From the April 1996 issue of Wisconsin Natural Resources:

Readers Write

Your letters to the editor!

For instance the December issue has a picture of a pine tree on the front cover and a plant leaf on the back. What plants are they? Likewise p.11 has a beautiful photo of a male mallard, but it isn't identified.

I'm trying to tach myself to identify native plants and animals and the magazine could help me toward that end. Kurt Keller, Forest Junction, Wis.

We usually provide common names and Latin genus and species where a species has several common names. Many of our captions describe a resource or environmental issue that species face. In those cases, we are more likely to describe the issue than expend the space to identify species. Your point is well taken. Many readers similarly enjoy identifying species. By the way, our December cover showed a balsam fir (Abies balsamea) and our back cover was a closeup shot of Virginia creeper, also called woodbine, (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) fringed in frost.

Copies of most back issues are available for $3.00 plus $1,50 shipping. We appreciated the help of several staff from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin whose loaned illustrations, projectile points and identified the specimens we displayed in the story.

I'd like to update readers about Parfrey's Glen. An unusual flash flood in the summer of 1993 pretty much flushed out portions of the glen including some trees, other vegetation and the trail. During the following year, DNR trail builders rebuilt and somewhat rerouted the trail. They constructed wooden bridges and long boardwalks over the stream near the bottomland. Extra pairs of socks and dry shoes are no longer needed as the new trail neatly carries the hiker over the top of any mud or running water. It's a great improvement! Bob Crawford, Sun Prairie, Wis.

One of the references you cited, "The Lake Superior Agate" by Scott Wolter, explains their origin. Professor John C. Green, Dept. of Geology, University of Minnesota, Duluth, Minn.

As a long-time summer resident of Madeline Island, she was a major sponsor of the Madeline Island Wilderness Preserve, and we are flattered that you chose this picture for your article. Charles E. Meech for the Meech Family, Wayzata, Minn.

We started fishing with double spinners and worms, then we "graduated" into fishing with make believe flies. We spent 60 years fishing the river downstream of Nelsonville from the old gristmill and slaughterhouse.

Over the years I got to know every hole and its sticks, stones and snags like a book. Ah, how many good memories I have with my Dad and his buddies, later on with my son and daughter. Gordon Hackbarth, Stewartville, Minn.

It makes sense to forge such partnerships with schools, communities and individuals to get interested in tracking environmental progress. We can spread our monitoring network more widely with help from volunteers. Second, the labor these folks donate stretches each monitoring dollar much further. Third, getting people involved creates a commitment to understand and protect resources. A public that on a regular basis examines the environment generally supports efforts to sustain clean air, clean water and public spaces. So on many levels, you idea has merit.

I ran up the stairs to tell me wife so she could witness the experience. We were too late. The falcon disappeared.

I got my binoculars and started scanning the trees and bushes. I noticed a flurry of feathers raining down through the bushes and knew I had found the bird. I never got a good, full frontal view, but I did see the right side of its back and a side view. It had a prominent wide band of white at the end of the tail and two distinct white bands above that. The back and wings were dusty gray to black and the side of the breast was tan to rusty color. The bird had no leg feathers nor could I see any leg bands.

I watched it eat for a full 20 minutes, got my field guide and determined that the falcon was a merlin. Russ Winters, Middleton, Wis.

Author Dave Crehore responds: If you really had a merlin in your back yard in southern Wisconsin, it is a pretty special yard! Merlins have been known to winter over in Wisconsin; one spent the winter at the Manitowoc County fairgrounds a few years ago, but it's a rare sight. If the bird was jay-sized, it might have been a merlin or a sharp-shinned hawk. If the bird was crow-sized, it could have been a peregrine falcon or a Cooper's hawk. Sharpies and Cooper's definitely winter her and are known to nest in suburban areas.

All four of these birds have more-or-less distinct white tips on their tails, but only the sharpie and Cooper's have distinct white bands farther up the tail. The banding on the merlin and peregrine is grayer. The diagnostic characteristic is the facial coloring. The merlin and peregrine have distinct "moustaches" descending vertically from the eye; the other two birds do not. Also, merlins tend to take sparrow and warbler-sized birds as prey.

The sight of these barriers, weathered and dilapidated is rather disgusting. In the fall of 1993 I used to pass a stretch of Highway 32 near the north branch of the Pensaukee River where both sides of the road were littered with old barriers. Part of that ugly barrier is still visible poking through the snow two years later. To me, it is just as disgusting as discarded diapers, tires, bottles or other trash randomly and inconsiderately tossed along our roadways. Who is responsible? Al Walker, Abrams, Wis.

We contacted the State Department of Transportation DOT to get an answer. On state highway projects, engineers and crews from DOT are responsible for maintaining silt fences and removing them after vegetation is well-established. This usually takes a year. Sometimes maintenance work, including the subsequent removal of silt fences is contracted to county work crews.

Silt fences are also installed by utility companies after they complete roadside repairs, replace phone poles or bury cables. Construction companies use them also to control runoff from landscaping, so every silt fence you see is not necessarily installed by a highway worker. In fact, DOT has largely switched to using hay bales, erosion mats and sprayed seed mixtures to establish vegetation more quickly and control runoff more effectively, so you should see fewer of these silt fences on roadsides in the future.

We agree that erosion controls need to be maintained, like all tools, to perform an intended function without becoming a problem or an eyesore.

We'd like to hear from you!