Headland Dunes' thickets, as cover, are a key ingredient to its avian allure as a migratory hotspot.
The cover is non-native, invasive honeysuckle … and it is spreading towards the dunes.  

ODNR Div. of Natural Areas & Preserves (DNAP) are faced with the statewide onslaught of invasive plants that, like a cancer, threaten the ecological integrity of state nature preserves, of our last, best reserves of Ohio's natural heritage and biological diversity.  Bio-diversity folks.  It's not ALL about the birds. In this case it's  the dunes ecosystem and all of its intact components that makes Headlands such a unique and ecologically valuable place.

DNAP came dangerously close to getting its plug pulled this past year in state budget cuts.  I mean gone, abolished.  It was the hue and cry of the grassroots conservation community that saved it.  It's continued existence is not to be taken for granted.  Though granted a stay of execution, DNAP  still does not and will not have the personnel or budget to tackle the advancing legions of invasive plants anytime soon.

I'm calling on the birding community  as a whole to take a broader view nature, namely the habitats that support the birds they love.  What we have here is a prime opportunity to step up to protect the resource: a collaborative effort to restore Headlands Dunes.  I suggest that prime players  would include Burroughs Nature Club, Blackbrook Audubon Society, The Kirtland Bird Club and along with any other individual or organization with a vested interest in birds/birding.  If aging memberships of our local conservation organizations cannot provide the muscle, then how about the money?  

Such a restoration project would require a study to identify the most ecologically appropriate replacement for the honeysuckle in providing not only critical cover, but a better insect food source to fuel migrants; labor to remove honeysuckle and prevent its resurgence, and planting of replacement native shrubs.  

Anybody out there (individual or group) willing to spearhead: to explore a partnership with DNAP and forge a union of supporting organizations?

Dan Best




On May 5, 2012, at 9:22 PM, Tom Bain wrote:

> Conservation-minded birders share Haan's concerns for quality native
> habitats and, like Haans, may wonder what can we done? This is a very good
> question and a timely topic of discussion because birders rush special
> places like Headlands during migration. First, Edward O. Wilson, noted
> evolutionary biologist, has suggested a simple acronym to guide concern and
> action. The acronym, HIPPO, prioritizes global patterns impacting
> biodiversity and is applicable at all scales, from broad ecoregions, to your
> favorite local birding patch, Headlands dunes, for example. H.I.P.P.O.
> stands for five heavy-hitting factors; Habitat loss, Invasive species,
> Population growth, Pollution, Overharvest. Obviously, they all are
> inter-related, a destructive synergy. The first two are most immediately
> destructive and are the most accessible to YOU and ME. We can do something
> immediately about habitat loss and invasive species (Think big, too: Read
> Wilson's book "The Future of Life").
> 
> Habitat loss is attributed to developers (and our demand for them), but we
> may contribute to habitat loss even when we go birding. Headlands is a great
> example: each footfall off trail onto Headland's unique dune vegetation
> causes compaction and fragmentation--you can stop in you tracks, kneel down,
> and see the damage real-time. Headlands plant communities depend on keystone
> species, beach grass, switch grass, and other root mat-forming species that
> hold sand among roots below, and catch sand saltating with the wind, above.
> These essential plants send up wind-breaking stalks like the wide open spray
> at the tip of a switchgrass seed-bearing stalk. Wind moves sand, plants
> break the wind, sand falls into the plant clusters and is held by networks
> of roots, until we break up the root mats by stepping over and over again
> off trail. Next time you are at Headlands, look how the trails become
> excavated by wind as the root mat is separated. The dune plant community is
> resilient, but it is not adapted to resisting casual human trail networks
> that are torn by rigid synthetic-soled boots, it's adapted to small hooves
> and soft-stepping quadrupeds, and mostly, wind.
> 
> Birds are not to blame for invasive species, people are the cause, bush
> honeysuckle is a good example. We still buy it and plant it frequently! The
> bush honeysuckle at Headlands, as everywhere, is alelopathic. It chemically
> suppresses many other species of native plants that would grow in its
> absence. The berries are really poor bird food, but they are abundant! The
> stewardship professionals at Headlands are not thoughtless and bungling, and
> they are not cutting and hoping, they are making-way for natives, an
> essential precursor to natural and anthropogenic processes for restoration.
> It's not easy and it's not always successful, so, there is always a little
> hoping ,too, I confess. I work in habitat restoration, I've been there, it's
> an ongoing battle.
> 
> What can YOU do?
> 
> Stay on the trails, or if you feel you must leave the trail, don't walk in
> other's footsteps, and avoid sensitive habitats.
> 
> Buy native plants from your region, not exotics, or at least not invasive
> exotics (www.invasivespeciesinfo.org)!. Use local native species in your
> flower garden.
> Use native plants for all your home landscaping. Coincidentally, this
> morning, I bought additional native plants for my propagules beds from the
> OSU Marion campus prairie plant sale held annually on this Saturday. All
> their plants are greenhouse starts from seed originating in the Sandusky
> Plains, the ecotype set I maintain. My money will help them do what they do,
> there. YOU can source native species by searching the internet and asking
> questions. Your local insects, like butterflies, will thank you. The birds
> that eat the insects will thank you, too, by showing up in your yard.
> 
> As Haans suggested, you can press your local parks, at all levels, to
> support professional and volunteer efforts to actively remove invasive
> species from natural areas. Further, ask them to use only non-invasive
> species for landscaping and to pursue restoration in place of landscaping.
> 
> Demand that your legislature put funding back into the defunded Natural
> Areas and Preserves Division. It's still there, without money.
> 
> Last, support you local land steward in the fight against invasive species,
> get your hands dirty!
> 
> Tom Bain
> Delaware County
> Chair, OOS conservation committee
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ohio birds [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Haans
> Petruschke
> Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2012 4:40 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [Ohio-birds] Headlands cutting- invasive plants and Ohio birds
> 
> Hi,
> 
> First let me say there are no bird sightings in this post.  If you feel the
> list serve is only for sightings you can either ignore this missive or go
> here:
> 
> http://www.ohiobirds.org/site/emaillist.php#guidelines
> 
> and carefully READ the guidelines.
> 
> That said...
> 
> The cutting at Headlands dunes has stopped, for now.  Thank you ODNR for
> listening, being responsive, and delaying the removal of the invasive
> honeysuckle.  However this incident brings up a major issue the entire Ohio
> birding community should be concerned about and involved in.  That is
> invasive plant species in our natural areas, preserves, and state parks.
> 
> Why should birders care?  The Headlands incident is a prefect example.
> While invasive plants provide needed forage cover for birds, they are non
> native and do not provide the best possible habitat for attracting birds.
> People in charge of  keeping natural areas in a natural state, hate
> invasive plants and seek to eliminate them. Further they see our beloved
> birds as a primary vector in spreading these invasives.  The attitude of
> land managers is get rid of it and hope something else comes up, if it comes
> back get rid of it again.
> 
> From the bird lover's perspective this seems like insanity, that is, doing
> the same thing and hoping for a different result.  We ask: Why not plant
> native stock rather than using the strategy of cut and hope?
> 
> Here is the crux and where birders need to get involved.  The simply is no
> native stock available.  It is not gown by nurseries or greenhouses.  So
> there is not an alternative to cut and hope.
> 
> What can we do?  I don't know, I have some ideas, but during this biggest
> week in American Birding I am hoping this becomes a topic of discussion
> among all the birders who are gathered in our state.  What do they do
> elsewhere?  What might work?  How can efforts to create native plant stock
> be funded?
> 
> If there is something all birders agree upon it is that we want high quality
> habitat for our birds.  The next question is: Are we as a community willing
> to put up the brain power, the time, and the money to create or restore that
> habitat in our state's natural areas and preserves our birds depend upon?
> 
> So when you see that Garlic Mustard, Honeysuckle or Glossy Buckthorn, ask
> what can we do?  While we don't want these invasives in our favorite bird
> habitat, we do want plants so we have bugs to feed the birds.  There must be
> a solution.  What is it?
> 
> Haans Petruschke
> Kirtland
> 
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