I'm doing 39 things
Untitled
1 week ago
Today I found a dime and three pennies.
Total: $10.34
Pooky's Life List
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1. Inform people about 43 invasive species
16 entries . 49 cheers1 person -
2. give away the things that I don't need
10 entries . 143 cheers39 people -
3. get lower navel pierced
12 cheers2 people -
4. get a massage
68 cheers1,094 people -
5. Make a quilt
1 entry . 45 cheers1,091 people -
6. try 43 types of chocolate
8 entries . 78 cheers7 people -
7. learn to crochet amigurumi
16 cheers49 people -
8. have a mad tea party
1 entry . 65 cheers17 people -
9. make jam
52 cheers60 people -
10. Get published in a scientific journal
57 cheers8 people -
11. Learn Japanese
1 entry . 24 cheers9,752 people -
12. visit Japan
26 cheers5,525 people -
13. create a collaged suitcase
19 cheers13 people -
14. get a masters degree
2 entries . 36 cheers2,975 people -
15. get married on halloween.
2 entries . 29 cheers13 people -
16. learn to make resin jewelry
22 cheers196 people -
17. Own a giant millipede
9 cheers1 person -
18. adopt a dog
53 cheers525 people -
19. get a corgi
1 entry . 8 cheers19 people -
20. adopt a cat
39 cheers184 people -
21. Get my wildlife rehabilitation permit
1 entry . 29 cheers1 person -
22. Become a forensic entomologist
2 entries . 22 cheers1 person -
23. Go the Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, Mexico
26 cheers8 people -
24. Buy a House
10 cheers12,582 people -
25. grow an herb garden
1 entry . 38 cheers669 people -
26. Compost
19 cheers178 people -
27. Get a pet capybara
10 cheers6 people -
28. get my tubes tied
16 cheers78 people -
29. switch to reusable menstrual products
1 entry . 12 cheers10 people -
30. Get a PhD
27 cheers2,788 people -
31. whiten my teeth
5 cheers2,066 people -
32. keep bees
32 cheers110 people -
33. make a quilt out of my favorite t-shirts
38 cheers30 people -
34. Own a hedgehog.
1 entry . 21 cheers61 people -
35. Own a hearse
6 cheers20 people -
36. take a lover
19 cheers6 people -
37. watch every Jimmy Stewart movie ever made
5 entries . 12 cheers14 people -
38. Find $100 in change
65 entries . 14 cheers120 people -
39. Go on a Road Trip by myself
8 cheers10 people
Recent entries
#15 Golden Crownbeard (Verbesina encelioides)
4 weeks ago
There are two hundred and twenty five non-native plants on Midway Atoll with Golden Crownbeard being the most invasive. In 2000 Golden Crownbeard covered 38% of the Eastern Island and 13% of Sand Island. Golden Crownbeard was probably brought to the atoll through seeds in soil imported to Midway.
Golden Crownbeard is an annual flowering shrub in the family Asteraceae. It is native to both North America and the tropics. Golden Crownbeard normally grows from one to five feet tall, but on Midway it grows up to eight feet tall. The vegetation is a grayish-green and the plant may have dozens of half inch wide yellow flowers. The leaves are ovate and half an inch wide, two and a half inches long.
Golden Crownbeard blocks the sun from native plants, competes with them for nutrients and water, though the plant is drought tolerant. Golden Crownbeard also produces chemicals that are harmful to native plants. Each flower produces up to three hundred and fifty seeds. The plant self seeds annually and the seeds are dispersed by the wind.
Midway is home to several species of endangered groundnesting seabirds and Golden Crownbeard decreases their nesting habitat because the birds won’t nest in the Golden Crownbeard stands. Stands of the plant can also grow up quickly around nesting sites preventing adult birds from feeding their chicks and preventing the chicks from getting to the ocean when they are fledging. This causes chicks to starve to death. Golden Crownbeard also hosts aphids and scale insects that attract and feed ants. The ants then may attack chicks or feed on eggs.
A management plan for Golden Crownbeard began on Midway in the 1990s but is very time and labor intensive as most methods of removing the plant would further endanger the seabirds. The program has consisted mostly of hand-pulling the plants, mowing and applying herbicide when possible. Areas where Golden Crownbeard has been removed are planted with native plants.
For more information on Midway Atoll or to help the effort to protect Midway and the seabirds please go to http://www.friendsofmidway.org/
Image from Forest & Kim Starr: http://www.hear.org/starr/
(Information from: http://www.abcbirds.org/conservationissues/threats/invasives/verbesina.html and http://www.friendsofmidway.org/Verbesina_on_Midway_Atoll_Brochure.pdf and personal communication with Christy Finlayson: http://www.umainetoday.umaine.edu/issues/v7i5/student.html)
