,” explains Patricia Billette, Program Manager, Conservation & Community Engagement, WHC, “The curricula we create will give local students a unique opportunity for outdoor exploration and a chance to connect with the greater East Canfield community.”  
  • Establishment of a station where residents can drop off household waste for trash pickup, recycling or composting, and can pick up compost to use on alley plantings or in their own yards. 
  • Creation of a space for studying and performing cost/benefit comparisons of various green infrastructure projects, such as rain gardens and different types of permeable pavement.  
  • Installation of solar lights and a windmill that generates a Wi-Fi signal. 
  • Continuation of the team’s microbusiness development work and deeper engagement with UM-Dearborn labs and graduate students, who are assessing and articulating the project impacts.  

The alley activation project in East Canfield will also provide local companies with opportunities for private investments, employee engagement, infrastructure redevelopment and community outreach.  

In the long term, the project has the potential to inspire similar efforts across Detroit — Paul Draus of UM-Dearborn explains, “this project promises to demonstrate the viability of alleys as multifunctional green capillary corridors for breathing new life into stressed but resilient neighborhoods.”  

If you or your organization would like to join WHC and its partners in activating Detroit’s alleys, please contact Patricia Billette at 240.247.0901 or pbillette@wildlifehc.org.  

To learn more about Alley Activation As A Neighborhood-Based Sustainability Strategy and the other Thriving Cities winners, visit https://thrivingcitieschallenge.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/booklet.pdf. 

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Structured Lessons, Boundless Benefits – How Lannon Stone is using WHC Curricula to Create Memorable Field Trips

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The Impact of Field Trips 

Many of us can recall a pivotal field trip from our youth. Perhaps after observing tadpoles swimming in the creek, the lifecycle diagrams in your biology textbook suddenly made sense. Maybe a site tour given by an engineer or EHS professional even shaped your career path to this day.   

Field trips offer proven benefits for children, inspiring life-long intellectual curiosity and contributing to higher scores on science exams, particularly among underserved students. Field trips that take place outdoors build confidence and independence while fostering positive attitudes toward the environment. Companies whose sites feature accessible outdoor areas have a unique opportunity to provide local children with immersive field trips that cover a wide range of environmental and STEM topics. Hosting field trips can, in turn, help companies meet employee engagement, employee wellness and community relations goals.  

WHC and Lannon Stone: Developing Dynamic, Site-Specific Experiences  

During meetings with WHC member Lannon Stone (a quarry operation  based in Wisconsin), WHC Consulting staff saw an opportunity to help Lannon Stone with their current field trip initiatives by providing the company with a curriculum for interactive, on-site activities aligned with Wisconsin learning standards. 

Incorporating structured curricula into field trips benefits companies and schools in many ways:  

  • Clearly stated alignments between on-site activities and state learning standards  
  • A consistent, cohesive experience for school groups, who often return year-after-year 
  • Easy-to-follow instructions for chaperones and employee volunteers 
  • A smoother transition when employee project leaders, or school contacts, change 
  • Ease in evaluating the project’s success and publicizing positive outcomes   

In producing curricula and other deliverables, WHC Consulting takes a personalized approach, tailoring its services to meet the needs of the company, facility and target audience. To create a curriculum that would best serve the company and local schools, WHC researched state learning standards and collaborated with Lannon Stone on the field trip format. WHC developed lesson plans with the following considerations in mind:  

  • Lannon Stone recently seeded an on-site berm with pollinator plants and wished to incorporate it into field trips. 
  • The company anticipated hosting up to 60 students at the site for 90 minutes at a time. 
  • One Lannon Stone employee would oversee field trip logistics, with individual activities led by employees or chaperones; it would not be possible to train activity leaders ahead of time.  
  • School groups would not have access to indoor spaces.  
  • The company wanted to keep the use of supplies, which can be difficult to use in inclement weather and result in additional inventory and maintenance work, to a minimum.  

Under the resulting curriculum, students will be split into three groups. After a quick introduction to the company and quarry, and a review of safety guidelines, the groups will travel between three activity stations:  

  • Parts of a Plant: an observation activity that allows students to explore the roles of different plant parts 
  • Pollinator Tag: a freeze tag-style game in which students act out the pollination process 
  • Seed Dispersal: a classification activity in which students collect different types of seeds and think about the various ways that seeds are dispersed  

After the final station, activity leaders will ask students open-ended questions about what they learned, and about the overall experience. This debriefing method will help students process the activities while helping Lannon Stone to evaluate the success of their field trips.   

Moving forward, Lannon Stone will use this curriculum to market its educational offerings to local schools and will ultimately employ it during on-site field trips. The company has also enlisted WHC to create three more curricula, focusing on earth sciences lessons for all age groups.  

Curricula and Beyond: WHC Consulting Services 

With over three decades working at the intersection of business and biodiversity, WHC Consulting has helped companies in a variety of industries develop education projects, improve existing ones and evaluate their efforts in meaningful ways. In addition to creating curricula, WHC Consulting can assist with education and community engagement initiatives including Earth Day activities, Scouting projects and trainings that prepare employees for facilitating lessons. WHC ensures that companies’ education efforts are relevant and accessible for learners of all ages, and that they utilize hands-on, field-based experiences such as species identification, habitat monitoring and engaging demonstrations in lieu of textbook or lecture-style instruction.  

To learn more about these services, contact whcconsulting@wildlifehc.org today.  

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Discovering, Teaching and Cycling through the Diversity of Birds — A Conservation Conference Recap

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Discovering, Teaching and Cycling through the Diversity of Birds — A Conservation Conference Recap 

On June 8-9, WHC welcomed over 400 attendees to Conservation Conference 2021, a virtual, live event that showcased how sustainability professionals, educators, advocates and artists around the world are addressing biodiversity loss and other timely environmental issues.  

Dr. Scott V. Edwards of Harvard University delivered the Day 1 keynote, titled Discovering, Teaching and Cycling through the Diversity of Birds. In his session, the most-watched one of the conference, he described how on-the-ground interactions, from the international research trips he’s led for students to his own cross-country bike trip, have helped promote a culture of unity, inclusion and respect for biodiversity.  

Scott is an Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Curator of Ornithology at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, with broad research interests in evolution and biodiversity processes. He grew up in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, an area with high access to green space compared to much of New York City. He cites the early exposure that he had to nature and natural history as a guiding force that led him to a field with few Black professionals. In his keynote, Scott stated that “in order to do the best science, we need to have diverse perspectives.” He elaborated that diversity brings new ideas and research interests into academia — for example, an increase in women studying animal behavior led to a wealth of research on female animals’ roles in mating systems.  

Scott is also committed to instilling a reverence for science and museums in students via immersive experiences. During his keynote, he described how the Museum of Comparative Zoology, which owns specimens of extinct birds, is a great way to convey the gravity of biodiversity loss to students. “When they hold a passenger pigeon or a Carolina parakeet,” he explained, “they realize that the species isn’t coming back.” Scott has also led students on research trips, funded by the museum, to biodiverse settings around the world. He explained that through travel, students get exposed not only to new green spaces (where they partake in field activities like bird recordings), but also to new cultures. 

Further exploring the intersection of nature and diversity, Scott segued from discussing the importance of inclusive museums into a presentation on the 76-day cycling trip he took in summer 2020, during which he traveled 3,848 miles from Plum Island, Massachusetts to Sunset Beach, Oregon. The trip had been a lifelong dream of his, and when the Covid-19 pandemic canceled his academic engagements for the summer, he began planning the journey using maps from the Adventure Cycling Association.  

The trip was challenging at times, entailing biking across varying terrain, from shorelines and other lowlands up to the Rocky Mountains, and through the steeply graded Puyallup region of Washington state. Scott camped whenever possible but found that many campgrounds were only open to RVers, having closed their restrooms because of the pandemic. The people he encountered, however, readily offered him resources like food, water and shelter. He also found support from a familiar source: while birding wasn’t a goal of the trip, he explained that the birds he observed, from dickcissels in the Midwest to sandhill cranes in the Rockies, were “a constant source of encouragement, the one constant that kept [him] grounded.” His first sighting of a western kingbird in South Dakota, for instance, gave him assurance that he was making good progress toward the West Coast.   

While Scott set out to fulfill a personal dream, given the racial unrest of summer 2020, his trip soon took on a second purpose. “I couldn’t just sit idly by. I needed to participate somehow,” he explained. He started to affix signs to his bicycle, with messages like #BlackLivesMatter and #ShutDownSTEM (which referred to June 10, 2020, a day when STEM professionals were urged to break from lab work to reflect on the lack of diversity in their fields). He also carried signs from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: “Birds Spark Hope” and “One Song, Many Voices.” Of the Cornell slogans, Scott said, “they capture some of the ways in which nature and natural history can be a unifying force in challenging times.” In addition to the signs, he used social media and one-on-one conversations to engage others in dialogue on inequity, explaining that making connections with people could help dispel misconceptions about movements like Black Lives Matter.  

Traveling by bicycle allowed Scott to visit small towns that those traveling by interstate or airplane typically bypass. Noting an ideological divide between the urban and rural U.S., he took time to learn from those in the remote communities he visited. In his keynote, he emphasized that rural students are a key population for diversifying STEM fields, and that as we transition to a greener economy, it is critical to not leave behind communities that have found livelihoods in legacy industries like fossil fuels. While he and the people he met did not always share similar views, most were happy to engage in dialogue, and to support him on his journey. “If there’s anything I can say about the people I met,” he said, “it’s that there’s a huge amount of generosity in this country.” He went on to encourage attendees to appreciate the country’s vast natural and intellectual resources. Creating and protecting green spaces, and supporting equitable access to the outdoors and STEM fields, are critical to fostering this type of appreciation.  

To learn more about Dr. Edwards, his research and accomplishments, visit https://edwards.oeb.harvard.edu/people/scott-v-edwards.  

Recordings of Discovering, Teaching and Cycling through the Diversity of Birds and all other Conservation Conference 2021 sessions are available on the WHC Website.   

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Mexican free-tailed bats flying outside cave preserve Texas

4 Ways that Noise Pollution Can Impact Wildlife (and 4 Ways to Help)

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If you’ve ever tried to get work done to the soundtrack of a lawnmower or rattling air vent, then you know that background noise can hamper everyday activities. Humans, however, aren’t the only ones impacted by noise (defined as unwanted and/or harmful sound). Since many animals rely on their sense of sound for survival, they are particularly vulnerable to the problems that noise pollution (prolonged exposure to noise) can cause. Here are four activities that can be impeded in noisy environments:  

  1. Communication. Animals, like humans, use sound to communicate —many species have developed distinctive calls to warn others of danger, attract mates, or identify their own offspring or packs in a crowd. Recordings done by soundscape ecologists have suggested that the different species within a habitat have distinct sonic niches, sounding out their calls at different pitches or intervals than other species to ensure that they’ll be heard. Humans can disrupt this balance when they generate noise (e.g., airplane engines, construction equipment, lawnmowers), drowning out important messages. 
  2. Mating. In many species (particularly birds and frogs), males rely on particular calls to attract mates. The most enticing calls are typically low-pitched, but some animals have been observed making their voices higher to compete with low-frequency noises like car engines. These less attractive vocalizations can lower the males’ ability to find and keep mates. Additionally, the calls resonate through a smaller range in noisy environments, creating smaller breeding pools. Scientists have raised concern about how noise pollution could therefore lower population sizes and genetic diversity. 
  3. Navigation. Nocturnal and aquatic species have adapted to their low-light environments in different ways. Bats and dolphins can echolocate, emitting calls at a certain frequency and using the echoes to identify obstacles and prey in the area. Human-generated noises (like traffic or sonar) can disorient these animals, by either damaging their hearing or causing them to adjust the pitch of their calls in ways that don’t provide as useful of echoes. 
  4. Foraging. Animals like owls and cats have evolved complex ears to help them hear prey, but it’s harder for them to do so in loud environments. Humans can barely perceive a one-decibel difference, but a study found that for every 1dB increase in noise, owls in the area were 8% less successful at catching prey. The psychological impacts of noise can also impact herbivory. One study found that noise drew in nectar-eating hummingbirds (increasing pollination) but deterred several seed-eating birds (decreasing the spread of seeds), indicating that noise may have the potential to alter a habitat’s plant community.   

Anthropogenic noise can be hard to quantify and control — even minimizing noise in national parks takes concerted effort. The good news is that noise pollution doesn’t build up the way that garbage or air particulates do, so many solutions are based in quick behavior changes, rather than lengthy clean-up processes. If you want to address noise pollution in the design of your conservation program (or even at home), consider the following:  

  • Whenever possible, use quieter, non-mechanical tools to perform maintenance tasks, and travel by foot to perform the activities. If mechanical equipment must be used, familiarize yourself with the behavior and lifecycles of on-site wildlife, so that you can avoid noisy maintenance during peak foraging or breeding times. If purchasing new mechanical tools, look for quieter models – they’re typically more energy efficient, too!  
  • Acoustic monitoring has become a popular way of identifying animals with distinctive calls, like birds, frogs and bats, without disturbing them. If your team uses this monitoring technique, hold onto the recordings. Listen out for any human noises that overtake the soundscape, so that you can consider ways to reduce them, and compare the recordings over time to identify any changes in the presence, pitch or patterns of animal calls.  
  • Properly sited vegetation can help with noise control. The best sound buffers consist of dense, native vegetation that extends down to the ground. A combination of evergreen trees and shrubs can provide year-round soundproofing. For maximum impact, the vegetation should be planted close to the noise source (such as a roadway or equipment room), rather than near the natural area you want to protect.  
  • While your team may be eager to fill your educational events with lively lectures and discussion, consider building in some quiet time, for instance a soundwalk or other active listening activity. This lessens disruption to wildlife, and your attendees will gain an appreciation for the sounds of nature.  

These considerations can easily be worked into existing projects and offer benefits for both wildlife and employees. If you would like to learn more, the National Park Service website has additional resources on noise pollution and efforts to curb it.  

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