Nature's Archive – Details, episodes & analysis

If you’ve been following Nature’s Archive for a while, you might be familiar with the idea of “leave the leaves”. It represents one simple act of omission - not raking, blowing, or mulching leaf fall - that is resoundingly positive for the environment.

But even if you think you know why leaving the leaves is helpful, I invite you to listen to today’s guest, National Wildlife Federation naturalist David Mizejewski.

If you are unfamiliar with David - let me just tell you his skill and enthusiasm for nature interpretation is second to none. 

Today, David walks us through all the ways leaves help the environment - and how bagging them up and sending them to a landfill makes a bad situation much worse.

We also discuss useful tips for keeping leaves even if you have an HOA or difficult neighbors who might think you are neglecting your space. 

So if you still have leaves in your yard, please listen and take NWF’s pledge to leave the leaves, and reap the rewards for years to come.

Be sure to follow David on instagram, and get David's Book "Attracting Birds, Butterflies, and Other Backyard Wildlife". 

FULL SHOW NOTES

People and Organizations

NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat

NWF’s Pledge to Leave the Leaves

Books and Other Things

Attracting Birds, Butterflies, and Other Backyard Wildlife - by David Mizejewski

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Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

As a nature lover, I’m often asked about my favorite plants, animals, and insects. And I always struggle to answer those questions, because I have so many favorites, and they are context dependent. But when it comes to birds, woodpeckers often come to mind first. 

They’re often colorful, charismatic, and have such an amazing set of adaptations that let them drill into trees, excavate insects from bark, and some even fly catch on the wing. 

One of the most interesting woodpecker species is the Acorn Woodpecker, found in much of the west and southwest. They live in large groups, are loud, have a clown face, and can store thousands of acorns in specially drilled holes that are just acorn sizes.

Today’s guest is Dr. Walt Koenig, who has spent several decades studying these birds, in affiliation with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and UC Berkeley. Today we’ll learn about their behaviors, why you don’t find acorn woodpeckers in the east, despite a nice variety of oak trees, and get this - acorns aren’t even their preferred food! 

Dr. Koenig has studied their breeding behaviors and group compositions, which is perhaps the most fascinating part of the interview, and I can’t do it justice in a short intro - so you’ll just have to listen.

And if one studies acorn woodpeckers, it follows that one studies acorns, too. So we also discuss the phenomenon of masting - that is, when oak trees produce bumper crops of acorns, in synchrony across wide geographic ranges! In fact, this past year was a mast year for some oak species in California. So if you are interested in what causes masting, you might want to jump to the last 23 minutes or so of the interview.

This re-release of our popular interview with Dr. Koenig is part of a playful exercise in community podcasting, with 6 different shows each producing their own stories about or inspired by the mystery of masting, and releasing them at (approximately) the same time. 

For other masting stories, check out:

• Future Ecologies
• Golden State Naturalist
• Learning from Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast
• Jumpstart Nature
• Outside/In

We’ll populate this Spotify playlist with all our stories as they come out!

FULL SHOW NOTES

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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

Have you ever wondered why some rainshowers turn into thunderstorms? Just what happens in the atmosphere to create these dynamic, exciting, and sometimes damaging storms?

I find it fascinating, because so many interesting principles are at play - things we often overlook. Like, did you know that the sun doesn’t actually directly warm the air? Yes, you heard that right.

Today we take a look at how thunderstorms develop, how they can turn tornadic, and of course, I tie this back to ecology. We discuss the three ingredients needed for thunderstorms - moisture, lift, and instability - and how sometimes even that is not enough. And then there is the fourth ingredient needed to create tornadic thunderstorms.

You may know that I’ve been a weather nut since I was a kid. Back in grade school, I was so obsessed with tornadoes that I decided I’d write a book about them. My mom would take me to the library so I could check out every weather book I could find. Then I’d head home, pull out my dad’s old typewriter, and create my own newsletter — Weather Extra. My subscriber list? Just me. But I was hooked.

So I hope you enjoy this topic, a bit different than our typical episodes!

FULL SHOW NOTES

LINKS

Example Forecast Discussion available on your National Weather Service website.

Soil Moisture and Convection: https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/apme/49/4/2009jamc2146.1.xml

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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

My guest today is Dr. Jaret Daniels. Dr. Daniels is a professor specializing in lepidoptera research and insect conservation at the University of Florida, and is curator of Lepidoptera at the  Florida Museum of Natural History. In addition to that, Dr. Daniels is the author of over a dozen books that help connect the general public to butterflies, insects, and gardening for wildlife. These include titles such as Backyard Bugs, Insects and Bugs for Kids, and Native Plant Gardening for Birds, Bees and Butterflies, which is a series of regionally-specific books.

In this episode we dive into Dr. Daniels ability to connect with the public, and how he “flips the switch” between academic endeavors and authoring for the general public. We discuss some of his specific books (links in the show notes). And he outlines why creativity is so important for public outreach. Along those lines, he tells us about the butterfly themed beer partnership with First Magnitude Brewing, which even used yeast from a butterfly!

Dr. Daniels also discusses some of his conservation activities and successes, including helping to restore the federally listed Schaus’ Swallowtail, which only lives in tropical hardwood hammock habitats in southeast Florida. This restoration also involved important efforts from community science (or citizen science) doing hard work monitoring populations in very challenging environments. This butterfly occupies a limited geographic range, meaning it is vulnerable to both habitat loss and storms such as hurricanes. Dr. Daniels discusses the recovery plan and how they intend to make Schaus' Swallowtail populations more resilient.

As you know, I love to highlight ways we can make non-traditional spaces more wildlife friendly, and this is a specialty of Dr. Daniels. We hear about how Dr. Daniels worked with the Florida Dept. of Transportation to demonstrate that reduced roadside mowing frequency was a win-win-win for drivers, the department, and insects.

And to support homeowners looking to make better plant choices, Dr. Daniels is collaborating to create a wildlife-friendly plant certification program. Additionally, Dr. Daniels reveals some surprising findings from studying attractiveness of various home landscapes in Florida. The short story: plant larger quantities of fewer "good" plants, and you'll create a better habitat than lots of variety, but with only one specimen of each species.

You can also find Dr. Daniels on twitter.

This was an enlightening discussion on a number of fronts, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

FULL SHOW NOTES

Dr. Daniel's Books
Backyard Bugs: An Identification Guide to Common Insects, Spiders, and More
Insects & Bugs for Kids: An Introduction to Entomology
Native Plant Gardening for Birds, Bees & Butterflies: A series covering the Upper Midwest, Southeast, South (coming soon)

Other Links
Plasterer Bees of the Southeast - an iNaturalist project started by the Florida Museum of Natural History looking to gather knowledge and observations about these rare bees. And more about the Plasterer Bee Project from the museum.
The Florida Museum of Natural History
The Xerces Society

Galls are beautiful and sometimes bizarre growths on plant tissues induced by another organism, such as a wasp, midge, or others. They often develop vivid colors and evocative shapes, and have fascinating natural histories.

And Adam Kranz is here to help us understand what a gall is, their lifecycles, how to find them, and about Gallformers.org, a website designed to be the authoritative resource for all USA/Canada plant galls.

Adam has a BA in Environmental Studies from Lawrence University in Wisconsin, and a Masters of Science in Natural Resources and Environmental Science from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

We also discuss some particularly amazing galls that you’ll have to hear to believe. For example, Adam explains how the larvae inside the gall may steer the plant response throughout their lifespan! Check the full show notes for photos.

We discuss techniques for identifying galls in the field, including their attributes and how to differentiate them from other plant growths. Galls are common worldwide and provide ample opportunities for discovering and describing new species.

Adam also gives a nice overview of three extremely interesting galls that are among his favorites.

• Callirhytis quercusoperator
• Dryocosmus quercuspalustris
• Callirhytis quercusgemmaria

Each of these have fascinating natural histories, including peculiarities like hollow centers with free-rolling cells, and what might be considered a gall threesome, where a second cynipid wasp comes along and entirely changes the gall’s developmental trajectory. 

You can find Adam on twitter @gallformers, and on iNaturalist @megachile.

FULL SHOW NOTES

Links
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Bugguide
Eiseman’s blog BugTracks
iNaturalist Gall Projects: California | North America

Books
Plant Galls of the Western United States, by Ronald Russo - HIGHLY recommended
Tracks and Signs of Insects and Other Invertebrates by Charley Eiseman - HIGHLY recommended
Weld Cynipid Books: Free! See the full show notes

Podcasts
Charley Eiseman
Dr. Doug Tallamy

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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

My guests in this episode are Dr. Carrie Olson-Manning and Sydney Kreutzmann. Dr. Olson-Manning is an Assistant Professor at Augustana University, has a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Genetics from Duke University, and leads the Olson-Manning Lab which focuses on understanding how biochemical pathways evolve.

Sydney Kreutzmann is a Research Technician in Dr. Olson-Manning's lab, working on a number of research and outreach efforts.

In today’s episode, we focus on milkweed, and in particular, the Common Milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, of the eastern United States, and the Showy Milkweed, Asclepias speciosa, of the arid west. Dr. Olson-Manning’s lab is studying how these two species hybridize in the transition zone in the Great Plains, where humid eastern climates give way to arid western climates. They discuss some of their initial findings, but as is often the case, each discovery opens up many new questions.

But to do milkweeds justice, we also get deep into many broader aspects of milkweed, discussing their diversity, speciation, and ranges. No discussion of milkweed is complete without coverage of milkweed toxicity, and the unique animals that rely on it despite this toxicity. And of course, this means some Monarch butterfly talk. But did you know that there are at least 10 other species that rely on milkweed as part of their lifecycle?

And one other amazing fact - milkweed produce dopamine. Yes, the same dopamine that you and I rely on. You’ll have to listen to hear how it is put to use.

Be sure to check out Dr. Olson-Manning's lab, milkweedflower.org for more details on the common and showy milkweed hybridization research, and their instagram. You can also follow the Olson-Manning lab on iNaturalist, and join their iNaturalist project that tracks observations of the Showy and Common milkweeds and their hybrids.

Full Show Notes Here

Links and References
Past Episodes Mentioned

• Pollinator Posse and the Western Monarch
• Charley Eiseman and Leafminers

Books and Resources
Monarchs and Milkweed by Anurag Agrawal, also available as an audiobook!
Monarch Joint Venture - a resource mentioned by Dr. Olson-Manning
What Milkweed To Plant - PDF showing which species to plan by region of the USA

People, Organizations, and Other Things
Dr. Steven Matzner - collaborator
iNaturalist - anyone can use this wonderful resource to learn about the plants, animals, fungi, and other things living in their area.
Mead's Milkweed - a milkweed species that is threatened
Tropical Milkweed - is NOT recommended by Xerces Society. We discuss this briefly in the episode.

Note: links to books are affiliate links

My guest today is Brandon Kong. Brandon is a conservation field technician at Stanford University, is studying Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Santa Cruz, and has a particular passion for “herping” , which is looking for and studying the nature of reptiles and amphibians. Brandon’s studies and field work give him plenty of hands-on herping experience, and he shares many of his amazing finds on his YouTube and Instagram channels.

We had two primary goals for today - discuss what herping is and how to do it, and dive deeper into the California Tiger Salamander, which is the subject of Brandon’s conservation efforts and studies.

The topic of herping is immense. After all, it covers snakes, lizards, newts, salamanders, frogs, toads, and more. And species diversity and behaviors vary dramatically across habitats.

Despite the enormity of the topic, I think we pulled it off! In this episode you’ll learn about how to find herps and where to look, weather dependencies, and the ethics and etiquette of herping. These are sensitive animals with fragile habitats, so this is particularly important.

Along the way we also discuss Brandon’s experiences with the Prairie Rattlesnake and Project RattleCam, Next we move into the amazing world of the California Tiger Salamander, and learn about what makes them so unique. Brandon offers some tricks of the trade in tracking and identifying unique individuals, as well as discusses the challenges of road mortality.

Brandon also offers great resources for would-be herpers looking to learn more.

And one note about today’s recording - I’m trying very hard to maintain my episode release schedule on top of my day job and family demands. To that end, I purchased some new audio editing software that promises to save a lot of time. I used the software for the first time for this episode, and yes, there is a learning curve. There were some things it did well that I couldn’t have done previously, but there were also some things that I learned to do differently in the future. Thanks for your patience as I work to sustain and scale the show.

FULL SHOW NOTES

People, Organizations and Things
Chytrid Fungus - article about this destructive pathogen that threatens global amphibians
Enormous congregations of garter snakes in Manitoba, and a video
Life in Cold Blood - David Attenborough 5 episode series
Project RattleCam citizen science project to help scientists learn about rattlesnake behavior led by Dr. Emily Taylor and Dr. Scott Boback

Books and Resources
California Herps - website for herps in California
Field Guides by Robert Stebbins and Samuel McGinnis: Peterson Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians is a good guide for the western USA, and Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of California goes into depth for California.
The Field Herping Guide by Mike Pingleton and Joshua Holbrook
i3s Spot - Software Brandon uses to identify specific individual tiger salamanders by photo

Today's guest is Dr. Doug Tallamy, and let me say up-front that the episode title doesn't really do justice to our wide ranging discussion!

Doug Tallamy is the T. A. Baker Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored over 100 research publications and has taught insect related courses for 40 years. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. His book Bringing Nature Home  was published by Timber Press in 2007 and was awarded the 2008 Silver Medal by the Garden Writers' Association. Nature’s Best Hope  (2020) a New York Times Best Seller, and his latest book The Nature of Oaks was released by Timber Press in 2021. Dr. Tallamy is the recipient of numerous awards for his conservation and communication efforts.

Today we discuss the aforementioned The Nature of Oaks.

Oaks aren't just a little important, but stand well above others in terms of the number of insects they support. Why is this important? As you'll hear, the majority of birds require insects to raise young, and not only that, but immense numbers of caterpillars. And this is just scratching the surface of the food web impacts. We also talk about gall-making wasps that use oaks, and the parasitoid wasps that rely on those gall-making wasps! Dr. Tallamy gives a great introduction into gall maker life histories.

We discuss some basic ecological concepts in relation to oaks, including keystone species, trophic levels and energy transfer. We consider the roles oaks played back when our forests were more diverse, before the American Chestnut was wiped out, before Dutch Elm Disease wiped out 75% of mature elms, and before the current die-off of eastern Ash trees.

Doug discussing semi-random acorn masting, and reviews the four fascinating hypothesis as to why this is.

Doug started Homegrown National Park (instagram) that helps people understand the critical connection they have with functional food webs and ecosystems. We discuss how Homegrown National Park came to be, how to help people make yards more ecologically functional, and some tips and suggestions for connecting with people if you too want to advocate for this good cause.

FULL SHOW NOTES

MORE LINKS
California Native Plant Society CalScape native plant finder
Kenneth V. Rosenberg - lead author of study showing 3 billion birds have been lost
Michelle Alfandari - Partnered with Doug to create Homegrown National Park
Sudden Oak Death
Tammany Baumgarten - advocate for the "10 step program" to make insect problems disappear

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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

My guest today is Danielle Husband. Danielle is a graduate student studying dragonflies and damselflies at the McIntyre Lab at Texas Tech University. In particular, she is studying the west Texas playas, salinas, and urban catchments, and their suitability for odonates.

Today’s episode is full of great topics. We discuss the importance of wetlands in general, and drill down into the specifics of the semi-arid environment of west Texas. The playas and salinas of west Texas are fascinatingly unique, and also play a critical role in the groundwater system of the Ogallala Aquifer.

The Ogallala Aquifer is one of the largest groundwater sources in the world, and critical for much of the United State’s agriculture. Aquifers are being drawn down throughout the world, and the Ogallala is no exception. Playas and other wetlands and waterways “recharge” these aquifers, but is it enough to offset the extraction? Danielle describes the challenges of recharge and aquifer depletion.

We then dive into Danielle’s primary area of research - odonates. She covers the basics of odonata life history, including some differences between damselflies and dragonflies. And did you know some dragonfly species are migratory? Danielle also describes how she constructed the odonate surveying protocol she uses in her field research, some of the interesting discoveries she has made, and helpful tips for naturalists to find and identify dragonflies.

It was a wide-ranging and fun discussion that I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

Find Danielle on Instagram.

People, Organizations, and Websites
Dragonfly Pond Watch Project - Monitoring program for migratory dragonflies that anyone with regular pond or wetland access can participate in.
Dragonfly Society of the Americas
Golden Gate Raptor Observatory
McIntyre Lab at Texas Tech University
Odonata Central

Books and Other Things
IUCN Global Wetland Outlook Report - from 2018
Dragonflies and Damselflies of the West by Dennis Paulson – one of the best field guides I’ve found - a bit large for the field but worth it
Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East by Dennis Paulson – the Eastern USA version of the above
Dragonflies and Damselflies: A Natural History - by Dennis Paulson
Ogallala Blue: Water and Life on the Great Plains - by William Ashworth
Playas of the Great Plains - by Loren Smith (University of Texas Press)
Urban Areas Create Refugia for Odonates in a Semi-Arid Region - by Danielle M. Husband and Nancy E. McIntyre

"Just because it's a view you've seen your whole life doesn't mean it's a normal, healthy forest."

See full show notes here, with links to all topics discussed.

My guest today is Dr. Justin Angle, creator of the podcast series “Fireline”, which dives into the realities of wildfire in the western USA.

Justin is Associate Professor of Marketing at The University of Montana in Missoula. He earned his Ph.D. and MBA from the Michael G. Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. Justin also produces his own interview podcast called A New Angle.

Today we focus on the “Fireline” podcast series, released earlier this year through Montana Public Radio. If you haven’t heard it, the seven episodes cover different aspects of wildfire. The series presents multiple points of view with a goal to demonstrate that the topic is complicated and nuanced, and we all have a role to play in finding solutions.

Today, we discuss many of Fireline's topics, including:
- How wildfire impacts can be both positive and negative, depending on perspective and context.
- The complexities of how years of wildfire policy and suppression have affected fire behavior, and how rising temperatures catalyzes more and larger fires.
- The growth of the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) and how that creates more negative human impacts.
- Relatively recent research showing that wind-blown embers can be a primary driver to fire spread and a primary risk to homes - not the towering flame front that we often envision. This changes how communities and homeowners need to prepare, which quickly turns into a sociology problem more than a science problem.

Any discussion of wildfire is incomplete without investigating human history and influence on wildfire, and Fireline covers indigenous use of fire through the perspective of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes, as well as some fascinating anthropological research.

We also review Justin’s atypical route to creating the show, and the process and partners he engaged to make it a reality. Fireline was produced at the peak of the pandemic, requiring Justin and his team to pivot multiple times.

You may also be interested in my interview with Rick Halsey of the California Chaparral Institute, where we took a deep dive into wildfire behavior, especially in chaparral habitats.

Catching Fire by Richard Wrangham
Fire in Paradise - on Netflix
Life with Fire - wildfire podcast
Fireline's Collaborators: Jeff Hull, Nick Mott, Victor Yvellez, Josh Burnham, Aj Williams
Cathy Whitlock
Jim See
Kimi Barrett
Libby and Alex Metcalf
Lily Clarke
Richard Wrangham
Steve Pyne - fire historian with several excellent books
Tony Incashola Jr and Sr - Father and Son
Wildfire Adapted Missoula