As residents of Patagonia, you all know that grasshoppers are voracious predators. At the Audobon Research Ranch near Elgin, researchers once counted 46 species of grasshoppers.
I have recently come to find out that grasshoppers don’t seem to like Clematis. I know this because they have eaten the leaves off all the other plants at Borderlands’ newest restoration site. The Sacred Datura, and Cholla cactus are also not popular with these insects. Perhaps this is one reason why some desert plants adapted poisonous constituents and spines. I am sad about our losses, but cannot help but be amazed at how such small creatures can collectively accomplish so much, like defoliating nearly 100 plants in the course of 48 hours.
I try to stay optimistic and know we have learned a big lesson from this latest restoration experiment: when we plant in the fall, we might want to think about grasshopper mitigation strategies to make them less devastating to our native pollinator-attracting plants. Some strategies include spraying with chili or garlic spray or using cones around each plant.
I remind myself that the planting of this site was successful at bringing together 13 folks to interact with the landscape. Six of these people were students from the University of Arizona who came to learn about the work of Borderlands Restoration and to get their hands in the dirt. Our youngest participant so far, 4-year-old Iolani Siaz from Patagonia, was so excited that she didn’t want to stop planting.
Since Borderlands has been hosting restoration projects, we have had the help of over 300 volunteers who spent over 10,000 hours building infrastructure, collecting seeds and cuttings, growing plants, monitoring, data entry and various other tasks. Over half of these volunteer hours were from Borderlands’ staff and family, with six volunteers becoming paid staff. Close to 200 of these people were kids attending Patagonia’s Windsong Peace & Leadership Center. Our volunteers have facilitated the production and planting of 2,700 native plants at four restoration sites, the sale of 750 plants to the Bureau of Land Management in Safford and more plants for use in community pollinator gardens – all in one year!
Kate Tirion of Deep Dirt Farm said to our latest group of volunteers, “We are like a mosaic, each of us can do our part, it doesn’t have to be much, but finding what makes us passionate and working towards sustainability is necessary for our collective health and happiness.” As we have seen this past year, just like grasshoppers, if we are all working towards a common goal, it is amazing what we can accomplish.
Find out more at: http://www.BorderlandsRestoration.org or on Facebook