Spotlight: Bill Birkhoffer & Dana Squire

Have you ever looked at your land – be it a small garden, a large corner lot, a hay field, or whatever your spot on earth is and wondered: could I do something different here that would be beautiful, encourage butterflies, bees, birds and other animals to come? 

​This month’s Spotlight on Our Members features two Master Naturalists who have transformed a part of their land into a vibrant, colorful meadow that is filled with guests – plants, insects and animals - from nature. One member had a hay field and the other a portion of land that was not being used for any particular purpose. Read their stories of how they transformed these areas into meadows and their advice and lessons learned on how you could do it, too!

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​  DANA SQUIRE
 
Dana Squire is passionate about nature and the natural world. When she and her family moved to Madison County in 1991, their 18-acre property included a barn, other outbuildings and a 5-acre hay field that was harvested by a local farmer. She worked to landscape the residential area to be inviting to birds and pollinators.  She was a member of the first class or the Old Rag Master Naturalists in 2007. Her volunteer efforts included working with the Virginia Working Landscapes program managed by the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. As she surveyed plants, birds and pollinator species on farms in Central Virginia as a part of this project, she realized she could transform her hay field into a natural environment. She tells her own story, below, of how she created a meadow in her backyard.
 
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Question: What does one do with a field of fescue grass and no cows?

       a.  Let a local farmer put his cows in the field
       b.  Let a local farmer hay the field
       c.  Pay someone to bush hog the field once or twice a
            year
       d.  Nothing
       e.  All of the above.  

In my case, the answer was "e"; I’d tried them all.  And I hadn’t found any of these options particularly satisfying, so I added another:

     f.  Convert the field to native grasses and wildflowers, creating aesthetic interest and a wildlife habitat.  
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These ponderings were prompted by my involvement with a project called Virginia Working Landscapes (VWL). VWL is a program of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, which studies the relationships between the plants growing in fields and the birds, mammals and pollinators using that field.  I’m a volunteer for the project, and I help conduct surveys of the plants and wildlife.  The subject fields belong to landowners who support the research and have significant open acreage. Land use varies, and the properties may be working cattle farms or restoration lands or anything in between.
 
Working with VWL, I began to see that the 5-acre hayfield I owned was good for one creature, the cow, and I was not raising cows. Most fescue in our area is tall fescue, which becomes very dense near the ground and creates a lot of thatch.  These attributes make it difficult, if not impossible, for ground nesting and ground-feeding birds to use the field.  They need bare soil around the bases of plants to move, build nests, and feed.  In fact, in our area, the widespread planting of fescue for livestock has greatly contributed to the decline of the once-abundant Northern bob-white quail, not to mention quite a few other bird species.                                              

                                                   Before….               
 
I knew that my field had potential to support many birds and small mammals, as well as important pollinators, including butterflies and bumblebees.  Although the fields I surveyed for VWL were each a minimum of 25 acres, I knew that even 5 acres of native grasses and wildflowers would be more beneficial and interesting than the fescue that grew there.
 
But how would I get rid of the fescue? The most effective way to destroy it is with an herbicide such as Glyphosate.  I’m not a fan of herbicides, and this was a really difficult hurdle for me to get over.  I had to do a lot of research to convince myself that I would not be causing more harm than good.  Before tackling the 5 acres, I decided to start with small areas that were not part of the hayfield, but instead part of my lawn. I knew I was mowing way too much, and decided I was willing to attempt converting part of my lawn to wildflowers. I handled the spraying, tilling, and planting myself, a process that began in the fall and ended with broadcasting seed the following spring.
 
I was very happy with the results and decided to tackle the larger project, but I knew I would need a lot of help. Fortunately, at that time, the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) was offering grants and lots of great advice to landowners who were willing to commit to this conversion. I qualified for the grant and contracted with a local company to handle the spraying and planting. ​
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                            After.....The converted hayfield

The meadow was planted in May of 2013. I was surprised to find that many plants bloomed their first summer: partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata), tickseed (Coreopsis), blanket flowers (Gaillardia), cone flower (Echinacea), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) and Maximillian sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani) all had a showing in their first year. Later years have seen the establishment of large swaths of milkweed (Asclepias), host plant of the monarch butterfly, blue false indigo (Baptisia australis), oxeye (Heliopsis helianthoides), and wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa).

The transition from tidy hayfield to the wilder meadow did not take as much getting used to as I expected. I had agreed to let all plants stand over the winter, and was concerned that I wouldn’t like the scruffy, messy look of the unmowed field after having lived with the clean look of a monoculture for so long.
To the contrary, the variety of structures and shapes was full of interest and contrast, and as the winter moved on, I found the appearance of the meadow more and more fascinating.  Walking after abundant snows, my dog and I flushed dozens and dozens of juncos and sparrows – common species, to be sure – but never so numerous in the past.  And it was easy to see why: many pockets of relatively dry ground under the grasses bending with snow afforded a welcome refuge not available in the past.                                     

​                                     Meadow in winter
 
Every season of every year is different – different shapes, colors, birds, butterflies. I once came upon a fox, sitting with eyes closed, basking in the sun at the edge of the mowed path, and for a few seconds, she didn’t notice me. As she dashed off, I knew that neither of us would have been there, so close to each other, if this were still a tidy hayfield. I’m so grateful to all who helped me and to all who now live here.
 
            

                Fall glory                              Milkweed  Patch                    
  
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Dana opens her meadow to interested groups including master naturalists and garden clubs. Her meadow is used as a teaching tool to help others learn to identify plants, birds and pollinators, and to share information on how to convert from a cultivated to a natural landscape. And as planned and hoped, the meadow is now home to a variety of birds, insects and mammals who have found an ecosystem that supports their needs for food, shelter and breeding. 
 
Looking back, Dana is glad she undertook this project. While she struggled with her use of herbicides, she acknowledged that the expert advice she received was compelling: that any other method would mean the fescue would return and overrun most of the native plants over time. Looking forward, she plans to keep the meadow healthy by having controlled burns and staying engaged in the never-ending battle against invasives, but especially to take the time to enjoy this vibrant, rich landscape right outside her door.
 
Interviewed by Charlene Uhl, September 22, 2020

BILL BIRKHOFER
 
Bill Birkhofer is a native Californian from Sonoma County who ended up in Virginia through a circuitous l route that included being a Congressional intern, serving in the U.S. Army, returning to Washington, DC as a legislative assistant, and a 40 year career in the global engineering and construction industry.  He met his wife GeorgeAnn, who also worked for Congress, and in 1998 they bought “26 acres of heaven” in Madison County where they built a log cabin on the land as a place they could go to escape the DC congestion.  When they retired they expanded the house and started to focus on their land. GeorgeAnn is a Master Gardener and focused on landscaping around the house and outbuildings. She teamed up with ORMN Master Naturalist Alfred Goossens to convince Bill he needed to become a Master Naturalist as well. Bill was in the 2017 Master Naturalist class and subsequently became interested in establishing a pollinator meadow.
 
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Meadows Musings from Bill
 
Among alternatives for improving our living environment, creating and sustaining native plant gardens and meadows is the principal means of conserving and sustaining pollinator populations and wildlife habitat.
 
Current research clearly documents the growing loss of native pollinators and plants due to increasing redevelopment or conversion of agricultural production lands. These changes in land use patterns and corresponding ecological impacts plant and animal wildlife. That’s the research - but most of us can observe these trends right around us in the Virginia Piedmont.
 
But we can make a tangible difference, by developing and sustaining native plant gardens and meadows. All of us with available land - from large residential lots to rural non- farm acreage - can get involved.
 
I’m a believer. Three years ago, we started our own native pollinator meadow on our property in Madison, and it’s proven to be an unbelievable adventure! Each year has been a combination of expectations, surprises and lessons learned. And we want to share it all - how we started, our experiences, our continuing experimentation, helpful observations and responses to your questions.
 
So, let’s start at the beginning.
 
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 A part of their land – approximately 3 acres - that was an old pasture and completely dominated by fescue was designated as the site for the meadow. Bill consulted with a variety of local experts, including Dana Squire, also a ORMN Master Naturalist; David Bryant of the Natural  Resource  Conservation Service Service; and Bert Harris at the Clifton Institute.  He made the decision to use herbicides to denude the land, spraying in the fall of 2017 and again in early spring 2018. In order to have the length and variety of flowering and fruiting, he selected a mixture that included four native grasses along with 15 annuals , biennials and perennials. He decided to use the drill-seed method rather than broadcast seeding, in order to assure a more successful germination overall. Within two months of seeding, he had a full field of Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta).  Pokeweed (Phytolacca Americana) was a “volunteer” native.  Because it provides food for birds, Bill chose to thin by hand - removing 250 plants which resulted in fewer pokeweed in subsequent years - rather than target spraying.
Bill cautioned several times that “it is an illusion to think you are going to control nature – and frankly you don’t want to.”  What the meadow does each year is always variable and offers at least one surprise. In 2020 his meadow was dominated by beebalm or wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa).  This was puzzling as the seed mixture he used only contained 2% of bergamot, compared to 7% partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculate); 5% purple cone flower (Echinacea purpurea); and 8% Black-eyed Susans. He theorized that because bergamot comes in so early and it was a very wet year, it may have retarded the germination of other species.
Bill treats his meadow like a citizen scientist. He has divided it into four quadrants and records what happened to each quadrant independently. The quadrants are different in slope and temperature so they represent microclimates, which in turn affects what is successful. He has experimented by introducing additional plants to lengthen the blooming period. In 2020 he overseeded with a new mixture that included goldenrod (Solidago); partridge pea; Mexican hat (Ratibida columnifera); wild senna (Senna hebecarpa); and two species of native aster , bushy aster (Symphiotrichorum  dumosus) and calico aster ( Symphiotrichorum lateriflorum). He installed seven bluebird boxes in a trail surrounding the meadow. While mowing around the boxes in the spring if this year, he discovered an emerging stand of common milkweed (Asclepsis syriaca) - the source of food for Monarch caterpillars. He has propagated additional milkweed from seeds, and planted them adjacent to the existing stand. Having completed the Monarch Monitoring training offered by the University of Wisconsin ( Monarch Larvae Monitoring Project), he will begin monitoring in 2021.
After each growing season concludes and early spring approaches, Bill uses a “walk-behind” and finish mower to cut the dead growth back. He is careful to wait until late February or early March to allow the meadow to serve as winter shelter for birds and animals, and prior to return of ground nesting birds. At the end of the growing season in 2021, he plans to conduct a controlled burn of the meadow, to achieve a clean surface that will allow him to overseed.
 
Bill feels one of the main objectives of his meadow is to educate others about the relative simplicity of installing and maintaining a meadow, the reasonable cost, and the important biodiversity benefits in doing so.
 
Looking forward, he is excited about the experimentation he wants to do. He plans to expand his meadow by adding about two acres of intermediate cover woods on his land that will encourage more wildlife to visit. He is watching what others are doing, such as the Clifton Institute which has 110 acres in meadows. Lessons learned by others encourage him to try new things. “My meadow is an ongoing science experiment. While it is a relatively small island, it supports wildlife that wouldn’t be here without it.”  He says his meadow gives him a lot of pleasure and “a heck of a lot of naturalist learning.” And that’s what keeps him engaged and involved every day.
 
Interview by Charlene Uhl September 25, 2020