Seasons The Greening of Maplewood
Winter 2016 Winter Wildlife Web: It Takes a Village By Ann Hutchinson, Lead Naturalist
The Web of Life encircles us all - human and wild. In Ojibwe culture people believe that we are “Anishinabe akin” or “of the earth.” As winter approaches we look to nature for inspiration and solutions for survival. One option is to migrate. Many birds fly to southern climes not just for warmth but for available food to sustain empty stomachs. Even insects such as monarchs and dragonflies migrate. Others such as chipmunks and woodchucks opt for hibernating over the long winter nights. Hibernation, unlike normal sleep, means that body temperature drops, heart rates decline, and bodies enter a deathlike state. Skunks and raccoons “snooze,” waking up on warm nights and cruising through their neighborhoods to search for food. Animals adapted for winter challenges are “active” – able to find enough food and shelter to survive. If we look carefully, we’ll find evidence of shrews, mink, and fox in the form
of foot prints, tunnels, holes, and shelters. Their stories are on the next pages. In the pond, along cattail edges and hidden under a blanket of snow, is a muskrat’s winter home. Made of cattails, sedges, grasses, and pond mud, it’s where muskrats huddle together for warm-ups in between feeding forays under the ice. Muskrats also build feeding houses and platforms called “push ups.” Interspersed throughout the marsh, these structures provide openings in dense stands of cattails, where new species of plants can gain a foothold. A cadre of animals such as geese, turtles, and herons use these places to sun, nest, and feed. Muskrats’ specialized nose valves close tightly to keep water out, and a skinny, hairless, flattened tail acts as a rudder. An ability to tolerate high levels of carbon dioxide in their blood allows them to hold their breath for up to 15 minutes under water and ice. Sometimes streams of air bubbles trapped in their fur bubble to the surface and get trapped in newly formed ice. Muskrats return to these trails to chew through ice and gulp bubbles.
Human impacts affect our wildlife neighbors, but Maplewood’s environmental policies, education, natural resources management, and operations can and do help! Reduced numbers of muskrats seems to correlate with the hybridization of the invasive narrow leaf cattail with Minnesota’s native wide leaf cattail. Maplewood addresses invasive species with help from our invasive plant patrol. A changing climate has brought more frequent and intense rain events. Extreme rainfalls negatively impact pond-dwelling animals and humans. Torrents of rain raise water levels so quickly and drastically, they act as if one is flushing a toilet, according to Wildlife Biologist John Erb of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. In 2010 and 2015, Maplewood strengthened its stormwater ordinance to require increased infiltration of stormwater on each site. Many City raingardens have been constructed to help reduce flooding, filter runoff, and provide habitat. Nature provides inspiration; solutions abound that can strengthen our strand in life’s delicate web.
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