Current Issues

This post will catch everyone up with what is happening at Greyfield Garden, well at least the stuff we are willing to disclose!

It is the last week of a pretty chilly January and personally I am very much looking forward to some warmer weather.  The whole country went through a week and half or so of some frigid weather early in the month and crops were affected. Those of us that are growing fruits and veggies this time of year had to do some cuddling and cozying. In our garden we had some pretty eager tomatoes and basil that volunteered in a number of places and they were the first to fall when Jack Frost came to town. A”volunteer” is a term used for  seeds that hang around in the compost and are spread in the beds or in the rows and decide to set some roots in a new location. Perhaps they wanted a change of scenery or maybe they were just sleeping in their compost comforter and ended up peaking their heads out when we ruffled the blankets. Our Casper eggplant had been holding strong late in the season and, like the tomatoes, thought that the low temperatures were a good reason to tuck in to the compost comforter for a couple months. Thankfully the eggplant, tomatoes, basil, and a few patches of nasturtiums were the only folks affected by the low temps. The days of our kale, cabbage, collards, brussels, cauliflower, broccoli, and salad mixes being under blankets ended around the middle of the month. I even spent several nights heating bricks in the oven and placing them under the blankets to sleep with the veggies during the coldest nights!

Jack Frost left around the middle of the month and we had about a week of mid 60’s- low 70’s. I spent most of the cold spell inside planning for Spring, placing seed orders, and drawing garden maps. I received the seeds I ordered just in time for the warm weather! I spent several days planting salad mixes, radishes, kohlrabi, and carrots and harvesting sweet potatoes. Farmers and gardeners need to know when to plant and harvest, they need to be familiar with their soil, they need to be well read on pests and diseases, but even the most well studied farmer is at the mercy of Mother Nature.  Two days after I shed the layers of long sleeves and stocking cap and started planting we got three or four days of hard rain, lots of water in a short period. We have a very low spot in the NW corner of our garden and after one or two hard rains a couple months ago I realized it was going to be a lasting issue, so I raised all the beds in the western section.  The raised beds helped a great deal but it did not solve the problem completely, we are still dealing with standing water following a few hours of hard rain.  I spent a couple rainy days bending conduit for row covers. The row covers will serve as a warm tunnel for some spring seed starting. I hope to start enough seeds under the row covers to transplant a good majority of the garden by the end of February.

I have attached some photos of our worm bin as well as a composting method that was shared by a guest, Paige Rabalais, of Avoyelles Parish, LA. I am excited about the composting in place. I feel like it is a great way to give garden visitors a visual on the composting process. The method is great for backyard gardens and raised beds; lots of guests have questions about compost and it is great to give them an idea about how to handle composting at home.  Composting in place is less laborious than pile composting or other methods that require shoveling and hauling the compost to the intended place of use. I planted oats and rye grass around the small compost barrel in our garden. Cover cropping and composting in place are excellent together because they both add organic matter to the soil and help to create a rich bed for the next crop in rotation. I have built 12 of these small barrels and will begin using them in rotation with cover crops following a fruit or vegetable crop. Our worm bin started out with two pounds of worms, several boxes of shredded newspaper, kitchen scraps, and some finished compost a little over two months ago.  Our worms are currently being fed like kings and have a lovely house nestled between our two orange trees in the garden. I transported the worms from Savannah one weekend and became well acquainted with them when the bag I was carrying them in busted in the car. Needless to say I know what they looked like when they went into the bin and now when I feed them I check on how much they have beefed up, they are looking happy and healthy! We are using this bin and our compost piles to reduce the amount of material that is hauled off the island. Instead of sending it off to be hopefully be recycled we are shredding the newspaper and some cardboard to use in our compost and the worm bin. Along with

Those of you that are farming and gardening out there, good luck with spring prepping and we wish you the best in the upcoming season. Those of you that are not currently growing, I hope it’s because it’s too cold where you are and not because you think that you don’t have enough time or space to do so. Grow what you can, it tastes better and you feel better when you eat it!  Take it easy (on the planet) and eat well.

The new Greyfield Garden sign, come on in! Thanks Tucker

10 nights below freezing. We made sure our babies were as warm as they could be.

These are the guys that took a hit w/ the cold weather. We saved them and fried them for a delicious snack!

Casper eggplant, middle of Decemeber. These guys and our volunteer tomatoes were among the cold weather casualties.

After the cold we received several days of hard rain. The garden is a little stressed. I am doing my best to keep her happy and healthy.

Compost tea anyone?

Adding new rows in the western section of the garden.

West beds are finished. Robbie plants young strawberries in one of the new rows.

West beds are looking good!

(Top to bottom) Bananas, cold frame, beds, hand cart, beds.

Beginning of our worm bin.

The worms survived the cold weather and have grown considerably since we dropped them in to their new home.

Thanks for the idea Paige. Composting in place. I am going to do this in beds when they are not under vegetable production. Compost in the middle with a cover crop surrounding the pile. This will really help get the beds ready for the next rotation!

Composting in place well on its way.

Cheddar cauliflower surrounded by broccoli and snow crown cauliflower.

Micro greens factory. Our chefs love using these as a garnish and when they get past the "micro" stage they use them for young leaf salads, delicious!

Welcome to Greyfield Garden

Hello everyone, the following information includes my thoughts, words of truth, garden facts, occasional jokes, and hopefully some insight to what it is like working closely with Mother Nature. My name is Andy Schwartz and I am the gardener at the lovely Greyfield Inn on Cumberland Island.

The garden at Greyfield is roughly one acre in size and approximately half of that is under vegetable and fruit production at the moment.  Greyfield has had an interest in things sustainable and environmentally friendly for decades. The mentioning of growing healthy soil and healthy food came as no surprise when several forward thinking heads came together with thoughts of rejuvenating the Ferguson family garden on Greyfield grounds. The result of those thoughts and the decision to move forward with a more sustainable and seasonal menu at Greyfield led to many positive happenings one of which was the decision to hire me as full time gardener. Items like fresh fish, shrimp, oysters, and scallops, local breads, cheeses, fresh Florida citrus, rice and various traditional grains have been on the menu for years. The addition of a productive fruit and vegetable garden paired with a good recycling and composting program only made sense. I must give my thanks to Daron “Farmer D” Joffe, Marla Henderson, Mary Jo Ferguson, and Oliver “Mitty” Ferguson for giving me the opportunity to steward the lovely piece of land that I do.

Our goal is to grow as much of the most healthy and nutritious food that we can to feed our guests at Greyfield Inn.  We offer guests a unique opportunity by doing daily tours of the garden and assisting in developing a relationship with the food they will be consuming later that evening. We are excited to share our philosophies on growing sustainable, organic, and natural foods in a healthy environment. Our country is changing the way it thinks about food and the way it perceives what is healthy and what is not. Nationwide plenty of folks are beginning to realize the importance of being able to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for themselves and their families. Our aim is to enable those that may have never seen a brussels sprout growing to see it growing and flourishing in a row of its brothers and sisters, learn how to harvest it, and have the chance to eat it that evening on their dinner plate with local fish caught that day and Carolina Gold rice from a nearby rice farmer.

The vegetables and fruits know exactly what to do; we do our part to provide the most nutrient rich soil that we can and the rest is up to Mother Nature. We do not use any chemical pesticides or fertilizers. We compost. We look to the island for soil amendments. Horse manure, oyster shell, fish emulsion, various mulches, leaf mold, and sea- weed are a few of our not so secret ingredients.  Our composting operation is fueled by roughly 12-15 pounds of kitchen scraps on a daily basis. Since my first day on Cumberland we have turned approximately 1 and a half tons (3195lbs) of kitchen scraps into nutrient rich compost for our garden beds!  We are now shredding all of our newspaper, egg cartons, and some cardboard for our worms to process into more fertile soil to be added to our beds.  We have been using compostable coffee cups that we mulch and add to our compost piles for several months now and will continue to use indefinitely. We believe that our efforts to be responsible and have a low impact on our surroundings will help to keep Cumberland as wild and magical as it is today for many years to come.

We have been hard at work developing the garden from the ground up and hope to have a very productive spring this year. We have had one WWOOFer  (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) do an apprenticeship with us and he was a witty lad from London that loved Willie Nelson, compost, and armadillos. We are listed on the WWOOF website as accepting one apprentice at a time and are working with the University of Florida to develop an internship program through their agriculture department. Through these outlets we hope to draw in individuals that are interested in growing vegetables, being surrounded by raw nature, and working shin deep in compost and horse manure, not necessarily in that order. The unique situation that is Greyfield Inn and the island surrounding it draws thousands of visitors every year. The goal of Greyfield garden is to educate as many people as possible starting with our guests and extending to the mentioned apprenticeships and internships. We also want to feed our guests all the yummy veggies they can eat during their visit! I will be posting thoughts and any information that we feel needs to be shared as well as plenty of photos and narratives. Keep your heart close to the ground so that your ear is close too and listen closely… checking our blog will work just as well.

Until next time, take it easy (on the planet) and live well.

Mature luffa on the vine, ready to be harvested and used for exfoliation.

Sunflower harvest. soon to be hung for our winged friends stopping by the garden.

Hanging elephant head amaranth. These really added color and a new dimension to the luffa tunnel.

Bright like the sun

West beds. Sunflowers and a cover crop row of cow peas.

Prickly pear cactus. I transplanted these from a nearby field to start a sort of interpretive bed in the garden.

Passion flower

Typical daily harvest mid-June.

This is most of what you see upon entering the gate, there are 6 raised rows to the left of the tabby structure.

nasturtiums/micro greens

Early morning in the garden.

Tiger melon, ground view

The Recovery

While we all are wondering when there will be an economic recovery in this country and around the world; it’s hard to miss the biological recovery progressing in the areas on Cumberland Island that burned last summer.  Much of the twenty five hundred acres that burned on the north end of the island was a scrub type plant community with thick, saw palmetto undergrowth.  The fire loving palmettos have already returned to full size and all of them are sending up flower stalks.  In a couple months, honey bees will be attracted to this area and palmetto flowers, with the help of the bees will make a premium, high quality honey.  Later in the summer there should be a huge crop of palmetto berries which are a food source for many animals such as deer, turkeys, raccoons and rodents.  The native Timucuan Indians that once lived on Cumberland ate these berries also, but modern people today would find them hard to get down because of their strong, musky smell and taste.  However, the native people consumed a lot of them and might have even burned palmetto fields to promote the flowering and fruit production of the plant.

Many of the trees in the recent burn are starting to recover, especially the pines, which can take more heat from fire than the hardwoods; although trees like myrtle and bluejack oak that were destroyed above ground are now sending up new growth from their roots.  Pine trees that were killed by the fire are being stripped of their bark by woodpeckers as they hunt for remaining, wood boring insects.  Eventually these trees will fall down, decompose and become fertilizer for the next generation of plants.

Recent heavy rains have filled many of the ephemeral ponds in this area, so the return of amphibians like frogs that need water to reproduce in will be able to get re-established here, along with a number of predators that feed on them.  It wasn’t long after the big 1981 fire in this same location a large number of eastern leopard frogs were found.  At least one alligator was nesting close by also.  I remember watching baby alligators catching both frogs and dragon flies along the banks of one pond. 

Since the recent fire, signs of coyotes have been found along the north cut road that runs right through the middle of the burned area.  It’s also on this road where I have had most of my bobcat sightings over the years and no doubt they will be back hunting the prey species such as rodents that will benefit from all the new plant growth.  Hawks, owls and snakes will also take part in controlling these animals as well.  Several years ago, while conducting a Greyfield tour along the north cut road, we came upon the rare sight of two large yellow rat snakes hanging by their tails from a tree while mating.  However, the snakes I see the most are black racers as they hunt the road bed for lizards and other snakes.  Several times though we have encountered cottonmouths and eastern diamondback rattlers, two of the venomous snakes living on the Island, but no less important in maintaining the balance.

It’s interesting how both snakes and fire have received such a bad rap down through the recorded history of man.  While in reality, both are part of an efficient system that has worked itself out over evolutionary time.  On the other hand, we modern humans are still trying to find solutions to our many problems, while hoping for an economic recovery.

Carrying Capacity

Many visitors to the Island want to know where are the best places to see wildlife.  For variety and consistency I would have to say the Dungeness area on the south end of Cumberland, especially the quarter mile stretch between the Miller Greene cemetery and the beach.  Within this relatively short distance several Island eco-systems come together to create a bottleneck effect where animals from these converging habitats live together in close proximity.  At the center of this wildlife corridor is a boardwalk that borders a tidal creek and saltmarsh.  During high tides, Bottle nosed dolphins will sometimes move up this creek to feed.  In the warmer months, both alligators and manatees also frequent the waterway as well.  At low tide the creek is greatly reduced in size leaving a large area of exposed oyster beds and mud flats.  This is when wading birds and some shore birds move in to feed.  Raccoons find a buffet of things to eat here but are most often found digging fiddler crabs along the mud flats.  Occasionally river otters can be seen catching fish and blue crabs that congregate in the deeper areas of the creek at low tide.

Much of what happens in a saltmarsh eco-system can be observed from the south side of the boardwalk, but turning to the north side the vegetation of a maritime forest borders these wetlands.   Large live oak and red cedar trees grow here and are interspersed with a profusion of under growth that attracts a great variety of migratory song birds in the spring and autumn months.  Leaving the boardwalk on the east end, visitors are surprised to see the remnants of a maritime forest that was killed by migrating sand; here the twisted remains of dead live oak trees reach up through the sands of the large active dune that killed them.  This surreal landscape is a favorite location for photographers as a foot trail to the beach winds through the area.  A number of game trails also converge in this crossing zone between the habitats of saltmarsh, maritime forest, inter-dune meadows and the nearby beach.  The mostly night time activities of animals can be seen etched in the sand every morning.  This is an area we cover with our early morning birding tours that can quickly turn into tracking tours, depending on the amount of animal use the night before.  The easy to observe signs left here by wildlife tell a revealing and often dramatic story.  Signs of fighting, mating, searching for food and territorial marking with scat are just part of the story.  It’s easy to see which animals travel between habitats in this location and how often they pass through.  Understandably, reptiles such as lizards, snakes and alligators are only active during the warmer months.  But even then, their use of this cross over is infrequent.  Bobcats and coyotes hunt the area year round but may not be seen for intervals of up to a month.  However raccoons, opossums, armadillos and deer leave tracks almost every night:  especially raccoons.  This is one animal that really thrives on Cumberland because it can find food in all of the various habitats on the Island, while there are plenty of suitable den trees in the forest area as well.

In an area with s0 much wildlife I often think about the carrying capacity of the eco-systems they are a part of.  In other words, the number of species and the numbers within each species these areas can support.  This is an exercise for trained wildlife biologists but most people can understand that a natural area will only accommodate a certain number of animals.  If these numbers are exceeded; starvation, disease and damage to the habitat itself soon follows.  National Park lands such as Cumberland are managed to maintain a natural balance of native species.  This may include re-introducing native predators that were exterpated earlier in order to control prey species that can overpopulate.  Proper wildlands management also includes removing non-native species that upset the natural balance that developed over evolutionary time.  The Park Service also recognized the impact humans can have.  That is why they have a limit on the number of people allowed to visit the Island on a daily basis.

I wonder if scientists will ever identify the human carrying capacity for coastal eco-systems in relation to the heavy development that is occurring along the east coast, and will the government ever regulate these numbers?  One thing I know for sure, is that after talking with thousands of visitors to Cumberland over the years there is a growing awareness of what is being lost to development in other coastal areas.

Spring Thoughts and Encounters

Spring is well underway on Cumberland Island even though we have experienced some recent cold snaps over the last few weeks.  Temperatures have ranged from the low thirties to over eighty.  A couple warm days together managed to bring forth our first reptile sighting of the season; a six foot long Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake.  We watched as the snake slowly crossed the main road and disappeared into a nearby thicket of saw palmettos where it will be safe from snake predators such as hawks and owls,, but not from feral hogs.  One thing I have noticed over the years is when hog populations increase, I see fewer snakes.  Feral hogs are known for eating these important reptiles that help control the rodent populations and the diseases they carry.

On Cumberland the hog numbers are up, but that may change soon as the Park Service steps up their efforts to hunt them.  Also, there are some indications the coyotes that have recently found their way to the island are now feeding on pork among other things.  As temperatures rise alligators will become active and they too feed on hogs that often roam the wetland areas.  Over the years I have seen a number of hogs floating in the water that were killed by alligators; one was still in the reptile’s mouth.  Alligators don’t usually try to eat a large animal right after killing it because their teeth are not designed for chewing.  More often, they will let the carcass partially decompose in the water so it can be easily torn into bite size pieces and maybe it improves the flavor for them also, who knows?  It’s amazing how some animals can tolerate such extremes in the quality and condition of the foods they consume.  I often think of this when I drive by some fast food places on the mainland.

The breeding season for wild turkeys is getting started and there is a lot of this activity on the island now because we have a lot of turkeys.  I would have to say there are more turkeys on Cumberland today than I can remember at anytime in the past.  If anyone wants to photograph wild turkeys, this is certainly the time and place to to it.  The birds are not hunted here and therefore not afraid of people, making them much easier to observe and photograph. 

There are quite a few song birds visiting the island now as part of the spring migration.  Large flocks of Yellow Rumped warblers have already passed through.  While a number of other species will stay and nest here this time of year.  One bird in particular is not shy about it’s nesting intentions.  The Carolina wren is a true extrovert with a loud call that rings out through the forest.  This bird also nests where it pleases; meaning, it can be inside someones car or house if the windows are left open.

Winter shorebirds are still on the beach.  Many of these species will soon begin a migration northward to their nesting grounds in the arctic region.  However, the Oystercatchers are paired up now and will be nesting on Cumberland in a few weeks.  The nests of these beautiful birds is nothing more than a depression in the sand above the high tide line, usually closer to the foredunes.  Oystercatchers are a species of critical concern because they need wild undisturbed beaches for nesting and this type of habitat has become increasingly rare as so many beaches along the east coast have been developed.  Cumberland provides suitable conditions for ground nesting shore birds like Oystercatchers, while the park service  will also place signs near a nesting area warning people to stay away. 

Also on the beach are a few shells left over from winter northeast storms.  More recently though a number of Keyhole urchins, also known as sand dollars have been washing ashoree on the north end of the island to the delight of those visitors who collect them.  Sand dollars are related to both the Starfish and Sea urchins.  Most of the ones I’ve seen on Cumberland have been on the north end of the island.  This may be due to a shallow shoal area not far off shore which would be good habitat for this burrowing marine animal.

Spring is happening on Cumberland and it is a good time for visitors to experience the great variety of wildlife we have out here.

A Walk in the Winter Woods

Winter is a great time to get off the beaten paths and explore the more secluded parts of Cumberland Island.  Seasonal cold weather has caused problem insects like ticks to become dormant, while reptiles such as venomous snakes are inactive as well.  Actually, snakes are not much of a safety problem on the Island, but it’s comforting to know that this time of year they are most likely burrowed in the ground or under a log somewhere.  On the other hand, some animals are very active now.   This happens to be the breeding season for both raccoons and bobcats. 

On a recent cross country hike I came upon many tracks from both of these animals.  As I followed the trail it led me to a freshwater spring a little over one foot deep and maybe ten feet long by six feet wide.  There are several of these natural springs on the Island that I know about and probably some more I haven’t found, but they usually occur where there is a significant elevation change in the land.  After all, water flows down hill, even underground, so if it leads to a steep drop off, it will sometimes come to the surface nearby.  These shallow ground water springs should not be mistaken with the man made artisian wells we also have on Cumberland.  Part of the Florida aquifer that comes from higher elevations in north Georgia flows under the Island.  If this deep (over 500 feet down) underground river is accessed by a pipe, a free flowing well is created because the water is under pressure coming from a higher elevation, but much further inland.

Fresh water sources however, either natural or man made, are magnets for wildlife.  The spring I found had three game trails leading to it that were used so much, they were worn into ditches.  A great number of oyster shells were exposed by all the animal traffic even though oysters don’t live in fresh water springs.  This was obviously an Indian shell midden.  The question in my mind was “Were the early Native American people who lived here attracted to this spot by an already existing spring or did they inadvertently create a spring by changing the relief of the landscape with centuries of discarded oyster shells covering acres of land?”.   After looking around I could see this was a rather large archaeological site.  Scattered about I saw some whelk shells that were worn down on the ends, suggesting they may have been used as tools of some sort by these early people.  Nearby, I also found a fresh three-point deer antler.  On Cumberland, male deer shed their antlers by late winter.  How often I have heard people; even some deer hunters, refer to antlers as horns.  The difference is; animals with horns, such as bison, do not shed them.  On the other hand, members of the deer family, like our native white-tailed deer grow a new pair of antlers every year after they shed the old pair.  Wandering around on the Indian site, I couldn’t help thinking about how these people utilized the plant and animal resources around them.  If a deer antler was found, it would certainly be put to use as maybe an awl or some other tool.  At this location there were a number of sabal palm trees.  From these plants alone, the Native Americans could get both food and shelter.  During Autumn, the palms produce huge clusters of berries that were eaten along with the heart of the palm itself, located near the top, where new leaves are formed.  The mature fan shaped leaves were used to thatch the roofs of their lodges and could be woven into mats or clothing.  Living close to the land as these people did; not much was wasted.

After leaving this area I walked for another hour surprising a couple of deer that were bedded down for the day and found the skeletal remains of another deer.  This reminded me of a question I get sometimes, and that is “What happens when an animal dies out here?”.  Well, that’s left to the waste management department.  Out here, waste management are the vultures, both black and turkey vultures.  Add to that a rapid decomposition rate from bacteria in a warm environment; and a carcass gets cleaned up rather quickly.  The vultures are well adapted for what they do by not having feathers on their heads that could harbor harmful bacteria picked up while feeding.  Just a reminder that everything in nature has its place.

Later, it was time for me to return to my place, but not before realizing these off the beaten path walks can be a very serendipitous way to experience the Island and winter is the most comfortable time to do it.

Changes

Here we are a couple months into winter with several cold snaps already that have dropped temperatures into the high 20’s for a few hours.

According to local weather forecasters these temperatures are below normal for us but the question is “What is normal?”  I can remember the 1980’s on Cumberland when we would get prolonged pipe busting hard freezes several times every winter.  In 1983 over Christmas the temperatures went down to twelve degrees and stayed near that for three days.  On Christmas in 1989 there was four inches of snow on the ground and it also lasted for about three days.  So, at best, our winter weather is erratic but usually pleasantly cool and as I have noticed, getting warmer. 

However, cold fronts much further north have sent a great number of migratory birds our way: numerous shore birds like dunlins, sanderlings and red knots are affected by these weather changes.

The 2500 acres on the north end of the island that burned last summer are also attracting a lot of birds.  Some of the grasses that quickly recovered after the fire have already gone to seed.  So seed eating birds like sparrows and mourning doves are thick in these areas now. 

The fire has also changed the locations of quite a few feral hogs as they moved into areas farther south where they were more accessible to hunters.  Yet, many survived the public hunts this season and are now rooting up the main road and surrounding forest as they feed.  Hogs are not only a blight on Cumberland, but thirty eight states in the country are having serious problems with them.  It doesn’t look like there will soon be any changes to the better when it comes to controlling this invasive animal.

Some of the even more dynamic changes on Cumberland however have occurred along the island’s shoreline.  There is a significant current that runs from north to south along Georgia’s coastal islands.  Sand transported by the current will naturally build up on the north end of an island while sand from the southern end is carried southward to the next island in the group.  On Cumberland, a two mile long jetty was built on the south end in the 1890’s to stabilize the St. Marys inlet for ship traffic.  However, the jetty also interrupted the long shore currents transport of sand southward to Amelia Island.  As a result, Cumberland has gained many acres of new ground on its southern end while Amelia Island has lost shoreline on its north end.  So Cumberland is adding more sand at both ends but over the last quarter of a century since I’ve been here, has lost at least twenty yards into the shoreline over nearly a four mile stretch of beach in the middle of the island.  The lesson here is that shorelines along the southern Atlantic coast are very active and it’s hard to figure out what they are going to do in the future.  Also, things people do on one island can affect another island somewhere else.  On Cumberland there has never been any ocean front development.  But on other islands where people are allowed to build on beaches their fortunes often turn around rapidly when the sea starts to work against them. 

Probably the most dramatic changes I’ve seen on Cumberland have been along the main dunes and adjoining interdune meadows.  Heavy grazing from cattle years ago in the meadow areas exposed sand to the wind “allowing” large migrating dunes to form.  Prevailing easterly winds moved the dunes inland covering and killing trees while also filling in some of Cumberland’s unique fresh water wetlands.  In the 1970’s the cattle were removed and many of the locations that were impacted by the loss of interdune plants have recovered remarkably as the movement of sand has slowed.  Now the main thing keeping these habitats from a full recovery are the free ranging feral horses that are still grazing in some sensitive areas.  But I will leave them for another blog…

A more recent significant change to the island comes in the form of an exotic beetle from Asia.  The ambrosia beetle was first introduced into the shipping port of Savannah by accident about three years ago.  Since then, it has attacked red bay trees up and down the coast throughout the range of these trees.  Entomologists have no practical way of stopping the beetle which is attracted to the sweet smell of the red bay.  Scientists believe we could see the extinction of these trees in the not too distant future and then the beetle may move into other plant species.  The red bay is a very common tree on Cumberland and many of them have already been killed.  With these trees gone, no one really knows how the rest of the island’s forest will be affected, but it certainly will be changed.

Today, with a heightened public awareness of environmental changes, I thought I would pass on some of the changes here on Cumberland.  But one can also see how closely related the island is to outside forces, both natural and man made.  Never the less, this National Seashore remains to be one of the most scenic areas on the east coast.

Fall Colors

The unique and beautiful forests on Cumberland are even more so in early December.  This is when the plants of temperate origins start showing fall colors.  With reduced hours of sunlight, chlorophyll production eventually stops and their green leaves start revealing the usually hidden pigments of orange and yellow.  Cooler temperatures also play a roll in this transformation regulating the amount of carbohydrates that determine the intensity of red colors in autumn leaves.   On Cumberland however most of the dominant plants such as the live oak trees are sub-tropical and do not respond to these seasonal changes which means most of the forest stays green this time of year.  So this contrast of bright warm colored leaves against a green background or foreground is not only colorful, but gives a greater sense of depth to the forest.

Most all of our Island plants that show fall colors are salt sensitive so they will be found more on the western half of the Island, away from the ocean.  Trees with yellow leaves like black cherry and pig nut hickory grow on high, well drained ground and may be accompanied by vines of wild muscadine grape, poison ivy and Virginia creeper, which are actually the first plants to show fall colors. 

In the lower, fresh water wetland areas, trees like red maple, tupelo and sweet gum stand out in various shades of red.  Anyone exploring the Island now will also notice a number of red bay trees with dead leaves on them, even though this species normally stay green all year.  A couple years ago, an exotic beetle from Asia made its way to Cumberland and other areas up and down the coast throughout the range of the red bay.  Forestry people I’ve talked to say they don’t have a practical way of stopping it and the beetle could possibly eliminate all of the red bay trees in the region in the near future.  This is a very common tree on Cumberland, so with it gone, we don’t know how the system will react.  On a more positive side, we are really seeing the benefits of last summers big forest fire on the north end of the Island.  Several years ago, the Georgia state forestry people found bark beetles becoming established in some of the pine trees on the north end of the Island and said a fire would help keep them under control.  Well, we sure got the fire and we know for a fact that it has helped the forest in many ways; as the burn area has greened up nicely.  We are also seeing some fall colors up there as the leaves of the winged sumac trees are now turning bright red. 

These color changes might not seem like much to someone used to more northern forest, but here, they serve as a reminder that Cumberland is in a transitional location where the effects of both the sub-tropics and the southern temperate zones can be witnessed in the vegetation and December is the best month to see the differences.

Reflections on the Salt Marsh in Autumn

The salt marsh that borders Cumberland goes through a noticeable change during the month of November.  This is when the dominant salt marsh spartina grasses turn from green to gold.  It’s this annual die back of mature spartina leaves and flowering stalks that produces the bio-mass needed to start the food chain in our coastal waters.  Salt marshes are biologically among the richest natural areas on the planet.  One acre of spartina produces five to seven times more protein than the same area of a Kansas wheat field.  However, the nutritional value of spartina is not realized until it decomposes and becomes a major component of the organically rich mud seen in the marshes at low tide.  So marsh mud, as miserable as it may seem to anyone trying to walk through it, is really wonderful stuff.

The decomposition process of spartina starts with bacteria.  Among these are the purple sulfur bacteria that look like an oil slick on the surface of the water.  This anaerobic life form actually lives under the mud that floats to the surface if the ground is disturbed and because of its oily appearance has been mistaken for pollution in some areas.  As dead spartina is digested by bacteria, it mixes with algae in the marsh to become a nutrient rich soup known as detritus.

A great number of animals feed on this abundant food source with the smallest of these detritavores being protozoa and nematode worms that are so tiny they can be selective in eating certain types of bacteria and algae.  However, larger animals like mud snails and fiddler crabs eat all components of the detritus soup.  The largest detritavores in the marsh creeks are mullet.  Large schools of these fish graze in the marshes over the summer but in the autumn when the water cools they move to warmer areas farther south.  Menhaden are another schooling fish that feed directly on detritus in the marsh.  The most commercially valuable detritavore we have around Cumberland are shrimp which actually spawn in the ocean but grow up in the salt marsh.

With such an abundance of grazing animals in these wetlands there are also a host of predators here to feed on them.  Blue crabs will feed on fish and fiddler crabs but may be eaten themselves by river otters or bottle nosed dolphins.  Dolphins feed mostly on fish though, and will chase schools of mullet and menhaden onto mud flats to capture them.  Several kinds of predatory fish like sea trout and red fish go after the bait fish as well, and fishing for these popular game species is often rewarding around Cumberland. 

There are many fish eating birds in the area such as ospreys, the only bird to dive totally feet first into the water to catch fish.  Along the creek banks egrets and herons are able to grab and sometimes spear fish with their dagger like bills.  Clapper rails and white ibis with their probe shaped bills are more adapted to feeding on mud snails and fiddlers.  The most voracious predator of fiddler crabs though are probably the raccoons that roam the marshes at low tide eating them.

This, of course, is just a sampling of all the animal activity in our salt marshes.  So when the green marsh grasses turn gold in November, I keep in mind what it could eventually lead to and when I trek into a wet, unstable salt marsh, I think of all the life forms below my feet that more often than not will end up well above my knees.

The Newcomer

Well I’ve seen some of their tracks from time to time and heard a few stories about people seeing them on Cumberland; although most of these sightings were dismissed as being another animal, but on October 25th the Greyfield tour actually got a good look at a coyote off the North Cut Road on the north end of the Island. 

Originally an animal of our western states; coyotes have moved into most all of the eastern states over the last few decades and are now well established in all of Georgia counties, so it was just a matter of time before they made their way to Cumberland.  But how could this have happened?  Only two ways:  they were either brought over by man or they swam over from the mainland.  The swimming story is certainly plausible because like other canines, coyotes are good swimmers and like their larger cousins the wolves, they have a great deal of stamina.  Coyotes also follow their noses like other canines, so could this be how they found Cumberland?  The prevailing winds here are from the east which means the mainland is usually down wind from the island.  The scent from a large dead animal could possibly be carried to the mainland a couple miles away over mostly tidal marsh. 

This kind of feeding behavior also brings up another characteristic of the coyote and that is they will eat just about anything.  Being both highly adaptive and secretive they can be equally at home raiding garbage cans in a city or chasing down deer in an isolated wilderness area.  However, it’s the impact on game animals as well as livestock that has turned so many people against this elusive animal.  As a matter of fact, just about every hunter and farmer I’ve talked with over the years hates coyotes.  One western sheep farmer that was suffering heavy losses of lambs to coyotes stated that “Nature just can’t be safe with coyotes around”.  Even though the coyotes were more a natural part of the land than the sheep.  But it’s been this competition between people and coyotes that has reached epic proportions in some areas and condemned the wily coyote to a life on the run.

So how will this newcomer impact Cumberland?  Well; we don’t have sheep but we do have hogs that need to be eradicated and coyotes might take some of the smaller pigs.  But they won’t stop there.  These highly effective predators will also go after white-tailed deer along with many other native species.  With a native predator this keeps the system in balance.  But should the coyote be considered a native predator?  Even though they are native to many parts of North America, they are relatively new to the southeast and really new to Cumberland; (so new I don’t have photos of them yet for the blog).  However, some biologists have suggested they might be filling a niche left open when the native red wolf was nearly driven into extinction in this area sometime during the 1800’s.

Whatever the case, coyotes could change the dynamics of wildlife populations on the Island while providing a challenge to photograph in the future.