Below the water’s surface lurks danger. A voraciously monstrous creature devours nearly half its body-weight each day in an attempt to cure its insatiable appetite. An unsuspecting boater enters the territory, and the beast breaches the water, violently hurling itself through the air toward the boat’s startled and horrified occupant.

Sound like another creature has risen from the Black Lagoon? If only it was so, but this creature is not fictional. Last February, I wrote about the Emerald Ash Borer’s destruction of millions of our country’s native ash trees, and now there’s another invasive species making headlines as it threatens to invade the Great Lakes Region.

It’s the Asian Carp, and it has the ability to quickly dominate every waterbody it enters … and it’s about to enter the largest body of freshwater in the world. I first heard about Asian Carp a couple of months ago when I read about a massive fish kill planned by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The kill was to take place when the electrical barrier in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was shut down for routine maintenance. Both the barrier and the kill are efforts to keep the fish out of Lake Michigan.

An electrical fish barrier – the world’s largest, designed to keep fish from the world’s largest freshwater supply? Planned massive fish kills? Asian carp? Call it a case of being unaware until it hits close to home, but I had no idea these things existed.

The Asian carp though, have been in this country since the sixties when they were brought to Arkansas by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a biological control for aquatic weeds, and for use as pond cleaners in fish farms. Though they may have escaped earlier, it’s thought the Mississippi flooding in 1990 escalated the problem. Because the fish are prolific breeders, they are now the dominant species in many parts of the Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Columbia and Platte Rivers, and their tributaries, making up to 97 percent percent of the fish population in areas of heavy infestation. There are two electrical barriers which operate much in the same way as do electrical livestock fences. They are considered the last line of defense between the Mississippi River Basin and the Great Lakes Basin, but must be shut down periodically for maintenance.

Native to China, Russia, and Vietnam, four species are lumped under the generic term “Asian carp.” All four species – the black, grass, bighead and silver carp – have no known predators, and can quickly deplete the food supply of other fish species. Feeding on plankton, they consume up to 40 percent of their body weight, effectively starving out other fish. The effects eventually make its way up the food chain so that scientists fear even the bigger game fish – sturgeon, salmon and trout – may become endangered.

The biggest threat comes from the bighead and silver species. The bighead – a fish without a stomach – constantly eats, growing to lengths of 4 feet, and weighing in at 85 to 100 pounds. It is an eating, reproducing machine. The smaller silver carp, weighing a mere 50 pounds, is a danger to boaters, jet-skiers and other recreational water vehicles, as it has a tendency to leap from the water when disturbed, causing broken bones and other serious injuries to humans unfortunate enough to get hit by the airborne fish. Full of “free-floating” bones, the fish are considered useless commercially for human consumption.

I respect Lake Michigan; I feel lucky to live on her shoreline and would not dream of living anywhere else. I hate to think how the carp will destroy the lake I love. But the carp problem goes far deeper than do the beautiful waters of the lake. If the fish make it into the Lake Michigan, the estimated dollar amount impact is between 4.5 and 7 billion to commercial fishing and recreation industries … which does not figure the impact they’ll have on the ecosystem. And it doesn’t stop there. Once they’ve gained entry into the Great Lakes, speculation says they’ll eventually infest Canada’s river system, and possibly enter our eastern states via the St. Lawrence and Hudson rivers.

Michigan filed lawsuit with the Supreme Court, with the backing of Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, in an attempt to force the closing of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The man-made canal, called one of the greatest engineering feats of the 20^th century, is the only link between the Mississippi River Basin and the Great Lakes.

It’s thought that closing the canal would halt the Asian carp and any other invasive species from entering the Great Lakes, and is critical for preservation and restoration of the lakes. Quoted in USA Today, Marc Gaden of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, jointly operated by the United States and Canada, says “We have to take care of this problem permanently. We need pure biological separation between the Mississippi River basin and the Great Lakes basin …We don’t have time to wait … this is an emergency.”

My gut-reaction is to close the canal, and do it immediately. But the solution is not so simple. I live on the Michigan side of the lake; Chicagoans view it from a different perspective. Forcing the canal’s closing would mean a loss of billions of dollars in revenue from Chicago’s fishing, shipping, and tourist industries.

In late January, the Supreme Court rejected Michigan’s suit, citing shipping loss and the fear of Chicago flooding as reasons. The same day Chicago shippers and fishermen rejoiced the court’s decision, carp DNA was found in Lake Michigan – though the presence of DNA does not mean the carp have actually entered the lake yet. The first day of a mid-February two week fishing expedition on the canal yielded no actual carp, the cold winter waters possibly keeping them inactive and on the bottom of the canal.

The debate still rages at public hearings in both Michigan and Chicago. A February 17^th article in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Journal Sentinel, quotes Robert Agra, a Chicago cruise line operator as saying, “Closing the locks in the Chicago area will not stop the carp, but it will destroy the Chicago tour boat industry.”

The rebuttal from the environmental group, Clean Water Action, is that closing the lock is the best option right now. “Protecting the narrow shipping interests cannot outweigh protecting the Great Lakes from an economic and ecologic disaster,” says Susan Harley, spokeswoman for the group.

It deeply saddens me to know the beauty and ecology of one of our greatest natural resources hangs in the balance while humans try to decide how to correct yet another problem we, ourselves, have created. What’s your opinion?

For a dramatic look at Asian carp on the Mississippi and its tributaries, check out this two-part mini-documentary on YouTube. Filmed in 2006, the videos, totaling about 15 minutes combined, give a good perspective of the destruction this invasive species has caused.

Asian Carp Invasion Part I 

Asian Carp Invasion Part II

(Photo of silver carp courtesy of the Illinois River Biological Station)

In winter, when many gardeners are planning, ordering from seed catalogs, and dreaming of spring and the day they can get out there and dig, I’m just thrilled to see that the dirt stains are finally gone from beneath my fingernails and hands. I work all day helping customers plan their gardens, choose their plants, answer their questions, and then come home and tend my own gardens. When the nursery closes for the season, and the plants are resting, it’s my time to rest too. I am not a garden planner, plotter, or hatcher of good ideas during these cold months. I couldn’t enjoy winter to its fullest if I was busy planning for the next season. But still….I can’t really forget about gardening entirely for a whole season. I get my fix by catching up on garden-related reading, and by attending seminars and lectures on the topic. 

If you are one of those who plan ahead (I’m breaking my no-planning habit for this one), why not plan for a little extra and "Plant a Row for the Hungry"? The Plant a Row for the Hungry initiative is a nationwide campaign to provide fresh, healthy produce to those in need. The premise of PAR is simple: plant an extra row of vegetables and donate the harvest to a local food pantry or soup kitchen. Since 1995, over 14 million pounds of produce have been grown, providing over 50 million meals donated by American gardeners. 

Due to the economic situation in this country, a rapidly increasing number of Americans are turning to food banks for hunger relief. Reports show an unprecedented number of them are middle-class families and first time visitors. Alarmingly, many of them are turned away because there is a lack of available resources. Billy Shore, the founder and executive director of Share Our Strength, an organization working to end childhood hunger in America says, “Relief groups are getting hit hard by the same economic factors affecting those they serve. In these tough times, they need support from caring, everyday Americans more than ever." 

When learning about PAR, I got excited and started making phone calls. Through the help of a local social service agency, I was led to a church in town that serves “Open Door” dinners to anyone in need of a hot meal. Every Tuesday night, they provide a sit-down meal to between 80 and 100 people and prepare about 120 take-out meals. Speaking with the pastor, he said they’ve seen an influx of people served in the past year, and would be delighted to have donations of produce. Any surplus will go to the local food pantry. I’ve got gardeners and a small farm more than willing to commit space and time to growing vegetables for the program. Because the produce will go toward providing that many meals at one time, we will be concentrating on one vegetable this first year: green beans. They’re easy to grow, produce a lot for a long period of time and have a longer storage-life than many other vegetables. My next step is to get the word out via our local newspaper and the Master Gardener newsletter to rally more participants. I have high hopes, and will keep you posted throughout the growing season on how the program is going.

If you’re interested in starting a Plant a Row for the Hungry campaign in your area, check out the Garden Writers Association’s website. They offer tips on getting started, support and printable brochure downloads. 

I read about PAR in a letter from the editor of GreenPrints “The Weeder’s Digest”. I ordered this unique gardening magazine as a Christmas gift to myself. The “greatest story” edition arrived a couple of weeks before Christmas. I would have promptly read it, but Shelby knew it was my gift to myself, snatched it out of my hands and wrapped it to put under the tree, telling me I had to wait until Christmas like everybody else. Drat! Sometimes what we teach them backfires. Luckily for me, the winter issue came shortly after, and I’d sneak some reading time while no one was looking. 

One of the best parts of my job at the nursery is the interaction I get each day with people who love gardening as much as I do. I’ve laughed with my customers, commiserated with them, and even cried with them as they’ve shared their personal stories revolving around their gardens. It’s stories like these that unfold in the pages of “GreenPrints”. Digest-sized, it “focuses on the human, not the how-to side of gardening.” This is a magazine for anyone who gardens not just for the harvest or for aesthetics, but for those who find that reaping the emotional benefits from gardening is just as – if not more – satisfying. I can’t wait for the Spring, 20^th Anniversary Issue to arrive. 

Another good read that isn’t just another “how-to” book is Farm City; The Education of an Urban Farmer, (Novella Carpenter. The Penguin Press, 2009). During early summer last year, I read a review about the book that promised it was “hysterical and uplifting … a wry, yet humble sense of humor … not just an informative manual for the urban homesteader, but also refreshing and highly entertaining.” I like hysterical and highly entertaining. I had to wait this long to find out for myself; my library didn’t have the book, but promised to put it on request for an inter-library loan. It finally came in, and I couldn’t put it down until I finished the last page.

It’s the author’s account of her attempts at urban farming in a ghetto neighborhood in Oakland, California. She has no desire to leave the city for the country, preferring its noise, energy, and “its late-night newsstands and rowdy bars” over the quiet isolation she knew growing up on a ranch in Idaho. But she can’t ignore what her hippie, back-to-the-land parents instilled in her: a love of nature, self-sufficiency, and the satisfaction of growing vegetables and raising animals. Amid drug dealers, the homeless, gang shootouts, and across the street from a speakeasy, Novella starts a “squatter’s garden,” complete with raised beds and fruit trees, on the vacant lot next to the house she and her boyfriend rent. She keeps bees, chickens, geese, turkey, ducks, rabbits and two pigs. Her idea of foraging for food is different than what most people have: it’s late-night dumpster diving excursions to the best restaurants in the city, to get scraps for the pigs and poultry. 

Interwoven throughout her story are tips on growing vegetables, raising animals, and of the history of the urban farm. Urban farming is not a new way of life; it’s been practiced in various parts of the world since the ancient Greece era. Even in this country, where “most Americans believe in the separation of city and country,” pockets of urban areas have been farmed, most notably in Philadephia, New York, and Detroit, since the 1800s. This is a book about the celebration of the urban farm and of life. It’s about failures and successes, sorrow and joy, birth and death, and how to richly live the life we choose. The book is everything the review I read promised, and so much more. 

Speaking of so much more … ever think about what a tree does for you and your family besides standing there, looking pretty? What if the next tree you purchased afforded you the same type of federal tax deduction as does installing a new solar heater or energy-efficient central air-conditioning? Dr. Robert Schutzki, professor in Michigan State University’s Department of Horticulture, contends it might not be too far in the future that those tax deductions will be available, and trees will have ratings similar to the Energy Star Rating. In mid-December, I attended a lecture given by Dr. Schutzki, “What Sustainability Means to the Green Industry,” in which he stated some government and other agencies are exploring those possibilities. 

There are a number of calculators which attempt to put a dollar amount on the benefits a tree provides. One I found online is very easy to use: if you’d like to see just what benefits a tree already growing in your yard provides, just type in your ZIP code or your geographic location from the provided map, choose your tree from the drop-down menu, enter the tree’s trunk diameter measured 4.5 feet from the ground, and the type of dwelling you live in. I admit, I’ve had a lot of fun wading through the snow to measure the trees in my yard, and dragging Shelby in her pajamas with me to hold the tape measure so I could take a picture; what a ham. It’s amazing what one single tree can do. 

According to the National Tree Benefit Calculator, the largest tree in our yard, a sugar maple, “provides overall benefits of $361.00 every year; the same tree if located on the California coast would have an annual benefit of $661.00. Here, on the coast of Lake Michigan, my maple will intercept 7,694 gallons of stormwater runoff. This year it will raise my property value by $138.00; it will conserve 213 kilowatt hours and reduce my natural gas consumption by 72 therms. It will reduce the amount of atmospheric carbon by 1,461 pounds. Kinda neat, huh? Especially when you consider 26 pounds of carbon dioxide equals 11,000 miles of car emissions. Actually, the sugar maple probably provides greater benefits than this; its diameter is more than 50 inches – the calculator only goes up to 45 inches. 

So there you have it – while I haven’t been busy thumbing through catalogs and ordering seeds (I didn’t even order a catalog), or plotting this year’s garden on graph paper, I have been kind of busy with gardening stuff. Or at least well-occupied. I hope you get a chance to check some of these things out, and find them as time-worthy and enjoyable as I have.