Bodie and Callie are waiting for love and handouts from you!
For several months, Feather River Action! has worked with local residents and Humane Society of Truckee Tahoe to trap, neuter, and return (known as “TNR”) more than a dozen feral cats in and around Portola. Feral, or “community cats,” live lives of survival and suffering, with about 75% dying of disease or predation before reaching maturity. Furthermore, feral cats cause environmental harm, primarily to birds, waterways, and other wildlife. Their presence also attracts larger predators to an area. It is said that two un-neutered cats and their offspring have the potential to produce hundreds of thousands of kittens during their lifetime. This is a lot of easily preventable suffering!
The cats themselves aren’t “bad,” they are just being cats and trying to survive. This is a people problem, and as such it is our responsibility to help them and keep their populations down through active TNR (and occasional relocation when appropriate). Community education as well as support for those caring for the cats must also play a role in addressing this problem and preventing more litters and hence, more suffering and environmental damage.
While doing TNR work, litters of kittens are frequently encountered, and, if young enough, can be socialized and placed into loving homes. To help us in this effort, we recently partnered with Friends of Plumas Animals to socialize and adopt out three litters of kittens born to feral mothers. We now have quite a few cats and kittens available for adoption or placement into foster homes.
These sweet kitties are currently living in a county impacted by wildfire and need good homes urgently. Click on their photos to go to their “adopt-a-pet” profile and submit an adoption application. If you’re not currently interested in adopting, perhaps you can donate to offset our significant out-of-pocket costs to care for these wonderful creatures.
Please spread the word to your animal-loving friends who may want to donate, foster, or adopt.
Do you have feral cats reproducing in your neighborhood? Get in touch with us for assistance, referrals and advice. Contact us for more info.
Poppy kitten and her brother Chico are ready for adventures and snuggles with their new human guardian(s)– could it be you? (listing coming soon)Isabelle (Izzy Belly) loves to have her belly rubbed. What a cutie!Mia is a semi-feral barn cat available for adoption, as are her brothers and momBeautiful, blue-eyed Moggie is ready for his forever homeSophie is affectionate, smart, and playfulTiger is a gorgeous boy who is warm and sweet-natured
We were so very sad to see Greenville and nearby areas destroyed by the Dixie (PG&E) fire this week. Our hearts go out to everyone who loves this community. Read this beautiful eulogy for the town, published at Plumasnews.com which is also a good source for ongoing coverage of the climate chaos hitting Feather River country at the moment. Please do what you can to help fire evacuees and those who have lost, or been displaced from their homes. Find out more here, or just head down to refugee areas in Susanville, Quincy, and Portola and ask what is needed.
We’ll have more to say about this situation but for now we mourn for Greenville. Everyone be safe out there. -FRA!
Woolly Mullein is a useful plant that, while not native, adds diversity and beauty to western landscapes. The plant, Verbascum Thapsus, grows up to 2m tall and is native to Europe, North Africa and Asia. Early settlers introduced it to the Americas in the early 1700’s and Native Americans quickly recognized its value in treating respiratory ailments, coughs, colds, and congestion. The plant is even sold as a medicinal tea in many mainstream supermarkets today. The leaves are known as “cowboy toilet paper,” claiming a place in the culture of the west.
Mullein produces up to 240,000 seeds per plant. Seeds have been known to germinate after 140 years. Pulling Mullein will not eliminate the plant, but it may leave soil bare and compacted, and pollinators and birds who depend on these flowers hungry.
Many invasive plant eradication efforts are not based in science but on a kind of “plant xenophobia” that demonizes the foreign and the other. Since Mullein seeds only germinate in open soil (without other plants present) it cannot really be described as “invasive.” In fact Mullein is not even considered enough of a threat to be included in Plumas National Forest’s Invasive Plants of the Plumas National Forest and it is nowhere to be found in California’s Noxious Weed List.
Many types of bees (and other pollinating insects) that we depend on to pollinate our food supply and diverse native flora get nutrition and shelter from Mullein. Some insects depend solely on Mullein for food. The presence of non-native plants in forests—far from competing with natives, has actually been found in many cases to increase pollinator densities—which benefits all plants.
Birds don’t seem to mind that Mullein is not a California native…
Mullein seeds, which persist on the dry stalk throughout the winter and into spring, are eaten by overwintering songbirds. Chickadees, tanagers, bluebirds, and finches (just to name a few), repeatedly turn to mullein for its abundant seeds and/or the rich insect life that congregates on the plant. Reptiles and amphibians also benefit from this bounty, as well as the shelter the large leaves and resulting microclimate provide.
Mullein also provides valuable services to the forest community. It is often the first plant to occupy disturbed and compacted soil, opening up and de-compacting soil for other plants to follow, as well as providing a “living mulch,” which helps restore the soil structure and retain water.
The problem here is not Mullein, but soil disturbance and compaction caused by overgrazed pastures, heavy equipment, and inappropriate development. This results in sterile, dry, hard-packed soil that is prone to erosion and does not store carbon, absorb water, or host healthy plant communities. The presence of Mullein is often merely an indicator that the ground has been compacted or disturbed and it is in the process of being repaired.
The former coordinator of the Garden Apprentice Program at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden says: “Though a native of Eurasia, Mullein doesn’t deserve the vilification often reflexively bestowed on nonnative plants that have naturalized here. Its preference for disturbed soil, its drought tolerance, and its juicy flowers and feltlike leaves all offer important ecological services for the local environment.” Clearly, this is no “bad guy!”
The war against so-called invasive species has led to more harm than it has sought to prevent. Tons of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals continue to poison soil, streams and rivers in communities all over the world in the name of eradicating “invasive species. These efforts are harmful to the public but greatly profitable to the chemical industry who is one of the most outspoken advocates of the myth that non-natives must be eradicated in order to return the ecosystem to health. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Those promoting mullein removal are clearly well-intentioned, yet their message has the potential to do great harm to our local ecology by wrongly demonizing a beneficial plant and disrupting the local ecology. We hope that these facts about Mullein’s importance to both humans and forest ecology will offer a new perspective on this plant that has endured in the west for hundreds of years and is surely here to stay.
