RePollinate AACO 2024 Update

RePollinate AACO 2024 Update

Two of our Watershed Stewards, Kathy Lough (Class 15) and Lauren Toomey (Class 13), had the privilege of supporting the interagency FWS/USGS Wild Beelab at the Philadelphia Flower Show. During the evening when the bee experts were gone, they were able to call themselves the "B team" since the "A team" was away.

RePollinate AACO is well-positioned as we enter 2024. Thanks to the contributions of both AACO Master Gardeners and the Watershed Steward Academy, we have an ample supply of soil, pots, labels, and markers. Additionally, there will be an abundance of seedlings available. AACO has already sowed 42 flats of native seeds, complementing the hoophouse full of flats sowed by the Beelab. RePollinate will also utilize seedling quarts currently available from Bonnaterra.

The priorities and approach for RePollinate in 2024 will focus on strong collaborative efforts with AACO Recreation and Parks (R&P). This includes an emphasis on biodiversity and the addition of shrubs using materials from Bonnaterra. Furthermore, community groups slated to receive plants in the fall will be encouraged to gather volunteers for transplanting seedlings. This can occur either at the beelab on Thursdays and Saturdays, or at a potential satellite site within the AACO R&P system, to be announced.

If you would like to be on the distribution list for the beelab, email lauren_toomey@hotmail.com. 

2024 Ann Jackson Steward of the Year: Stacey Wildberger

WSA is honored to name Stacey Wildberger as the 2024 Ann Jackson Watershed Steward of the Year. Though Stacey officially became a Steward with Class 13 in 2020, she has been a steward of the environment and community leader for years. When Class 13 was offered virtually due to the pandemic, Stacey jumped at the chance to take the certification course.

““Stacey is the perfect example for our Stewards on how best a Steward can accomplish these goals. She is a person we should all look up too, as an example of success in achieving our mission.””

Stacey engages her community: Every week, Stacey leads a crew of Weed Warriors who perform maintenance. Through the Serene Ravine project and maintenance, the community has taken an overgrown space and turned it into a beautiful & functional wildlife habitat that contains a variety of native plants and trees. She also leads tree planting events, shoreline cleanup events.

Juliet Page (left) created the stunning hooked rug presented to Stacey Wildberger. Juliet was a Class 1 Steward with Ann Jackson.

She educates: Along with other Cape Conservation Corps members and Stewards, Stacey hosts a Native Plant Sale every September with the goal of educating the public about the value of native plants and making sure they have access to them at a reasonable cost. As President of CCC, she also leads and helps plan CCC meetings, which frequently include a speaker on an environmental topic.

She inspires: Not only did Stacey receive multiple nominations for this award, but she has served as a mentor to new Watershed Stewards to help teach them as they train to become experts and take on their own projects.

She builds community: Stacey is part of a fantastic and ever-growing group of Watershed Stewards in Cape St. Claire, all of whom have contributed to the Cape being a thriving Steward community, where many community members are engaged in taking action to clean our waterways.

Thank you, Stacey, for all that you do, for inspiring all of us, and for being such an incredible leader and Steward! Congratulations on being the 2024 Ann Jackson Steward of the Year.

Latin For Gardeners: March

Latin for Gardeners

March’s Native Maryland Plant

Salix discolor L.

(SAL-iks DIS-kol-or)

Common Name: Pussy Willow

Pussy willows, a harbinger of spring, are not a common landscape plant - rather they are most often encountered in nature, usually wetland environments, and if spotted viewed as a pleasant surprise. Best known for providing catkins¹ for home decoration, most people now recognize their importance as a food source for bees - just as the earth is thawing and bees are emerging from their nests. Leaving the branches on the plant not only provides food for early pollinators, but also food and habitat for many other animals, as this plant is a keystone species².

Many home landscapes would be acceptable sites for this tall shrub. It requires sun and consistently wet soil; it is fast-growing and has a lifespan of 20-30 years. I planted a male Salix discolor in a wet and sunny area in my yard in 2016 and have anticipated and enjoyed its blooms each year since. The leaves emerge well after the flowers and are dark green on one side, pale grayish on the backside, the explanation for the specific epithet: discolor.

Pussy willows are also excellent for live staking, a low-cost method you can use at home or for restoration projects. Have any of you tried this method? I may attempt it next year in another area of my yard where I will also be planting other wet-loving plants. Pussy willows are dioecious, the male and female flowers are on separate plants; if you want to purchase and select the sex of your plant you should do this while they’re in bloom so you can tell the difference. The female catkins are considered less showy, mostly green and produce nectar but no pollen. Whichever you prefer, having a keystone species in your landscape will guarantee you’re supporting biodiversity in a big way.

¹ a cylindrical flower cluster, with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated (anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated as in Salix discolor

² a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend

Alison Milligan – MG/MN 2013

Watershed Steward Class 7, CBLP

aligmilligan@gmail.com

Latin For Gardeners: February

Latin for Gardeners

February’s Native Maryland Plant

Ilex glabra (L.) A. Gray

(EYE-lecks GLAY-bruh) 

Common Name: Inkberry

It’s February, the ground is still cold and mostly brown, covered with a thick layer of leaves that dropped months ago – but not Inkberry leaves. This adaptable Coastal Plain shrub that is growing in many places across my yard guarantees they’ll be some green in my landscape year-round. 

Evergreen Inkberry makes for a welcome addition to almost any site and can be used on slopes or in swales, in sun or shade, sand or clay.  It requires slightly acidic soil to prevent chlorosis¹ and well-draining soil to prevent fungal disease.  Ilex glabra provides berries and year-round cover for birds; it is a larval host plant for Henry’s Elfin butterfly (Callophrys Henrici) and its inconspicuous flowers feed many pollinators - importantly it’s also host to a plasterer (aka cellophane or polyester) specialist bee, the Colletes banksi.²

Ilex glabra is dioicous, there are male and female plants, both are required to produce berries and nurseries do not label the sex of this plant. Because this plant can grow to 10’, many cultivars were created that offer several shorter options – all cultivars are female. Most nurseries offer ‘Shamrock’, a popular cultivar that after 8 or so years can become leggy, losing the attractive fullness of leaves at its base; in my experience, plants in full sun tend to stay fuller longer.  ‘Gembox’ is the shortest cultivar that I grow, it has retained its fullness and small stature of 2 ½’ after 8 years and is useful for providing evergreen in very small places.  

Inkberry plants that become leggy can be ‘thinned’ or vigorously pruned to produce a fuller plant – late February through early March is recommended to stimulate a full-year of new growth quickly. Thinning involves removing a select number of branches (<1/3ʳᵈ) while deep pruning means cutting the entire plant to ~10”. I’ve chosen to deep prune the Ilex glabra along my front porch multiple times; they are planted in layers so reducing the height of one plant doesn’t impact the privacy the others provide - the result has been better than anticipated.  To keep branches from breaking it’s also good practice to remove snow from the leaves of evergreen plants.

Spring is just around the corner and I’m anticipating many pollinators. In the meantime, I’ll be watching the birds in my yard flit in and out of the branches of Ilex glabra – a highly beneficial plant for many reasons.

¹ yellowing of leaves

² Short-tongued bees that line their brood with cells of a cellophane-like substance. 

https://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?search=Colletes

Alison Milligan – MG/MN 2013 

Watershed Steward Class 7/Anne Arundel Tree Trooper

Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional (CBLP)

aligmilligan@gmail.com