Volume 88, Issue 10, 2010
December 2010
- Identifier:
- nela.2010_088_10
- Title:
- Volume 88, Issue 10, 2010
- Issue Name:
- December 2010
- Date Issued:
- 2010-12-01
- year:
- 2010
- month:
- December
- Season:
- Autumn
- PDF filename:
- NL_88.10_2010_Dec_Spreads_Entire.pdf
- Publisher:
- Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
- Format:
- Periodical
- volume:
- 088
- issue:
- 10
- number:
- 088.10
- Decade:
- 2010s
- Type:
- Rights Holder:
- Copyright Nebraskaland Magazine/Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, all rights reserved.
- Extracted Text:
-
Volume 88, Number 10, December 2010
14 Running Bunnies
Dustin Favinger thought his basset/beagle mix was simply a
running companion, but she turned out to be much more.
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY JEFF KURRUS
20 Snow and Ice
Winter fun can be found at both city and state parks all
across the state. BY PASQUALE MINGARELLI
22 How Plants Survive the Winter
Unable to migrate or seek shelter, plants have to rely on
other methods to survive Nebraska’s cold, harsh winters.
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY CHRIS HELZER
26 The Smallest Nuthatch
The pygmy nuthatch may be one of our best indicators of a
healthy pine forest. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY MICHAEL FORSBERG
28 Box Elder – The Poor Man’s Maple
Unappreciated by some, the box elder is sustenance and
home for a host of creatures. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY JON FARRAR
34 Surviving “Stupid”
Even though theirs is an old species, opossums are not one
of the brightest animals walking the earth. BY JON FARRAR
14
●
36 Whoops!
Everyone makes mistakes, and biologists are no exeption.
Here are some examples of why you should not mess with
Mother Nature. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ERIC FOWLER
42 Spilling Oil in Nebraska
Even though the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico may
have seemed to be a million miles away, it could affect birds
found in our state. TEXT BY JEFF KURRUS, PHOTOS BY JOEL SARTORE
Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Mixed Bag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
In the Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
In the Kitchen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Portraits from the Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
26
●
28
●
20
●
Cover: Frozen stalactites of water round the edge of an ice hole on a
Lancaster County stream. Photo by Chris Helzer.
Opposite: A lone white-tailed doe crosses a trail at Wehrspann Recreation
Area in southeastern Omaha. Photo by Jeff Kurrus.
NEBRASKAland (VOL. 88 / NO. 10, ISSN 0028-1964) is published monthly, except for the
combined Jan./Feb. and Aug./Sept. issues, by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission,
2200 N. 33rd St., Lincoln, NE. Periodicals postage paid at Lincoln, Nebraska, and additional
mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NEBRASKAland, P.O. Box 30370,
Lincoln, NE 68503-0370.
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 3
November Portraits Black Hunters
Regarding my “Portraits from the
Past” submission last month, I'll bet a
lot of people didn't know that there
were black hunters in Nebraska back in
the 1940s.
We were too young to know what
these guys did for a living but they
were well-heeled. They wore the best
and carried the best. They usually
hunted squirrels and kept them in their
vest game pockets. We had both Shell
Creek and Taylor Creek running
through our farm, so there were more
than enough small game in those areas.
Once they entered the area along the
creeks we never saw them until they
came out to go home.
They were also traders. During the
war, people had what they had. These
guys would bring things (I remember a
bucket of Karo and sugar) and would
take back poultry, eggs, etc.
Furthermore it must have been a 90
mile drive from Omaha, usually in a
Woodie.
I'd be interested in hearing any
feedback that you get from my
submission.
Thanks again,
Marvin Konopik
Las Vegas, Nevada
Kurrus Kudos
Hello Jeff (Kurrus):
Now I understand the behavior of the
black squirrel I saw last Thursday
(October 14) as I was driving my truck
on Clark Street in Creighton. He
scampered onto the street, stopped,
then stood straight up in the middle of
the road. I slowed, then stopped as he
did not move. After six to eight
seconds, he ran to the curb, up a tree
4 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
and looked back.
He was obviously checking to see if
“it was Kurrus coming!”
I saw another black squirrel the
previous week near Main Street on a
lawn. Again he allowed me to approach
within 25-30 feet, then scampered
across the street and into a tree. They
are looking for you, and they want to
make sure it is “Kurrus.”
Appreciated your article on barn
swallows. Growing up on the farm we
alway had swallows nesting in our
barns. I recall a swallow nest
immediately above the stanchions
where we milked cows by hand. One
day my mother felt something crawling
in her hair while milking. We thought it
was lice from the swallow nest directly
overhead, but it could have been swallow bugs, something we never heard of.
Thanks for the informative articles
which make NEBRASKAland such a
pleasure to read.
Bruce Block
Creighton, Nebraska
Unusual Box Butte Catch
I caught the fish in the attached
picture at Box Butte Reservoir on
October 30, 2010. We had no idea what
it was until contacting the Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission and did
not know that any of these fish were in
Box Butte. We were told it is a
European rudd. It weighed about three
pounds and was 12 inches long.
Thought that you might like to see it.
Dennis Gregory
Gering, Nebraska
Daryl Bauer, Fisheries Outreach
Program Manager for the Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission,
responds: “European rudd have been
present in the state for years. Box Butte
seems to have our “best” population,
but they have been found in a lot of
other waters. They are closely related
to our native golden shiners.
There was a time when rudd were
commonly sold as bait. Usually the bait
shops marketed them as “rosy red
shiners” or something similarly creative.
Of course, it was an easy transfer from
minnow bucket to many of our waters.
Baitfish regulations were eventually
tightened and the rudd market shut
down, but rudds are present in some of
our waters and may always be present.”
Thanks
I just wanted to send in this picture
of my pronghorn and thank the
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
for giving me this opportunity. I tried
for four years to receive this permit and
it was worth every day. It was my first
pronghorn hunt, this buck may make
Boone and Crockett, and the meat is
excellent.
Thanks again for the hunt of a
lifetime.
Larry Rahe
Lincoln, Nebraska
NEBRASKAland Visitor Letters
We want to thank all 36 readers (this
month’s will be much easier to find)
that sent e-mails and letters for last
issue’s visitor, a twice-stabbed stink
bug on page 41 (see page 13 for the
winner, rules and this issue’s hint).
Here are just a few of the many
wonderful responses we received:
I do when we get our monthly copy is
look for the visitor and then go back
and read all your wonderful articles.
Keep up the great work and the great
stories!
Vicki Loomis
Burbank, South Dakota
Either Angela McDermott’s camo
jacket comes with a neat camo mark, or
there is a STINK BUG on her shoulder.
I found two different genus and
species names, so we will leave it at
Two Spotted Stink Bug.
Well hidden! Great fun, thanks!
Solveig Knott
Grand Island, Nebraska
The Twice-stabbed Stink Bug
(Cosmepepla lintneriana) is a very
small, colorful plant pest which can be
found in a wide variety of habitats,
from fields to gardens. Its common
name comes from the two red spots on
its lower back. This stink bug can be
found from early spring through fall,
feeding on the sap of a many different
plants. Stink bugs have glands
on their body that can
produce a strong,
unpleasant scent to
warn off other insects
and animals that threaten
them. It is related to other
stink bugs found in Nebraska,
including the equally colorful
Harlequin bug (Murgantia histrionic)
and the larger Green Stink Bug
(Acrosternum hilare).
Special thanks to Julie Van Meter, State
Entomologist, Nebraska Department of
Agriculture.
On page 41 you will find "the bug"
on my, Angela McDermott, upper right
arm! We had a great hunt! Thank you
for the great pictures and story!
Angela McDermott
Grand Island, Nebraska
Send your comments to:
Doug Carroll, Editor
NEBRASKAland Magazine
P.O. Box 30370
Lincoln, NE 68503
or e-mail doug.carroll@ngpc.ne.gov.
Please include your postal address and
telephone number. Letters may be condensed and edited for clarity. Photographs
are welcome and will be returned.
Story and photo submissions can be
sent to the same address. Include a selfaddressed stamped envelope for mailed
submissions. The publisher assumes no
responsibility for unsolicited material.
Found it! The visitor is a beetle of
some sort on page 41 on Angela's right
shoulder.
I love your magazine! The first thing
Under federal and/or state law, discrimination is prohibited on the basis
of race, color, religion, age, gender, marital status, national origin,
disability or political affiliation. If you think you have been discriminated
against in any program, activity or facility by the Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission or want more information, contact the Commission in
Lincoln, NE, at (402) 471-0641 or the Equal Opportunity Commission,
Lincoln, NE, (402) 471-2024, TTY/TDD (402) 471-4693).
COMMISSION
CONSERV
CONSERVATION OFFICERS
Director Rex Amack
Assistant Directors Roger Kuhn, Kirk Nelson,
Sam Sidner
Commissioners
Chairman - Jerrod Burke, Curtis
Vice Chairman - Mick Jensen, Blair
2nd Vice Chairman - Ron Stave, Waterloo
Dr. Mark Pinkerton, Wilber
Dr. Kent Forney, Lincoln
Lynn Berggren, Broken Bow
Rex Fisher, Omaha
Mark Spurgin, Paxton
Norris Marshall, Kearney
PANHANDLE
Officer
Jim Zimmerman (S)
Scott Brandt
Heath Packett
Dennis Thompson
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Dan Kling
MAGAZINE
MAGAZINE STAFF
STAFF
Editor Doug Carroll
Associate Editor Jeff Kurrus
Art Director Tim Reigert
Senior Editor Jon Farrar
Regional Editor Eric Fowler
Contributing Editor Michael Forsberg
Regular Contributors Bill Hager, Chris Helzer,
Lisa Knopp
Photo Librarian Sarah Johnson
Circulation Donna Robinson
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NEBRASKAland Magazine Copyright 2010, all rights reserved.
NEBRASKAland is available on audio cassette from the Nebraska
Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service, Suite 120, 1200 N
St., Lincoln, NE 68508. (800) 742-7691. NEBRASKAland Magazine and
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advertising not in keeping with the agency mission.
Rates: $18 for one year; $33 for two years; $44 for three years. Nebraska
recipients must add appropriate sales tax. To subscribe call
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COMMISSION OFFICES
Headquarters
2200 N. 33rd Street Lincoln, NE 68503
Phone (402) 471-0641
District Office I
East Hwy. 2, Box 725 Alliance, NE 69301
Phone (308) 763-2940
District Office II
524 Panzer St., Box 508 Bassett, NE 68714
Phone (402) 684-2921
District Office III
2201 N. 13th St. Norfolk, NE 68701
Phone (402) 370-3374
District Office IV
301 E. State Farm Rd. North Platte, NE 69101
Phone (308) 535-8025
District Office VI
1617 First Ave. Kearney, NE 68847
Phone (308) 865-5310
City
Gering
Gering
Gordon
Ogallala
Ogallala
Oshkosh
Valentine
Harrison
SOUTHWEST
Officer
City
Roger Thompson (S) N. Platte
Ray Dierking
Brkn. Bow
George Sund
Cambridge
Michael Thome
Cozad
Matt Andrews
Elwood
Dirk Greene
Imperial
Virgil Gosch
McCook
Dudley Sorensen
N. Platte
Rich Routh
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Phone (308)
763-2940
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289-0755
289-3399
778-7101
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430-0572
Phone (308)
535-8025
870-0322
655-0028
529-8146
746-2418
882-0015
340-2440
530-0016
920-0367
SOUTH-CENTRAL
Officer
Jerry Pecha (Sup.)
Jeff Jones
Terry Brentzel
Randy Pomplun
Darin Gress
Dale Johnson
Robert Finke
City
Phone (308)
Kearney
865-5327
Clay Center(402)762-5022
Doniphan (402)469-5795
Fullerton
550-0489
Hebron
(402)768-8665
Kearney
440-3847
Milford
(402)947-1363
NORTHEAST
Officer
Tom Zimmer (Sup.)
Dale Davis
Steve Oberg
Daniel Roberts
Jon Reeves
Marion Shafer
Pat George
Tim Williams
Cory Krause
City
Norfolk
Bassett
Columbus
Fremont
Kennard
Norfolk
O’Neill
Neligh
West Point
Phone (402)
370-3374
760-0712
910-3366
719-1108
889-8508
992-7590
340-0787
929-0051
380-6410
SOUTHEAST
Officer
Duane Arp (Sup.)
Sean McKeehan
William Krause
Mike Luben
Douglas Kramer
Dina Barta
Stacey Lewton
Levi Krause
Russell Mort
Dan Evasco
Jeff Clauson
City
Gretna
Ashland
Auburn
Colon
Lincoln
Lincoln
Lincoln
Louisville
Nebr. City
Papillion
Waterloo
Phone (402)
332-2965
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658-7057
ADMINISTRATION
Officer
Ted Blume (Adm.)
Craig Stover (Asst.)
Wes Loos (Asst.)
Rod Loos (Asst.)
City
Lincoln
Lincoln
Lincoln
Ogallala
Phone (402)
471-5531
471-5532
471-5591
(308)284-8056
Nebraska Wildlife Crimestoppers 1-800-742-7627
Omaha Office
1212 Bob Gibson Blvd. Omaha, NE 68108
Phone (402) 595-2144
Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium
21502 W. Highway 31 Gretna, NE 68028
Phone (402) 332-3901
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 5
A Winter Reading – Steve
Edwards’ Breaking Into the
Backcountry
Kelsea Nore
Normally when someone keeps me
up past my bedtime, I am slow to forgive.
However, I gladly forfeited several
hours of sleep in order to finish reading
Steve Edwards’ Breaking Into the
Backcountry
(University of Nebraska
Press). The book is,
above all things, a
homage to discovery.
The author’s memoir
of seven months of
near-solitude is an
exploration of not
only the magnificent,
open land of
southwestern
Oregon, it is also
an examination of the
innerself. Edwards sees both with
tenderness and enthusiasm.
Working as a caretaker on a homestead
near the Rouge River (a prize he won
in a writing contest), Edwards has time
to both write and think. And, as
described in several of his beautifully
written chapters, fish for steelhead
trout. Lucky guy. The author certainly
rhapsodizes on his experience (who
wouldn’t?), but never without humor
and honesty. This very likable book is
available through the University of
Nebraska Press web site and local
bookstores such as the Indigo Bridge
Bookstore in Lincoln. You can also
visit Edwards’ web site at
http://steveedwardswriter.blogspot.com/.
Was Last Winter Really
That Cold?
Patrick Mainelli
Is it possible that every year you will
hear at least one person insist that,
“Last winter was the worst we’ve ever
had”? Somewhere during all those
deliriously warm days between March
and October, most of us seem to
intentionally forget how every winter
in Nebraska is actually rather awful.
Last winter did seem especially nasty,
but was it really?
Statewide we experienced a slightly
colder winter than usual; in general,
four to six degrees below the recorded
average. December, however, was
particularly frigid and will go down as
the eighth coldest on record in Lincoln.
Snowfall amounts were on par with
the last century of records, but eastern
counties did experience some significant
blizzards. Omaha enjoyed 88 days of
snow-covered ground, and by early
January, 21 inches of the stuff had piled
up. The panhandle town of Dalton was
lucky enough to receive the heaviest
snowload of the state – 81 inches.
December’s weather was certainly
severe by almost all measures but the
following months were rather average,
and despite some significant extremes
many records refused to fall. Lincoln
dropped to -15 F this year, but in
January 1974 temperatures reached -33.
Norfolk endured 55 inches of snow last
year, but in 1983 they watched more
than 86 inches fall down. Finally, Omaha
had its share of low temperatures last
winter but it really was nothing compared
to Christmas 1983, when the town
shivered through 203 hours below zero.
Jason Obermiller of Loup City is always
hunting something, be it deer, turkey,
sheds, antelope, elk or whatever else
gives him a reason to get outside, and he
actually finds time to be a high school science teacher when he’s not afield.
Seeing his passion, his wife came up for the idea for his license plate.
If you have a unique message plate you would like to share, or know
someone who does, e-mail a photo (.jpg format only, please) of it to
Eric.Fowler@Nebraska.gov, along with your name and hometown, how long
you’ve been active in your hobby and how long you’ve had your message plate.
6 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
Here is a list of
upcoming outdoor
events across
Nebraska.
For more
information
about
these and
other events, click on
the calendar at
www.OutdoorNebraska.org.
December 1-31
• Muzzleloader Deer Hunting –
Statewide
Shooting Hours: 30 minutes before
sunrise to 30 minutes following sunset.
Contact: Kit Hams
(402) 471-5442
kit.hams@nebraska.gov
December 3
• Christmas at the Bowring –
Bowring Ranch SHP, Merriman
Reservations are required: meal
tickets must be purchased. A park
entry permit is required. 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Contact: Diane Burress
308-684-3428
diane.burress@nebraska.gov
December 4
• 16th Annual Historical Christmas
Dinner – Fort Robinson State Park,
Crawford
Reservations are required for this
event. A park entry permit is required.
6 to 9 p.m.
Contact: Michael Morava
308-665-2900
ngpc.fort.robinson@nebraska.gov
December 24 and 25
• Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
Holiday Buffets – Mahoney State Park,
Ashland
The Christmas Eve buffet is all day,
the Christmas Day breakfast buffet
runs from 7:30 to 10 a.m., and the
Christmas Day buffet runs 11 a.m. to
6 p.m. Adults are $13.95 and Children
(10 and under) are $6.95 each. A park
entry permit is required.
Contact: Brian Schmidt
402-944-2523
ngpc.mahoney@nebraska.gov
December 31
• New Year’s Eve Buffet – Mahoney
State Park, Ashland
The New Year’s Eve buffet will be
served from 5 to 8 p.m. Adults are
$13.95 and Children (10 and under) are
$6.95 each. A park entry permit is
required.
Contact: Brian Schmidt
402-944-2523
ngpc.mahoney@nebraska.gov
Patrick Mainelli
Last hunting season, NEBRASKAland
asked readers to share ideas for ways to
creatively use antlers. The consensus:
the only limit to an antler’s use is your
own imagination. Possibilities range
from the everyday to the elegant;
drawer handles made from polished
burrs, cross-sections turned into bolo
tie clips, and enormous Gothic antler
chandeliers. While most hunters could
spend a lifetime in the woods and never
accumulate enough calcium to
reproduce some of these more
ambitious achievements; with the right
combination of imagination and power
tools you’d be surprised what you can
create.
Shed antlers, or those harvested late
in the season, are best suited for
creative projects. Young antlers,
particularly those still in velvet, are
especially soft and porous and should
be boiled for up to thirty minutes to
promote hardening. Active blood
vessels in velvet antlers will likely
Do you know where this
Nebraska photograph
was taken?
See answer at the bottom
of page 13.
Elizabeth Mack
Although Nebraska is on the western
edge of the eastern bluebird’s (Sialia
sialis) range, sightings are becoming
more common where nesting boxes
have been introduced. Like its larger
cousin, the robin, the male eastern
bluebird has an orange breast and white
belly, but is known for its strikingly sky
blue head, back and tail. The female’s
coloring is less remarkable, with fainter
grey-blue tail and wings. Bluebirds are
not city dwellers, preferring rural areas
of open fields with short-grass prairie
or mowed areas where they can easily
feed on insects on the ground.
Populations were on the decline due
to nesting problems, losing much of
their habitat to housing and industrial
development. Also, Bluebirds like to
nest in pre-existing tree cavities or
rotting fence posts, which have been
replaced with metal posts. But with the
introduction of new nesting locations,
the species is making a comeback.
Over 200 monitored next boxes can
now be found at
Nine-Mile Prairie
as well as several
Nebraska State
Parks including
Ponca, Platte
River, Mahoney,
Schramm,
Niobrara, and Ashfall State Parks.
Bluebird nesting boxes are often
targeting by house sparrows, so placing
a Bluebird nesting box outside of urban
areas by sheds or barns will bring the
most success. A bluebird box should
never have a perch, as perches attract
sparrows and wrens. Avoid mounting
Bluebird boxes on trees or fence posts
to avoid predators, although they need
a fence line or tree branches fairly
close to their nests to perch on while
searching for food. The entrance hole
should be about five feet off the
ground.
If bluebirds are not common in your
area, it may take a season or two for
Bluebirds to find your box, but once
they find a good nesting area, they
generally return year after year.
Commission Approves Wider
use of Crossbows
PHOTO BY DOUG CARROLL
The Nebraska Game and Parks Board
of Commissioners approved the wider
use of crossbows as big game hunting
equipment at its October 28 meeting.
In Nebraska, crossbows have been
allowed as legal equipment during firearm
seasons for decades. Starting in 1985,
crossbows were allowed during the archery season for those with a permanent
disability that prevented them from drawing a bow.
All restrictions on crossbows have now been removed, including the disability
provision and draw weight. Starting in 2011, the new regulations now allow
crossbows to be used as legal archery equipment while hunting for big game
(deer, antelope, elk, turkey and bighorn sheep).
The board also adopted regulations that will allow archery antelope permit holders
to hunt with archery equipment during the firearm antelope season and allow
archery deer permit holders to hunt with archery equipment during the November
firearm deer season.
8 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
PHOTO BY JEFF KURRUS
Deer Antler Options
See You Out There ...
But Where?
Bluebirds of Nebraska
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 9
PHOTO BY JON FARRAR
I read up to page 5 of the
Winter 1953 edition of Outdoor
Nebraska before deciding that this
particular issue would be the
focus of this month’s “A Look
Back.” On that page there is an
illustration of two native Americans
eagle hunting, with both hunters
in pits and one reaching up
through the brush covering his
hole to grab and kill the eagle.
For me, this illustration and its
accompanying article entitled
“Indian Hunting” was enough to
justify spending a few more
minutes perusing through this
issue.
While flipping through the
pages, I discoverd that the Indian
article wasn’t alone in being part
of great content. I read pieces on
gun maintenance, an
announcement on the opening of
Enders Reservoir, and a reprinted
article from Outdoor Life “What’s
Good Fishing Weather?”
In addition, in “Find the
Violations,” readers were instructed
to read a fictitious letter written
from a Nebraska resident to his
hunting partner in Michigan, and
then note the game violations
chronicled in the letter. After the
letter, Outdoor Nebraska’s editors
noted the violations and readers
were encouraged to compare their
list with the editors, providing an
entertaining learning tool for hunters.
To read “Indian Hunting” go to
NebraskalandMagazine.com and
click on “A Look Back.”
PHOTO BY MARK DIETZ
Jeff Kurrus
produce a red
stain that can be
neutralized by
soaking the
antler in
bleach and
water. For
a glossy
finish,
antlers
can be
sealed
with a
polyurethane
glaze or polished
with linseed oil.
An easy starter
project for antler artists
is a wall-mounted,
multipurpose hanger. Simply drill
antlers to a piece of wood and hang it
on the wall. If you find an antler that
balances solidly on a table you can
make a unique cribbage board. Sand
down any broad surface of the antler
and drill the appropriate number of
peg-sized holes. Using a spade drill bit,
bore a small cavity in the base of the
antler and plug it with a cork for peg
storage. If you’re feeling ambitious, try
making some antler pens like the
beautiful pair seen here made by reader
Lynn Cordell. For a “how-to” on
writing with antlers and for more
photos and ideas visit the
NEBRASKAland blog site at:
afieldandafloat.com.
Kimberly Stuhr
Not long ago, the common milkweed
(Asclepias syriaca) – a tough survivor
of the vanishing tallgrass prairie – was
the bane of many a farmer’s existence.
It’s not welcome in crop fields, so by
definition it is a weed in those areas.
However, although hardly any of these
deep-rooted “weeds” grow in corn and
soybean fields today because of the
increased use of herbicides, the common
milkweed still carries a stigma from its
days as a field pest.
Today some of this native perennial’s
tufted seeds are landing on friendlier
territory. Butterfly gardeners and other
conservation-minded folks sing the
Common milkweed
plant’s milky-sapped praises. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture offers this enticing quote about the common milkweed:
“This is a wonderful horticultural plant for landscaping to attract butterflies
(particularly monarchs), whose numbers are declining and migratory routes
changing due to lack of appropriate habitat.”
The history of this sometimes invasive species, combined with the fact that
“weed” is actually part of its name, makes it difficult for some to value the common
milkweed, especially those who have fought them on muggy summer mornings
while walking beans. The good news is that in addition to the common milkweed,
there are at least 10 other milkweed species native to Nebraska, at least one of
which is suitable for every habitat in our state.
While some of these species can be purchased commercially, others must be
started from seed collected from wild plants. Most are well mannered and make
fragrant, colorful additions to garden or home landscaping plantings, as well as
being valuable additions to prairie restoration projects. All of these provide food
for butterflies as well as other important, pollinating insects.
So, is the common milkweed a weed? It depends on which way the wind blows,
but perhaps milkflower would be a more appropriate name.
Jon Farrar
In my Loup River duck hunting story that ran in the November 2010 issue of
NEBRASKAland, I mentioned some old-time hunters shot “shitepokes” on sight
because “they eat fish.”
Not long after that issue was mailed, we received a note from Shirley Sawyer
of McCook, who wrote that the article was the first time she knew of the word
being used outside of her family. “My brother, ‘Sonny’ Leo Simanto from North
Platte, gave me that nickname when we were kids,” she wrote. Well, since
shitepokes are one of my favorite topics, Shirley’s note was enough to spawn a
few words about them.
The word “shitepoke” used to be commonly used to describe long-legged
wading birds, particularly green herons and bitterns, but other herons and
egrets as well. To unravel the origin of the word and avoid making the censors
blush, “shite” in German means the same as the “s-word” for feces in English.
Because this magazine is published in English and it is slightly less alarming, I
will use the German word in what follows. The second part of the name, ‘poke,’
is from French and translates as a pouch, bag, or sag; hence the old admonition
against “buying a pig in a poke,” meaning to buy something unseen. So, put the
meaning of the two words together and one arrives at “shite-bag.” This is almost
without doubt in reference to the habit of wading birds, in fact many bird
species, emptying their bowels before taking flight; perhaps in fright, perhaps to
American bittern
lighten their load.
Interestingly enough, many water-feeding birds have a similar habit – when Mother Nature calls, they scurry to dry land to
void their bowels. This may seem to be no more than a matter of not wanting to foul one’s dinner table, but it likely has
greater implications – some internal parasites cycle through more than one host; an example being one that completes its
lifecycle only after passing through a snail and the gut of a shorebird such as an avocet. Some animal behaviorists have
speculated one reason shorebirds leave the water to void their bowels is to break the life cycle of such parasites.
Hunting Spot Names
10 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
PHOTO BY JEFF KURRUS
Jeff Kurrus
While many hunting and
fishing spots have common
names, including “The
Honeyhole,” “The Creek,”
and “the Draw,” many more
named by countless others
have much more unique
titles. A quick roundtable
discussion with
The “Ground Blind.”
NEBRASKAland Magazine
staff led to many others from our personal time afield: Two-shot Hill, The Boy
Scout Lake, the Highway Stand, The Widowmaker, One-fish Lake, the Kater
Woods, Werewolf Ruins, Wanza’s and Joshua Tree.
Now it’s your turn. Do you have a “Honeyhole?” We’d like to know. We’d also
like to know if you have any unique place names that only you and your hunting
and fishing partners would know. Email me at jeff.kurrus@nebraska.gov with
your location names and I’ll put together a list so you can see how similar, and
how very different, your hunting locale names are from others.
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 11
PHOTO BY JON FARRAR
Shitepokes
PHOTO BY JON FARRAR
Is a Milkweed a Weed?
Turpin Time
A Belated Pumpkin Cheesecake
Mix ingredients well and press into
bottom of pie pan. Bake for 7-8 minutes
at 400 degrees. Remove from oven and
12 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
set aside.
Filling:
1 cup of pumpkin
puree
½ stick butter, room
temperature
Two 8 oz. packages of
cream cheese, softened
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon cloves
½ cup powdered sugar
Combine the pumpkin,
butter, and cream cheese
in a mixer, beat until
smooth. At a reduced speed, add your
spices (salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and
cloves). Add the powdered sugar
slowly and beat until the ingredients
are thoroughly mixed. Pour the mixture
into the prepared crust. Cover and let
Safe Ice
PHOTO BY KELSEA NORE
Kelsea Nore
In the October edition of
NEBRASKAland I promised you a
future recipe for pumpkin pie
cheesecake and planned to use it for a
blog on afieldandafloat.com. However,
Carroll and Kurrus decided that the
magazine itself was a more fitting
place for my wonderfully easy
pumpkin pie cheesecake, which you
will find below.
Crust: (or feel free to buy a
pre-made one)
1 cup crushed graham crackers
½ stick butter, room temperature
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ cup crushed pecans (if desired)
took off in their vehicle like they were in the space
shuttle. Although he was unable to get a license
plate number to go with the vehicle’s description,
the landowner surprisingly noticed a somewhat
damaged cell phone laying on the road where they
had been shooting.
I met him the next day and although the screen
didn’t work, the rest of the phone did. After some
discussion of what to do next, we decided that since
this had happened in an area folks refer to as “the
Bohemian Alps” and a lot of the residents still talked
with heavy accents, the shooters might be apt to
believe an “old country” farmer had found their cell
phone. So with that, I hit the green “send” button,
put on my best Bohemian/Czech accent and waited
for someone to answer. When they did, I told them I
had found this phone laying on a gravel road and
wanted to return it to its owner. They said they knew
the owner and would have them meet me a few
hours later.
Laughing, I hung up the phone
and told the landowner I thought
they had bought my story. When we
did meet a few hours later, I think
the phone’s owner was very
surprised to see an old Bohemian
Alps farmer wearing green pants
and a gray shirt with a badge on it!
– Mike Luben, Conservation Officer, Colon
PHOTO BY JEFF KURRUS
It was the opening day of the firearm deer season
and so far it had been a typical opener with a
handful of calls regarding people road hunting,
trespassing, etc. Don’t get me wrong – I still say that
for the number of hunters we have out during the
deer season, the number of complaints is relatively
small, but we have always have a few folks who
want to bend the rules.
Anyway, I returned home well after sundown on
that opening Saturday, said “hi” to the family and sat
down to a cold supper. Of course the phone
immediately started ringing, as it always does when
I sit down during the deer season. This particular
caller was a guy I’d met several times over the years
who owned a nice piece of ground in the western
part of my patrol area. He’d been sitting in his
treestand that afternoon when a vehicle drove past,
turned around and headed back the other direction.
Thinking that some road hunters had probably
spotted a deer to shoot at, he got down and headed
towards his pickup in case they did shoot onto his
property so he would be able to “have a few
friendly words” with them before they left.
Sure enough, about the time he got to his truck,
he heard shots and saw three people standing on
the road, shooting onto his land. Before he could get
to their location, however, they noticed the
approaching vehicle, got “happy feet” and quickly
the cheesecake cool in the refrigerator
for at least six hours.
To read Nore’s puree recipe from the
October 2010 NEBRASKAland, go
online to NebraskalandMagazine.com.
Patrick Mainelli
Warm July mornings in the boat are
nice, but many fishermen will tell you
things don't really get fun until the
lakes freeze over. Here's a little icewisdom and a few safety tips for when
that day comes.
The first ice of winter is generally
the strongest and most reliable of the
season. That said, there is no time when
safety on the ice is a “sure thing.” Daryl
Bauer, Fisheries Outreach Program
Manager for the Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission, says at least three
inches of solid ice is needed before you
venture onto a body of water.
Interestingly, that cold, hard surface
we ice fish on is actually floating on
still liquid water. Dropping a lure through
eight inches of frozen H²O to open
water beneath is made possible by a
circumstance very rarely found in nature:
Water is less dense in its solid form than
its liquid form, allowing the frozen
layer to float above the unfrozen. The
first crystals of ice to form on any body
of water are tiny floating discs only 2to 3-mm in diameter. The water cools
and these crystal discs grow in size,
eventually taking on a hexagonal shape
and growing together. When a continuous
sheet of ice has formed across the surface
of a lake, the water begins to freeze
downwards. As the ice thickens its
appearance goes from transparent, to
gray, to white and finally deep blue.
To be sure you're on safe ice, carry
an auger and drill a hole every few yards
as you move across the water, measuring
the thickness each time. Bauer also
recommends bringing along an ice chisel
or “spud bar” to get a more tactile sense
of the ice: “You can use that tool to
strike the ice as you walk along, and by
doing that you will be able to 'feel' and
listen as the ice chisel strikes.” Large
objects in the ice, such as docks or tree
limbs, will absorb and hold heat from the
sun, potentially thinning surrounding
ice, so use caution. Slightly warmer
temperatures can also thin ice in a
matter of days; so be sure and test for
thickness every time you head out.
Once you've decided it's safe to fish, a
few simple precautions go a long way in
the case of an unexpected fall-through:
Ice-fishing with a friend is always a
good idea, and each person should carry
a pair of easily accessible ice-picks,
attached to each other by a rope, to help
climb out of the water in the event of
an accident. Keep an extra pair of dry
clothes on hand in case you get wet
and change into them quickly to avoid
hypothermia. Bauer recommends a
propane heater or fire to help dry and
warm the skin.
Whether you're itching to start pulling
panfish up through freshly drilled holes,
or just want a closer look at one of
nature's more unique phenomena, bundle
up this winter and get out there! Visit
www.iceteam.com for comprehensive
ice fishing forums and resources, or
visit Bauer at afieldandafloat.com for
all his fishing insights.
Park, Hunting, and Fishing
permits make great gifts...
www.OutdoorNebraska.org
NEBRASKAland Visitor
Winner and Hint
Last issue’s winner of
the NEBRASKAland
Visitor drawing was
Pat Schemmer of
Valentine, Nebraska, who found the
twice-stabbed stink bug on page 41.
Readers are encouraged to contact
NEBRASKAland within 10 days
after this issue’s publication with the
correct page number and name of
this issue’s “Visitor” – a bug found
in Nebraska that just happened to
find its way onto one of the pages of
our publication.
We will then gather the correct
entries and draw one to win a new
NEBRASKAland Magazine mug.
To enter each month, write:
NEBRASKAland Visitor
2200 North 33rd Street,
Lincoln, NE 68503.
Or e-mail:
Tim.Reigert@Nebraska.gov
with “Visitor” in the subject line of
the message.
HINT: This issue’s visitor is not on
page 3, 5, 13 or 33.
The Holy Family Shrine near Gretna
A Case of Mistaken Identity
Dick Turpin
One of the best
things I ever
bought was one of
those shrink
wrappers … really
saves that meat
and adds life to that meat in your
freezer. But one thing you want to be
careful of is when you go to thaw this,
be sure to poke some little holes in it.
You can start to see the air relieve and
what that does there is when that meat
starts to thaw it’ll let that pressure go out
the bag and doesn’t draw that moisture
out of the meat so it saves those good
flavors … keeps them in there. So
when you go to thaw this out, poke
some holes in that sack and give that
meat a little relief. ■
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 13
unners run. That’s what
they do. Whether during
a patch of Louisiana
humidity that would
make most Nebraskans
melt, or during a Nebraska
winter that would make
most Cajuns shiver.
When longtime runner Dustin
Favinger purchased his sneakers-onthe-road pal Beru (Bay for short), a
basset/beagle mix, he found out his
companion could not only run, she
could hunt. “That was the first time I
ever heard the dog bark,” Favinger
said, describing one of his initial
neighborhood runs through Cozad with
his new partner, “and we had owned
her for six months. I had no idea.” Bay
had left Favinger’s side on a dead run
toward a rabbit, and incandescents
flickered in her owner’s head.
“I started taking her out soon after
that day, just letting her run where I
thought rabbits might be.” Favinger
admitted, however, that it took her
awhile to get what she was supposed
to do. “She was a little gun-shy at the
beginning, but after a half dozen trips
with a .22, I was able to get her past
that. Then, all of a sudden, it just clicked.”
Instinct takes over for many hunting
dogs – while formal training is often
recommended, there are many fine
hunting dogs that have never been
professionally trained. When he first
started taking her hunting, Favinger
tried not to get his hopes up too much
about the possibility of having a good
rabbit dog just because Bay’s dad was
half beagle/half basset and her mom
was entirely beagle. While registered
breeds are recommended by most,
Favinger’s $100 dog slowly proved to
be very worthy in the field.
Last year, during his first full season
hunting behind Bay, Favinger shot
100 rabbits on public and private lands
near Cozad. When fishing with his
wife during the summer months on the
Interstate 80 lake system before the
fall hunting season, Favinger would
BAY, FAVINGER’S BASSET/BEAGLE MIX, barks after smelling a rabbit at a
WMA near Cozad.
14 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
also take Bay along. “As soon as we
got out of the boat onto land from the
leash,” he said, “she’d start howling at
rabbits. I quickly learned those WMAs
were an untapped resource.”
In a 10-mile stretch stretch both east
and west of Cozad, there are nine
wildlife management areas
(WMAs) that provide more than
1,200 acres of public land to rabbit
hunt. Many of these spots have a great
population of bunnies.
Unlike many rabbit hunters, who
hunt with multiple dogs and a multitude
of other hunters, Favinger and Bay
often hunt alone or with just one other
person. Working heavily covered areas,
including overgrown fencerows, brush
piles, weed patches and plum thickets,
Bay relies almost exclusively on her
nose to find prey (see “A Dog’s Nose”
on page 19). “If that’s not working,” he
said, “I’ll look for spots where rabbits
have eaten the bark off of little
saplings during the fall and winter.
Finding rabbits is as simple as finding
these saplings.”
When jumped, rabbits usually flee
using a zig-zagging running pattern.
They can reach speeds up to 18 miles
an hour using back legs twice the
length of their front legs. Because they
usually make their way back to where
they started, most rabbit hunters,
including Favinger, wait for the dog to
run the bunny back in their direction.
Favinger is able to keep track of Bay
because she barks constantly once she
scents a rabbit. This system usually
works well unless there happens to be
so many rabbits that the dog repeatedly
jumps a new one before running back
the first, which can often happen on
many of Nebraska’s WMAs. It’s a
good problem to have.
With so many rabbits, Favinger
positions himself in a location where
the rabbit can get a considerable lead
on his dog so he can take safe shots.
Aside from this point, Favinger just
turns her loose and lets her hunt. “It’s
taken longer for me to learn how to
hunt her than for her to learn to hunt,”
he said.
In the end, Favinger said, instinct
has taken over on most of Bay’s hunts.
Because runners run, whether after
rabbits in the neighborhood or in a
WMA plum thicket. That’s just what
they do. ■
Nebraska’s rabbit season lasts from
September 1 through February 28. The
daily bag limit for this liberal six-month
period is seven and the possession limit
is 28. Rabbits are usually taken, as in
Favinger’s case, with a .22-caliber rifle
or a small bore shotgun such as a .410
or 20-gauge loaded with 6- or 7½-size
shot.
16 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
BAY SEARCHES FOR
rabbits through underbrush
on public land in central
Nebraska. As she runs,
Favinger positions himself
near the rabbit’s original
location in an attempt to
get a shot.
Shooting a bunch of rabbits requires the hunter to eat a lot of
rabbits. Here are a couple of Favinger’s favorite recipes.
1) After removing both the hind and front legs, separate the
meat from the bone and cut into stew meat-sized pieces. In a
sauce pot add meat, one can of chunked pineapple with juice,
pepper, one cup of water, and little bit of Italian dressing. Let simmer
until the meat is cooked thoroughly (the meat ends up white like
chicken). In another sauce pan, prepare white rice, then add the
rice to the rabbit/pineapple mixture along with one can of sweet
tender peas and one can of sweet corn or hominy. Add salt and a
little more pepper to taste, and serve.
2) Separate the meat into chunks. Place the pieces in a sauce
pan and cover with one cup of teriyaki sauce, one can of orange
juice concentrate, one cup of water and a pinch of ginger. Simmer
until meat is thoroughly cooked. Remove meat, wrap in maple or
pepper bacon, then fry until bacon is cooked thoroughly. Serve
with your favorite sides.
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 17
JOHN JAMES AUDUBON’S “GREY RABBIT.” COURTESY OF ART.COM.
“The cottontail is the most important single
game animal in the United States,” wrote
Wilford L. Miller in Wildlife of the Prairie,
1975. Researchers have found that one
female cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) can
give birth to at least 35 offspring per year,
and can theoretically produce a family of
350,000 rabbits in five years. During the
breeding season, which can last from early
spring to early fall in Nebraska, a female can
have seven litters. A cottontail’s gestational
period lasts 26 to 28 days, and breeding can
occur immediately following birth.
However, life doesn’t necessarily last long
for rabbits. Studies show that 75 to 85 percent
will die within their first year. They are killed
by rain, starvation, disease and predators,
including foxes, coyotes and badgers.
Cottontails are born in shallow ground
nests made from plants and fur. They are
born hairless, with closed eyes and ears,
and are nursed for two to three weeks by the
female, during which time they also begin to
hop from the nest. They are self-sufficient
after one month, and multiple studies have
shown that between 35 and 54 percent of
cottontail females breed their first year.
The eastern cottontail is the world’s most
common cottontail and can be found from
the east coast to the Great Plains and from
Canada to South America. Fossilized rabbit
remains date back 50 million years in both
Asia and North America. In the United
18 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
States, cottontails were an important food and
clothing source for Indians, but populations
flourished during post-settlement, when
forests were cleared and large predators,
including wolves and cougars, were eliminated.
Ranging from reddish brown to gray
throughout the entire year, rabbits are very
adaptive, and they seek out heavy cover
near open spaces – fencerows, plum thickets,
brush piles and tangled thickets. They feed
on a variety of foods at night, including bark,
twigs, flower buds and garden fare. They are
also known for re-digesting their own feces,
a behavior known as coprophagy.
In Nebraska, while there was an absence
of other rabbit hunters while I was with
Favinger, there are a few people still hunting
them. According to Commission upland
game program manager Jeff Lusk, last year
approximately 8,000 rabbit hunters harvested
56,000 rabbits, a harvest larger than both
squirrels and prairie grouse.
However, this is pheasant country, and it is
much more common to see orange vests
and pointers than truckbeds full of beagle
boxes, like many pick-up trucks down South.
Considering this point, the 2006 National
Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and WildlifeAssociated Recreation noted that among
small game hunters, rabbits were pursued
more nationwide than all other small game,
including ducks, geese, pheasants, squirrels
and dove, with nearly two million people
hunting on 21 million days
and killing between
30 and 50 million rabbits.
Despite their abundance,
rabbit populations fluctuate
on local levels. Re-forestation,
fencerow farming and
herbicide use contribute to
some local population
declines. However, because
of their prolific reproduction,
numbers are stable throughout
Nebraska and North
America, a fact that will
remain as long as rabbits
have the necessary habitat
to support them.
To gain proper respect for a dog’s olfactory ability, dog-book author
Stanley Coren writes: “Inside the nose of humans and dogs are bony
scroll-shaped plates, called turbinates, over which air passes. A
microscopic view of this organ reveals a thick, spongy membrane that
contains most of the scent-detecting cells, as well as the nerves that
transport information to the brain.” In humans, this membrane is about
one square inch and has approximately 5 million scent receptors, while
the membranes on a dog’s nose can be as large as 60 square inches,
and a beagle can have 225 million receptors.
FAVINGER SPENDS MOST of his rabbit hunts on public land, like Darr Strip WMA
east of Cozad. When hunting these spots as well as other private land, Favinger wears
hunter’s orange in case other hunters are using the area. Most of the time, however, he has
these spots entirely to himself.
For more photographs from Favinger’s rabbit hunt last winter near Cozad and tips on how
to skin a rabbit, go to NebraskalandMagazine.com.
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 19
Opposite: One experienced ice skater shows her friend the ropes at E. T. Mahoney State Park’s Activity Center.
Above: Drew Correll (left) and Alice Mcqueney sled down one of the tobaggan runs at the park.
I
PHOTOS BY JEFF KURRUS
t happens each winter throughout
the state – when the snow begins to
fall, kids of all ages flock to the perfect
sledding hill in town. Usually it’s an
unofficial place where kids gather, such
as Tornado Hill in Grand Island, but it
may be an officially designated sledding
hill, such as Gering’s Northfield Park
or Deadman’s Canyon in Valentine.
Many other city parks across the
state are known for their wintertime
slopes: Kearney has Cotton Mill,
Chadron has Wilson, Lincoln has
Pioneers, and Omaha has Memorial
Park. Many state parks also offer good
winter fun, and the tobaggan runs at
E.T. Mahoney State Park near Ashland
offer some of the best sledding facilities
found anywhere in the state.
Those looking to enjoy a winter day
with skates underneath them instead
of sleds or tobaggans can find many
public facilities to enjoy. Holmes Lake
in Lincoln will have a designated iceskating area as soon as sufficient ice
develops, while the city of Norfolk
floods a basketball court at Berry Hill
Park. Near Valentine, kids often skate
at the nearby Valentine National
Wildlife Refuge and at Mill’s Pond. In
Chadron, the ice rink of choice is at
Wilson Park, and in Omaha, thousands
of people visit the ConAgra Foods ice
rink near the Old Market. And of
course, there is also ice skating at E.T.
Mahoney SP, setting the family up for
a perfect day of sledding and skating
just minutes from the metro area. ■
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 21
Text and photos by Chris Helzer
Many birds and animals – even some insects – have the option
of migrating or seeking shelter when winter comes to Nebraska.
Plants, however, don’t have that option, and must have other
methods to withstand winter’s frigid cold temperatures. Here
are a few of the ways that plants survive Nebraska winters.
D
uring frigid Nebraska winters, humans and
other animals can either find shelter or
migrate to warmer places, but plants are pretty
much stuck where they are. If they are well
prepared, most plants can simply retreat within
themselves and survive until spring. However, doing so is
more complicated and difficult than it might seem at first.
There are two significant challenges to plants during the
winter: low temperatures and a lack of available moisture.
Temperature is important primarily because the formation of
ice crystals inside living plant cells destroys those cells.
Plants have to either protect
or abandon their living tissues
during cold weather.
Precipitation levels are
typically low during winter
months anyway, but very cold
temperatures can also freeze
whatever water is in the soil,
making it unavailable. The
water inside the stems of
plants can freeze too,
shutting down the plants’
vital circulation systems.
Herbaceous Plants
Illinois bundleflower seeds sit loosely in their pods. Hard seed
coats help protect the seeds from winter temperatures.
22 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
Herbaceous plants are non-woody plants with stems and
leaves that die back to ground level at the end of the growing
season. They may be annuals, biennials or perennials. Both
above and below ground parts of annual plants die at the end
of their first and only growing season. The survival strategy
for annuals is to make as many seeds as possible, disperse
them so that at least some land in hospitable places, and
ensure the seeds are built to withstand cold temperatures.
Biennials do not flower and produce seeds until their second
growing season, after which the plants die.
Perennials – herbaceous plants living at least two years –
deal with winter’s challenges by producing seeds and
allowing their above-ground parts to dieback: the living
tissue of the plant essentially retreating underground as roots
or bulbs that send up new stems and leaves the following
spring. Herbaceous perennials in this dormant state are well
A leafless oak tree stands alone on a rural farm. One of the ways that deciduous trees survive Nebraska
winters is by dropping their leaves each fall to minimize water loss and damage from freezing temperatures.
adapted to the lack of available moisture because they don’t
have to support leaves and stems. While it is important for
these plants to flower and produce seeds and/or rhizomes,
the first priority is to build and maintain root mass and buds
to ensure that they can survive the next winter and have the
energy reserves to start growing again the following year. In
difficult years, such as during drought or when intensively
grazed, perennial plants will often enter dormancy to avoid
depleting those reserves.
Woody Plants
Trees and shrubs deal with winter a little differently than
herbaceous plants because woody plants retain and protect
their above-ground structures rather than retreating beneath
the ground. Most Nebraska trees and shrubs are deciduous
and drop their leaves in the fall. Leaves are a major source
of water loss and are also difficult to protect from cold
Snow caps the now dead flowers of round-headed bush clover
while its living tissue safely survives winter beneath the ground.
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 23
Conifers trees, such as this eastern red cedar, rely on a thick waxy coating on their
leaves to prevent winter desiccation.
While aesthetically pleasing, hoarfrost, snow and ice can create deadly conditions for plants that are inadequately prepared for
winter. Below: When autumn arrives, chlorophyll in green plant leaves breaks down, allowing other colors in the leaf to be revealed.
temperatures. Like many other processes in plants, leaf drop is stimulated by
changes in photoperiod (day length). As fall progresses and nights get
longer, the green chlorophyll in the leaves begins to break down, revealing
the other colors (yellows, reds and browns) that are always present in leaves
but are typically masked by large amounts of chlorophyll. Abscission layers
between the leaves and twigs are formed to create a line of separation
between the two structures. Scar tissue develops within that space to prevent
water loss, and the leaf drops as a result of wind and gravity.
Coniferous trees and shrubs, such as junipers and pines, shed some leaves
(needles) each year, but also retain many of them through the winter.
Conifers need special adaptations to help protect those remaining leaves
from cold and to reduce water loss. These needles have a thick, waxy coating
called cutin that greatly reduces water loss. They can also close their pores
(stomata) very tightly to prevent air and water from entering or leaving the
leaf. A process called acclimation, discussed below, also helps protect the
needles from the cold.
Keeping their needles can be an advantage for conifers because they keep
photosynthesizing late into the fall and even during warm periods in the
winter. However, those needles are also a liability because of the water loss
and maintenance costs associated with keeping them. In addition, needles
can make conifers more susceptible than deciduous trees to damage from
heavy snows and strong winds.
Whether or not they drop their leaves, all trees go through a process of
24 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
acclimation,
which is
somewhat similar
to hibernation in
animals. The
“killing
temperature” of
trees is the
temperature at
which ice crystals
form inside cells,
killing them.
Acclimation is a
series of chemical
and physical
changes at the
cellular level that helps prevent cells from freezing. One
result of the chemical changes is that the freezing point of
cells is reduced slightly so that water outside cells freezes
before the cells themselves do. When water freezes, a small
amount of heat energy is produced. In this case, that heat
energy actually helps nearby cells remain unfrozen, and the
temperature of twigs can actually rise slightly as this
happens.
Another important result of acclimation is that cell walls
become more permeable, making it easier for water to move
in and out of the cell. As ice crystals form in the pore spaces
between cells, water from inside the cells is attracted to
those crystals and can migrate out of the cells. As a result,
cells become even less susceptible to freezing until the
freezing temperature is reached. Each species of tree has its
own killing temperature, and that temperature plays a large
role in determining the geographic range within which that
tree species can survive.
Before it can transport water, a conifer first has to obtain
water whenever possible. Snow cover that thaws or prevents
the ground from freezing can make this much easier.
However, when the soil does freeze, the tree can’t get water
from the soil and has to rely on its own internal reserves.
Transportation of the water occurs mainly through tubes of
cells in the xylem layer of the tree. Conifers have special
ways of preventing the cells in the xylem from bursting in
freezing weather, so that whenever outside temperatures
warm enough to allow it, water can be transported through
those tubes. Deciduous trees, in contrast, lose their ability to
transport water through the xylem after those cells freeze,
and have to grow new cells the next spring in order to begin
transporting again.
Spring Growth
Regardless of their strategies for surviving the winter,
spring brings opportunities for plants to restart their growth.
Seeds that beat the odds and end up in favorable locations
germinate and establish new plants. Perennial plants grow
new shoots and leaves from their buds. The buds of
herbaceous plants are all below the ground, and new spring
growth emerges through the dead stems from the previous
year. In contrast, the buds of woody plants are above-ground,
and new growth starts up right where last year’s growth
stopped.
As soon as they begin that spring growth, plants
immediately start getting ready for the next winter. Whether
they try to maximize seed production, grow next year’s buds,
or just build root reserves, preparation is the key to survival.
Because, as we all know, it’s going to be a long winter. ■
Chris Helzer has been a contributor to NEBRASKAland
since 1995 and is author of the book The Ecology and
Management of Prairies, published by the University of Iowa
Press.
Chris is Program Director of The Nature
Conservancy’s Eastern Nebraska Project
Office in Aurora managing about 5,000 acres
of Conservancy land. He hibernates for much
of the winter, but emerges each spring – hungry
and cranky – to resume life above ground.
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 25
The Smallest
Nuthatch
By Michael Forsberg
The diminutive pygmy nuthatch, one of four
nuthatch species found in North America, may be
one of our best indicators of a healthy pine forest.
A
few years ago, I was on a hike in Gilbert Baker
Wildlife Management Area in Nebraska’s Pine
Ridge with Wayne Mollhoff, friend and tireless
coordinator of the Nebraska Breeding Bird Atlas
Project – a multi-year effort designed to collect
and update information on all wild bird species
breeding in Nebraska.
Above right: Short but powerful legs spring a pygmy nuthatch
from its cavity nest to an adjoining branch in a ponderosa pine
tree. Above: At only four inches long and weighing less then
half an ounce, the pygmy nuthatch is the smallest of the four
nuthatch species found in North America.
26 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
Mollhoff was in search of nomadic flocks of pinyon jays –
dusty blue-colored corvids of pine woodlands whose range
leaks into the western Panhandle of Nebraska. As we walked
up an unmarked trail under the forest canopy, however, his
attention was diverted. Mollhoff paused and pointed to a
cluster of still standing but mostly dead ponderosa pines,
likely victims of a lightning strike some years past.
“You ever seen a pygmy nuthatch?” he asked.
“A what?” I said.
“In this group of trees is a nesting colony of pygmy
nuthatches. If you sit here quietly you’ll see them.”
In Nebraska, we have resident white-breasted nuthatches
and red-breasted nuthatches from the boreal forests of Canada
almost always show up at our feeders in the winter, but I had
never heard of a pygmy nuthatch. Intrigued, I settled in.
Over the next hour I watched these tiny, stout birds flit
among the canopy, scramble up and down tree trunks searching
for insects, hop in and out of half dollar-sized holes with bits
of bark and moss to line their nest cavities, and even band
together to scold and eventually mob a squirrel and run it
out of their territory.
Nuthatches are forest songbirds, with blue-gray to slate
colored backs and whitish underparts. They derive their
name from their habit of wedging seeds or insects in a
crack and hacking it open with their bills. Their compact
bodies are characterized by large heads, long pointed bills,
compressed wings, square tails and short, powerful legs with
long claws. Unlike woodpeckers, which use their stiff tails as
braces to climb up trees, nuthatches use only their feet and
can climb headfirst up or down a tree trunk with ease.
The pygmy nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea) is one of roughly
two dozen nuthatch species worldwide, and one of four
species found in North America. They live in healthy,
long-needled pine forests. Their range stretches across the
mountains of the western U.S. from British Columbia to
southwest Mexico.
Clusters of standing dead trees (called "snags") in mature and old growth ponderosa pine forests, such as this one in
Gilbert-Baker Wildlife Management Area in Sioux County, provide key habitat for the pygmy nuthatch.
It is a common species in the Colorado Rockies, but in
Nebraska the pygmy nuthatch is at the eastern limit of its
range, with small breeding populations found only in the
Pine Ridge and Wildcat Hills of the Panhandle. Unlike many
other forest songbirds, the pygmy nuthatch is considered
sedentary and does not migrate, remaining in its nesting and
foraging territories year-round.
Like all nuthatches, the pygmy is a cavity nester. Its
habitat requirements are old growth or mature ponderosa
pine forests with open canopies, relatively undisturbed by
logging or other development, with a good collection of
“snags” (standing dead trees or live trees with dead sections)
critical for their survival. In these snags they are able to
excavate their own cavities, which they depend on for both
nesting and roosting.
Pygmy nuthatches are highly social and live within
extended family groups. Monogamous, they mate for life.
During the nesting season, the adult pair can take 3-6 weeks
to excavate a cavity together and collect soft material such as
moss and feathers to make a simple nest. Once finished, the
male provides food and protection for the female over the
next several weeks as she incubates 5-9 eggs and broods the
chicks, but he often does not work alone: In the pygmy
nuthatch world, young males from the previous year’s brood
often help the adult male find food and feed and protect the
female and her young at the nest until the chicks fledge.
These apprentices will even roost together in the nest cavity
with the female and her brood at night.
Pygmy nuthatches forage almost exclusively in pine trees,
eating a variety of insects and seeds. When food is plentiful,
they cache their surplus in crevices or on the underside of
bark on trunks or branches.
After fledging, pygmy nuthatch families form post-breeding
flocks. During the cold winter months, these flocks often
roost communally in a single cavity to conserve body heat.
As many as 170 pygmy nuthatches have been counted at a
single cavity roost.
Pygmy nuthatch populations are considered secure, but
that does not mean they are not vulnerable. Because of their
habitat requirements, scientists have called them an indicator
species and use the presence of pygmy nuthatch populations
as one barometer for forest health across the west. If pygmy
nuthatch populations are strong, then the forest is likely
healthy and other associated species are healthy too.
Yet as many ponderosa pine forest habitats decline and
massive pine bark beetle infestations spread across the West,
their future is uncertain. Scientists will be watching carefully
how this intriguing species and other forest birds respond. ■
When not hiking across a prairie, kayaking
down a river, or sleeping in his photo blind,
Michael Forsberg lives in Lincoln with his
wife Patty and his two daughters, Elsa and
Emme.
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 27
Text and photos by Jon Farrar
Although called a weedy, short-lived, insect- and decay-prone
seed-machine with weak wood, the box elder is sustenance and home
for a host of creatures. They can climb to over 60 feet tall in
eastern states but on the Great Plains are squatty and sprawling.
F
or those of us with contrary natures, there is a
perverse appeal in plants and animals most people find
unattractive, unappealing, or in general see no need to
exist at all. In the animal world that would include cormorants,
common water snakes, and bats. In the plant world, at least
among native plants, would be the much maligned box elder
tree. Few people even know the box elder; and most of those
who do consider it a weed tree – sprawling, broken-down,
with wood not good for anything at all. But if you come to
know it, the tree has its charms.
My appreciation for the box elder came early in life.
Mrs. Conard (as a kid, I never knew her first name as in
those times children called adults by their last names with a
Mr. or Mrs. in front of it, but later I found out it was Laura)
was an occasional babysitter of me. In her yard was a
House wrens and other cavity-nesting birds are drawn to the
box elder’s broken and decaying branches. Opossums and
raccoons use the hollowed branches as den sites.
28 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
sprawling box elder, probably near three feet in diameter a
foot above the ground. About five feet above the ground the
tree had branched. Long before I knew the tree, one of those
branches had broken at the Y, and a hollow had rotted out
and filled nearly to the top with wood chips and the largest
white grubs I’d ever seen. The hollow had the perfect slope
and width to accommodate my boyish rump. The cavity
became my stagecoach seat, and equipped with a whip
crudely fashioned from a piece of broom handle with a rope
nailed to it, I drove my stage hell-bent-for-election through
the make-believe rocky gorges of New Mexico day after day,
pursued by six-gun-shooting bandits. This was, of course,
decades before interactive video games and Wii; barely in
the age of westerns on television. But even if your rump is
too wide to fit in a box elder cavity and play stage driver,
there are other reasons to admire this tree.
Box elders (Acer negundo) are maples, closely related to
more familiar species such as sugar maples and silver maples
found in cities and towns. It is the most widely distributed of
all American maples, with a range of nearly three million
square miles extending from coast to coast and from southern
Canada to Guatemala. Across its range it is known by many
common names, including ash-leaved maple, cut-leaved
maple, three-leaved maple, black ash, stinking ash, sugar
ash, maple ash and water ash. Prior to settlement by
Euroamericans, box elders on the Great Plains were mostly
found along waterways. Settlers quickly recognized they
were hardy, adaptable, resistant to both drought and prolonged
cold, quickly provided much desired shade and firewood,
and were readily available as seedlings. Under the Timber
Culture Act of 1873, settlers were allowed to file on 160
acres of land and eventually own it if they planted and cared
for 40 acres of trees (later reduced to 10 acres) within eight
years (an additional five years was later allowed). Box elders
were extensively planted under that program, and as street
margins, but those on the box elder are coarser and more deeply cut than those on
the green ash. Once the true leaves of each are compared, identification becomes
quite simple. Box elders are the only North American maple with compound
leaves, a leaf divided into smaller leaf-like leaflets.
Male and female flowers are produced on drooping stalks on different trees in
early spring. From mid-summer on, the seeds are another giveaway of the identity
of the two trees – those of box elder are borne in the characteristic, plump-seeded
and broadly winged maple pairs children toss into the air to watch whirligig down
like helicopters.
An intriguing characteristic of box elders has been noticed by botanists where
Settlers found box elders to be free and quick to provide shade. The box elder above outlived the house along the Niobrara River.
Box Elder leaf
Box elders and green ash
have more than one “leaflet”
on each leaf. Box elders
have three to seven leaflets,
green ash five to nine. The
leaflets of both have toothed
margins, but those on the
box elder are coarser.
trees in small towns and, later, shelterbelts.
In eastern states, box elders may attain heights of 60 feet or more with a spreading
crown. One of the largest on record is in New York and stands 75 feet tall with
a spread of over 100 feet; hardly the box elder that Nebraskans know.
On the Great Plains, a box elder rising over
40 feet in the air is a magnificent specimen. More
leaflet
often, especially when isolated and not forced to
compete and climb among other trees to reach
sunlight, they are squatty in form and branch near
the ground. The wood is weak and lower branches
frequently break and fall under a coating of ice or strong
winds, particularly if their cores have been weakened by
wood rot. But box elders are a tenacious lot – these
large, recumbent branches are often still fed by the
roots and send up a confusion of new, small, vertical
branches. Box elder wood is soft (about one-half the
strength and stiffness of sugar maple wood), nearly
Green Ash leaf
useless as lumber, but acceptable as
firewood if nothing else is available.
Box elders are sometimes confused
with green ash trees. The trunks of both
have fissured surfaces (the ridges of
box elder said to be broad and rounded,
while those of the ash are narrow and
flat-topped). The leaves of each can
also add to the confusion. Both have
more than one “leaflet,” what most lay
people would call “a leaf,” on what
botanists call the actual “leaf.” True
leaves will all be most evident on new
growth emerging from the previous
year’s growth. Box elders have three to
seven leaflets, green ash five to nine.
The leaflets of both trees have toothed
Wood rats along the Niobrara River frequently build their stick and bark houses
around sprawling and hollowed trunks of box elders.
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 31
Because of their sprawling growth habit, box elders are prone to break under heavy snows or high winds, but the recumbent
branches often remain alive and send up new branches.
they are found under harsh growing conditions along streams:
Most of the trees near the stream are females, while those
farther away, and often on higher ground, are males. They
speculate such sorting is useful to the species in that the
females producing heavy crops of seeds have enhanced access
to water, and that the pollen shed by males on higher ground
is more inclined to drift down to fertilize the female flowers.
Further evidence the box elder is a true maple, albeit an
unclaimed orphan of the family, is that its sap can be tapped
to make a “poor-man’s maple syrup.” Indian tribes in the
northwest, where no other maples were native, collected sap
in bark troughs and boiled it with hot rocks to make sugar.
In his studies of medicinal and food plants used by northern
Great Plains Indian tribes in the early-1900s, particularly
those used by the Omaha tribe of Nebraska, ethnobotanist
Melvin R. Gilmore noted that the sap of box elder was
traditionally used to make sugar; and that a charcoal made
by burning the wood was used by the Dakota and Omaha for
“ceremonial painting of the person and for tattooing.” Some
western tribes gathered the bark of box elders, soaked them
in “swamp mud” until black, and then used the inner bark
for basket making.
Box elders were well known to native people, and still
today, for the “box elder mushrooms” often found growing
on them, although the bract-like, edible fungus is not
“Box elder mushrooms” are considered delicious by many, but
are not limited to this tree species alone.
32 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
restricted to that species of tree alone.
In fact, the scientific name for them is
Pleurotus ulmarious, and the species
name ulmarious translates as “of the
elms.” These white, shell-like fruiting
bodies often grow from wounds on
box elder trees and mature in about
10 days. The flesh of these fungi is
considered delicious. Although typically
sought and gathered in the early
autumn, they might be found throughout
the growing season when conditions
are conducive to their growth. They are
prime when the gills are pure white
with no trace of browning. As with all
wild fungi, identification should be
certain before eating.
Although much maligned by
humankind, the lowly box elder is an
important tree for wildlife. Its mature
seeds are food for many creatures,
particularly squirrels and grosbeaks.
Cavities where small branches have
broken away from the trunk are
used by a variety of woodpeckers,
chickadees, house wrens, swallows,
nuthatches, kestrels, small owls, wood
ducks and other cavity-nesting species.
Where a larger branch breaks from the
trunk, wood rot often leads to hollows,
some eventually extending through the
trunk itself, creating den sites for small
mammals. Raccoons seem to prefer
hollows higher on the tree, opossums in
large branches lying on the ground, and
wood rats build stick and bark houses
around the bases of broken-down box
elders.
Fussy horticulturists who demand
esthetic perfection in trees have called
box elders a weedy, short-lived, insectand decay-prone seed machine with
weak wood. Most of that may be true,
but they have a rightful place in the
natural scheme of things, certainly for
wildlife, and are useful in providing
quick shade when planted among more
long-lived tree species. Because of
their squatty and spreading growth
habit, box elders are the most accessible
of trees for kids to climb or use for a
tree house or even for a make-believe
stagecoach seat. If thrown to the
ground by a runaway team in the
course of being chased by bandits, the
fall will usually be short and harmless
if from a box elder. ■
Boxelder Bugs
Many of us grew up calling them “Democrat bugs.” Apolitical
youngsters called them stink bugs, one of quite a number of bugs
called “stink bugs” that, when crushed, emit a foul odor. Boxelder
(yes entomologists make it one word) bugs (Boisea trivittata) are
true bugs, meaning they belong to the scientific order Hemiptera;
characterized by having evolved a proboscis sheathed within a
“beak” or “rostrum” allowing plant tissue to be pierced and plant
fluids sucked out. Adults are about ½-inch long, mostly black with
reddish-orange wing veins creating a geometric, arrowheadshaped, pattern on the back when the wings are folded. They have
red eyes. Nymphs look much like adults but are bright red.
Originally native to the southwestern U.S., boxelder bugs
expanded their range north and east as box elder trees were
planted on farms and in cities. Boxelder bugs share their name
with the box elder because the tree’s soft tissue – particularly
young and tender seeds – is one of their principal food items. To
a lesser degree, they also feed on other maples, ash and some
fruit trees. They do very little damage to their host trees.
Boxelder bugs are best known for their habit of gathering in large
numbers in sunny locations, such as the south sides of buildings in
spring and fall. As the weather cools in the autumn, they seek
warm places to overwinter such as forest litter and buildings.
Although a nuisance
indoors, they are harmless
other than leaving fece
residues. The best control
is sealing the infested
buildings. Boxelder bugs
may emerge from hiding
on warm winter days but
typically not until the warm
days of spring. Eggs are
laid on host plants in late
spring.
Nicknames such as
Democrat bugs apparently
first appeared in the late1800s. In about 1900 they
were sometimes referred
to as “McKinley bugs,”
even though President
McKinley was a
Republican; suggesting
any party affiliation could
be assigned to the bugs
Boxelder bugs feed on the soft tissue,
to suit the speaker. The
particularly seeds, of the box elder tree.
name Democrat bug
apparently stuck during the 1930s Depression and presidency
of Franklin Roosevelt, when it was inferred that Democrats, like
boxelder bugs, gathered only in warm, sheltered places on sunny
days. Another explanation often assigned was that the bugs, like
Democrats, only showed up at election times, spring and fall. Most
of these latter-day references, of course, came from Republicans.
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 33
Text by Jon Farrar
Photo by Jeff Kurrus
N
umerous words have been used to describe
the opossum – ugly, stupid, plodding,
foul-tempered, smelly – but perhaps the word
best summing up this animal is incongruous.
Almost everything about the animal seems out
of place in time and space.
Opossums are marsupials, one of the oldest living orders
of mammals on earth. There are 100 species of marsupials in
the Americas, most living in South America. Australia has
the most species of marsupials, about 200. The Virginia
opossum (Didelphis virginiana) found in Nebraska is the
only North American marsupial and is more closely related
to kangaroos, wallabies and koalas than any other mammal
found here.
Compared to other orders of mammals, marsupials are the
most primitive in nearly all regards. The foremost peculiarity
of marsupials is there are no placenta attached to and
nourishing young in the mother’s womb. The small, blind,
deaf, naked young leave the female reproductive tract only
12 to 14 days after being conceived. At this stage they are
approximately the size of raisins – 16 would fill a teaspoon.
No more than embryos using rudimentary front legs and
clawed fingers to move, they crawl to an external, flapped
pouch (appropriately called the marsupium) on the female’s
belly, with the mother playing little, if any, role in this
migration. There they attach to teats, which swell in their
tiny mouths and help hold them in place. More young may
be born than the mother has teats to feed. Some wander
astray and vanish while moving to the pouch, others arrive
to find all the teats claimed. When about 60 days old the
young detach from the teats, but may continue to nurse.
When they leave the pouch they clamber onto the
mother’s back where they cling until old enough to
travel independently. Young opossums are usually
independent when 90 to 100 days old. Opossums lead
solitary lives, except for the time young are with the
female. Mating is uncomplicated and businesslike.
Labeling opossums stupid is not without justification.
Their brain cavity is small compared to other mammals
roughly their size. One mammalogist wrote that opossums
are “playing with about a third of a deck.” But lack of
intelligence apparently does not always translate into being
unsuccessful – the fact that opossums have inhabited the
earth for at least 85 million years suggests their life strategy
has been better than that of many other mammals, a good
share with larger brains.
Opossums are prolific, with both sexes reaching sexual
maturity when less than a year old. Usually six to nine
young are born per litter, and two litters can be raised each
year, one in mid-winter and another in late-spring.
Another part of the opossum’s success can probably be
attributed to their catholic feeding habits – most anything
an opossum finds it will eat. Important food items in their
diet include, but are not limited to, carrion, vegetables of
any sort, nuts, insects and other invertebrates such as
worms, fruits, eggs and small vertebrates such as mice
and lizards. Urban opossums are exceedingly fond of
much of what we put in our garbage cans.
While opossums are well known for “playing possum,”
that is not their first line of defense when threatened.
Instead, they hump up, bare their 50 spiny teeth lining a
rather impressive but pointy maw, drool, hiss and make a
clicking sound similar to that issued by males when
courting. If that fails to deter the threat, an opossum may,
but not always, enter a catatonic state and appear dead,
but not before defecating and emitting a rank greenish ooze
from its anal glands. This strategy seems to defy logic, as
presumably a predator’s intent is to first render the opossum
dead and then consume it. No plausible explanation exists
for the strange behavior – it’s just possum nature.
Apparently not many hungry predators are fooled, as a
two-year-old opossum in the wild is the exception. The
survival strategy of the opossum seems to be the prolific
production of new opossums.
Opossums are not known to be territorial, and are
nomadic wanderers through any habitat that will support
them. While they may be found anywhere in Nebraska,
they are most common in woodlands, particularly along
streams. They will “hole-up” in about any cavity they can
access, including storm sewers in cities, but seem to
prefer hollow logs on or near the ground.
Opossums have extended their range northward in
recent times and seem to prosper in an incredible variety
of environments. They were not native in the far west, but
were introduced during the 1930s, probably as a source of
food during the Depression, and rapidly expanded
northward into Oregon and Washington. On the Great Plains
they extend north across the eastern half of South Dakota
and into the southeastern corner of North Dakota.
Ecologists speculate this expansion occurred because of the
reduction in the number of opossum predators. Expanding
northward does come at a price, however, as northern
opossums not uncommonly have shortened tails and ears
from frostbite.
The opossum’s common name—Virginia opossum—is a
reference to the first written report describing the animal
by English explorer Captain John Smith, in what today is
the state of Virginia in 1612. His description was brief:
“An Opassum hath a head like a Swine, & a taile like a
Rat, and is of the Bignes of a Cat.”
Seems the enduring opossum has never had the respect it
rightly deserves for its long-term success. ■
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 35
Whoops!
Text and photos by Eric Fowler
I
t has happened to all of us. With
good intentions, we do something
that doesn’t work out quite like we
planned. Sometimes we know right
away that we messed up.
Sometimes it takes years.
Not even fish and wildlife managers
can escape that humbling fact of life. If
you want perfect examples from both
fronts, here they are: the common carp
and the eastern red cedar. In years gone
by, both were widely “planted” by
Nebraska’s fish and wildlife managers,
who at the time thought they were doing
the right thing. As it turned out, however,
it wasn’t, and today the state’s current
crop of biologists spend a good portion
of their time working to control them.
Those are just two of many species
that have been introduced into
Nebraska’s wilds that, upon further
review, have caused us to say
“whoops.”
Good Fish, Bad Fish
Of the 110 species of fish currently
swimming in Nebraska’s waters,
25 weren’t found here historically.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that only
cutthroat trout were native to Nebraska,
yet brook, brown and rainbow trout
have been stocked by Nebraska Game
and Parks Commission biologists to
provide sportfishing opportunities in
rivers, streams and reservoirs. Some, like
wipers and alewives, were stocked to
fill unnatural habitat created by reservoir
construction. Others, including three
species of Asian carp, swam up the
Missouri after escaping fish farms.
36 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
Many other introduced species, including
chinook salmon, didn’t survive.
One introduction biologists wish they
could erase from the history books
happened before their grandparents
were born. The common carp, native to
Asia and cultured in Europe, was
brought to the United States in 1872
by a Californian who began
selling them for food. In 1877, the
U.S. Fish Commission expanded that
effort, importing carp from Germany
and stocking and distributing them
throughout the country. The Nebraska
Fish Commission joined that effort
soon after its creation in 1879, and by
1881 it had 1,500 carp in hatchery
ponds and was stocking them in rivers,
streams, natural lakes and ponds
throughout the state.
“The German Carp will be the most
successfully cultivated of any fish
adapted to our waters,” read the
Commission’s 1883 annual report.
They were right on that point, but not
another made in the 1886 report –
“carp are, no doubt, the poor man’s fish
of the future and are sure to become an
important item on the bill of fare of
those who eat fish as food and not as a
luxury.”
As is the case with many non-native
species of flora and fauna found in
the United States today, carp were
championed by European immigrants
who didn’t want to leave everything
they loved in the old country.
Apparently, however, they left the old
country in search of better tasting fish,
because carp never gained widespread
acclaim here. Not even dubbing them
“patriotic protein” in a campaign to
increase consumption of carp when a
substitute for meat was needed in
World War I, or a similar “Carp for
Victory” campaign in WWII, could
convince most folks to make it a
regular part of their dinner menu.
Maybe people’s disdain for carp
began when, even before the start
of the 20th century, they saw the
introduced fish rooting up vegetation
and muddying the waters of their
favorite fishing hole, reducing water
quality to the detriment of bass,
bluegills and other native game fish.
The 1896 Fish Commission report
Nebraska’s Infiltrators?
SPECIES
TOTAL
EXOTIC
INVASIVE
Birds
Plants
Mammals
Fish
Amphibians/Reptiles
Mussels/Crustacteans
454
2,051
95
110
60
38
5
487
3
25
3
3
4
9*
3
14
3
3
*Nine non-native plants are so invasive they are considered noxious in Nebraska.
For more information, visit the Nebraska Invasive Species Project web site at
http://snr.unl.edu/invasives/index.htm.
Cedar rows planted on a grassy ridge at Grove Lake Wildlife Management Area near Royal provided a seed source
that helped cedars spread throughout adjacent grasslands and the oak-forested draws.
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 37
But little Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often askew,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!
– Excerpted from “To A Mouse,” a poem written by Robert Burns in
1785 after turning up a winter mouse nest on his farm
mentions that “Carp have been
subjected to much criticism in recent
years by anglers and sportsmen … .”
In 1926, Outdoor Nebraska, the
predecessor of NEBRASKAland
Magazine, included the following tidbit:
“Ever since the Game and Fish
Department was created in 1901,
spasmodic efforts have been made to
remove coarse fish from our waters
with varying degrees of success…
While we will likely never see the
time when coarse fish will be entirely
eradicated, periodical seining under
careful supervision will at least keep
the carp and other obnoxious fish under
control.” The tide had turned, but the
damage was already done.
“You shake your head now, but back
then it was state of the science,” said
Daryl Bauer, Commission fisheries
outreach coordinator. “They were
convinced they were doing the right
thing.”
Work to control carp continues today,
but even when biologists use rotenone
to kill off all fish in lakes where carp
dominate, a common practice in lake
Fishy Situation
Striped Bass
W
38 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
Yet
another
temperate bass,
the white perch,
continues to cause
trouble. Biologists brought this
fish, native to the Atlantic coast,
to Nebraska in 1964 in hopes of
improving fisheries in several lakes
in the Sandhills that were too
alkaline to support most game fish.
By accident, those fish were
White Perch
stocked into Wagon Train Lake
and soon they had spread to other
Salt Valley Lakes around Lincoln.
On the east coast, white perch grow to 10 inches and
are favored game fish and tablefare. But in Nebraska,
the highly prolific fish soon overpopulate a lake and
in the late-1980s, North Dakota
biologists began importing zander,
Europe’s version of the walleye, simply
because it grew bigger.
The American Fisheries Society now
has a stocking protocol that boils down
to this: Does a native already fill the
need? “Walleye don’t get to be
40 pounds like zander, but we don’t
need to bring in another exotic,” said
Tunink. That policy and outcry from
anglers quashed the zander program.
Weed Trees
Unlike the problems caused by
invasive fish, which are often hidden in
the depths, those caused by invasive
plants are right there for everyone to
see. But that doesn’t mean everyone
sees the problem staring at them from
the roadside or a distant hillside.
That is certainly the case with eastern
red cedar trees. Cedars are native to
Nebraska. Historically, however, periodic
wildfires kept them out of the prairies,
which made up 98 percent of the state.
With fires now controlled, cedars have
crept or even exploded into the state’s
grasslands, displacing wildlife and, at
a direct cost to livestock producers, the
The common carp’s ability to muddy water is obvious when they are spawning in the
shallows. Most of the year, however, the bottom feeders do their work out of sight.
amount of grass available to cattle.
The funny thing is, wildlife
biologists and countless other resource
professionals helped fuel the spread
of this tree. From the 1960s into the
1980s, row after row and mile after
mile of cedar trees were planted on
Commission wildlife and park lands.
Biologists were simply using the
playbook the experts handed them,
which read that creating edge would
benefit the wildlife species they
wanted to propagate: white-tailed deer,
pheasants, turkeys and quail.
“We planted a helluva lot of them in
our day,” said Jeff Hoffman, assistant
administrator in the Commission’s
Wildlife Division. “Back then, edge
and interspersion were good. So we
planted every other terrace to cedars to
break up the grasslands, but it wasn’t
the best thing to do.”
The cedars made great habitat … for
a few years. But when they grew up,
Mel Smith and other anglers
pursued trophy striped bass
during their reign at Lake
McConaughy.
become stunted.
Not only do they
out-compete game
fish for food, they
also have an
appetite for fish
eggs, including
walleye.
Several of the Salt Valley lakes have
been renovated to remove the fish, some
more than once. But the fish persist in
several, including Branched Oak, Wagon
Train and Pawnee, and the pest appears to
be here to stay.
At Branched Oak, biologists are trying to
make the most of the situation by stocking the
lake with every top-tier predator they can, including
flathead catfish, walleye and wipers, hoping that those fish will
eat their way through the white perch population and improve
things for other fish while growing to trophy size themselves, an
effort that has met some success.
PHOTO BY ROCKY HOFFMANN
hile carp may have been the first mistake made
by fisheries biologists in Nebraska, they were not
the last.
Striped bass, a fish once only found in freshwater in
the United States when it went on its annual spawning
runs up coastal rivers from the Atlantic Ocean, were
stocked in Lake McConaughy from 1969 through 1978.
While they did indeed provide a unique trophy fishery,
the voracious predator also contributed to a crash in
the lake’s gizzard shad forage base, took a good chunk
out of the lake’s rainbow trout population, and were
banned from future stockings in 1981. While stripers
weren’t supposed to be able to reproduce in inland
waters, biologists believe they did, but rarely enough
that most of those fish have fallen to the hook or old age.
Ironically, at the same time striped bass were being
banned, a hybrid cross between the striped and white
bass, commonly known today as a wiper, was just
beginning. Things have worked out much better for that
fish, which continues to be stocked in larger reservoirs
throughout the state.
rehabilitation projects nationwide
since the 1930s, carp often return.
Sometimes they are brought by an
unwitting angler – rare is the case
when a seine full of shiners doesn’t
contain a young-of-the-year carp that
end up in an angler’s bait bucket. When
that angler dumps his unused bait into
the lake at the end of day to “feed the
fish,” the clock starts ticking on that
lake’s useful life, which is why the
use of live baitfish is banned at most
rehabilitated lakes.
“Life would be a lot simpler for
fisheries managers if we didn’t have
carp,” said Dave Tunink, assistant
administrator in the Commission’s
fisheries division. “They destroy the
habitat of most game shoreline species
like bass, bluegill and crappie. We
would have a lot more lakes with better
quality panfish, especially in the
Sandhills, without them.”
There are many other examples
around the country of introduced
species affecting native species,
including the Columbia River in
Washington, where walleye introduced
in the mid-1900s now grow big and fat
at the expense of native trout and
salmon. More recently,
Contractors working at Branched Oak Wildlife Management Area used heavy equipment to pull eastern red cedars like weeds, which
the trees had become 40 years after they were planted on the area for wildlife habitat. To improve grassland habitat, more than
20 miles of planted trees were removed as part of the Focus on Pheasants initiative.
they simply sliced large expanses of
grasslands into small ones. Biologists
have since learned that many grassland
bird species prefer larger blocks of
habitat, and that tall trees make great
perches for hawks and other birds of
prey that like to dine on grassland
birds. They also learned that without
prescribed fire, seeds from those cedar
rows will expedite cedar expansion into
the adjacent grasslands, and that having
row after row of cedars makes it harder
to carry out a prescribed fire.
So now, at great expense, the
Commission is tearing out as many of
those cedar rows as possible, and
clearing grasslands where they have
spread. As part of its Focus on Pheasants
initiative, more than 20 miles of tree
rows, mostly cedars, were removed at
Branched Oak WMA. Each year,
hundreds to thousands of cedars and
other invasive trees are sheared or
ground on other wildlife management
areas around the state, and prescribed
burns are conducted to ensure trees
sprouting from the seeds left behind
don’t become someone else’s problem
20 years from now. And if fire happens
to destroy a tree row, so be it.
40 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
Some are quick to point out that
much of this work is being done to
improve habitat for pheasants, which
are themselves an exotic. For the most
part, however, pheasants are an exotic
that have filled another unnatural niche:
the vast expanses of cropland that
replaced vast grasslands, displacing
native prairie grouse.
The Commission isn’t the only guilty
party in the spread of cedars, or the
only one busy controlling them. Cedars
were widely used in windbreaks on
farmsteads. While they are easy to
grow and serve this purpose well, the
practice has created numerous seed
sources in places there were none, and
from there, cedars have spread. And
while many natural resource agencies,
conservation groups and landowner
consortiums have declared war on
cedars, some still continue to promote
them for use in windbreaks or wildlife
cover.
A Place For Everything
For as long as man has been
moving around this world, he has
been moving plants, animals and all
things natural with him, sometimes
intentionally, sometimes by
happenstance. “Pretty” plants like
purple loosestrife were brought to the
United States as an ornamental and
now choke many rivers in Nebraska
and elsewhere. Zebra mussels hitched a
ride in ballast water on ships bound for
the Great Lakes and now infest many
waters throughout the United States at
a great cost to utilities. Sometimes, the
introductions are real head scratchers,
like the European starling, which was
brought here in 1890 as part of a plan
to introduce to the U.S. all birds found
in the works of Shakespeare. True story.
More than $120 billion is spent each
year in the United States to control
invasive species, often non-natives that
crowd out native plants and animals.
That fish and wildlife management
has been part of the problem is not lost
on the current crop of biologists. But
the trade still hasn’t completely
overcome the urge to try to make
things better. Natural Heritage
biologists with the Commission have
worked with fisheries biologists on plans
that say where trout should or shouldn’t
be stocked. That effort is meant to keep
trout out of spring-fed Sandhills
streams where they could certainly do
well but could also wipe out threatened
and endangered native species such as
the northern redbelly dace and Topeka
shiner.
“We’re in the thick of the battle to
fight invasives and at the same time we’re
introducing some,” said Rick Schneider,
heritage program manager.
While many hard lessons have been
learned about the effects introduced
exotics can have on natural communities,
introductions continue. They include a
few exotic beetles and weevils that
have been released in recent years in an
attempt to control, ironically, exotic
plants like musk thistle and purple
loosestrife. While intensive testing has
preceded these releases, no one knows
for sure if these insects will keep eating
only what they’re supposed to eat when
they are released. A rare, native thistle
has been affected by insects released to
control invasive musk and Canada thistle,
both non-natives.
“What’s going to be worse, letting
these exotic species take over or a
having few native species impacted by
control?” Schneider said. “It isn’t clear
cut. But it is clear that invasives are the
number two concern for species viability
(behind habitat loss).”
Which species are invasive also
isn’t clear cut, but the Nebraska
Invasive Species Project is working
on developing such a list. “It’s tricky,”
said Kari Decker, head of the project,
who said their goal is to spread the
word about invasives and make
stopping the spread of species there is
still a chance of controlling.
The side of human nature that is
always trying to fix things and make
them better drives the movement of
species into habitats where they
don’t belong. Many old sayings are
applicable here, including “the grass is
always greener on the other side.” But
we are often short-sighted, not thinking
about the long-term consequences these
actions might have on native species.
People need to remember another old
saying: “A place for everything,
everything in its place.”
Keep that in mind when you’re
planning your garden, stocking your
pond or working your land. There’s
nothing wrong with native flora and
fauna. ■
Habitat Do Overs
edars aren’t the only invasive plant the Commission has
introduced and is now fighting to control. Sericea lespedeza, a
woody legume also known as Chinese bush clover that was
imported from eastern Asia, was planted throughout the eastern
U.S. for livestock forage, wildlife food and habitat and for erosion
control from the late-1800s through the mid-1900s. As it turns out,
it’s not great as forage or wildlife food, and because of its propensity
to take over pastures and choke out desirable species, it’s now a
noxious weed in some states, including Kansas, and on
Nebraska’s watch list.
“It was touted 30 to 40 years ago as good quail food,” said
Hoffman. “Now we’re trying to get rid of it.”
Serecia lespedeza is found in eight counties in southeastern
Nebraska. Where it was planted on wildlife management areas,
biologists spray the plant each year. Eradication is a long, drawnout effort with a plant that is a prolific produder of seeds that
remain viable for 20 years or more.
Smooth brome grass is another problem plant. Native to Europe,
it was brought to the U.S. in late-1800s as forage crop and for
erosion control. Once established, the sod-forming, cool-season
grass soon chokes out nearly all native grasses and forbs, creating
a monoculture that is poor wildlife habitat. Yet it was spread far and
wide when the Conservation Reserve Program, a program that
now includes wildlife habitat as one of its purposes, was launched
in 1985. “They planted every seed they could get a hold of,” said
Hoffman. “It was cheap and it grew fast and well.”
Commission biologists have always favored warm-season
grasses on its wildlife areas, but it still battles brome on lands
where it was present when they were acquired or where it has
spread from adjacent private lands. Restoring private grasslands
dominated by brome to more diverse habitat has been the focus of
programs the Commission sponsors or is part of. Controlling
brome is costly and eliminating it nearly impossible.
C
SPILLING OIL IN NEBRASKA
With black smoke billowing from a surface burn, skimmer boats and supply vessels work the spill
site off the Louisiana coastline. Nobody knows how much oil remains on the bottom of the Gulf,
but experts feel the amount could be enormous. Dispersants were used by BP at the wellhead on
the seafloor, preventing much of the oil from rising to the surface.
How the Gulf of Mexico disaster can adversely affect
birds migrating through the Great Plains.
Text by Jeff Kurrus
Photos by Joel Sartore
T
o many Nebraskans, the Gulf Coast oil spill, which
began following the blowout of BP’s Deepwater Horizon
drilling rig on April 20, 2010, seems a million miles
away. However, it’s hard to ignore a catastrophe that,
according to National Geographic, has leaked more than
205 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s even
harder to ignore when one considers how many bird species
that migrate through Nebraska could be affected.
A severely-oiled brown pelican on Queen Bess Island in
Barrataria Bay last June. Unable to fly, this bird was easily
captured and taken to a rehab center. Months after the well was
plugged, oil continues to wash up along the Gulf Coast.
42 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
“Louisiana coastal
wetlands winter a
relatively high
percentage of North
America’s dabbling
ducks,” said Nebraska
Game and Parks
Commission waterfowl
biologist Mark Vrtiska.
“While most of the
birds that come through
Nebraska end up on the
Texas Gulf Coast, there
are many wigeon,
pintails, gadwall, teal
and shovelers that use
the Louisiana coastal
wetlands.”
Another species that
could be affected is the
piping plover. “We
banded a piping plover
in 2008 on the Lower
Platte River that was
re-sighted the following
winter on Raccoon
Island in Louisiana,”
said Joel Jorgensen, the
Commission’s nongame
bird program manager.
“That area is right
where the oil spill is and
it is very worrisome.”
However, earlier
estimates suggest that
south Texas’s Aransas
National Wildlife
Refuge, winter home
for the world’s whooping crane population, has been
unaffected. “At our location neither whooping cranes or blue
crabs, the whooper’s primary food, have shown any signs of
oil contamination,” said USFWS Whooping Crane
Coordinator Tom Stehn. “We really dodged a bullet. The
currents have kept everything north and east of Aransas.”
Because whooping cranes typically have two chicks per year,
only one of which usually survives, this positive news
is paramount to this species’ survival. An event as
catastrophic as an oil spill in whooping crane habitat
could devastate their already limited numbers.
And while we will see the disastrous effects of this
catastrophe for years to come, the whooping crane news is
at least one reason to smile. If only for a brief second. ■
Joel Sartore, who lives in Lincoln, is a
contributing photographer for National Geographic
Magazine, speaker, and author of RARE:
Portraits of America's Endangered Species. To
see more of his photographs from the Gulf oil
spill disaster, visit nationalgeographic.com and
search Oil Spill Photographs.
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 43
A Near-Death by Hunting
I took a couple of more steps, listened again, then bolted in a dead run down the
hill toward Dustin after hearing his attempted scream.
Another good reason to never hunt alone.
By Jeff Kurrus
hat morning, I took a picture
of one of Dustin Owens’s
Labradors making a pheasant
retrieve following a flush and
shot. Seconds after the photo,
we were congratulating ourselves,
hoping that one downed bird would
lead to two, two to three, and so forth.
Minutes after our congratulations,
however, we were more concerned with
keeping Dustin alive.
We were hunting a patch of private
land north of Humphrey. It was our one
free day of the week to hunt and we
had decided that hunting in miserable
conditions was better than not hunting
at all. Less than 10 degrees, a 20-mileper-hour wind and two-foot-deep
snowdrifts greeted us when we stepped
out of the truck.
Still we trudged through deep cover
with his two Labs. We jumped a
couple of birds early, killing one,
and continued through the field of
CRP grass until we saw a small patch,
less than a hundred yards long and only
a few rows wide, of milo. We decided
that I would make a quick walk
through the milo while Dustin stayed
down in the field.
Minutes later, with Dustin and his
dogs out of sight, I stopped walking.
While I have never had a bird flush
during one these pauses, more
experienced pheasant hunters have
repeatedly relayed stories of birds
jumping during these times.
I didn’t see or hear a bird when I
stopped, but I did hear a faint yell,
nearly a moan, of some sort coming
from Dustin’s direction. I took a
couple of more steps, listened again,
then bolted in a dead run down the hill
after hearing his attempted scream.
Hearing muffled screams of my
name has happened to me once before
while hunting. The other time, I ran
across a cut bean field, flipped over a
hidden barbed wire fence and found
my friend’s father hanging from a
spindly tree limb, both of his legs bent
in the wrong direction. This situation
T
44 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
A picture perfect pheasant retrieve from one of Owens’s dogs was a good start to
what nearly turned out to be a very bad day.
was just as dire.
All I could see upon finding Dustin
was his head and two arms. The rest of
him was underwater, having fallen
through an iced-over creek. Hanging
onto the side of the snowy creek bank,
ice was already forming in his wet hair
as his dogs repeatedly licked his face.
He gasped each time they did, as if he
were drowning.
I threw my equipment down into a
snowbank, including camera and
loaded shotgun, and reached for him. “I
can’t get out, I can’t get out,” he
moaned. When our hands first touched,
I felt myself slipping toward him as he
lunged toward me. I shook him loose
and he fell back deeper. If I was going
to get him out, my feet had to be more
firmly planted.
“Don’t grab me until I tell you to,
hear me?” I said, sitting down and
anchoring my heels in the snow and
ice. “Alright,” I said, and grabbed him
as I leaned back.
He climbed from the creek, wheezing,
snorting and gasping for breath. “I got
to go,” he moaned, tears forming and
freezing instantaneously as he took off
for the truck.
even on the radar – there was no animal
attacks, we were not lost in the remote
wilderness and we weren’t fighting an
electrical storm while crossing Lake Erie.
But he would have died if we weren’t
hunting together. He wasn’t getting out
of that creek by himself – while I had
walked that upper milo field for nearly
10 minutes before hearing him, he had
been trying to get out of the creek for
almost nine. He had fallen in shortly
after I left, but I didn’t hear him until it
was almost too late.
“I guess we’re done for the day,” he
said, finally regaining his senses as we
pulled into town proper.
“Do you want to be done?” I asked.
He paused briefly. “What do you
have in mind?”
A few moments later, we were sitting
in a hole-in-the-wall laundry mat, eating
fresh-made sandwiches from the local
market and waiting for Dustin’s clothes
to dry so we could hunt the afternoon.
We even bought a $10 hair dryer to
work on his boots.
We didn’t fire a shot during the
afternoon hunt; but we didn’t get wet
either. We did, however, find a few
moments late in the day to take the
afore-mentioned photograph or two,
and to reflect, even if just in each of
our own minds, just how lucky we had
been that day.
We always have a good reason to
bring a partner along in our outdoor
pursuits – the beauty of the outdoors,
after all, is best shared with others –
but the safety aspect of not hunting
alone is one best not ignored. ■
I grabbed our equipment, at least
what I could find, and followed him
across the field toward our vehicle.
Because the snowdrifts were so high,
he was going to have to walk out
himself – we would have buried our
truck if I had to use it, and I would
have buried both of us trying to carry
him out.
Less than 100 yards into the walk, he
yelled, nearly incoherent, “Where
truck?”
He wasn’t in good shape, but I kept
talking to him after finally catching
up. He walked with his head down,
following a path we had walked earlier.
“How much farther?” he asked.
We were still more than a half-mile
from the truck. “Couple hundred
yards,” I said.
By the time we got there, his clothes
were completely stiff. He stripped
down naked on the side of the gravel
road and put on a set of dry clothes he
had in the cab. Then he sat in his truck,
shivering, as I drove toward Humphrey
After about a half-hour, I was
beginning to realize how much worse
this could have been. In the grand
scheme of hunter survival, we weren’t
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 45
Deer in a Can
Here’s a “new” way to enjoy venison.
By Patrick Mainelli
In the coming months, some of Nebraska’s more skilled
hunters might find themselves overwhelmed with a
bounty of deer meat. If freezer space is limited, some
venison lovers will be looking for alternative ways to
preserve their feast. Canning meat is a less than common
option, but its convenience and unique taste are big incentives
for breaking out the pressure cooker.
Unlike frozen meat, canned venison can be used at a
moment’s notice. NEBRASKAland reader Doug Kapke
suggests piling it between some bread for a quick box-lunch,
and Kim Schilousky recommends rolling the meat in flour
and pan-frying it for an easy dinner. You can also add canned
deer to soups, chilis or casseroles.
If this year’s deer is a very mature doe or buck, the meat
may not be gourmet material, but canning is an excellent
way to return some of the moisture and tenderness to older
meat. A range of brining options can also introduce new
flavors – reader Elaine Tipton suggested adding a soy and
ginger sauce, and many readers find that some slices of
onion and a few cloves of garlic at the bottom of each jar
make for especially savory meat.
Several other NEBRASKAland readers also shared their
advice on the art of canning, and there seems to be a pretty
consistent formula floating through Nebraska’s kitchens.
Below is a well tested recipe submitted by Barbara Goracke
that seems to be in line with what many of Nebraska’s
hunters and chefs find works best.
Equipment needed:
Large pressure cooker and canning jars (quarts or pints)
Jar rings and flats
Sharp knives for de-boning and cutting the meat
Ingredients:
Fresh (unfrozen) venison
Beef tallow (optional)
Canning salt
Beef bouillon cubes
I
46 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
PHOTO BY STEVE O’HARE
Using dishwasher, sanitize and dry canning jars. Remove
the bone and excess fat from the hind quarters of your deer
and cut the meat into 2” (approx.) chunks. Soak the meat for
one hour in brine water (one tbsp. salt per quart). Rinse.
Fill jars with meat chunks and a chunk of beef tallow,
leaving 11/4” of space below the bottom ring of jar. (Use one
chunk of tallow for pint jars and and larger chunk or two
smaller pieces for quart jars).
Add:
1 tsp. salt (pints and quarts)
1 beef bouillon cube for pint jars, 2 for quart jars
Wipe the top of each jar with a damp cloth. Place a jar
flat and ring on each jar. Screw jar ring on tightly to secure
the seal.
Place your pressure cooker on the stove and pour in 1 to
Canning venison is a great way to have this savory meat “ready.”
2 quarts of warm water into the cooker. Place jars into the
cooker and attach the lid, turning it until locked into place. Be
sure the petcock valve (small valve on lid) is wide open. Turn
the stove on and watch for steam to come from the petcock.
Allow the steam to flow from the petcock for approximately.
10 minutes to eliminate all air pockets and then close it. The
amount of time and pressure needed to safely cook the meat
varies depending on the elevation and type of pressure gauge
being used. University of Nebraska-Lincoln food scientist
Dr. Julie Albrecht recommends pint jars be cooked for 75
minutes and quart jars 90 minutes. Dial-gauge pressure cookers
should register 11 pounds of pressure at 0 to 2,000 feet of
elevation, 12 pounds at elevations between 2,001 and 4,000
feet, and 13 pounds for 4,001 to 6,000 feet. The same cooking
times apply when using a weighted-gauge pressure cooker,
but the amount of pressure used should be 10 pounds for 0
to 1,000 ft of elevation and 15 pounds for higher elevations.
At the completion of the timing process, turn stove off and
wait until the pressure recedes to zero. Open the petcock valve
to release any steam, then use jar tongs to place the jars on a
rack to cool. Do not remove rings from hot jars. You will hear
a small pop or ping from each jar, ensuring they are sealed.
Some chefs prefer to skip the beef bouillon and tallow,
resulting in a more natural deer flavor. You can also brown the
meat in a small amount of fat and water before canning, as
reader Rob Hams suggests, and place the entire mixture in
the jar. Successfully canned venison can be enjoyed for at
least year.
For more advice on canning deer, consult the “Becoming
an Outdoor Woman” cookbook or visit our blog at
afieldandafloat.com. ■
overlooks 20-acre lake. www.bigblueranch.com (402)
730-3643.
ATTRACTIONS/EVENTS
MILL IRON V LODGING has modern cabins for your
vacation pleasure. We are located near Verdigre, NE
in turkey country. Each cabin offers privacy, view and a
birdwatcher’s paradise. Stay with us for a COUNTRY
EXPERIENCE. (402) 668-7488. www.milliron-vlodging.com, jpeinrem@gpcom.net.
WILDERNESS SURVIVAL CLASS - Start a fire with
the bow-drill method, build a survival shelter,
be introduced to primitive traps, cordage, flint
knapping, edible and medicinal plants, water
location and purification, and much more! Go to
www.greatplainstracker.com.
PLANNING A VACATION? Why not make it at a
Nebraska State Park? With more than 80 state park and
recreation areas across Nebraska to choose from, you can
enjoy a campground or cabin and enjoy activities such as
fishing, swimming, camping and hiking. Call
(402) 471-1414 for reservations or go online at
www.OutdoorNebraska.org and follow the Parks link.
BOOKS/PUBLICATIONS/VIDEOS
EXPLORE NEBRASKA art, history, culture and the
great outdoors with a subscription to Nebraska Life
Magazine. One year (six issues) for $21 or two years
(12 issues) just $38. Phone (800) 777-6159, write us at
206 W Norfolk Ave, Norfolk NE 68702-0819 or visit
www.NebraskaLife.com. Makes a great gift.
WANTED
SATISFY YOUR CURIOSITY about Nebraska’s rich
past with Nebraska History. Learn about Nebraska’s
fascinating people, places and events that shaped our
state. To subscribe or to give a gift of Nebraska History,
call 1-800-833-6747 or (402) 471-3272. To learn more,
visit www.nebraskahistory.org.
LUGERS, MILITARY SIDEARMS, swords/edged
weapons wanted. Contact: Dave (402) 677-2323, davidjayuden@msn.com
FISH/FISHING
NEBRASKAland
For Visa or MasterCard orders call
1-800-NEB-LAND
(632-5263)
DOGS
PLUM CREEK KENNEL. German shorthairs, stud
service, puppies and started dogs. Training for all pointing breeds. Specialize in training the handler as well as
the dog. Wayne Clark, Percival, Iowa (near Omaha) (712)
529-4238, clarks1@iowatelecom.net.
DUCKDAWG RETRIEVERS - Raising exceptional
hunting yellow and black Labradors. Puppies raised in
our home. 30-month, written health guarantee. Stud
service: GRHRCH UN DuckDawg’s Eba Roll the Dice
and GRHRCH UH McMac Magic Eyes A’Smilin MH.
The first Grand Hunting Retriever Champions in
Nebraska. www.duckdawg.com Ron Green, DVM and
Libby Milroy, North Platte, NE (308) 534-3659
PREMIER GUNDOGS TRAINING KENNEL: State
licensed kennel specializing in Hunting Dog and Hunt
Test training for all waterfowl and upland flushing
retrievers, spaniels and pointing Labradors. Dale and
Kris Taylor (402) 787-2048 www.premiergundogs.com.
FLATLANDER KENNELS INC. Bayard, NE
Full-time retriever training facility for the serious hunter
or AKC and HRC hunt tester. Trainer of Nebraska's first
and only GRHRCH's! Super Retriever Series competitor
and a member of Avery's Team Waterdog. Training
available for all levels of hunt tests and gundogs. Chris
Jobman: (308) 249-0707, www.flatlanderkennels.com.
FOR SALE: Young registered female Treeing Walker
Coonhound. Contact Ron at (605) 269-2693, Whitewood,
South Dakota.
FISH FOR SALE. Catfish, largemouth bass, smallmouth
bass, perch, crappie, bluegill, walleye, rainbow trout,
grass carp, minnows. Pleasant Valley Fish Farm, 27851
U.S. Highway 83, McCook, NE 69001. (308) 345-6599.
NEBRASKA LAKE MANAGEMENT. Biological lake
surveys, fish stocking, rough fish control, lake aeration,
algae control, aquatic weed control. Rob Hofpar, Aquatic
Biologist, licensed, insured and qualified. (402) 784-6005
Valparaiso - (888) 850-2460 www.nelakes.net.
GET YOUR FISHING, HUNTING or Nebraska state
park permit online today! Don’t wait until tomorrow to
enjoy Nebraska’s great outdoors by hunting, fishing or
camping and hiking with the family. To purchase a permit
from the comfort of your own home, go online to
www.OutdoorNebraska.org and click on Purchase a
Permit under Licenses and Fees. Permits can also be
purchased from permit vendors and Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission offices across the state.
WANTED – VOLUNTEER INSTRUCTORS. Interested
in making a difference? Get involved in teaching the next
generation of hunters. Contact Mike Streeter at
mike. streeter@nebraska.gov or call (402) 471-6134.
Classified Rates: 85¢ per word, minimum $15.
Closing: First business day six weeks before issue
date. Classified ads are accepted on a first-come,
first-served, space-available basis. Classified Ads,
NEBRASKAland Magazine, P.O. Box 30370,
Lincoln, NE 68503-0370. Telephone (402) 471-5473.
Fax: (402) 471-1984. E-mail: ngpc.classifieds
@nebraska.gov. Ads are posted online at
NebraskalandMagazine.com at no additional charge.
HELP STOP POACHING!
To report a gaviolation, call the
toll-free hotline at
1-800-742-7627
FOOD/GIFTS/HOME
HOMEBREWING/BEER AND WINEMAKING.
Fermenter’s Supply, 8410 K Plaza, Suite #10, Omaha, NE
68127. Phone orders only, (888) 655-2739. Advice line
(402) 593-9171. www.fermenterssupply.com.
GUIDES/OUTFITTERS
CANOE - KAYAK - TUBE RENTALS on the
beautiful Niobrara River with Dryland Aquatics at
Sparks, Nebraska. Your Niobrara River Specialist.
(800) 337-3119. www.drylandaquatics.com, info@
drylandaquatics.com.
OUTDOOR EQUIPMENT
IS PERFORMANCE IMPORTANT? For the finest
canoes and accessories look to Great Plains Canoe Co.,
205 Main, Springfield, NE 68059. Phone (402) 253-2000.
TAXIDERMY
B&B SKULL CLEANING and European mounts:
professional service at affordable prices. Contact
Rubin Fields in Omaha at (402) 598-1873 or go to
www.bbskullcleaning.com.
VACATIONS/RESORTS
THE OLDE MAIN STREET INN. A historic bed and
breakfast listed in the National Register of Historic
Places. Beautiful dining room with fireplace.
Headquarters for General Nelson Miles, Wounded Knee
Incident, 1890-91. 115 Main Street, Chadron NE 69337
(308) 432-3380. www.chadron.com/oldemain.
DIAMOND B TROUT RESORT, Orchard, Nebraska.
Lodge, cabins, spring-fed lakes, playground equipment,
paddleboats. Great for families, groups, hunters. Book
your cabin now! Call for brochure (800) 974-3002.
www.diamondbtroutresort.com.
BIG BLUE RANCH & LODGE - Enjoy fishing, hunting,
hiking, birdwatching and ranch adventures on 2000+ acre
cattle ranch in southeastern Nebraska. Beautiful log
cabin, with fireplaces, kitchens & big covered porches,
48 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
DECEMBER 2010 • NEBRASKALAND 49
▲
In the November 2007 issue of NEBRASKAland, I saw something
familiar – my grandfather Wallace Brown as a little boy in a Portraits from
the Past submission by Fred Egley of Norfolk. I recently found this image,
taken in the early 1950s at Johnson Lake, of my Grandpa Brown (left),
and, I believe, Bob Eldridge. The two are shown with a nice catch of
northern pike, something you don’t see on Johnson Lake these days. I
never met Grandpa Brown (he passed away long before I was born) but
I spent many summer days on Johnson in search of a stringer like this!
– Joe Remmenga, Lincoln, Nebraska
▲ This photo was taken of my grandfather, Lloyd Frank
of Kearney, in 1938. At the time he was chief of police
(1933–1942) and later served as sheriff of Buffalo
County from 1946 to 1966. Never known to be “on the
take,” he was caught red-handed with this gift of catfish
from the Platte River!
– Bill Torrance, Naples, Florida
▲
This top photo is of my dad (with shotgun), and myself when I was 15.
It was taken in 1937 on our ranch south of Chambers in Garfield County.
Pheasants and chickens were plentiful back then. As a kid I was the bird
dog and the bag limit was five, which I saw my dad stand in place and
bring down many times. With chickens, he would wait for a cross and get
two with one shot. The car is a 1933 Chevy and Dad is holding a
Stevens 12-gauge pump that I still have and is over a 100 years old. I
am pushing 89 now and have lots of great memories from hunting
Nebraska fields and hills with good friends.
The other picture was taken in 1950 when deer hunting in Nebraska
was new. My nephew (left), Dean Petersen of Herman, and I drew
permits for an area near Chadron that was open to deer hunting. We
obtained a guide and hunted on his land. He told us not to cross the
fence as that was Chadron State Park land. At that time it was all mule
deer – whitetails came later. Mine deer checked in a 206 pounds field
dressed, and was seven years old. I still have the head mount.
Keep up the good work for the next generation
– Wesley Howe, Fremont, Nebraska
Send contributions to: Portraits from the Past, NEBRASKAland Magazine,
P.O. Box 30370, Lincoln, NE 68503-0370. Or e-mail to tim.reigert@nebraska.gov. Photos should show people enjoying Nebraska outdoor activities,
such as camping, boating, hunting or fishing, and must have been taken
before 1980. We will give priority to unusual photos or activities. When
possible, please include a story about the photograph and identify the
people, places and approximate date it was taken. Photos will be returned.
50 NEBRASKALAND • DECEMBER 2010
Position: 1065 (2 views)