Hi. I’m a toad in a hole and I’d like to talk to you for a minute about the incredible and complex relationships that exist between organisms in nature.

You’ll be familiar, of course, with obvious examples of interactions like pollination. Bees, butterflies, and many other species go looking for food, and as they do, they drag pollen from flower to flower in a way that often results in fertilization. Many plants wouldn’t be able to create fruits or seeds without the relationship between themselves and hungry insects (or sometimes other animals). Very nice.

Predation is another easy example, right? Predators want to eat and their potential prey would like not to be eaten. From that basic premise has come an amazing array of evolutionary adaptations. Species on both sides of the equation have developed camouflage and other ways to conceal themselves from the opposition. Some potential prey species have evolved methods of tasting bad or grow shells and/or spines that make them less attractive to hungry predators. There are countless other strategies and counter strategies that come into play as some animals stalk or wait in ambush for others.

Let us ruminate for a moment on the relationships between herbivores and plants. Grasses have spent millions of years making themselves increasingly difficult to digest, to the point that many animals that rely upon them for food have stomachs that act as multi-chamber fermentation vessels. That’s right – bison make kombucha out of grass. Or something like that. …What do I know? I’m a toad.

Most interactions in nature are not simply two-sided, but are fascinating and convoluted cascades or webs of impacts. The way predators influence the activities of their potential prey, for example, can dramatically change the ways those hunted animals move around the landscape and select their diet. That, in turn, affects plant communities, as well as the resources they provide for pollinators, birds, and lots of others. As a result, the presence mountain lions in an ecosystem might significantly impact butterfly populations and coyote abundance can increase forage availability for bison and cattle. It’s crazy.

However, interactions between organisms don’t have to be complex to be meaningful. In fact, I’d like to focus on one particular interaction between white-tailed deer and Woodhouse’s toads. More particularly, I want to highlight the interplay between one specific deer and one specific toad. And by ‘one specific toad’, of course, I mean me.

That deer walked across the Platte River, wading through shallow water and across multiple sand bars along the way. I don’t know why it crossed the river. It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but I don’t know the punch line. Because I’m a toad.

Anyway, as the deer crossed those sand bars, its feet made small rounded depressions in the wet sand. Those depressions happened to be just the right size for a toad to nestle into on a hot summer day to stay cool and comfortable. So I did. Thanks, pal.

“Chris, why don’t you ever take photos of people?”

It’s a fair question, especially since I talk so much about the importance of connecting people and nature. I do need to get more photos of people engaging with prairies and other natural areas, especially as land stewards. On the other hand, I also like to use photography as an excuse to get away from people for a while and enjoy some quiet time.

This week, I managed a couple quick photo sessions while the Hubbard Fellows and some of our other staff were working. Here’s some visual evidence that my camera is capable of capturing images of human beings.

Early in the week, I stopped by to get a few photographs of our Hubbard Fellows (Emma and Brandon) as they worked on a Platte River Prairies overseeding project. We have some prairies that were missing some wildflower diversity when we acquired them decades ago. Over time, some of that diversity has returned, but we’ve been broadcasting locally-harvested seed to greatly speed up that recovery.

On Thursday, we conducted some fire training with the Fellows and our seasonal technician. We lit and extinguished small patches of fire many times within a small area surrounded by gravel. It was a great way to get our new folks familiar with our equipment and approaches, as well as a good chance for the rest of us to work out the ‘first burn’ issues that always pop up at the beginning of a new prescribed burn season.