NOAA flood prediction: Up and up.
Courtesy NOAAWhen I woke up this morning and checked the NOAA flood forecast for the downtown Saint Paul station it was at 19.7 feet above the normal stage. Yikes, the forecast still keeps going up. The river is predicted to crest on March 24th (next Wednesday).
Other flood related resources from my morning browsing:
The StarTribune visits the NOAA, National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office, in Chanhassen, MN. The scientists at NOAA explain what's different about this year's snow melt...complete with some classic Minnesota accents.
Check out what downtown Saint Paul looked like in the 2001 Mississippi River flood. So far, no one's predicting this year's food will be as bad as that historic spring melt, when the river crested at 23.67 feet.
And, for purely nostalgic purposes, here's a pic of Minnesota Governor Karl Rolvaag (he's in front of the guy with a bag on his head), President Lyndon Johnson, and Senator Walter Mondale (looking quite dashing back in the day) standing dangerously close to the river in the really bad 1965 Mississippi river flood. The river crested at 26 feet that year.
Check out our full feature on the 2010 Mississippi River flooding.
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Emerald Ash Borer
Courtesy USDADriving around Saint Paul recently I’ve seen purple boxes hanging from trees, and I wondered what the heck they were. My wife helped me connect the dots between the purple boxes and the emerald ash borer (see ARTiFactor’s article for more info on the emerald ash borer). The Department of Agriculture and the Minnesota DNR is hanging the purple boxes to track and monitor the bugs.
We use a similar system in the museum. There are bug traps placed all over the museum that are not intended to eliminate bugs, but more to trap some so we know if bugs are in a certain areas of the museum and what kind of bugs they are.
The mailbox-sized trap’s color and smell attract the bugs and allow for tracking. The boxes will be removed this fall. Bark has also been removed from two dozen unhealthy trees in order to trap and track the pests. These trees will be cut down this fall as well.
The emerald ash borer is very difficult to detect. If you have an ash tree in your yard you can check for infestation by watching for die-back in the upper third of the tree, heavy activity by woodpeckers, D-shaped holes in the bark and S-shaped grooves under the bark. If you are a Saint Paul resident and notice these signs you are encouraged to call the forestry office at (651) 632-5129 if the tree is on public property and (651) 201-6684 if the tree is on private property.
I have also seen a massive number of billboards and heard radio ads from tree care companies promising treatment and protection from the pests. However, forestry experts indicate that there is no proven method for eradicating them.
The City of Saint Paul is preparing presentations for local district councils on what the City’s next step and what steps they can take to help. Several Saint Paul neighborhoods are potentially going to be especially hard hit as ash trees were popular with developers in post World War II neighborhood developments.
Updated information on the emerald ash borer for Saint Paul, Minnesota residents.
Problem pigeon: John McCain, I've got that bald spot on the top of your head targeted for one of my droppings.
Courtesy Josh215Aboout a year ago, the Buzz brought you news that St. Paul city officials were taking steps to reduce (with the ultimate goal of eliminating) the pigeon population in downtown. The thought was, with the Republican National Convention coming, the city didn't want out-of-towners having to watch their step on the sidewalks for messy pigeon droppings.
As a regular pedestrian through downtown, I can attest that the year's worth of efforts haven't made much of a difference. There are plenty of pigeons, and their droppings, still around downtown. Unless we host a massive falcon-hawk-eagle convention in the next week, the GOP is going to have to be on the lookout for pigeon GOOP.
None the less, St. Paul officials are cranking up their efforts to reduce the pigeon population. While earlier efforts focused on building delux nesting sites for the birds, and the confiscation of their eggs after they were laid, they've turned to pigeon birth control methods. Read all about it here in this Star-Tribune interview with the city's animal control officer. That all begs the question, were do you get pigeon condoms?
A Rock Pigeon: Rock pigeons are the pigeons that are common in large numbers in most major cities. Photo courtesy Josh215 via Wikipedia.The City of St. Paul is aiming to look its best when the Republican National Convention comes to town in late summer 2008. Part of the plan to spiff up the capitol city is a crack down on pigeon poop – a daunting adversary for many major cities.
The City plans to build ideal nesting grounds for pigeons on rooftops in downtown and then take the eggs in order to attempt to control the population. The hope is that fewer pigeons will mean less pigeon poop. City officials are not sure the pigeon “condo” scheme will be effective, but they are willing to give it a try after numerous other plans have fallen short of the goal.
Pigeons find food easily in the city: The readily available food in an urban environment allows pigeons to breed year-round. Photo courtesy Photo courtesy sarmoung via Flickr.Pigeons love city life
Rock Pigeons, often also commonly called doves, are the most common type of pigeon found in urban areas. They are found in cities all over the world as they find high buildings an ideal substitute for their preferred nesting habitat in the wild – sea cliffs.
Rapid reproduction
Many techniques have been used to attempt to control pigeon populations – but it is a major undertaking. Pigeons breed when they have access to a steady food supply. Given the readily available food in an urban environment – from garbage to residents actively feeding pigeons – the food supplies in cities allow pigeons to reproduce year-round, laying eggs six to nine times a year.
Recently, an anonymous visitor posted the question, "Why haven't I seen any fireflies over the last few summers?" That got me thinking, and I realized that I haven't seen many fireflies, either. (You don't usually see fireflies in Minnesota until late June or early July, but I don't remember seeing any last year or the year before.) So what's the skinny?
Firefly: Have you seen any of these guys lately? (Photo courtesy Aricee)
I thought about it a little bit.
Like many other insects', fireflies' life cycle includes egg, larval, and adult stages. Adults lay eggs on or just under the soil. Because they eat critters like worms, slugs, and snails, most larvae are found in rotting wood or leaf litter or on the edges of streams and ponds. Adults tend to favor the same habitats as the larvae, but we know a lot less about adult habits. Their mouths suggest that they eat other bugs, and scientists know that some fireflies eat other fireflies, but it's likely that they eat plant nectar and possibly other foods, too. You're likely to see adult fireflies over lawns and meadows and at the edges of woods or streams.
Firefly_larva: Crazy, huh? I know I've never seen these guys around! I'd have made a point of looking them up! (Photo courtesy Myriorama)
Courtesy Myriorama
My backyard seems like it would be firefly heaven, and yet I'm not seeing them. What other factors could be at play?
I thought of three. And then I found a fourth possibility on this cool website. (Maybe you can think of others?)
- Many areas have stepped up their mosquito control efforts due to concerns about West Nile virus. Is it possible that this has somehow impacted firefly populations? (I think this is an unlikely explanation, because why would we notice a reduction in fireflies but not other insects? And further, there certainly seem to be plenty of mosquitoes!)
- Our temperatures have been wacky. Maybe fireflies require a specific temperature range to hatch, or to change from their larval stage to their pupal stage? Are we exceeding that comfort zone, or not staying in the proper range long enough?
- Lack of habitat is always a possibility. Maybe they aren't finding enough to eat or the right places to lay their eggs?
- Since fireflies communicate with blinking light, perhaps they prefer to inhabit areas away from city centers with all the ambient light that goes along with them? (I think this is unlikely, too, since I've seen fireflies in the city before.)
Or maybe I'm just not looking in the right places at the right times. (Here are a few reported sightings from Minnesota…)
I'm going to do some investigating, talking to some folks at the Warner Nature Center and the University of Minnesota's Entomology Department. I'll post answers as I get them.
But I want to hear from you: have you seen fireflies? Where? Describe the place you saw them. What date? And what time of day?
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