by Rick Forrester
As part of the maintenance of the park, we remove Amur Honeysuckle (Lonicera Maackii), a very aggressive, invasive species. Originally from western China, it was grown in Chinese gardens before being cultivated at the St. Petersburg Botanical Gardens in Russia (1883). It then moved to Europe and was highly valued as an ornamental. Next, it was cultivated at the Dominion Arboretum in Ottawa Canada in 1896 from seeds obtained from Germany, and then in the New York Arboretum in 1898. Plants were widely sold and promoted by the USDA for soil stabilization, reclamation, and wildlife habitat improvement programs through the 1980s.
Naturalized, wild-growing honeysuckle was found outside the Chicago’s Morton Arboretum in the 1920s and began rapidly spreading across the mid-west and eastern states. Wild Amur Honeysuckle was endemic in Ohio by 1993.
With plants growing upwards of 30 feet tall with arching branches of opposite, simple, ovate leaves 2 to 3 inches long, green above, paler and slightly fuzzy below, they have been rampant in the Little Miami State Park.
As for why blue is my favorite color, our teams use blue color in our spray mix for treating the stump after the team has cut/chain sawed the plant. Treatment must be done with 10 minutes of cutting as the plant cells will quickly close off the wound and the mix will not be absorbed. The mix we use is composed of 12-15% glyphosate herbicide, 0.5% Pentabark surfactant that helps move the mix into the stump, a small amount (1-2 tbl/gal) of ammonium sulfate fertilizer (also helps move the herbicide into the plant), and a small amount (<0.5%) of farm-grade blue colorant. The blue lets us target the spray to the absolutely smallest area needed to kill the honeysuckle above and below ground without doing damage to the surrounding native plants. Go Blue!
November 2019
The term “eye candy” is often used to refer to often expensive, very colorful and really attractive bicycles. I recently took a long run on the Little Miami Scenic Trail and was overtaken by some truly great looking bicycles, which swiftly and silently approached before whizzing past me. But, as much as I appreciate “eye candy” bikes, to paraphrase Shania Twain, “that didn’t impress me much.”
High-tech helmets have arrived. Specialized offers a helmet mounted device called ANGi which measures angular and G-forces, connects to an app on your phone and can initiate a text to your emergency contacts in the event of a crash. The Lumos helmet features 48 integrated LED lights, 10 bright LEDs in front and 38 rear, solid red LEDs. The helmet leverages the red LEDs to provide turn signals operated by a handlebar mounted remote. A feature now being tested senses slowing and applies bright red brake lights. Both Specialized and Lumos helmets are available with MIPS (Multi-directional Impact Protection System), a liner that allows the helmet to move independent of a rider’s head, reducing transfer of the angular forces which may occur in crashes to the brain. The Sena X1 helmet provides, among other features, intercom conversations with up to three other users.
Cones was a leader not only in photography’s Pictorialist Movement but in another way as well. Both Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are credited with declaring that "woman is riding to suffrage on the bicycle" because early women cyclists opted for practical pants and/or leggings over the voluminous and “more modest” fashion of the day. The 19th amendment was passed when Cones was 51 but she had been bicycling unencumbered by a long skirt or dress well before that, embodying on two wheels the independent spirit shown in her photography.
