Thanks to Anna Mayberry for this photo of the Northern Lights over Chautauqua Lake on May 10, 2024
Dear Friends of the BTG,
I am so excited to send out this newsletter which is CHOCK FULL of information and season plans. Please take your time reading it and feel free to share it with friends. You will hear from many voices here - a great reminder that it takes a village to put on the BTG (Best Thing Going) each summer.
Sadly, I also have heartbreaking news to report from the lakeshore. The beloved Children's Beach Red Oak is coming down today. It has been declining for years, despite expert care and "vitamin" injections. This spring most of the crown failed to leaf out, so it was not a huge surprise that the tree failed the arborist's Hazard Evaluation this week. Sadly this evaluation left the Institution no choice but to remove it: it simply too great a threat, especially to the precious little humans who play under it's majestic branches.
The "cover girl" on our October newsletter, the lead-off tree on our Champion Tree Tour, the inspiration for jewelry, the shade for our children, this tree will live in all our hearts. We will miss her grand silhouette on the lakeshore and her presence in our lives.
Two other old sugar maples in Miller Park will be coming down this week and likely a large sugar maple on Bestor Plaza, which suffered major damage in Sunday's storm.
We will all have special trees to remember when we droop our lilies at Old First Night.
Leslie Renjilian
BTG President
A Final Portrait of The Children's Beach Red Oak, June 12, 2024, photo by Beth Brockman Miller
We are happy to announce the lineup for our 2024 Brown Bag Lecture Series!
The Programs are Tuesdays at 12:15PM in the Smith Wilkes Hall Auditorium.
As the name suggests, you can bring a brown bag and eat your lunch during the program. The BTG Hospitality Committee will provide chilled lemon water.
At 12:15PM sharp, there will be a Pinning Ceremony onstage for children who have completed the Champion Tree Tour Scavenger Hunt. (See this article for more details about the Scavenger Hunt.) Following the brief Pinning Ceremony, we will introduce and welcome our Brown Bag Speaker
As in past years, the lectures will last about 45 minutes and be followed by a 15-minute Q&A.
2024 Brown Bag Speakers
Week 1 - June 25
Unique Habitats of Western New York
Marisa Riggi, Western New York Land Conservancy
Learn more about Marisa and the Western New York Land Conservancy here.
Week 2 - July 2
Bumblebee Banquet
Heather Holm, Wild Ones
There will also be a free screening of The Last Bumblebee at 4:30PM on Tuesday, July 2 at the Chautauqua Cinema. Learn more about the movie here.
Week 3 - July 9
Architecture - House and Garden Tour
Bob Jeffries
Learn more about the House and Garden Tour here.
Week 4 - July 16
How Native Plants Can Help Us Share A Crowded Planet
Carolyn Summers, Flying Trillium Gardens and Preserve
Learn more about Flying Trillium and their work here.
Week 5 - July 23
Our Greatest Challenges That We Can Actually Do Something About
Maya van Rossum, Delaware Riverkeeper Network
Learn more about the Delaware Riverkeeper Network here.
Week 6 - July 30
We Are One Song With The Earth
Elmore DeMott, Elmore Creates
See more of Elmore's photography here.
Week 7 - August 6
Ecological Restoration
David Agro
Learn more about David's work at Jocotoco Conservation Foundation here.
Week 8 - August 13
Global Freshwater - Water Protection
Jeff Opperman, World Wildlife Fund
Week 9 - August 20
Natural Connections - Looking At Birds For Answers In Land Conservation
Twan Leenders, Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy
Learn more about the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy here.
As the name suggests, you can bring a brown bag and eat your lunch during the program. The BTG Hospitality Committee will provide chilled lemon water.
At 12:15pm, there will be a Pinning Ceremony onstage for children who have completed the Champion Tree Tour Scavenger Hunt. Following the brief Pinning Ceremony, we will introduce and welcome our Brown Bag Speaker.
As in past years, the lectures will last about 45 minutes and be followed by a 15-minute Q&A.
The BTG has a ton of other programs scheduled every week - check here for more updates about the season!
Ode to Joe
For as long as I can remember, Joe McMaster has been giving a horticulture walk/talk every Tuesday afternoon throughout the season. I emphasize the word giving because it very aptly reflects the spirit in which Joe operated. He has been abundantly generous with his wisdom and his time over the years, educating and guiding a rapt audience that numbers in the thousands by now. During the summer of 2023, it was not uncommon for his talks to draw 60+ people in one afternoon.
Joe’s professional background was commercial landscaping. When the opportunity presented itself, he decided the Tuesday horticulture walks would allow him to share knowledge in a different way to a different audience. He realized up front that he could offer people more than a tour of named plants, so he started describing functional aspects of plants and highlighting those that were native to the area.
I asked Joe what he learned during the years that he taught because what the teacher learns can be just as profound as what the teacher teaches, but it is rarely made known. Joe did not hesitate in replying that guiding groups of people completely turned his way of thinking on its head. From the vantage point of the commercial landscaper, Joe had only seen CHQ as a Garden of Eden of sorts. But taking on the discriminating eye of a teacher, and importantly, absorbing knowledge gained from the forward-thinking Betsy Burgeson, he could see that CHQ is not a natural environment at all, but rather a disturbed environment. This realization informed the content of his talks. We now know that helping individuals to see beyond the physical beauty of plants to the vital roles they play within a suffering ecosystem, is one of the most powerful tools we have at the local level for supporting nature and improving the state of the environment. We are ever grateful to Joe for contributing so much toward encouraging others’ stewardship of the natural world.
As I was talking to Joe, he could hear my dog barking in the background. Perhaps that says something about me, but I’d rather not know what that is. For Joe, the background music was opera. How perfect for this “Ode to Joe”.
Jennifer Francois
VP of Program
Joe may have retired from giving Tuesday horticulture talks, but he is not gone. You will see him this summer being a docent at the Amp, and he will likely be called upon from time to time to be a guest garden guide. Do be sure to “sing his praise” when you see him (literally - he’d prefer that).
New Event - Forest Bathing!
Thursday Mornings 7:30-8:15AM
I hope you will join us on Thursday mornings from 7:30 - 8:15am for Forest Bathing, a new offering in our Nature Walks. We will meet at the corner of Massey and Hawthorn Avenues, at the entrance to the new walking paths we cleared to the Secret Silo Garden last summer in the South Ravine.
A National Geographic article from 2019 describes the practice: The term emerged in Japan in the 1980s as a physiological and psychological exercise called shinrin-yoku (“forest bathing” or “taking in the forest atmosphere”). The purpose was twofold: to offer an eco-antidote to tech-boom burnout and to inspire residents to reconnect with and protect the country’s forests.
Our leader will be the lovely Kate Mayberry, who you may know from her very popular Special Studies yoga classes. A certified yoga instructor, registered nurse, mother of three and long-time Chautauquan, Kate says, "I am excited to share the magic of the woods with all nature lovers!"
Leslie Renjilian
Future Forest Bather
Native Plant Sale
The BTG Native Plant Sale returns this year on Tuesday, June 25th from 9am - until we run out! at the Bestor Fresh Market
We will be in Bestor Plaza, the corner nearest to the Colonnade building and the St. Elmo. Look for the BTG banner. Our friend and mentor in all things native and all things about bats, Jonathan Townsend, will be there with a beautiful selection of plants native to Chautauqua County.
Jonathan was here last year and was so helpful about where to plant and why the natives would thrive here. Come meet Jessica and Jonathan Townsend and members of the BTG who will be there to answer any questions.
Here is a partial listing of the plants he plans to bring on June 25th.
Golden ragwort
Joe Pye Weed
Swamp Milkweed
Blue Vervain
New England Aster
Obedient Plant
Hairy Penstemon
Bush Honeysuckle
They will also have a small number of Bloodroot and Mayapple and likely a few other species, depending on their maturity when we are set for the sale.
Congratulations to Jonathan and Jessica Townsend who celebrated the opening of their new barn at a ribbon cutting last Friday, June 7th! Botany Barn at Royal Fern Nursery, 8888 Glasgow Rd, Fredonia, NY 14063
Chris Fulton
BTG Board Member and Master Gardener
2024 House and Garden Tour Preview!
Watch your mailboxes...the 2024 House and Garden Tour ticket booklets are in the mail!
If you ordered tickets before May 22nd, your tickets were mailed first-class on June 5th and will be arriving soon. The ticket booklet contains a picture and description of each of the House Tour houses, a map of Chautauqua Institution noting the tour house and garden locations, a list of our 2024 Henrietta Ord Jones Members, and advertisements for each of our House and Garden Tour sponsors.
You can also check out our Explore CHQ app for more pictures and audio of the House Tour houses and gardens. To get the ExploreCHQ app, search "Explore CHQ" in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Or check it out right here!
We’re excited to announce the houses on this year’s House and Garden Tour are:
The Brick Red House at 24 Vincent
The Unitarian Universalist Denomination House at 6 Bliss
The Fine Cottage at 8 Bliss
The Bestor Cottage at 1 Root
The Miller Cottage and Shipman Gardens at 24 Miller
The Dixie at 5 Thompson
Tionesta at 12 Miller Park
The Feighan Zenzak Cottage at 38 S. Lake Drive
The Braham Cottage at 40 S. Lake Drive
The Rice Cottage at 6 Cookman
The Neubauer Cottage at 42 S. Lake Drive
The Sunrise Cottage at 54 S. Lake Drive
And here's a list of the gardens:
Discovery Garden
Campbell Garden
Shipman Gardens at Miller Cottage
Miller Park Rain Garden
Bishop’s Garden
Peck Rain Garden
Wissel Garden
A limited number of tickets remain for the 2024 Chautauqua Bird Tree and Garden Club House and Garden Tour on Thursday, July 11th. To purchase a ticket:
Visit our website, chautauquabtg.org
Visit the Chautauqua BTG table at the Activity Fair in Bestor Plaza on Sunday June 23rd, June 30th, or July 7th from 12-2:00PM
Visit the Ticket table during a BTG Brown Bag Lunch at Smith Wilkes Hall on Tuesday June 25th, July 2nd, or July 9th from 12-1:00PM
What We Don't Know CAN Hurt us
Dennis M. McNair, PhD
The national news tells us to expect more named hurricanes and tropical storms in the next year, at least in part because of human caused global warming. We’re spending billions of dollars to develop technologies that will remove carbon-containing greenhouse gases from the air to reverse climate change. Meanwhile, in the soil, nearly microscopic, and highly beneficial, mites (related to spiders and ticks but not harmful) and springtails (once classified with insects and still closely related) are struggling to sequester carbon in the soil, as they have for millions of years.
Human-caused higher soil temperatures, lower moisture, and pollutants of various types are killing them off before we even get to know who they are. Humans have a long and disastrous history of destroying the webs of natural processes that sustain us while we maximize our short-term profits. We’ve just begun to identify the immense variety of species of invertebrate animals that keep us alive, not to mention the conditions that sustain them. Soil, which has historically been treated as inert, is actually a highly specialized medium that should be viewed as a living ecosystem. Its inorganic scaffolding is largely negligible compared to the living fungi, bacteria, insects, arachnids, etc. that interact and participate in the recycling of nutrients required for us and other large beings to survive.
Carbon-containing gases trap heat in the atmosphere, heating up the earth’s surface. As soil warms, the tiny organisms in it do too, and they eventually die. The moisture in soil is depleted at higher temperatures and that makes recovery from the increased heat less likely. When mites and springtails die, they stop breaking down organic debris (leaves, stems, and other dead plant and animal parts). That breakdown ultimately releases inorganic nutrients, such as phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen, in forms needed for growth by larger plants that we eat or enjoy.
Mites and springtails are also extremely susceptible to pesticides and pollutants with which we saturate soil, intentionally or inadvertently. Add those poisons to higher temperatures and lack of moisture, and the scene is set for nonproductive soil. To compensate, we add fertilizers and pesticides, at great expense, as we kill off the organisms that provide those services naturally, for free.
I’m not advocating for untended yards and gardens. Still, it seems silly, to me, to continue destroying natural systems through ignorance and neglect, when a little foresight and patience could maintain the highly evolved, integrated systems that have sustained Earth’s abundance for millennia. We can use our remarkable human intelligence to sustain the standard of living to which we’ve become accustomed, instead of destroying the living systems that keep us alive, while simultaneously increasing our understanding of nature.
It seems abundantly clear to me which route we must take. We need to stop killing organisms that replenish our soil before we even know who they are and understand what they accomplish.
Dennis McNair
BTG Entomologist
Save the Date!
Life Members, I hope you will be able to attend this year’s Life Members Annual Luncheon on August 2, 2024. Tickets will go on sale at the start of the season and will be available for purchase online or at the Membership Table on Tuesdays from 12:15-1:30PM at Smith Wilkes Hall.
We will be celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Dedication of Smith Wilkes Hall on the ACTUAL 100th anniversary! (The Hall was dedicated on August 2, 1924.)
Our speaker will be Clara Miller, the (new!) Curator at Miller Cottage. Clara is a Cultural Landscape Historian who worked for two years as an intern at the Oliver Archives and now has her Masters Degree in Gender History from the University of Glasgow, Scotland. She wrote her dissertation on hegemonic femininity and landscape gardens in Regency Britain. At our lunch, she will speak on founding and early members of the Bird and Tree Club, and the tangible legacy they have left in Chautauqua.
I hope you will be able to join us.
Susy Warren
Membership Chair
About the Invitation
What do you think of the Save the Date card? It was designed by our intern, Galen May, with help from A.I. (Artificial Intelligence).
With our celebration of the 100th year of Smith Wilkes Hall, an old master style painting seemed appropriate. Galen designed the invitation, which is lovely. But what of the floral design that AI created? Is it any good? Can AI do it all, even arrange flowers? We decided to ask Melinda Wolcott, who led our Floral Arranging Workshop last summer and serves as an official judge in floral competitions all over the country to judge it...officially! Below are her results.
Many thanks to Melinda for agreeing to participate in this fun and silly exercise!
Leslie Renjilian
Failed Floral Designer
The prompt that Galen gave the robot was to “create a still life painting with daisies, astilbe, hosta, and geranium.” She chose this plant material because they are all flowers in the gardens of Smith Wilkes Hall. Click here to see plant lists and photos of the gardens at Smith Wilkes Hall.
The BTG Plates are In!
The Chautauqua BTG Commemorative Plates have arrived and they are GORGEOUS!!! We can't wait for you to see them.
If you pre-ordered a plate, they will be available for pick up at the following times and locations. If you didn't pre-order a plate or if you'd like to purchase additional plates, there are a limited number available to purchase for $50 each or $535 a dozen.
During the Sunday Activity Fairs in Bestor Plaza 12:00-2:00pm at the BTG table
During the Tuesday BTG Brown Bag Lunches 12:00-1:00pm at Smith Wilkes Hall
During the House and Garden Tour on Thursday July 11th8:00am-5:00pm at the BTG table at the Main Gate
Photo above: BTG Life Member and Volunteer Extraordinaire Jenny Rappole holding two plates. A huge thank you to multiple members of the Rappole family who took delivery of 33 heavy boxes of china plates today and hauled them (3 truck loads!) from the Fire Hall to Smith Wilkes Hall and then into the kitchen. That must have been a quite a workout.
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