11/16/09

Frogs Love Autumn Leaves

The falling leaves drift by the window

The autumn leaves of red and gold

—from the song Autumn Leaves

Recently we had a post about how “messy backyards” help wildlife. Since I wrote that post, I came across a wonderful article, “Leaf litter is an Environmental Windfall,” by Master Gardener Vera Strader. She explains why autumn leaves are a boon to wildlife and help enrich the soil.

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Leaves provide shelter to insects such as earthworms, pillbugs, millipedes, which provides food for toads, frogs, and other small animals. Birds require protein from insects to feed their young. Leaf litter also fosters living soils with huge numbers of soil bacteria, fungi, and nematodes. Strader writes that, “leaves provide a down-like comforter for small animals.”

This past summer, I saw this process occur in my own backyard. I had to clip back all the grape vines on our building’s fire escape for safety reasons. I didn’t get around to getting rid of the pile of leaves and vines until a month or two later. I went to bag the material to throw it away and found dozens of earthworms under it. So I left the pile for the earthworms. Next spring these earthworms will go in my garden (and I’m sure will be a nice snack for some birds, too).

Strader offers practical tips for dealing with fallen leaves. Here are a few:

  • Blow or rake leaves to an unused part of the yard or compost the leaves. (Note: I recently received the Gardener’s Supply catalog, which has a simple wire box that can be used for composting leaves).
  • Keep litter and mulch away from plant stems and stalks to prevent crown rot.
  • On the lawn, use a mulching or rotary lawnmower to shred the leaves, then leave them on the grass to nourish it.
  • Dispose of leaf litter below diseased plants, such as roses, peonies, irises, etc
  • Avoid sending leaves to landfill. Yard waste consumes a huge amount of space and creates methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

As Strader writes, “Leave the leaves to save time and money, enrich soil, help sustain wildlife, and benefit water and air quality. Mother Nature will thank you.”

By the way, we’ve received some great photos of wildlife-friendly backyards. Just click on the gallery on the right of this post for the wildlife backyard gallery. Feel free to send in photos of your backyard and we’ll post them in our gallery.

11/10/09

Green Books Campaign: Chasing Molecules

This review is part of the Green Books campaign. Today 100 bloggers are reviewing 100 great books printed in an environmentally friendly way. Our goal is to encourage publishers to get greener and readers to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books. This campaign is organized by Eco-Libris, a green company working to green up the book industry by promoting the adoption of green practices, balancing out books by planting trees, and supporting green books. A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris website.

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In CHASING MOLECULES: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry (Island Press, 2009), Elizabeth Grossman, an acclaimed investigative journalist, chronicles the effects of petroleum-based synthetic chemicals in ordinary consumer products on human health and to the environment. These chemicals may even change, at a molecular level, the way our our bodies work. The consequences range from diabetes to cancer, reproductive and neurological disorders.

These synthetic chemicals are ubiquitous in the products we use every day:

  • flame-resistant plastics
  • waterproof coatings for textiles and food packaging (like popcorn bags)
  • children’s plastic toys
  • flexible plastic tubing
  • nail polish
  • nonstick pans
  • plastic food and beverage containers
  • sunscreen
  • carpets and furniture

Chemicals from these products make their way—through the air, water, and soil—in our environment, our food, and our bodies. In addition, toxic chemicals that were once frozen in Arctic ice are now being released into the air and water as the ice melts because of global warming.

The chemicals can even alter one’s genes in a process scientists call epigenetics. The introduction of a chemical foreign to the body may change the way the gene interacts with other molecules in the cell’s nucleus. Exposure early in life—particularly before or just after birth—seems to be the prime time for these kinds of changes to occur. But epigenetic screening is not part of routine chemical testing of a chemical.

One example that surprised me was the effect of the chemical tributyltin, which is used as a wood preservative, glass coating, and many other uses. In animal studies, it was found that exposure to tributyltin increased the number of fat cells, thus possibly setting into motion a genetic propensity at birth for obesity.

Despite this gloomy scenario, Grossman offers hope in the burgeoning field of green chemistry. She argues that we don’t have to do without these products. Rather, industries need to create products that are “benign by design.” These new compounds will mimic rather than disrupt natural systems. Through interviews with leading researchers, Grossman gives us a first look at this radical transformation.

Don’t be put off by the word “molecules” in the title. I’m not a chemist, yet I found Chasing Molecules to be an extremely absorbing, but not a highly technical, read. It’s a 21st-century Silent Spring, very readable but sometimes shocking. Her message is an urgent wake-up call for industries to invest in green chemistry and to create products that won’t harm people and the environment.

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NOTE: Along with the review copy, we received a hand-out written by Grossman with information about the safety of various consumer products. Grossman is careful and measured, never hysterical. We thought it might be useful to share her suggestions (buying children’s toy, plastic containers, etc) with FROGS ARE GREEN readers in the next couple of weeks.

11/7/09

Frogs: Angels of the Forest

In early September, we wrote a post about The Prince’s Rainforest Project contest to name its rainforest frog mascot. I’ve just learned that they picked a name: Orifiel, which means angel of the forest.
Meet Orifiel

Meet Orifiel

I did a little research because I had never heard of this angel. Orifiel is an archangel, one of the angels that are part of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions. Unlike the more charismatic angels like Gabriel, Rafael, or Michael, Orifiel is a bit more mysterious. In fact, I could only find information about him/her on a couple of angelology sites. On these sites, Orifiel is described as the angel of the wilderness who helps save the wild areas of earth.

We like the image of frogs as angels of the wildnerness!

11/4/09

Frog Call of the Week: Spring Peepers

Can you tell the difference between crickets and spring peepers? I used to get confused sometimes between the sound of crickets chirping and frogs calling. Some frogs have bird-like calls. In anticipation of next spring, and in hopes of becoming better Frog Watchers, we are highlighting one frog call per week. We’ll start with familiar frogs in North America, but will also feature frogs from around the world. Below you’ll hear spring peepers and crickets so you can learn to tell the difference. Actually, it’s kind of fun to play the videos at the same time, too!

Spring peeper calling:

Crickets chirping:

If you would like us to highlight a particular frog call, please let us know!

10/29/09

Winter Turns Frogs into Frogsicles

This past Sunday, my husband and I went for long hike in Harriman State Park in New York. In late March and early April, the sound of the spring peepers is deafening. But the other day we heard only one or two peepers. I did a little research to find out what happens to the peepers in the fall and winter. What exactly do they do from now until early spring?

Wood Frog

Wood Frog

Frogs and toads have evolved strategies to survive freezing temperatures. Wood frogs and spring peepers actually become a “frogsicle,” as Larry Lyons explains in his article, “All the Frogs Will Soon be Frogsicles” in the Niles (MI) Daily Star. The frogs will soon find a place under the leaf litter or in a crack in a log or rock to settle for their winter nap. They’ll slowly begin to freeze as soon as temperatures reach the freezing point. The frog’s blood stops flowing, its lungs, heart and muscles stop functioning, and ice fills the body cavity. As Niles writes, “We now have a frogsicle in suspended animation.”

About 65% of the frog is frozen. It manufactures large amounts of blood sugar that serve as anti-freeze, preventing ice damage to its organs. When spring temperatures are consistently above freezing, they begin to thaw out and break out in a chorus of frog calls (as mating season begins).

What about other frogs and toads? Toads dig a burrow under the frost line, where they go into a mild state of hibernation. Their metabolism slows down and they no longer need food or water. Aquatic frogs such as green frogs go into what’s called a state of torpor. They descend to oxygen rich deep water, find a hiding place, and don’t move around much until the spring comes.

Perhaps we are more like animals than we care to admit. I know I slow down in late fall and hibernate until spring!

10/23/09

Kissed Any Frogs Lately? The Frog Prince Revisited

With Disney’s Princess and the Frog coming in December, we’ve been thinking a lot about frogs and princesses and princes, especially new twists on the classic fairy tale. I reread the original Grimm’s tale and was surprised that in this version, the princess doesn’t kiss the frog. He sleeps at the end of her bed (hmmm…), and when she wakes up, he’s a handsome prince.

Pictured above, from left to right are "The best of Fractured Fairy Tales, Volume 1", "The Frog Prince, Revisited" and "The Prince of The Pond."

Pictured above, from left to right are "The Best of Fractured Fairy Tales, Volume 1", "The Frog Prince, Continued" and "The Prince of The Pond."

My favorite cartoon when I was about four was Fractured Fairy Tales. Does anyone else remember these cartoons? You can find most of them on YouTube, including the Frog Prince, about a frog who’s turned into a prince, but isn’t too happy about it. Eventually a witch turns both the prince and the princess into frogs, but being a Fractured Fairy tale, they don’t live happily ever after. They’re still bickering at the end, on their new home on the lily pad.

Another funny version of the tale is The Frog Prince Continued by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith, a picture book for ages 5-8, but like their other collaborations, it has crossover appeal to adults. In this version, the princess kisses the frog, who turns into a handsome prince. Of course, they get married and live happily ever after…or do they? The princess can’t stand the prince’s froggy habits. He hops around on the furniture and sneaks off to the lily pond. The prince decides that it would be best if he were changed back to a frog. But finding a witch who will do the job is harder than he expects. All is resolved at the end…This froggy couple “hops off happily ever after.”

Older readers, ages 9-12, will enjoy The Prince of the Pond by Donna Jo Napoli. Having been turned into a frog by a hag, a frog-prince makes the best of his new life as a frog. He falls in love, mates, raises a family, and instills a new kind of thinking into his frog family. He has a hard time talking with his long frog tongue, so he calls himself De Fawg Pin. I love this novel! It’s very sweet, but a bit sad, too. In the end, he’s changed back to a prince and marries a princess, but has to say good-bye to his frog family.

Have you read any other fun versions of the frog prince? If so, let us know!