Back around the turn of the century, I designed a stormwater corridor for the southeast corner of Iowa City. It was built in 2001, coming in under budget at $2.6 million. It consists of a chain of 22 wetlands gently stairstepping down a valley (“the Corridor”), and they empty into a set of three nested wetlands (“the Outlet Wetlands”). 

Now that the weather has turned cooler and we’ve had our first real snow, the question on some people’s minds may be where do pollinators go in the winter. The Pollinator Partnership, with the mission to promote the health of pollinators – critical to food and ecosystems – through conservation, education, and research, has a great blog written by Anthony Colangelo on this specific question. 

Our native coralberry is also called buckbrush. Most commonly found as a low, spindly, scrawny shrub with a few leaves and a few little pinky-purple berries, growing in the shade of canopy trees in a woods. However, on rare occasions under an open canopy or in full sun, individual plants can be robust, about four or five feet tall, and covered with leaves and fruits. 

taptaptap The dry, methodical tapping from nearby was the sound of a woodpecker looking for lunch. This was not the assertive, noisy drumming indicating a woodpecker asserting its territory to others, but a quiet, workmanlike tap against something that made a dry rattle.