January 31, 2010, birds of World Peace Wetland Prairie searching for bare ground and free seed

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE view of assorted birds. Many more species are around today, such as red-winged blackbirds, bluejays, cardinals and many others whose names and photos are more difficult to collect.

Flower, garden and Nature Society to hold annual roundtable discussion Saturday, January 16, 2010

1
From the President........
Out with the old, in with the new! It's 2010, a new year. We
computer programmers tend to count from zero rather than
one like normal people, so I could even make a case for it
being a new decade, too, but I'd probably just confuse
people even more than I usually do.
I hope your holidays were happy ones, and that you're
looking forward to our FGNS programs and activities in
2010 as much as I am. If you'll let me wax philosophical
for a moment, I've said often that our membership is our
biggest asset, and in thinking about that I feel it's because
we have such a wide variety of people, with a huge range
of interests and talents and even opinions. What's really
remarkable is that our group seems to be so open and
friendly that all of these different people and views and
opinions can not only coexist peaceably but work together.
If you're a part of very many volunteer-driven groups you'll
realize just how unusual that is!
As I mentioned in December, Lynn Rogers has put together
another great year of programs (well, the November
speaker looks a little suspect, but that's months away and
maybe he'll shape up by then). It's become a tradition that
our January program is a round-table discussion, and they
are always fun. It's always amazing to see, from the
questions that are asked and the
answers given, all the things our
members know and want to know.
See you on Saturday,
Steve
January 2010
Volume 15 Number 1
We come from the earth
we return to the earth
and in between
we garden.

THE FLOWER, GARDEN, AND NATURE SOCIETY OF NORTHWEST
ARKANSAS
FGNS Officers
Steve Marak
President
3460 Roma Drive
Springdale, AR 72762
H 479 271-5278
samarak@cox.net
Heather Cook
Vice-president
4436 Highland Knolls Rd
Rogers, AR 72758
H 479 366-9067
aacook@cox.net
Joyce Mendenhall
Secretary
689 Winbaugh Lane
Fayetteville, AR 72703
H 479 466-7265
joycemendenhall@yahoo.
com
Sharon Haley
Treasurer
1 Red Bluff Road
Hindsville, AR 72738
H 479-789-2127
wareaglesharon@gmail
.com
Gail Pianalto
Past President
P.O. Box 444
Tontitown, AR 72770
H 479 361-2198
pgp31@cox.net
___________________
Paula Marinoni
Founder
617 W. Lafayette
Fayetteville, AR 72701
H 479 444-6170
pm@paulamarinoni.com
Join us Saturday
January 20
for the annual
Roundtable
Bring a favorite garden
tool for show and tell.
**Location**
Northwest Technical Institute
709 South Old Missouri Rd
Springdale, AR
(1/2 mile South of Jones Center on
Hwy 265) Enter at south door.
Inside
President's Message p. 1
Botanically
Speaking p. 2
New Officers p. 3
In The Greenhouse p. 3
Calender p. 4
What's On the Web p. 4
2010 Speaker List p. 5Red-bellied woodpecker
on our feeder.

Upcoming meetings of senior Democrats and Democratic Central Committee

Hello Everyone,

Just a quick notice about a couple of upcoming meetings!

Washington County Democratic Central Committee (All are welcome to attend)
When: January 18th, 6:30PM (social time begins at 6:00)
Where: Homewood Suites by Hilton in Fayetteville (Exit 64)

and

Senior Democrats
When: January 19th, 11:30AM
Where: Western Sizzlin in Springdale
Guests include David Whitaker and Dick Johnson providing musical entertainment (Dick Johnson providing music, not David Whitaker, who will be speaking about his congressional campaign)

Please make sure to send me notices if you know of any other political or Democratic events

The weather outside is frightful! But Democrats are SO delightful!

Tim

--
Tim Freeman
Chair, WCDCC

"Be well, do good work, and keep in touch."

Natural Resources Conservation Service removed some pretty healthy riparian vegetation from Scull Creek but left some bad spots with targeted debris blocking stream flow

Please click on images to ENLARGE.

The Scull Creek trail bridge at Ash Street and Chestnut Avenue has had this same debris hung up on it for maybe three months or more since the worst flood of the fall of 2009 sent water flowing over the bridge, but the NCRS contractors ignored it and spent a lot of their time paid for by federal money cutting live trees from the riparian zone and overflow areas of Scull Creek and other streams in Fayetteville, such as the Town Branch.

The good news is that the native wildflowers along the same stretch of trail in the Scull Creek riparian zone were mostly left standing. That means more seed to sprout in spring and more seed for the wild birds to eat. The square stems with now-wrinkled huge leaves still forming water-holding structures along them are cup flowers. a species that grew 10 feet tall and more at World Peace Wetland Prairie and many other prairie areas in Northwest Arkansas in 2009.

By morning, tall grass and tall wildflower seed and other sources such as this native smartweed near Scull Creek and native buckbrush and nonnative China honeysuckle and nonnative privet berries will be among the few places for migrating birds to feed if the snowfall is as predicted.

Wouldn't the birds love it if the trash were picked up from the ditches running from the streets and the apartment dwellers would actually help?

Remember that birdfeeders are important for wintering birds but that every stick of vegetation and every square foot of natural soil left in place are more important for birds and other wildlife.

Democrat/Gazette December 21, 2009, editorial advocating saving sale-barn land for Fayetteville National Cemetery pleases majority of veterans and neighbors, but the problem is that saving Town Branch homeowners from flooding downhill from the cemetery is still being ignored: VA already at work preparing to dredge and fill wetland and pipe stormwater directly to Hill Avenue and thus to the 11th Street bridge on the Town Branch

Please click on individual photos to ENLARGE view of wetland area along the north edge of the Fayetteville National Cemetery being prepared for dredging and filling for grave sites. The depressional wetland developed over centuries because it is above a bedrock karst area where groundwater sinks into the underground caverns and aquifers and reduces surface-water flooding. When it is piped to the Town Branch it will further aggravate the flooding danger between Ellis and Van Buren avenues already created by the University of Arkansas' failure properly to manage stormwater on the campus and by paving and development along Martin Luther King Boulevard and on the Aspen Ridge/Hill Place project.

Save acres for vets

Now buy the land for the cemetery

Monday, December 21, 2009

Print item

LITTLE ROCK — LIKE WARM Arkansas Christmases, dry eyes after It’s a Wonderful Life, and little boys from the Natural State scribbling “LSU gear” on their annual wish lists, some things are just not meant to be. That’s the way it seems with the controversial student apartments that apparently won’t be built in south Fayetteville. You know, where Washington County’s historic livestock auction house operated until June.
A lawsuit that sought to override the city’s denial of a rezoning request seems to be kaput. Campus Crest developers of North Carolina wanted to buy the property from the auction house’s owner, Bill Joe Bartholomew, and build 500 apartments on the property. But the drawn-out legal ordeal surrounding this purchase became just too much to bear. Mr. Bartholomew now wants his suit dismissed.
The proposed sale to Campus Crest became a flashpoint for veterans and others last summer. They wanted to secure the site across Government Avenue from the city’s National Cemetery so they might preserve the sacred nature of that location. They basically argued that more student apartments in an overbuilt Fayetteville wasn’t an appropriate use of the land. They had a point. The former auction barn parcel does provide an ideally located space to enlarge this rapidly filling cemetery.
Fayetteville’s council denied Mr. Bartholomew’s request to rezone his property. The rezoning would have sealed the sale and enabled Campus Crest to purchase and develop the property. That’s when Mr. Bartholomew filed his suit against the city.

This latest development means the corporation that oversees the cemetery’s operation, Congress, the national office of Veteran’s Affairs, and veterans’ organizations need to find a way to purchase this property. The space needs to be preserved and protected as a final resting place for our veterans in the decades to come.

Joe Neal suggests less shopping, more protecting

less shopping, more protecting‏

From:	Joe Neal (joeneal@uark.edu)

Back in 2000 I saw a Red-tailed Hawk nest in the stout fork of a big old prairie-era post oak. The oak was part of a small forest developed on former Tallgrass Prairie habitat well marked by impressive prairie mounds. There were Northern Bobwhites in the surrounding fields and Painted Buntings in the shrublands. Visitors to northwest Arkansas and us locals are invariably drawn to this area now because it is Steel Creek Crossing in the burgeoning retail-entertainment district in the vicinity of NW Arkansas Mall.

There was a big battle over these old prairie oaks in 2000, begun when Mary Lightheart climbed what she called the “mother tree” and vowed to stay until development plans were dropped. She kept her vow to stay, but eventually law enforcement brought her down and arrested others who tried to take her place.

I was out Christmas shopping in that area yesterday. What remains of that old oak barren is a handful of fantastic mature native trees and prairie mounds between two popular retailers, Kohl’s and Target . Kohl’s refused to make any compromise with their store building plans at the time. Folks who supported Lightheart handed out bumper stickers after the fracas that read, “I will never shop at Kohl’s.” Trash from the parking lots collects there, mute witness to what happens when a worthwhile fight is lost.

I haven’t seen one of those “I’ll never shop…” adorning a bumper in a few years, so I guess this too has now largely faded. Just from an ecological viewpoint, the little remnant is worth a visit because it is a perfect example of a unique Ozark habitat once much more widespread in northwestern Arkansas. There’s plenty of parking nearby, too.

But I am a historian and a birder, and when I’m out that way, I always stop and look at the oaks and the mounds, remembering that big hawk nest, the bobwhites, and buntings. Bobwhites and Painted Buntings are two of our native birds whose declines are thought by some to be a mystery. Stop by the little woodlot. The reason for decline, at least in our western Arkansas neck-of-the-woods, is palpable.

I also notice that while I did, and do, support the notion of boycotting environmental travesty, like others here, I move on. It’s like being push out to sea by the rip tide. The people who work in Kohl’s and Target look and likely feel just like you & I.

The trash out there in the pitiful prairie remnant got me to thinking yesterday about whether or not any of it was worthwhile, even from the get go. I think Lightheart and the others were right to protest , even if against overwhelming odds. I don’t mean to celebrate “tilting at windmills.” But how else will native birds and their habitats receive protection when they are jeopardized? How else will politicians and developers be put on notice that their decisions have real consequences, and not just the positives that get headlines.

I agree with the reputed views of a Populist agitator from the 19th century, who supposedly told a bunch of angry Kansans, "What you farmers need to do is raise less corn and more Hell." I suppose that’s what Lightheart had in mind when she climbed her mother tree – less shopping, more protecting.

Audubon Arkansas open house from 4 to 7 p.m. today; Environmental Action Committee at 5:30 p.m. in Room 326 of city hall

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2009
Audubon Arkansas open house from 4 to 7 p.m. today; Environmental Action Committee at 5:30 p.m. in Room 326 of city hall
The Holiday Season is a busy time so here's a little reminder about our Holiday Open House! If you have not yet RSVP'd don't forget to drop us a line and let us know your are coming! We are looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Please Join Us

Thursday, December 10, 2009
From 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at
34 East Center Street
Fayetteville, Arkansas

For the
Audubon Arkansas
Holiday Open House

The staff and board of Audubon Arkansas invite you to join us for food, refreshments, conversation and conservation. Spouses, children, and friends welcome.
Please RSVP to mviney@audubon.org
Wishing You Happy Holidays!!!

Verbesina virginica among several species that serve in winter as ice plants! Find it early mornings in a variety of places in addition to World Peace Wetland Prairie

Please click on images to ENLARGE photo. Ice-plant displays are like snowflakes. No two are alike. Drive along roads with ditches that have not been mowed back all the way and spot Verbesina virginica with ice around its base on cold, clear mornings. ANOTHER REASON NOT to mow roadsides and old prairie areas. Sometimes, if the mowers haven't cut close to the ground but have taken off the tops of the often 6-foot-tall plants, the ice formations may be spotted by carefully watching for short stem remains.

Instructions that Natural Resources Conservation Service contractors are supposed to be following

Please click on image to go to Flickr site and ENLARGE for reading and find related documents and photos.

Federal money spent to destroy Town Branch: Workers take a break near 11th Street between Hill Avenue and Duncan Avenue

Federal destruction of Town Branch riparian timber and soil

Aubrey james | MySpace Video

Red Oak Park plan would tear up the ground and displace mature trees and other significant vegetation but do nothing to protect the park from the huge upstream flow of water from the south, east and west

Red Oak Park Plan

MAYBE, this plan would help protect the property of the landowner downstream to the north toward Hamestring Creek. But it will totally miss the point of trying to protect the existing mature trees and will allow an incredible increase in erosion during construction and have only a minimal chance of improving the park in any credible way.

The only worthwhile and effective use of the money set aside for this plan would be KEEPING the water WATER WHERE IT FALLS: On the lots in the subdivisions to the south, east and west in raingardens created in the yards and in the treeless portion of the park at the southeast corner.

Helping people create raingardens using the natural soil remaining in the area and encouraging NOT to mow but to protect native vegetation there would decrease the dangerous runoff to a manageable level.

It is illogical to spend money doing some that won't meet the goals of the people who originally began complaining about the situation.

Tour of Woolsey Wet Prairie and Fayetteville's westside sewage-treatment plant at 2 p.m. today precedes big evening for Illinois River Watershed Partnership

Illinois River Watershed Partnership
Annual Stakeholders Meeting
November 10, 2009
2:00 to 3:30 pm Tour of Fayetteville West Side Treatment Plant and Woolsey Wet Prairie
4:00 pm. Tour of Fayetteville Sam's Club
5:30 pm Hors d'oeuvres at Arvest Ballpark, Springdale
6:00 pm Sponsor Recognition and Golden Paddle Awards Reception
7:00 pm. Annual Membership and Board Meeting
Thank you for your dedicated efforts and support
to preserve, protect and restore the Illinois River Watershed.

To see evidence of the need for protection, please click on image to ENLARGE example of construction-site erosion in the Illinois River Watershed.

From Northwest Arkansas environment central

Perfect prize for lady who ran Veterans Memorial 5K in pink

Please click on image to go to Flickr site and ENLARGE and find related photos.

Veterans Memorial 5K entry form for 8 a.m. Saturday, November 7, 2009, linked below video

Veterans Memorial 5K entry form for Saturday, November 7, 2009

Please click on image to move to Flicker site and ENLARGE.

Please click on image to move to Flickr page and ENLARGE view.

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of a sample of items that will be in the goody bags of the first 300 runners who sign up for the Nov. 7, 2009, Veterans 5K.

Please click on image to go to Flickr page to Enlarge logos of first two major sponsors of the Veterans' 5K race set for November 7, 2009, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Fred Cusanelli photographs Fayetteville events with enthusiasm

Retiree Gets The Picture

By Brett Bennett

Monday, November 2, 2009

FAYETTEVILLE — Fred H. Cusanelli photographs many events in Fayetteville but not for newspapers.
Please click on image to go to Flickr site and ENLARGE and view related photos.

Cusanelli has volunteered his time as a photographer for Fayetteville for the past six weeks.

“He has done some fabulous work,” Julie McQuade, Fayetteville community outreach coordinator, said. “We’re hoping someone doesn’t steal him away and pay him.”

Cusanelli, whose former jobs include working as a parts runner for the city’s fl eet department, inquired about volunteer opportunities in the city. He was enlisted quickly to begin shooting photos, said the city’s communications director, Lindsley Smith. Smith noticed when she started working for the city a few months ago that its Web site lacked photos and there was no database of images to work from.

Cusanelli mentioned he enjoyed photography when Smith spoke to him about his desire to volunteer.

“He’s 100 percent volunteer. He’s probably taken about 2,000 pictures,” Smith said.

Not all of his photos are used, but Cusanelli said he takes many photos so McQuade and Smith have a variety to choose from.

“I am working now more than when I was employed, and I’m having a ball,” Cusanelli said.

The 64-year-old Cusanelli previously took photos using traditional fi lm cameras. He went to a local camera store to discuss his options for getting a new digital camera and paid $1,200 for a Nikon out of his own pocket.

Since volunteering, he attended a news conference when actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. visited the Fayetteville Public Library last week, and he rode in the B-17 Flying Fortress that stopped in Fayetteville on Wednesday.

One of the best parts of volunteering, he said, is any conflicts one might develop working in an o◊ce go away.

“All you get is self-satisfaction and feeling good,” he said.

Cusanelli has a diverse employment and hobby background and speaks enthusiastically about his past endeavors. One of the rooms in his home features old company awards and letters from past employers, plus trophies from bowling, which is one of his other major hobbies.

A native of Queens, N.Y., Cusanelli took a job with AT&T shortly after high school. Except for a four-year stint in the Air Force during the 1960s, he worked continuously for AT&T in New York until 1991.

The phone company tradition in the family extends to his son, who works for AT&T in Fayetteville. His mother and grandmother also worked for the phone company.

On his wall is a framed letter from one of his former supervisors, thanking him for his efforts on a trans-Atlantic phone cable project. Cusanelli saw many transitions and upgrades in how phone service was delivered to customers.

He also saved a letter from an Air Force superior, Paul Airey.

“He was the first chief master sergeant of the Air Force,” Cusanelli said.

Cusanelli went back to the phone company after getting out of the Air Force. After many years of work, the company o◊ered an early retirement program in 1991, and he accepted it, determining it was time to leave New York.

Cusanelli’s brother had married a woman from Prairie Grove who he met while in the Air Force. They moved back to Prairie Grove and fell in love with Fayetteville while visiting the area.

His mother, Dorothy Cusanelli, also moved to Fayetteville before he did. She works as a switchboard operator for the University of Arkansas.

New York had its drawbacks, he said, as it was very crowded and expensive, even though the potential to make more money existed. Crime was also a major problem. Working nights for the phone company in Queens, Cusanelli said he was robbed going home more than once. He was stabbed three times and was once robbed at gunpoint, he said.

He developed a love for cars and hot rods and owned cars while living in Queens, but thieves kept stealing them, he said. One of his favorite old cars was a 1967 Corvette he bought after coming homefollowing his time in the Air Force.

Cusanelli drives his Buick to many of the events he photographs, but he now has another Corvette, a 1999 model he keeps in the garage and drives when the weather is right.

Upon moving to Fayetteville, he got a job working for two years on the phone lines for the UA. He also worked for the U.S. Postal Service but left after he met the minimum age and years of service requirements to retire.

He also sold alarms for an alarm company, but his favorite job besides the phone company was working as the parts runner for the city’s fleet department. He picked up parts and supplies for the various pieces of equipment and vehicles used by the city. The mechanics in the fleet department keep the city’s vehicles operating.

His son attended Fayetteville High School. They played together on several bowling teams in the 1990s and won many bowling trophies.

“He has had a 300 game,” Cusanelli said of his son’s perfect bowling score.

Cusanelli said he has a bad knee due to an old basketball injury and credits his doctors with keeping him going. He gave one of his doctors a bowling pin for helping him continue to bowl.

His basketball memories include playing on church teams at Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Queens as a youth. His teammates called themselves the Woodside Warriors.

include Ronald Grabe, who went on to be an astronaut for NASA, and Terence Reynolds, chairman of the theology department at Georgetown University.

“I’ve been really lucky to have met all these people,” Cusanelli said.

Claire Detels' performance of samples of music of some of the Great African American composers Friday night brought support to OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology

Please click on image to move to Flickr site and ENLARGE view of Claire Detels on October 20, 2009

Claire Detels performs music of Great African American composers tonight; donations support OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology

Hi OMNI folks and friends...

Tonight only! Pianist and musicologist Prof. Claire Detels performs the music of Great African American composers on Adella Gray's lovely piano. The program is attached. Please join us.

Great African American Composers
Home of Gary and Adella Gray
1681 N. Starr Drive
6:30 social hour, 7:00 performance

Directions: Take Mission Blvd. to N. Starr, turn right
$10 donation accepted to benefit OMNI Center. Please join us.

Gladys Tiffany
OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology
www.omnicenter.org
Fayetteville, Arkansas USA
479-973-9049 -- gladystiffany@yahoo.com

Veterans 5K run on November 7, 2009

Please click on image to move to Flickr page and ENLARGE view.