"Oh look, another bottle..."

Trash is a near-constant along the Sycamore Greenway, particularly in the areas near existing neighborhoods, where stray items from overturned recycle and trash bins can easily be carried to the stormwater drains or blown into the basins of the trail. We often schedule trash cleanups around these areas to help keep the trash in check (the north end is long overdue, and thankfully will be a target of the South District's April 21 Team Up to Clean Up volunteer event).

I've always considered the long "spine" of the trail, between Birds in Flight and the Sycamore Apartments, to be relatively clean by comparison, with no garbage cans nearby and far from busy roads. A few bottles tossed by careless pedestrians or cyclists, maybe, or cans deposited near the benches by visitors relaxing maybe a little too much. After finding a few one-liter "Clear American" bottles of flavored water tossed into the brush, I resolved to bring a trash bag next time I was out with my camera so I could pick them up.

Just a few bottles, right? It's not like those trashy basins collecting neighborhood litter. Just a quick pick-up here and there, then back to taking pictures. Well...no. 

Many of those bottles visible from the trail were accompanied by two or three others hidden from view by grass or leaves. The camera was quickly abandoned (a lesson in not trying to multitask on the trail...focus on the task at hand, whether it be seeing nature, collecting trash, or getting some exercise!) and the trash bag soon filled.

Which is fine. I don't mind taking care of the trail that gives us so much in return. But this cleanup was particularly frustrating in comparison to the regular pickups on either end of the trail, which can easily yield ten times as many full bags of trash, for one reason: this trash didn't find its way to the trail accidentally, the result of a windy trash day or being blown off the back of a passing vehicle. It was purposely thrown or left there by the very people who are enjoying the benefits of the full length of trail.

I was reminded of a recent article I read about the Missoula Bag Man, who tirelessly picks up dog deposits from the trail he uses, bagging them and leaving the evidence visible for folks who allow their dogs to do their business along the trail (including the less-than-sympathetic author of the article). The article frames the Bag Man as a bit of a zealot, looking for excuses to shame those not behaving in the way he deems appropriate. 

I can't say that I haven't been tempted to do the same, both with bagged dog poo tossed into the brush as well as the bottles and cans, just to make visible the scope of the problem. But the point isn't necessarily to shame the perpetrators. It's to take care of these places that we love. Fixing damage isn't about shaming those who cause the damage; it's about restoring something to the way it is supposed to be. 

Whether it's a national park or a neighborhood trail, our open spaces deserve better. 

There are a number of upcoming opportunities to help clean up litter around the Sycamore Greenway and elsewhere in our community! 

• Sunday, April 14: Pick-Up 2 Clean-Up in downtown Iowa City hosted by the Downtown City Gardens, Iowa City Downtown District, and the Iowa City Litter Crew meetup group.
• Sunday, April 21: South District Team Up to Clean Up, hosted by several community organizations including Sycamore Greenway Friends
• Monday, April 22: Earth Day Highway 6 Cleanup hosted by Iowa City Landfill & Recycling.

And of course every walk is an opportunity to grab that bottle or can that ended up far from where it belongs. 

Botanizing the Soccer Park

The Sycamore Greenway trail extends almost exactly two miles from its northern entry point, flanked by mosaic obelisks near Grant Wood Elementary, to its southern terminus at the parking lot in Kickers Soccer Park. Usually my visits to the south end of the trail end a fifth of a mile short, at the fenced boundary of the soccer park, for no reason other than it seems like the manicured and sometimes-populated athletic fields beyond the gateway are just a little too distant from the Greenway. 

On a recent windy day, I paused at the fence, my usual turnaround, and instead capped my lens and forged ahead with the intent of getting some exercise with a purposeful walk around the soccer park. That lasted all of 15 steps before a cloud of curious, tiny white flowers growing very low to the ground in the dry soil next to the trail drew my attention. 

Jagged Chickweed (tentative)

It's fascinating how different weedy plants can be seen in different yet nearby places, like the mullein that is scarce along the Greenway but proliferates a bit west near TTRA. These flowers were itty-bitty and snowy white, with jagged tips and held in a cup of pointed sepals. The stems had what appeared to be glandular hairs along them. I haven't noticed similar flowers in the open areas along the rest of the trail, so I took some photos and kept walking.

Not many minutes later, heading back north along Soccer Park Road, another cloud of low-growing white flowers caught my eye. Not quite the same as the first: the stems were a reddish-brown rather than fleshy green, lacking paired leaves along their length, and had flattened capsules atop the stems alongside the white flowers (which were also subtly different, with the white petals more separated from each other, the tips bluntly rounded rather than irregularly pointed). Again, a tiny flower I hadn't encountered previously.

 A few photos later, and I was heading back home to see if iNaturalist could help identify my little white flowers (I use the term "botanizing" in the title loosely, as a real botanizer would do a much more thorough job than I, making note of and capturing clear images of the flowers and flower parts, leaves and stems, any seeds present, etc.). The first little white flower was suggested as Jagged Chickweed (Holosteum umbellatum), a non-native from Eurasia. The second was also tentatively identified as a non-native from Eurasia, Early or Spring Whitlowgrass (Draba verna), with a basal rosette of leaves above which the inflorescence is held aloft on a smooth stem. 

Spring Whitlowgrass (tentative), tiny white flowers
held aloft on a tangle of wiry stems

Both plants bloom very early in the season, and with their low profile and brief blooming period, are easy to overlook. I can't be sure they don't grow elsewhere along the trail, but taking a detour through an unfamiliar part of the trail and nearby roadsides was the perfect opportunity to take note of things a bit unusual, and a reminder not to make assumptions about whether any trail is worth visiting (they are...they always are!).

Twice the Wings, Triple the Legs: Get to Know Our Multitudinous Insect Neighbors

Firefly, tentatively Common Eastern

Firefly (Photinus pyralis)

For as long as I can remember, birds have been present in my life, from my granny’s cockatiels to the first bird I identified on my own as part of a high school biology class (a Common Grackle) to the gorgeous Sandhill Cranes and other birds that frequent the wetlands and areas around the Sycamore Greenway.

They are a gateway animal that help many people connect with nature, charismatic and highly visible (not to mention audible!) reminders that we are not alone in this world. We feed them, we watch them, hopefully we garden for them and advocate for them. It’s very easy to be captured by avian magic!

But as I spend more time on the trail, I find myself drawn to those small, often overlooked lives: our insect neighbors. Like birds (only with twice as many wings, and three times the legs!), they have their charismatic ambassadors in pollinators: colorful butterflies, industrious bees…insects that are useful, or at least not harmful to our interests. Yet they are such a tiny fragment of that class Insecta.

Variegated Fritillary

A massive — and tiny — universe

For as little attention as they receive from humans in day to day life, insects are a reminder that the world is both vastly more massive and infinitely smaller than we imagine. There are 433 species of birds that can be found in Iowa. There are 300-400 species of bees and wasps alone in our state…and thousands of moths! Add ants and grasshoppers, dragonflies and damselflies, ladybugs and lightning bugs, aphids and ambush bugs, mayflies and mosquitoes and mantids…and those are just a few of the big and…charismatic? groups of insects that most people have heard of.

Blue Dasher

How many others live unnoticed in the grass and under ground, under tree bark and high in treetops? iNaturalist lists almost 4000 species of insects documented in our state on the site…but again, that number certainly omits countless small, drab, inaccessible, and otherwise not-so-obvious little lives that aren’t easy to photograph.

Beyond simply identifying the insects that share our space, what do we really know about them? What do they eat? What do their lives look like? Do they undergo complete metamorphosis like butterflies and bees, or incomplete metamorphosis like crickets and cockroaches? What do they do in winter?

Seven-spotted Lady Beetle

For many people, the answer is, “Who cares? They’re [gross/creepy/pests/scary/etc.]”. Sure, I’ll admit that some insects — or even some life phases of insects — are a little bit each of those things. But they’re also fascinating, and there is so much to explore, especially when you’re starting from a knowledge base as minuscule as most of us have.

They are so different from everything we know! The way they experience the world, through compound eyes and simple ocelli and antennae. They have so many limbs! Six legs, usually two pairs of wings; some of them have highly specialized legs for running quickly, leaping far, grasping prey, digging in dirt. Some have mouthparts for piercing and sucking like cicadas, some for chewing like grasshoppers, some for mopping up pre-digested material like flies.

The diversity of insects is fantastic, and you’ll never run out of things to learn.

The mystery bonker strikes

I had thought I understood grasshoppers, confidently declaring that they overwinter as eggs, hatching in spring and early summer as tiny nymphs, then spending a several weeks growing through a series of four to six instars until they reached adulthood.

Until one balmy February afternoon, lurking in the grass while creeping on the cranes, a hefty insect bonked off the brim of my cap and landed, clinging to a blade of dry grass nearby. I wasn’t surprised at an insect in February, as I’d been seeing small winter craneflies out and about. But when I turned my camera lens on the mystery bonker, I was in for a surprise.

I saw a familiar body shape, with strong hind legs for jumping, a heavy pronotum behind its rounded head. A grasshopper? In February? How in the world could an egg have hatched and a nymph developed into an adult so quickly when most grasshoppers aren’t noticeable until June or July?

Not even knowing the species in order to investigate its lifecycle, I turned to a few trusty resources for insect identification: BugGuide, iNaturalist, and Insects of Iowa. iNaturalist and Insects of Iowa both use AI to suggest identifications, with BugGuide going a step further and offering a probability for its suggested IDs. Both pointed in the direction of genus Tetrix, but disagrees on the species (iNaturalist preferred Tetrix arenosa, Ornate Pygmy Grasshopper, whereas Insects of Iowa recommended Awl-shaped Pygmy Grasshopper, Tetrix subulate).

The mystery bonker, Tetrix sp.

The experts at BugGuide confirmed Tetrix, and also explained that grasshoppers in this family often overwinter as nymphs or adults. They also noted another common grasshopper, the Green-striped Grasshopper, in our area also spends the winter as an adult (or near-adult) and may be seen very early as well.

All this to say...you will never run out of things to learn if you spend some time with our insect neighbors! And though it is daunting, you can ease into their world by focusing on just one small part of it this spring and summer, maybe join a citizen science program dedicated to a small group. Butterflies and bumble bees are both easy to spot and have abundant resources to help you identify them and learn more about their lifecycles. There are also programs and resources for ladybugs and fireflies.

You don’t need to identify every insect down to species. Heck, you don’t have to identify them at all to observe their activity and appreciate their unique place in our neighborhood (though it helps to have a name, at least a genus, to learn about their lifecycle). Why not have a goal this year to make five new arthropod friends?

Sources/Additional Reading:

• Field Guide to Common Western Grasshoppers: Life Cycles
• A Guide to Grasshopper Control in Yards and Gardens
• Reiman Gardens: Insects
• Xerces Society