tree roots

After hiding underground for the last 17 years, billions of cicadas are taking to the skies this summer. This batch of insects, known as Brood XIV, will cover more of the U.S. than any other 17-year brood. New York and at least 13 other states – Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and parts of Indiana are being serenaded by the sound of cicadas in May and June.

There are 15 broods of periodical cicadas that emerge every 13 or 17 years. They come out when soil temperatures reach 64 degrees. Around the world there are annual cicadas while periodical cicadas can only be found in the eastern United States.

Once the insects emerge, they will issue their noisy, chirping mating calls for just a few weeks before they lay eggs and die. The offspring from the eggs will burrow underground and remain dormant or in the nymph stage feeding on tree roots for another 17 years. Surfacing in vast numbers is a way to overwhelm predators and ensure that at least some cicadas survive to reproduce.

The emergence of these insects provides a bounty of food to squirrels, lizards, birds, and other creatures. A study found that once cicadas emerge, the population of cuckoos, blue jays, and red-bellied woodpeckers grows.

As the climate changes, the timing of cicada cycles may also change. Warmer weather will lead to cicadas emerging earlier in the year. Eventually, even the time they spend underground may shorten.

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After 17 Years Underground, Massive Cicada Brood to Swarm U.S.

Photo, posted July 16, 2017, courtesy of Renee Grayson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

More than 100,000 miles of U.S. rivers and streams are polluted by nitrogen and phosphorus, mostly from agricultural runoff. In the past, forests grew naturally alongside these waterways and helped stabilize stream banks and decrease flooding while trapping and filtering pollutants. But most of these forests have been cut down to make way for towns, cities, livestock, and crops.

Farmers are reluctant to retire valuable farmland with non-productive buffer planting. But in Pennsylvania, there is an innovative program that encourages farmers to plant cash crops in waterway buffer zones that can help stabilize stream banks and clean up the waterways. These plantings are called working buffers.

Strips of streamside land are replanted with native floodplain trees and shrubs. These are known as riparian forest buffers. Pennsylvania has instituted a grant program under which farmers and landowners plant these buffers and turn a profit.

Many of these buffers have three zones. A conventional forest buffer that can be just 15 feet wide is composed of native woodland and stabilizes the bank with tree roots and enhances wildlife habitat. A second zone, some 20 feet wide, is planted with trees and shrubs that can tolerate periodic flooding. Apart from slowing floodwater and taking up nutrients, this zone can provide profits by planting trees like black walnut, hazelnut, persimmon, and elderberry. Only hand harvesting is allowed. A third zone, adjacent to conventional crop, can contain blueberries, raspberries, and decorative woody florals.

How many farmers can be enticed to create these riparian buffers remains to be seen, but they do represent a way to help farmers to reduce pollution and turn a profit along the way.

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A Movement Grows to Help Farmers Reduce Pollution and Turn a Profit

Photo, posted March 19, 2010, courtesy of the USDA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The cicadas are coming

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Working Forest Buffers | Earth Wise

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