What can one person do about the challenges facing humankind in the year 2022? Glenda Moore, who lives north of Holiday Island, is holding native plant tours of her eight gardens, propagating native plants to give away, educating people about the importance of native plants, and donating her time with the Master Naturalist program.
“On a global view I’m very, very concerned about what is happening,” Moore said. “The government and corporations are so slow to act because they are looking at short-term gains for themselves. It can make you feel paralyzed as an individual.”
What she can do is promote native plants and encourage the removal of invasive plants.
“I lived in St. Louis for eighteen years and took classes in native plants from the Shaw Nature Reserve, part of the Missouri Botanical Garden,” Moore said. “I learned a lot about what an individual can do. Entomologist Doug Tallamy has written several books that detail how plants support wildlife, and the interconnections necessary for the web of life.
“Insects are an important part of that. They only lay eggs on certain types of plants. If you don’t have plant vegetation that supports caterpillars that feed baby birds, you don’t have the next generation of birds.
“Tallamy’s most recent book, Nature’s Best Hope, advocates homegrown national parks where we all have a bit of wildlife habitat in our yards. If you can only plant one large tree in your yard, plant an oak, which provides habitat for 500 insect species. Black cherry is another tree that is wonderful. You can look at information from the National Wildlife Federation Native Plant Finder Ecoregion 8 to find out what to plant to get the most eco-function.”
Moore said creating and promoting native plants critical to wildlife gives her hope.
Abide by the rules with your own crew
Recently, highway crews have used heavy equipment and large saws to clear the right-of-way along Hwy. 23 North. Tree branches have had their southside, highway side, branches cut off.
“It is very distressing and damaging to the trees and everyone who cares about trees,” Moore said. “But the highway crew told me that they have more than 200 miles of highway right-of-way to keep clear up to 14 feet off the roadbed, and 25 feet from the center of the highway. The crew has only 8 to 12 people. There is no way to clear the highways properly, so they have to do this massive butchering. People don’t want their taxes raised to do this more carefully, and yet the roads have to be clear to prevent damage to semis, RVs and delivery trucks.”
Moore recommends what she has done to have the trees on her property that are near the roads, paying to have them pruned professionally. She has a written agreement with the State Highway Department and with Carroll Electric Cooperative Corp. that she will maintain everything on her property herself.
Because Carroll Electric has contract crews that might not be aware of her agreement, she has had metal signs made: No Cutting, No Spraying, Owner Maintained. For the power company, any tree that grows tall she cuts to prevent ever having it grow up into the powerline.
A lot of highway clearing work can be done from the ground with a chainsaw on a pole. Moore hired Kyle Hunnicutt, Hunnicutt Tree Service, to help prune the trees properly.
“He is an arborist and really cares about trees,” Moore said. “They took about five hours cutting major branches off the six trees on the highway. The highway department came over and marked them for me, tying plastic strips on the branches to show me which ones needed to be cut. They couldn’t have been more helpful. It takes communication and being proactive knowing that this is coming and there is something you can do to help the trees.”
Moore said the highway department would love to have people maintain it themselves because they don’t have the money. If you don’t like the way the highway department does it, consider getting together with neighbors, buying a chainsaw on a pole, and doing it yourselves.
You grow, girl
Master Naturalists are asked to donate 40 hours of volunteer work a year. Moore put in 280 hours this past year. She grew hundreds of native seedlings from locally collected native plants and gave away plants to people who came to the 17 tours of her native plant gardens.
“I give away plants to inspire people and show if I can do this at 71 years old, you can put in at least a bed of native plants at your home,” she said. “I also gave plants to the public library, and the Heart of Many Ways garden.
“Cindy Rimkus and I created a native plant garden at Withrow Springs State Park. I am trying to work on rare plants that are almost gone, like blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica), red cardinal plant (Lobelia cardinalis) and ginseng. I gave away 120 hazelnut trees and elderberries this past spring. People want elderberry trees because they are anti-viral. I give plants to people I think will nurture them. What is rare? What is on the edge?”
She also encourages people to take out invasive non-native plants like Asian bush honeysuckle that leafs out early and will shade out spring ephemeral wildflowers. She also advocates getting rid of privet, which crowds out native plants and can take over.
She is not a purist, requiring only natives. She sees nothing wrong with traditional iris, daylilies, roses, peonies, and lots of other plants.
“Plant the things you love as long as they are not invasive,” Moore said. “Ideally, you should have 70 percent natives. But you as a gardener are part of the ecosystem. What you love is valid. Forsythia is not a native. It spreads slowly but predictably, and you can control it. It doesn’t produce seeds. It is gorgeous right now. My grandmother had these same plants.”
Moore hopes her work shows what one person can do.
“We are not powerless,” she said. “We can do a lot. We really need to get the word out that there are things we can do. Within a year or two, you will see butterflies and birds all around your yard. It is really for you, too. We are part of it. We are just not all of it.”
Moore does yard consultations including suggestions on what invasives to remove and what natives to keep or plant. She can be reached at (314) 646-0626.