December 2022

Mistletoe: environmental villain or holiday facilitator of love?

By Amy Ritter

The myth and story worlds would have us believe that the mistletoe plant is magical. A Hollywood holiday staple, it’s been featured in countless movies and TV shows as a path to getting what one wants: a kiss. Hanging a piece of mistletoe and strategically standing underneath is all one has to do to earn said kiss from anyone passing by. By the rules of Hollywood, said person has no choice: he or she must provide the kiss. Any plant

that can achieve such results has to be wonderful, right? Not quite.


For most not swayed by the magic of the mistletoe myth, mistletoe is considered a semi-parasitic plant that, through its shallow roots that cling to branches, damages and kills trees and bushes. Tree and bush damage is obviously a negative for anyone trying to cultivate erosion control or even shade for a warm location. Which makes festive little mistletoe a bad guy in the environmental world. It even has a bad guy’s name: “mistel” and “tan” from the Anglo-Saxon translates to “dung twig.” Nothing says holiday romance quite like dung!


At the same time that it’s wreaking havoc on trees, mistletoe’s 1,300 species provide food and a space for nesting birds and small mammals. So intertwined is mistletoe with its animal residents that it has evolved to scatter its seeds through a sticky substance dropped onto branches by bird feces. Its benefits to the animal world do not end with small creatures; mistletoe is currently being investigated for use as a possible medicine.


Surprisingly for a species considered a parasite, mistletoe has found balance within stable ecosystems and is not often considered naturally invasive. In fact, it is not abundantly found in woodlands and more mature ecosystems. It is only in agricultural-dominated and disturbed landscapes that mistletoe goes nuts. 


Often, there can be a fine line between controlling invasive or parasitic species while preserving beneficial species. At Waterborne, we help our clients with the registration of pesticides used to remove invasive species or pests in the environment; however, during the holiday season, we can’t help but think fondly of this overly dramatized and empowered parasite. At this time of year, we turn away from the negatives and embrace mistletoe’s magic. 

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The holidays mean it's time for cover crops

As the winter season is upon our doorstep in the northern hemisphere, everyone begins to prepare for the chilly weather. Whether it be pulling out your cold-weather clothes or stocking up on ice melt, we all have cold-weather tested processes to gear us up for the next few months.


Just like us, it is recommended crop fields be prepared for the cold weather as well. To protect these crop fields, cover crops or green manure crops are planted to protect the soil that would have been otherwise bare. Planting a cover crop before winter helps to improve soil organic matter and soil fertility, suppresses cool-season weeds, helps to prevent soil erosion, and creates a better seedbed for spring planting


The cover crops that are used for overwintering include brassicas, grains and grasses, and legumes. Although cover crops vary from region to region there are two main types of cover crops: winter-hardy and winter-killed. Winter-hardy...

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The annual bird count is here!

Did you know that the Christmas bird count is the nation’s longest-running community service bird project? It was first proposed in 1900 and continues to the present. Bird counts this year may occur from December 14th to January 5th, 2023. To find out when and where there is a bird count near you, you can check out this link.

Highlights from SETAC North America in Pittsburgh, PA!

We noticed a great in-person turnout for one of our main conferences of the year – SETAC North America. This year, the conference was held in Pittsburgh (with an online-hybrid option) and focused on the theme of “Bridging Innovation and Sustainability.”


We had both a technical and exhibitor presence at the conference, with our first exhibitor booth featured since before COVID. Waterborne had several posters and platform presentations. Raghu Vamshi teamed up with Ryan Heisler from the American Cleaning Institute as instructors for a special topic training course on Down-the-Drain Disposal: Environmental Exposure and Risk Assessment for Formulated Consumer Products. 

Chiara Accolla and Amelie Schmoke were both thrilled to be back to in-person conferences and found that the engagement with both existing and new colleagues was exponentially more valuable than the virtual conferences could provide – even a brief chat or “hello” between sessions felt like a breath of fresh air. The scientific focus on climate change and multiple stressor impacts including chemical stressors was a key conference highlight for both Chiara and Amelie. This is certainly an area we intend to focus on in 2023.


We were also proud to have Data Analyst, Brenna Kent, featured at the conference through multiple presentations. Brenna reported that she was excited about the continued focus on PFAS regulation and monitoring, which will help to bolster our on-going modelling efforts.



Thank you to all who met with us or stopped by our booth at SETAC NA. We’re eager to keep up our in-person conference engagement next year and build upon the fantastic research areas that were featured in Pittsburgh. Check out our website for more information on the Waterborne-featured presentations from the conference!

Waterborne Environmental is a renowned consulting firm that has provided innovative solutions to the world’s most complex environmental problems since 1993. Our experienced, unbiased scientists and engineers work across industries to evaluate environmental, ecological, and human risks. Our work spans across industry and regulatory agencies to support the balance in the needs of a growing population with the environmental impact on our valuable natural resources.


Our The Current Newsletter is published monthly. Visit us online to find more articles, videos, and information about our work. Click here to contact us.

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