Critters and Composting

Greetings!  I thought I’d start off today’s entry by telling you what’s been happening with some of our wildlife at Riverbend.

The tadpoles from a few weeks ago are now toadlets—they’ve lost their tails, have all four legs, and have developed lungs.  You can see the penny-sized toadlets hanging out right around the edge of the pond.  These little guys are hard to see, but they’ll jump back into the pond when you get close…so listen for tiny splashes.

There has also been a lot of bird activity, including a Baltimore Oriole nest near the picnic area on the trail.  So if you’re walking the trail near the picnic tables, be on the lookout for our black and orange feathered friends.

The word for the week is: DIRT!  Our campers are learning about how essential soil is to many living things…including humans.  Some of them are also being introduced to composting.  In a nut shell, composting is taking things that were once living plants and “recycling” them back to the soil.  In order for composting to work, four things needs to be present:
- nitrogen to help microorganisms reproduce
- carbon to give energy
- oxygen to help to break down materials
- water to help maintain activity.

Many people often want to know what kinds of things can be composted.  As a general rule of thumb, any formerly living plant can be composted.  Items that you want to keep out of your compost pile include: human and animal waste, chemicals (pesticides, gas, diesel), plastic, foil, metals, mayonnaise, salad dressing, and peanut butter.  These items are potentially toxic or hard to decompose.

If you are interested in starting your own compost pile or want to know more about composting, check out the information provided by the Montgomery County Cooperative Extension.

That about does it for this week, friends.  Until next week, I hope to see you ‘round the ‘Bend.

–Nature Dave