New Particulate Pollution Air Quality Index

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Image:  Courtesy of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

You may soon notice some changes to the Air Quality Index (AQI). The AQI is a standardized color-coded scale used to describe health concerns associated with common pollutants such as ground-level ozone and PM2.5 (particulate pollution smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter). The AQI can range from 0 to 500. An AQI from 0-50 is green, for good air quality, whereas an AQI above 300 is maroon, meaning that air quality is hazardous. When the AQI is above 100 (orange or worse), air quality is unhealthy: first for sensitive groups of people, then for everyone as the values increase.

On May 6, the AQI changed for PM2.5 such that the breakpoint between green (good) and yellow (moderate) air quality has become more stringent. The Moderate category now begins when fine particle pollution concentrations reach 9 micrograms per cubic meter of air (the level of the updated annual air quality standard). Previously, the Moderate category began at 12 micrograms per cubic meter. EPA implemented this change to increase public health protection, consistent with evolving scientific understanding of the impacts of PM2.5 pollution. As a result of this, you may see air quality reach the yellow (moderate) AQI more frequently than in the past.

Don’t forget to sign up for air quality forecasts and alerts!

Stream Monitoring Citizen Science & Training Opportunities, June

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Photo: FMN Janet Quinn, Hidden Pond stream monitoring

NoVa Soil & Water Conservation District: Stream Monitoring Citizen Science & Training Opportunities

Horsepen Run Stream Monitoring Workshop

When: Sunday, June 9, 9:00am-12:00pm

Where: Horsepen Run Stream Valley Park, Herndon

This site has undergone a lot of change over the last few years! While it had become more challenging to monitor this site in the past, recent changes to the streambed have brought more riffles to monitor and we’re excited to see how this changes the macroinvertebrates we may find! This is an accessible stream site, which can be reached by wheelchair and/or other assistive tools over a paved path (there is a moderate slope). Learn more and register for this workshop and others here.

 

Wolftrap Creek Stream Monitoring Workshop

When: Thursday, June 13, 9:00am-12:00pm

Where: Wolftrap Creek Stream Valley Park, Vienna

This site features a small, shallow stream which usually has a good number of beetles along a popular paved trail. This is an accessible stream site, which can be reached by wheelchair and/or other assistive tools over a paved path (there is a moderate slope). Learn more and register for this workshop and others here.

 

Pohick Creek Stream Monitoring Workshop

When: Saturday, June 15, 9:00am-12:00pm

Where: Pohick Creek Stream Valley Park, Springfield

Our stream monitoring site on Pohick Creek is located on the cross county trail, popular with runners, dog walkers, and families. This is the largest and deepest stream that we monitor in our public workshops. This is an accessible stream site, which can be reached by wheelchair and/or other assistive tools over a paved path (there may be some uneven spots). Learn more and register for this workshop and others here.

 

Other Training and Stream Monitoring Opportunities

The NoVa Soil & Water Conservation teams are  very excited to contribute their stream data to state and national datasets. If you’d like to see data from all the NVSWCD regional stream monitoring team’s active sites, you can find our organization on the Clean Water Hub.

Create a Mini Meadow

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Article and photo by Plant NOVA Natives

When they aren’t being bulldozed over, the natural state of most meadows in Northern Virginia is to gradually revert to forest, but that fact does not lessen their importance to the ecosystem. Although there are many threats to our woods, it is the meadows that are disappearing the fastest, which is a big problem for birds and other critters that depend on sizable meadows for habitat. When was the last time you saw a meadowlark or a quail, for example?  So if you own land with a natural meadow, you do a great service by preventing it from reforesting (or from being developed.)  

Most of us don’t have natural meadows on our properties, but we, too, can help repair some of the damage by adding meadow plant species to our yards. In most cases, that translates to creating pollinator gardens that can serve as mini-meadows or small-scale meadow analogs that attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinating insects. Even relatively small spaces can foster meadow habitats, especially because much of the ecological value of a meadow comes from common, easy to find, easy to grow species.
Start with just two or three sturdy and meadow-loving natives that produce beautiful flowers and attract pollinators as well, such as Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), Goldenrod (e.g., Solidago rugosa or Solidago caesia), Mountain mint (e.g., Pycnanthemum tenuifolium), and Hollow Joe-pye-weed (Eutrochium fistulosum). Plants like to grow in communities near other plants. It’s a good idea to put three to five of them together, which mimics the way plants grow naturally in meadows. You can always increase the types and number of native flowering plants in your mini meadow, expanding it over time as your space and interest allows.
Pollinator turnout on flowering natives is high. Dozens if not hundreds of hummingbirds, bumblebees, flies, beetles, and hummingbird moths, along with many other kinds of pollinators, will show up. The more varied your mini meadow offerings, the more diverse the pollinator population it will attract. It is sure to delight and amaze you, especially when compared to the dearth of pollinator activity on non-native landscapes. Don’t be surprised if you start seeing more insect-eating birds such as warblers, Eastern Phoebes, and Eastern Wood-Pewees. They will certainly notice and take advantage of the opportunity.
When planning your mini meadow, don’t forget grasses. Somewhere between 40% and 70% of meadow plant species are some sort of grass, a term used here to include sedges, rushes, and grasses. All grasses are wind pollinated, so you won’t see the same level of pollinator interaction as with the native flowers listed above. But grasses are nevertheless essential to the wildlife of a healthy meadow.  Their dense roots, which you will only fully appreciate the first time you try to dig up a native grass plant and move it, help stabilize the soil, prevent erosion, corral assertive native flower species, and tamp down weeds. Birds use grasses for nesting materials. Monarch butterfly larva can use grass stems for cocooning. Grasses are host plants for skipper butterflies. The list goes on. They provide support and protection for many birds, insects, and other small meadow critters living in, on, or close to the ground.
You can find out more about garden-worthy grasses on the Plant NOVA Natives website. Good bets for your mini meadow include Broomsedge, Eastern narrow-leaved sedge, and Little Bluestem.
You won’t have to go far to find native meadow flowers and grasses for sale. Many sellers are close to where you live. Northern Virginia is fortunate to have several native-only garden centers. In addition, one-day native plant sales are held across the region in the spring and fall. Also, conventional garden centers now supply more native plant options than ever given the growing consumer demand.
No matter how modest or ambitious your plans may be, taking the first step to build a mini meadow habitat is what matters. Your new native plantings will expand meadow-like habitats, increase meadow-loving life, and ultimately improve the biodiversity of the region.

How a Return to Tribal Management is Restoring Landscapes, Webinar, May 21st

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Photo courtesy of SERC

Tuesday, May 21, 2024
7 pm
Register here.

Tribal people have lived in North America for at least 10,000 years, shaping how the landscape evolved and functioned. During that time, they developed cultures and traditions that stressed the obligation tribal people had to the foods, medicines, and places that sustained and defined their way of life. However, disease and settlement disrupted the balance, replacing it with the extractive management approach that has dominated the landscape for the past three centuries. On May 21, discover how a return to tribal practices can help restore that balance. Cody Desautel, executive director of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in northern Washington State, hosts our next Life on a Sustainable Planet webinar. He’ll reveal how the last 50 years have seen a resurgence of tribal self-determination, and how indigenous knowledge is helping reestablish healthy relationships between people and the land.

Discover stories of hope and resilience every month, at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center’s (SERC) free webinar series! SERC’s monthly science talks highlight the research and conservation that are leading us to a more sustainable future, featuring scientists from the Smithsonian and around the world. They air on Zoom every third Tuesday of the month at 7pm Eastern, January through October, unless otherwise noted. All of their talks are recorded. By signing up online, you’ll be able to watch live and receive a link to the recording after the event. Closed captions available at the event and on the recordings.

View recordings and slides from their past years here.

The Amazing Camp Zama Hornet’s Nest

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Feature photo:  At the Buildings and Grounds Office, Camp Zama, Japan.  The size of the hornet’s nest is placed in context with the office surroundings.

Photos and article by FMN Stephen Tzikas

Every now and then I see a wasp building a mud-based tubular shaped nest in some corner of my home’s front door portico. These are mud dauber wasps. Mud wasps are solitary wasps, which means it builds a single nest for itself.  They are fairly common and the internet has photographs of their nests.  That got me thinking about the most magnificent insect nest I’ve seen.

While serving as the Chief, Environmental Management Office for the US Army in Japan, I had many partners and stakeholder on the installations. One of them,

Close-up of the hornet’s nest from Camp Zama, Japan

in the same Directorate of Engineering and Housing as my office, was Buildings and Grounds.  In the pre-internet age, we visited other offices in person to conduct business, and the live interaction was always valuable and rewarding. During one visit to the Buildings and Grounds Office on February 10, 1993, some of its employees came back with a nice catch from someplace on the installation.  It was the largest hornet’s nest I ever saw.  I didn’t know it at the time, but years later after I took the photographs, I would be in a much better position to appreciate them as a Master Naturalist.

Close-up of the intricate and beautifully scalloped pattern of the Camp Zama, Japan, hornet’s nest

Hornets are a type of wasp, though wasps typically are paper wasps and yellow jackets.  There are differences in the way the insects build their nests.  Hornets construct nests using chewed wood and saliva and can take months to build, giving it a papery look.  Hornet nests are also much larger than wasps nests, being larger than a basketball size.  If you ever encounter such a nest, be careful.  Hornets can sting repeatedly, and may cause allergic reactions that can be life threatening.  If you discovered such a nest on your property, it may be wise to have a professional exterminator address the problem.  Hornet nests are structured in a closed architecture, that is, the nest has a surrounding envelope, with a small opening at the bottom of the nest.

Paper wasps also create nests out of a paper-like product of maceration.  Paper wasps nests may have an exterior that looks less elegant, a sort of conglomeration of parts and crater-like surfaces often lacking an envelope. A yellowjacket wasp nest will have a single opening, but these wasp nests are usually in the ground, and only visible as a small hole in the dirt.

Upon returning to the US in 1994, I worked at the Washington Navy Yard for a couple years.  One of Naval installations under our responsibility was the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland.  At least on one occasion if not more, I drove out to the location for an environmental evaluation. Runner up to the Camp Zama, Japan, hornet’s nest were the termite mound nests at this Maryland location.  I recall they looked nearly as high as humans, but in some parts of the world they can be 25+ feet.  Besides those tall termite mounds, I saw many wild turkeys and large bulb eye insects nearly a couple inches in length.  I was beginning to think about what an unusual place this Patuxent River area was.