Viateur's note brought to mind a pleasant memory, as "Schlepper in Chief" I
carried camera bags and gear for a good friend on a trip into Manitoba just
to photograph Platanthera praeclara. The trip was a success and we were
rewarded with the sight of hundreds of these beauties in bloom. And yes,
their fragrance is very sweet. The sight in Manitoba was part of a
recently created Canadian park / wildlife reserve. The population hopefully
will be safe. Hopefully it will not be trampled by photographers in the
future. It is very remote, hopefully there will be few visitors. P.
praeclara is a spectacular species, possibly the only Platantherea larger
than fuller formed than P. leucophaea.
Sadly, I live near a site with Platanthera leucophaea, and it is in a
state of decline. There are two major causes for this decline of a Nature
Conservancy protected site. The single greatest damage to this site is foot
traffic by photographers. An observation I have made at a number of orchid
sites is that generally the soils are soft and loose. This is particularly
true for wet mesic prairie orchids. When you are in prairie orchid habitat
you can take your hand, extend your fingers out straight and stab them into
the soil up to your palm with little resistance. Yes, the soil is that soft
and loose. This type of prairie loam compacts easily. When foot traffic
compacts this soil, it no longer will support orchids, or the host of other
prairie species that are not orchids. This prairie is the Chiwaukee
Prairie for those of you who are local to the Middle USA. Chiwaukee Prairie
is now criss-crossed with hundreds of compacted trails where well intention
photographers have struck out looking for orchids & wildflowers to
photograph. There are compacted rings visble on the ground where multiples
of well meaning people have encircled a spectacular specimen and have
trampled and compacted the soil trying to get that perfect picture. It
sounds trivial, but this prairie is near a huge metro area and the
photographers can number hundreds in a week and thousands over the summer.
These compacted rings around plants have remainded visible for several
years, and sadly, the plant in the center more often than not, does not
seem to bloom again. Likely the plant perishes due to soil compaction,
though it is difficult to spot the vegetative Platanthera when out of
bloom. They blend with the grasses. On these trample trails, weedy Eurasian
species are common, and the prairie grasses are only found back away from
the compacted trail. I have seen knee prints in the soil last for 2 or 3
years before fading. A kneeling photographer leaves one hell of a big print
in the ground. It is shocking how big a zone of compaction a pack of
photographers can leave, especially if it is a diminuative species they are
photographing. Photo clubs are the worst for trampling big areas around a
plant.
The point of my note is, all you well meaning photographers, please
stay on established trails. Do not wander off. Don't step off the
established trails to get your shot. Especially in heavily visited urban
and suburban habitat, your heavy boots compact the soil, killing seedlings,
and destroying the habitat. Yes, your boots are as bad as an asphalt "steam
roller" used to compact ashphalt. Yep, your boots do it 150 pounds at a
time. (okay, I'm a lot heavier than that, but some of your are lighter than
that). The Chiwaukee Prairie has at least 6000 "little steam roller"
visitors a year, maybe more, all wanting those great nature shots for their
photo albums. Please, when your visit, try not to leave even footprints as
evidence of your visit. Be considerate, you are loving the orchids to
death.
Another example, the only specimen of Platanthera psychodes, Purple
Fringed Orchid, I have ever seen in bloom in Illinois Beach State park was
trampled by photographers. I return to the site weekly, and in 12 years, it
has not reappeared at that site, most likely due to soil compaction. Yes, I
live within walking distance of Illinois Beach State Park, and I have been
watching it change over the course of the last 20 years. Some good, many
bad changes. The P. psychodes was a few yards off a paved trail I use to
walk to the beach. Sadly, al to visible to people.
Yes, insects and freeze thaw cycling will eventually soften the soil
again, but in these near urban refuges, the amount of traffic is too
frequent to allow such time. Stay on the oldest and widest trails. Use a
telephoto lense. Crushing everything in a 4 foot wide circle around a
spectacular plant may kill the plant as effectively as diggin the thing up
with a shovel.
The shovel comment brings me to the second source of damage.
Predation by gardners with shovels has reduced the population Platanthera
leucophaea by a significant percentage. Every year I see a couple new
holes. Each year it seems to beperpetrated by only one or two miscreants,
but over the 20 years I have been watching the Chiwaukee Prairie there have
been quite a few plants pirated out of there. If the population were larger
& more stable this might not be a problem, but with all the soil
compaction, the replacement rate by new seedlings seems to be too slow to
replace the missing plants. This is a significant, but a very distant
second to the damage by well intentioned photographers.
So in summary, PLEASE STAY ON THE TRAILS. Remember, if you were able
to get there, other people will want to also. Assume all habitats are
heavily visited, even if it seems remote. If your cell phone still works,
your are in an urban area that will have hundreds of visitors over the
year. Take your photographs, but leave nothing behind. NOT EVEN FOOTPRINTS.
You are trampling to death the very orchids you love.
Thank you for allowing me to post this reminder.
Leo
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the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD)
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