Americans and Canadians are hearing more and more about a long-established invasive plant called cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), especially after this year’s fire season out west.  What’s the connection?  Among other problems, cheatgrass helps contribute to a longer fire season and more destructive fires, which may worsen in the future because this invasive grass seems to benefit from climate change.  Recently, NPR Science Friday featured an interview with several scientists and land managers about the ecological and economic effects of cheatgrass invasion.   My ears really perked up when I heard that cheatgrass can be used to make beer!  Read on, and then gather your brewing equipment while listening to the podcast of the interview (which is very easy to understand and features questions from the public audience).

Cheatgrass dominates large areas of the West

Cheatgrass is native to Eurasia, and was introduced to the USA in the late 1800s, probably via ship ballast (here is a brief history of cheatgrass).  Interestingly, cheatgrass may have first spread to the West because it was used as a packing material for railroad cars.  It easily established because the native herbaceous species had been greatly reduced by intensive livestock grazing, which cheatgrass can better tolerate.  Cheatgrass, like other invaders that we have mentioned on this website, produces huge amounts of seed (more than 5000 seeds per square meter- nearly 500 pounds of seed per acre!) which helps to maintain its dominance once established.  Cheatgrass also out-competes native species because it germinates earlier in the season.

And what about cheatgrass and wildfires?  As explained in the NPR podcast, cheatgrass senescences (stops its growth and dries up) 4- 6 weeks earlier than the native species, increasing the length of the fire season.  Cheatgrass is also incredibly flammable.  Invasion by cheatgrass and subsequent fires eliminate the native sagebrush communities, and the 50 or so animal species that rely on this community type, such as the sage grouse.

One method of controlling cheatgrass is to heavily graze with goats or sheep.  Another way is to re-establish the (perennial) native plant community, and to use biocontrol, such as a fungus which only infects cheatgrass.  As another of our recent posts emphasized, native species are best controlled with multiple methods simultaneously.

And what you have been waiting for… a final way to control cheatgrass (on a small level) is to turn the seeds into beer!  It is described as an amber ale, of a little over 5%.  Ira Flatow (the show’s host) says it is delicious!  Listen in to the podcast about fifteen minutes from the end, to get some detailed descriptions of the taste and some tips on how to start producing.  And be prepared for puns (“I think that Idaho cheatgrass beer would catch on like wildfire.”)

A fist of autumn olives.

Those autumn olives we collected? Some  got to be delicious jam.  The rest, get crushed, fermented, and bottled.  It’s invasivore wine time.

My own vintage:

I made my first batches of wine while an undergraduate in Bellingham, WA.  One even featured invasive blackberries.  Several things intersected back in 2003 that made this a great idea: 1) A home-brew culture and store down the block, 2) A tree filled with apples and 3) a juicer I got for my birthday.  I made a gallon of apple wine, about five bottles, the last of which was sipped with my soon-to-be in laws the night before the wedding in 2010.  But this is an invasive species story…

Autumn Olive wine making 101

The entire process of making wine is ancient, and the details of which are well beyond what I myself have mastered.  I won’t presume to try to cover everything, many of you out there can probably do it better.  What I do know comes from Jim and George’s Home Winemaking: A Beginners Book.  I’ll just cover some basics steps, and let you experiment.

Instructions

1) Sterilize everything.  I use a 10% bleach solution, followed by lots of rinsing.

2) Get the juice, make it sweet.  There many ways to do this, depending on what type of wine you are making, ranging from stomping with your feet, presses, juicers, concentrates etc.

I crushed 4.5lbs of autumn olives in a nylon bag inside a food grade plastic bucket, which acted as the primary fermenter in the next step.  I added a 2.5 lbs of raw sugar dissolved in a gallon of boiling water (which was cooled before adding), and about 2 teaspoons of acid blend.  I sulfated the juice overnight to kill off any bad yeast and bacteria, and added wine yeast the next morning.

Autumn Olives mashed inside a nylon bag, inside a 2 gal food-grade bucket, which acts as the primary fermenter. I haven’t yet added the sugar-water mixture in this picture.

3) Primary Fermentation- bubble bubble.    I let the wine ferment covered in this bucket for 3 days, stirring each day.

4) Secondary Fermentation.  Secondary fermentation takes the wine-juice-mash-must mixture into a large carboys to continue fermentation in an anoxic environment.  Exposing wine to air turns it to vinegar, and to prevent this a gas trap is fixed to the carboy which lets CO2 out but keeps air from getting in (confused about fermentation? try this video).  As the wine ferments, for several months, all the solids in the mix settle out, clarifying the wine.  In the next step, we rack the wine to make, nice clear wine.

5) Racking, once, twice, thrice and beyond.  Racking is the process of removing the yummy stuff, from the dregs.  This usually takes several rounds.

Here’s a gallon of autumn olive wine, right before I rack for the first time. See how it’s clear on top, and crap on bottom? Siphon the good stuff off the top and keep fermentin’.

5) Bottling.  After 3-6 months, most of the sugar has been turned to alcohol.  Alternatively, there was so much sugar that the alcohol content got very high  high (~15-17%), that the yeast basically suffocated in their own delicious, delicious alcohol waste.  In either case, fermentation is complete, the wine is clear, and it’s time to bottle.  I haven’t gotten there yet.  Stay tuned.

6) Imbibing.  Pretty sure you got this covered.

I recently subscribed to the Ecological Society of America’s podcast “Beyond the Frontier,” which features engaging interviews (usually 10 to 15 minutes, perfect timing for the walk to work) with scientists who have recently published in one of ESA’s journals.  One of my favorite episodes is an interview with Dr. Richard Shine at the University of Sydney, about the cane toad invasion of Australia, one of the most well studied and documented biological invasions.  In the short but insightful interview, Dr. Shine discusses some practical and thoughtful options for controlling cane toads.  Using the toads as a case study, he also discusses public attitudes and actions towards invasive species, and the importance of engaging with community groups.

Cane toad image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

First Dr. Shine describes the extent of cane toad “hysteria” that has occurred in parts of Australia, due to impacts on native species (especially predators that try to eat them) and the development of general and strong public aversion to the toads.  The public is very aware of the invasion.  Many local groups actively try to eliminate the toads by collecting and euthanizing adult toads (“toad busting”).  Dr. Shine points out that even though the goal (fighting invasive species) is admirable, the methods are ineffective because a single female toad can lay tens of thousands of eggs; collecting single toads, even with hundreds of volunteers, cannot keep up with this rate of reproduction.

Importantly, the interview then turns to discussing the diversity of viewpoints that people have about invasive species- fear, affection, anthropomorphism, naturalistic interest, moralistic, an attitude of dominion.  Different public groups may have different feelings about invasive wildlife (or plants) and thus different approaches to dealing with the issue- some local groups may fight against the invasive species while other groups fight to protect them on grounds of humane treatment or because they prefer the introduced species (e.g. for economic or ornamental value).  This is the case for the coqui frog in Hawaii and the grey squirrel in Europe.  Such viewpoints contrast with those of the researcher, whose goal is to use logic and experimental results to understand ecological processes or impacts.  Shrine emphasizes that to effectively explain their research and how it supports certain control practices over others, the researcher must understand the viewpoint of the different public groups.

Dr. Shine emphasizes that scientists must talk (or blog!) to the public more, as public opinion then trickles up to local and regional public leaders.  Scientists must also understand the pressures on local leaders- economic, social and political.  For example, political leaders are expected to take some immediate action, such as collecting and killing toads, even though the science may say that such removal has no real effect.

Towards the middle of the interview, Dr. Shine then discusses his research into cane toad ecology and the many alternative methods of controlling the invasion- utilizing predators and parasites of the toads, exploiting toad pheromones to attract or stress them, supporting the competitive native toads, and fostering vegetation around the water bodies where they go to reproduce.  These solutions, often using the native species in the fight, can be integrated for a strong, multifaceted, science-based response.  However, such an applied research program is not so common among academics (or funding from science agencies), and thus there is a knowledge vacuum about effective control methods in various situations.  In addition, Shrine notes that control approaches must be explained to the public and political leaders, and actions must be undertaken in dialogue and cooperation with local groups, as also emphasized in a recent article in Conservation Biology.

The discussion concludes by emphasizing that the emotional response of the public is one of the main factors determining whether an invasive species control effort succeeds or fails.  But don’t take my word for it, go listen to the podcast or read the accompanying article in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

Today’s recipe comes from guest contributor Rachel Hesselink.  As an undergraduate at Calvin College, Rachel studied the competitiveness of  invasive autumn olive in Michigan.  Now a graduate student at the University of Notre Dame, Rachel studies the impacts of global change on salt marsh ecosystems.

Ingredients

• Approximately 3 cups fresh autumn olives (berries)
• 3 Tbsp pectin
• 2.5 cups sugar

Autumn olive jam on the stove, ready to boil!

Yum! Fresh autumn olive jam on bread.

“High-fives for everyone, every day below freezing”

The weather is taking the start of Fall very seriously in northern Indiana.  Autumn has been creeping in slowly, almost unnoticed.  Afternoons are still warm and bright, but backyard campfire smoke sneaks along with couples on an evening walk, and a chill floats through an open bedroom window of a morning.  Last year it wasn’t like this, September and October -prime season for autumn olives- tipped-toed by with a summer that lingered too long.  Thanksgiving was about the first time we noticed fall had rolled around and then it was too late- these red berries were gone.

The first chill morning was about two weeks ago, and the cool weather always excites me- the smell of cold, the promise of a real winter, and snow.  There’s a calming urgency about a first snow, that I can hardly ever wait for, so I pledged to my friends, “High fives for everyone, every day below freezing.”  It hasn’t happened yet, these little celebrations that will hopefully build callus, but we perked up anyway and saw autumn standing there with us.  And remembered the autumn olives this year.

They look like berry-pickers

Two Sundays ago, just after Notre Dame beat the Spartans 20-3, Matt and I headed back out to Potato Creek, one of our favorite spots for edible invasivory.   The home of such tastes as Cossack Asparagus, burdock chips, and mystery snail ceviche.  It was crowded, a sunny day, and we drove slowly through the old reclaimed and restored farmland, plotting our attack.

Autumn olive grows best along roadsides where it can get at the full sun.  It grows to a bushy 20ft tall or so, and I watched for telltale flashes of silver on green- the underside of the leaves shimmer with silver, and in the breeze the leaves beckon as they turn to and fro.  We drove through a veritable tunnel of green and silver.  Parked and with 5-gallon buckets in hand I heard two women with a stroller tell their child, “They look like berry pickers”.  Our mission continued, trees heavy with berries.  The small red berries fell easily into our buckets when ripe.  Small and tart, with some bitter after taste, but good.

Two hours and over 2kg later we had our fill.  Enough for jam.  Enough for wine, and in six months we can drink it.

***To see what we produced with our collected fruit, check out autumn olive jam!***

Today’s post was contributed by Dr. Christopher Patrick, an ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

These fish fight hard, and the small ones (5-20 lbs) taste great!  For this reason they were introduced into lakes, reservoirs, and river around the United States during the 20^th century and have become a controversial invasive presence. 

The blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus is one of North America’s largest catfish.  Native to the Mississippi River drainage, these long-lived, fast growing top predators will consume anything in their path and can reach astonishing sizes in excess of 140 lbs.

Blue catfish at the Tennessee Aquarium. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

In 1974, blue catfish were introduced into the James River in Virginia, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.  Authorities believed that the catfish would remain contained by high salinity levels down river, and would not be able to spread throughout the many rivers and tributaries that make up the largest estuary in the United States.  Today, the blue catfish can be found in increasing numbers in the Potomac River, another tributary of the Chesapeake, and there is fear that it is only a matter of time before these fish spread to the remaining uninvaded rivers in the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.  While Blue Catfish cannot tolerate salinity levels in the lower reaches of the main channel, fish may get the opportunity to swim into the channel during major inundation events that reduce salinity levels, such as massive flows recorded on the Susquehanna River following Hurricane Irene in 2011.

Blue catfish have become very popular with local recreational and commercial anglers, while this is a good thing in an invasivore kind of way, Maryland DNR also the fear that misguided anglers could be moving fish to help speed their invasion.  Control efforts in Maryland have been largely unsuccessful so far, but new regulations may begin to have an effect on catfish numbers.

The next time you are in the Chesapeake Bay region, do your part by ordering some local blue catfish, and help eat these voracious invaders out of the Bay!

Here, we provide a recipe highlighting purslane as the main ingredient, but purslane will also make a tasty addition to any favorite stir-fry recipe!

Ingredients

• 2 Tbs oil
• 3 Tbs soy sauce
• 2 cups purslane leaves and stems, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup white onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeño, chopped with seeds and membranes removed
• 1 clove garlic, minced

Directions

1. Simmer garlic and onions in oil until garlic browns and onions begin to turn clear
2. Add purslane, jalapeño, and soy sauce, and cook for about two more minutes, stirring frequently
3. Enjoy served over rice.

“Tons of fun!  Tons of fish!”  That has been my response when people ask me about my experience at the Redneck Fishing Tournament last weekend. 

The Redneck Fishing Tournament has become an annual tradition in the small town of Bath, Illinois.  In the tournament, teams compete to see who can collect the most invasive Asian carp from the Illinois River in two hours.  Bucking traditional ecological sampling strategies such as fyke nets, fish are incited to jump by boats rampaging through the water and caught out of mid-air with dip nets, pool skimmers, and by hand.  Hilarity ensues.  Videos can be seen here and here (among many others).

Did I mention that all of this occurs in costume, often following the consumption of copious amounts of alcohol*, and with a festival featuring food vendors, live music, and other entertainment occurring next to the boat launch?  We had a blast!

One thing that struck me this weekend is just how many fish were pulled from the river… and how many fish there must be that didn’t get caught.  On Friday, for example, participants pulled an astounding 6500 fish from the water!  Yet, circling a few boats through the water and netting the fish that jump toward the boat is not a particularly efficient method of fishing.  There must be A LOT of Asian carp in that river- with huge environmental implications.

One encouraging note, however, is the overwhelming popularity of the Redneck Fishing Tournament.  Signs leading into Bath, Illinois indicated just 350 people reside in the small town, and there were easily three or more times that many attendees at the event.  That’s a lot of people who will return home with wild stories about the tournament and (hopefully) a message about the perils of Asian carp invasion.

*We do not recommend driving a boat while intoxicated and applaud the work of the many designated drivers we met this weekend!

A dumpster full of Asian carp at the Redneck Fishing Tournament

This chilled salad is sure to provide a nice treat after a hot day weeding in the garden!

Ingredients

• 3 cucumbers
• 2 cups purslane leaves
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp chopped mint leaves
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Peel cucumbers, then quarter and remove seeds.  Slice thin.
2. Combine cucumbers, purslane, garlic, and mint in large bowl.
3. Add a dusting of salt and a pinch of pepper.  Mix well and refrigerate at least 3o minutes.
4. In a small bowl, combine yogurt and olive oil.
5. Gently combine yogurt mixture and chilled cucumber salad.
6. Refrigerate until serving.  Enjoy!

Cucumber Purslane Salad garnished with mint leaves

The only way Invasivores can obtain nutria meat is by hunting their own (as it isn’t sold anywhere) but alas, none of our staff have done so (yet).  Today’s dish comes to us from Marsh Dog, a company in Louisiana that turns this invasive pest into dog treats.

“Go on… you have my attention”

“Barataria Bites” received positive reviews from the dog surveyed.

For Invasivores interested in catching their own nutria, you can check out how to prep them for human consumption here.