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Happening
at the Crossroads
May 19,
2008
by Coggin
Heeringa
Wildflower
habitats are by no means unique to Door County. Wherever there are
undisturbed woodlands, spring flowers, many considered rare, have their
day in the sun. And rare plants are precious at Crossroads at Big Creek
and in the other preserves and parks of Door County,
Rare plants
are rare because they can't grow just anywhere. A statement of the
obvious, perhaps, but this is the real reason the people must protect
their floral heritage.
Some flowers [dandelions immediately come
to mind] can survive and flourish in a broad range of growing
conditions. But rare plants are adapted to specific conditions.
In
her book Journey in Green Places, Virginia S. Eifert described rare
plants as "the haves and the have-nots---they are the ones which manage
to live with too little water or with too much water, in too much sun
or in too much shade, in too much acidity or with too little nitrogen,
in too much heat and too much cold, in too long a winter and too short
a growing period, in too much wind or in too little air.
"These
are all situations to be abhorred by many plants. Yet in this situation
of starvation and physical punishment which might destroy those which
are native to lusher regions, I find a different assortment of plants
in each kind of habitat.
"Part of the strange effect of [the
Door Peninsuala ] lies in the character of the plants themselves. Those
which do well here are, in many ways the deprived ones. They have made
the most of meager allotments of food, water, warmth, and light and
have managed not only to survive but to thrive gloriously."
Woodland
wildflowers seem to magically materialize overnight, but
wildflowers--their buds, their leaves, their abbreviated stems--were
formed during the previous growing season. Through
the winter, they remained hidden beneath the snows, waiting.
The
rapid growth of woodland flowers is a survival necessity. These plants
have the narrowest time window in which to bloom, be pollinated and set
seed. Furthermore, their leaves must gather enough solar energy for
next year's growth before the tree leaves open to form a dense canopy
and perpetual shade.
Many woodland plants require a surprising
number of growing season to gather enough energy to bloom. Any
disturbance during the developmental process can thwart blossoming, and
subsequently destroy future generations.
Throughout Door County,
thanks to people who cared-- wildflower habitat with their rich floral
diversity have been preserved in parks, natural areas, in private
sanctuaries and through purchase by organizations such as The Nature
Conservancy. Many private citizens have scrupulously protected
their land. But much..far too..has been lost.
In the words of
Eifert: "It is for us to guard the wild place, to hold on to them as
something eminently precious, never to be truly regained, once they are
lost...State parks, small back-country preserves, the clean brook
through the meadow, the big woods in the river bottoms, the ancients
plants of old dunes along the lakes, they are all part of [Wisconsin's]
background and possessions, part of our personal heritage."
This
weekend, Crossroads at Big Creek joins with The Ridges Sanctuary,
The Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy, The Clearing and the Department
of Natural
Resources in celebration the the Door
County Festival of Nature. Friday and Saturday, the Crossroads will be
offering programs as a part of the Festival.
On Sunday and
Monday, the naturalist will celebrate the holiday weekend by leading
several hikes featuring spring wildflowers. The Sunday hike will be at
1:00 and on Memorial Day, hikes will start at 10:30 and 1:00 PM
Crossroads
at Big Creek is a learning preseve located at the intersection on
Highway 42/57 and Michigan Street. Trails are free and open to the
public.
The
Collins Learning Center at Crossroads is located at on County Highway T
across from Whitetails Unlimited. To reach the Leif Everson Observatory
and Stonecipher Astronomy Center, use the Utah Street Entrance. If
skies are clear, call 746-5896 for a recorded message announcing
whether the observatory will be open.
Many of the Past News articles may be retrieved from this directory,
indexed and named in the following manner: 080101-news.htm where
the first two numbers are the year, the second two the month and the
last two the date.
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