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Hellbenders have been rapidly declining since the 1980s due to various factors, including poor water quality.  Many ecological issues contribute to poor water quality, and one important issue we can focus on is how we use the land around rivers and streams. Livestock operations produce a lot of nutrients – largely in the form of manure. When next to a river, this can flow into the water, which reduces water quality through the high nutrient input and added sedimentation.  However, livestock owners can greatly reduce the impact of their operations on water quality using a number of different management practices.

In this new video “Improving Water Quality at Your Livestock Operation,” we focus on how livestock owners can use management practices on their farm that improve water quality while still meeting their production goals. Bob Sawtelle, a livestock owner along the Blue River, uses a forested riparian buffer to filter out runoff from his cattle pen, resulting in cleaner water and healthier wildlife. In this video, he discusses the ecological and economic benefits to this practice in further detail.

Please visit the Help the Hellbender website for more information about other management practices that improve water quality, and also check out the National Resource Conservation Services website (NRCS) for news and other information related to soil and resource conservation.

Resources:
Improving Water Quality At Your Livestock Operation – The Education Store, Purdue Extension Resource Center
Improving Water Quality Around Your Farm – The Education Store
Options for Farmers – Help the Hellbender
Identifying Benefits and Barriers Associated with Reforesting Riparian Corridors – Purdue Engineering
Riparian Area Management – United States Environmental Protection Agency

Megan Kuechle, Undergraduate Extension Intern
Purdue Department of Forestry and Natural Resources

Dr. Rod Williams, Associate Head of FNR Extension and Associate Professor of Wildlife Science
Purdue Department of Forestry and Natural Resources

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Hellbenders have been rapidly declining since the 1980s due to various factors, including poor water quality.  Poor water quality is caused by a variety of ecological issues, one of which is land use along the river. Farmers can reduce the impact of their farming practices on water quality using a number of different management practices.

In this new video “Improving Water Quality Around Your Farm,” we focus on how farmers can use management practices on their farm that improves water quality while still meeting their production goals. Todd Armstrong, a farmer on the Blue River, uses cover crops and no till farming to reduce soil erosion and describes the ecological and economic benefits to these practices in this video.

Please visit the Help the Hellbender website for more information regarding other management practices that improve water quality, and also check out the National Resource Conservation Services website (NRCS) for news and other information related to soil and resource conservation.

Resources:
Improving Water Quality Around Your Farm – The Education Store, Purdue Extension Resource Center
Options for Farmers – Help the Hellbender
Water Quality – National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)
Managing Cover Crops: An Introduction to Integrating Cover Crops Into a Corn-Soybean Rotation – The Education Store
Adoption of Agricultural Conservation Practices: Insights from Research and Practice – The Education Store

Megan Kuechle, Undergraduate Extension Intern
Purdue Department of Forestry and Natural Resources

Dr. Rod Williams, Associate Head of FNR Extension and Associate Professor of Wildlife Science
Purdue Department of Forestry and Natural Resources

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Have you ever wanted to set up your own scent station? Here’s a great video that will teach you how! Scent stations are a non-invasive alternative to other trapping methods for determining what species of wildlife populate an area. Scent stations work by using a scent lure surrounded by sand in which animals will leave their tracks. These tracks can then be identified later for each species that visits the scent station.

However, it can be difficult to set up an animal scent station for the first time. In this video, Robert Cordes, assistant regional wildlife biologist at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, shows you step-by-step how to construct your own scent station.

“How to Construct a Scent Station” is a companion to Lesson 2 in The Nature of Teaching’s Unit 1: Animal Diversity and Tracking. This free lesson plan includes a data sheet you can fill out after setting up your scent station, as well as other fun projects that can be used in a classroom. You can find other free lesson plans at the Nature of Teaching website with topics like food webs, watersheds, and the scientific method.

Resources:
How to Construct a Scent Station – The Education Store, Purdue Extension Resource Center
The Nature of Teaching Unit 1: Animal Diversity and Tracking – The Education Store
The Nature of Teaching – Purdue Extension
Nature Publications – The Nature of Teaching

Megan Kuechle, Undergraduate Extension Intern
Purdue Department of Forestry and Natural Resources

Dr. Rod Williams, Associate Head of Extension and Associate Professor of Wildlife Science
Purdue Department of Forestry and Natural Resources

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Pesticides are a great way for farmers and homeowners to protect plants against insects and disease. However, sometimes pesticide ends up where it isn’t supposed to – on neighboring properties like homes, schools, and parks. This is called pesticide drift, and it can be very dangerous to your health and damaging to property. You have the legal right to be free from pesticide drift, and it is important to be able to recognize it and understand what to do next if you are experiencing it. Purdue Extension-Pesticide Program has a new publication titled “Options for Dealing with a Pesticide Drift Incident” sharing resources to help simplify that process, explore what exactly pesticide drift is, what causes it, and what steps you can take to resolve it. The publication is available as a free download in The Education Store, so those interested can take a look and be sure to stay safe and informed about pesticide drift.

Resources:
Options for Dealing with a Pesticide Drift Incident – The Education Store, Purdue Extension Resource Center
Driftwatch: Watch Out for Pesticide Drift and Organic Production – Purdue Extension
Agricultural Plant Pest Control – The Education Store
Purdue Pesticide Programs – Purdue Agriculture
National Pesticide Information Center – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
District Forester (forestry landowners with 10+acres) – Indiana Department of Natural Resources
Directory of Professional Foresters – Indiana Forestry & Woodland Owners Association

Michael O’Donnell, Purdue Extension Educator of Delaware County
Purdue University Department of Botany and Plant Pathology

Roy Ballard, Purdue Extension Educator of Hancock County
Purdue University Department of Agriculture

Fred Whitford, Clinical Engagement Professor of Purdue Pesticide Programs
Purdue University Department of Botany and Plant Pathology

Joe Becovitz, Pesticide Investigator
Office of Indiana State Chemist

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When you hear about endangered species, most of us think about the plights of our furry or feathered friends.

This article describes the plight of some of the less cuddly members of the endangered species list.

Indiana is home to a number of endangered and threatened tree species. In this multi-part series, we will identify some of these tree species and describe some of their unique characteristics.

Our second species is the Butternut (Juglans cinerea), known also by lemon-nut, oil nut, or white walnut. It is a close relative of the more common black walnut. Butternut is a small/medium sized tree that most often reaches a maximum height of 60 to 90 ft., although some trees as tall as 120 ft. have been reported. This short-lived tree often has a forked or crooked trunk and wide-spreading branches, although it can grow straight in forest settings. It rarely reaches 75 years of age or greater than 24 in dbh. Butternut trees are easily grown and have quickly developing fibrous root systems. Butternuts produce both male and female flowers on the same tree and have bright green compound pinnate leaves (alternate) that extend to between 15 and 25 inches.

Butternut trees are more valued for their nuts than for lumber as the nuts are sweet and prized as a food source by both humans and wildlife. In fact, these trees served as one of the primary mast species for numerous woodland species prior to its sudden population decline. The average seed-bearing age for butternut is 20 and becomes optimal between 30 and 60 years. Heavy crops occur every 2 to 3 years but nuts are produced each year after seed-bearing age is reached. Butternut is able to naturally hybridize with several other walnut (Juglans) species. The nuts collected from most Juglans spp. including butternut can vary in size and shape however, distinctive differences among species can be noted.

Similar to black walnut, the roots of butternut trees release a chemical known as juglone. Juglone (5 hydroxy-1, 4 naphthoquinone) is toxic to a number of plant species. Planting ornamental plants such as azaleas, lilacs, peonies, and rhododendrons, or fruits and vegetables like blueberries, eggplants, peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes near butternut trees is discouraged, as juglone from the butternut roots may kill them or stunt their growth. The toxic zone around walnuts extends 60 to 80 ft. from the base of the trunk, or about twice the size of the crown, and it is likely the same for butternut. Juglone has never been shown to harm humans, but butternut husks exude a strong dye that stains clothing and skin.

Butternut was once a common tree in North America. Its range was expansive; in Canada from Manitoba east to Quebec, south to Georgia and west to Arkansas. In the past, the states with the most robust butternut timber trades were West Virginia, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Tennessee. Butternut trees are found almost exclusively in mixed hardwood forests composed primarily of basswood (Tilia spp.), black cherry (Prunus serotina), beech (Fagus grandifolia), black walnut (Juglans nigra), elm (Ulmus spp.), hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), hickory (Carya spp.), Oak (Quercus spp.), red maple (Acer rubrum), sugar maple (A. saccharum), yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), white ash (Fraxinus americana), and yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis), although in the northernmost portions of its range it can also be found with sweet birch (Betula lenta) or white pine (Pinus strobus). Typically, a stand only contains a few butternut trees as they thrive best among mixed forests.

The ranges of butternut and black walnut (Juglans nigra) are similar, however butternut is found farther north and at higher elevations (1500 m) than black walnut. Unfortunately, butternut tree populations have declined significantly throughout the majority of its former range. Conservative estimates have indicated that roughly 13,000 trees remain in Ontario and between 7,000 and 17,000 in New Brunswick. The Forest Service estimated that greater than 77 percent of butternut populations in the southeastern United States had succumbed to the fungus twenty years ago. Today, those estimates approach 90 percent nationwide. A subset of these remaining trees are nearly dead and carrying heavy infection loads, while most of the remaining trees are not reproducing.

A fungal disease known as butternut canker has decimated populations of butternut trees throughout their native range. The causal agent of butternut canker is Ophiognomonia clavigignenti-juglandacearum. The speed at which butternut populations have disappeared has led many to believe that butternut canker was yet another introduced pathogen. The primary hallmarks of butternut canker disease are numerous branch and stem cankers. These lesions are typically elliptical in shape and have sunken centers with a dark brown or black exudate stain that can be easily seen against butternut’s ashy grey bark.

Aside from butternut canker disease, butternuts are also in danger from a host of insect pests such as bark beetles, the butternut curculio, defoliators, husk flies, lace bugs, nut weevils, and wood borers. Unlike the American chestnut (Castanea dentata), the tree described in our first blog entry on trees at risk, the great majority of butternut do not sprout after stem death. Butternut is now rare everywhere, but most of the few populations that still exist are found in riparian areas. At present, insufficient knowledge about management of butternut and how to regenerate butternut seedlings in natural forest stands has hindered strategies for conservation. Some butternut trees have survived; these paltry few trees may show some resistance to butternut canker, but that is still being evaluated. A Japanese Juglans species, Japanese walnut (Juglans ailantifolia), appears more resistant to butternut canker than is butternut, so researchers in Tennessee have begun butternut restoration using hybrids between Japanese walnut and butternut. A breeding strategy using these hybrids, known by the common name buartnut or buarts, may be a promising avenue for the restoration of a butternut-type tree to the eastern forest. Backcrossing buarts to butternuts and development of a disease screening technique could be a step towards restoring this species, however progress towards this goal has been slow.

Resources:
Surviving Butternut Trees Benefit From Better Sites Rather than Disease Resistance – USDA Forest Service
A Forest Manger’s Guide to Butternut – USDA Forest Service
Butternut Profile – USDA Forest Service
Endangered Trees of Indiana: Part 1 – American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) – Got Nature?
The Morton Arboretum 

Shaneka Lawson, USDA Forest Service and HTIRC Research Plant Physiologist & Adjunct Assistant Professor
Purdue University Department of Forestry and Natural Resources

Keith Woeste, Adjunct Professor Emeritus, USDA Forest Service and HTIRC Research Plant Physiologist
Purdue University Department of Forestry and Natural Resources

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