Invasive Worms

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May 21, 2004: Invading Worms
I'm Iain MacLeod from the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, and this is Something Wild.

Listeners often contact us with comments such as, "I had no idea about such-and-such until I heard it on Something Wild." Well, this is the first time I can truly say that I learned something totally new while getting ready for the show.

I was amazed to learn that most of our earthworms are invasive species in New Hampshire! And they are causing damage to our forests.

According to researchers, any native species of worms we had would have been destroyed by the glaciers thousands of years ago. So where did our worms come from? European settlers brought worms with them in the potted plants they carried from their homelands to the New World. Many anglers, thinking that worms actually help the environment, dump their leftover bait worms at the end of the day. The same problem happens when gardeners import worms for their compost piles. And some researchers think that worm eggs are brought from one location to another in the dirt on car tires.

Although worms can be great for your garden, they aren't so great for the forest. Many forest plants depend on the thick layer of organic material that lies on the forest floor. This includes leaf litter and all of the spongy stuff that's already decomposed below the leaves. Many plants and animals depend on this material, and scientists are beginning to find that areas with a lot of worms are showing declines in the thickness of this organic layer. The worms are literally eating up the forest floor. The researchers are also seeing declines in the populations of many of the plants that depend on the organic matter, such as trillium, wood anenome, and solomon seal.

There are some things you can do to help. For starters, take home your bait worms when you are done fishing, and don't add worms to your compost or garden. And in the fall, take your leaves into the woods to dump, not to your transfer station.

Worms are invasive species that can affect our woodlands - who would have thunk it?

Something Wild is a joint production of the Audubon Society of New
Hampshire, New Hampshire Public Radio, and the Society for the
Protection of New Hampshire Forests. For Something Wild, I'm Iain
MacLeod.

If you have a natural history question that you would like answered on Something Wild, email us at somethingwild@ nhpr.org.
June 4, 2004: Birds in the movies

Hi, this is Iain MacLeod from New Hampshire Audubon, bringing you Something Wild.

{SOUND OF RED-TAIL} Does that call sound familiar? Have you heard it in every other movie or jeep commercial ever made? That is actually the call of the red-tailed hawk, but its piercing shriek has become the ubiquitous sound to represent wilderness of all types and is added to the soundtrack whenever any kind of hawk, eagle or vulture flies overhead.

For a business that prides itself on authenticity, the film industry seems to forget this claim when it comes to the use of birdcalls. I watch a lot of movies, I love movies, but almost every film I watch has major blunders when it comes to background bird sounds. Here is an example. This is a scene from Rob Roy with Liam Neeson, a great movie, set and filmed in my homeland of Scotland. {film in background) Neeson is sitting on a Scottish hillside overlooking a beautiful loch, a Gambel's Quail calls in the background . . . . a what? What is a Gambell's quail doing in Scotland? They are found only in the deserts of southwestern US.

The Bourne Identity -- another good movie, is set primarily in rural France. In a dramatic pursuit scene near the end, an Eastern wood-peewee and blue jays are calling in the background - both of these are North American species never found in Europe. In Frida, set in Mexico, there is a European Chiffchaff added to the background.

I've heard European Tawny Owls calling in films set in the US and North American Great Horned Owls in cemeteries in London. The calls of loons were added to the Coen Brother's Raising Arizona - set in the dry deserts of - you guessed it - Arizona. How did a lake bird end up there?

It seems that whatever sounds good is fine with editors in Hollywood. I recently sent a letter to all the major film studios offering my services as an Avifaunal Authenticity Consultant - aught to worth a few bucks an hour . . . but I guess the old saying "don't call us, we'll call you" still applies in Hollywood . .. so far no calls.

Something Wild is a joint production of New Hampshire Audubon, New Hampshire Public Radio, and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. For Something Wild, I'm Iain MacLeod.

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