A big Thank You to these Wild River Auduboners who worked the Audubon Minnesota booth at the state fair this year: Todd Arnold, Kathy Blomquist, Mike and Dorothy Chrun, Dayle and Bonnie DeClercq, and Sue Leaf And special thanks to Dayle, for organizing us.

Looking for native plants to put in your yard? Try:

• Outback Nursery at Hastings, MN (651) 438-2771 www.outbacknursery.com They have a great supply of native shrubs

• Landscape Alternatives www.landscapealternatives.com Their plants are native to east central Minnesota.

• Branch Nursery of North Branch Wonder what native shrubs to plant? Here's our picks:

• For open, sunny areas: wild plum (pretty flowers in May), American hazelnut (produces acorn-sized nuts for squirrels), Nannyberry (white flowers in June)

• For shady spots: chokeberry (striking dark glossy berries stay on all winter), Elderberries (June blooming; red fruit can be used for wine)

• For partial shade: june berry (birds love them), Chokecherries (great for birds and other wildlife; fruit makes great jelly and wine)

• For winter color: red osier (striking white berries attract birds; bark reddens in late winter), Winter berry (Genus Ilex, “American holly” has a brilliant red berry in winter) Wild River Audubon Executive Board meets Oct. 10th at 7:00 p.m at Leafs'. Open to all chapter members.

Bird notes:

 Joan Chouinard reports pine siskins nesting in her Chisago County yard this summer.

•Joe Sausen spotted a flock of about ten hooded warblers in Riverwalk Park, North Branch on Sept. 11-way off course in migration! They normally occur south of the southern tip of Lake Michigan.

•Sue Leaf has had Nashville warblers, Tenneesee warblers and ruby crown kinglets foraging on blooming golden rod in the Leaf planted meadow. Don't underestimate the lowly goldenrod-it attracts a wide variety of native birds from August through the winter.

The Rabbit That Could

Tucked away in the north woods of Finland, Minnesota, is the Little Engine That Could. But unlike the engine of the children's book, which was trying to get over the mountain, this little engine is trying to lose its reliance on fossil fuels. The engine is the creation of naturalist Kurt Mead, of Finland. Mead is known to Wild River Auduboners as the dragonfly expert who spoke to our chapter two falls ago. The engine is housed in an old 1980 Volkswagon Rabbit which Mead acquired for $200 with the intention of converting its conventional diesel engine to one that runs on discarded vegetable oil used in deep fat frying. Mead invested $850 in a conversion kit bought over the internet from the website greasecar.com. He and several friends installed the kit in an afternoon. He had no more automotive know-how than the “desperation learning” acquired in college to keep a succession of jalopies running.

The kit reroutes the “plumbing” of the Rabbit's diesel engine in two important ways. Firstly, the engine coolant is diverted through the tank holding the discarded vegetable oil, so that heat produced by the running engine can warm it. Secondly, a flip of a dashboard switch causes the fuel line to draw on the vegetable oil tank, bypassing the conventional tank holding diesel. The car needs to run on conventional diesel for the first ten minutes or so until the vegetable oil is fluid enough for the engine.

Mead's fuel sources are the local bars in Finland. Waste vegetable oil from these establishments would normally end up in the landfill. Mead gets it for nothing. His mileage from the former french fry grease is the same as he'd get burning fossil fuel diesel. He estimates it as about 40 mpg, a guess because the odometer on the aging Rabbit doesn't work. He can make the 400 mile round trip to the Twin Cities on a tank of vegetable oil and he says it's great cruising down the freeway at 70 mph on grease. The naturalist chortles at motoring around in a vehicle producing no greenhouse gases. CO2 emissions come from burning vegetable crops, not fossil fuels. The alternative fuel produces more NOx-nitrogen gases-but no sulphur, the chief cause of acid rain.

A persistent problem with the fuel is the need to filter it to run in touchy diesel systems. A blackbarrel/ gravity feeding filter system has proven messy and unworkable in winter. Most people using the discarded oil use electricity to filter it. The alternative fuel tank is tucked into the spare-tire depression of the Rabbit's hatchback. To fill it, Mead simply opens the tank and uses a funnel to pour the filtered oil. He keeps a five gallon jug for refills on long trips. “Any diesel car can be converted,” Mead claims. “I know people who have bought new Volkswagon Golfs to convert to vegetable oil.” With fuel prices predicted to rise to $4.00 a gallon in the near future, discarded vegetable oil is food for thought, as well as fuel for Rabbits.

— Sue Leaf