12 minute read
Dealing with poison ivy
Itching to get into the outback? Beware the chameleon of forest flora: poison ivy
By Dora Boersma
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FROM OUR CANOE, we spotted the campsite we’d dreamed about all winter.
A sandy beach at the mouth of a gurgling river. Dig out the hammock! The same moment our canoe hissed to a stop on the wet sand, our three-year-old son hopped out and checked out every corner of the campsite. As we pulled our sleek craft farther up the beach, we noticed small clumps of plants all over the place. After a closer look, we remembered: “leaves of three, let them be.”
Could this be poison ivy? And what’s it doing on a sandy beach? Stow that hammock and let’s push off.
The poison ivy leaf usually has three leaflets, but it can fool the unwary by sometimes having leaves in groups of five to nine. It can grow in a vine-like form or as a shrub. The leaves can change colors seasonally and may appear yellow-green in the spring, green in the summer, and red or yellow in the early fall.
The leaflets can be serrated with a few or many coarse teeth, or they can even be lobed. It is important not to touch the plant in order to avoid the oil called urushiol, which can travel on anything that brushes against it. Urushiol is a colorless or pale yellow oil that oozes from any cut or crushed part of the roots, stems, and leaves. The oil can stick to shoes, clothes, hands and pet fur, so it’s possible for your skin to come in contact long after your excursion has ended.
About 85 percent of people react to the oil with varying degrees of sensitivity. There can be severe itching, redness, and swelling, followed by blisters within 12 to 48 hours of exposure. The rash often has a spread pattern that reveals where the person brushed against the plant. Blisters become crusted in a few days and can take 10 days or longer to heal. In general, people are less sensitive to poison ivy as they get older, so there may finally be a benefit to putting a few birthdays behind you!
Poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac are closely related species that can be found in various locations in Canada and the United States. Poison ivy grows east of the Rocky Mountains and poison oak grows in the west and the east. Poison sumac graces the landscape in southern Canada and the eastern United States.
The flowers, fruits and twigs of poison ivy and poison oak look similar, and both species can climb tree trunks. Western poison oak needs a lot of water and eastern poison oak likes sandy soil, but occasionally grows near lakes. Poison ivy tends to thrive in well-drained, fertile soil.
If you wish to remove poison ivy from an area, don’t burn it—the urushiol can go airborne and may irritate your lungs. And remember, the oil still present in dead poison ivy plants can cause a rash for several years after the plant has died.
Effective first aid
What should you do when you think you have been in contact with poison ivy?
The sooner you can rinse off the oil the better. Immediately use lots of cold running water, and follow with plenty of soap. The oil can be easily transferred from hands to face and elsewhere, so pay close attention to any location that could be affected.
Contaminated clothing can be dry-cleaned or cleansed in the washing machine with detergent. Alcohol and water will remove the oil from shoes, tools and other items very effectively. Make sure you wear gloves during clean-up.
What about the dreaded itch? Various first-aid remedies are available. Some folks prefer a cool shower followed by calamine lotion. Others enjoy a lukewarm bath with oatmeal or baking soda in it to dry oozing blisters. The blisters do not contain the oil and they don’t play a role in spreading poison ivy to other parts of the body. Oral antihistamines can also relieve the itching. Your local pharmacist might have other remedies if the shower and bath leave you cold.
Before your next outdoor adventure, learn how to distinguish familiar varieties of poison ivy from more benign plants. When in doubt, don’t be an optimist. Also, bring along a good bar of soap on all camping adventures. Then, if you do set up your hammock in a lush patch of poison ivy, you can get right into preventative first-aid. —Dora Boersma is a biologist with Environment Canada, and an avid canoeist.
Myth
If I’m away from home and I am exposed to poison ivy, there is nothing I can do
Poison ivy rash is contagious
I can pull out dead poison ivy
I can burn the poison ivy on my cottage property
Leaves of three, let them be
Fact
Not so. Find some water and wash the affected areas, followed by soap—don’t use soap first because the urushiol oil can spread in soap drippings.
Only the urushiol oil that causes the rash can spread poison ivy. Be careful what you touch and wash as soon as possible.
The urushiol can stay active for several years after the plant dies.
No, the urushiol will become airborne and it can irritate your lungs.
A good rule of thumb, but there can be up to nine leaves in a group. Study the plant variations carefully and seasonal colour changes.
ULTIMATE
Rethinking the stack
By Jim Parinella
[A note from the publisher: Caution —this article contains jargon. It is intended to appeal to readers who already play this terrifi c sport. It is also incentive to those who donʼt! Thanks.]
THE STACK IS the starting point for most offensive Ultimate strategies.
The prototypical stack begins with a handler 15 to 20 yards away from the disc and spaces the remaining players at fi ve-yard intervals, and the order of cuts is determined by placement in the stack. With the proliferation of defenses that do anything but play straight personto-person, however, more teams are fi nding it in their best interest to shorten their stack length. The short stack, although requiring a bit more discipline and practice, sets up almost every square foot on the fi eld as a viable cutting place.
A short stack opens up more options and a good offense must be able to take what is available. A player with the stack, so players can go deep easily or come back for another 20 yards if the deep cut is overplayed. Most good deep cuts originate only 10-20 yards from the disc, since a deeper-starting cut might outrun the throw. Since the disc has moved downfi eld from its starting point, the deepest player on the fi eld is now only a few yards further, and there is no defender far enough downfi eld to poach deep.
If the stack is short, then everyIf the stack is long and the last body is starting from about the same defender poaches, and the poachedpoint on the fi eld, and all players are off offensive player starts to move realistic threats. If the stack is long, to the open area, the other defendthen the only available cuts are all ers will have time to react to it. This straight-line, hard-running cuts with means another offensive player is a fake at the beginning. The offense open and can move to the open area. doesn’t really have many options, Perhaps someone else is poaching, unless the throwers are very good or it’s no longer clear what the open and creative and can put the disc anyarea is any more, or the thrower has where on the fi eld with whatever arc stopped looking for the yardage pass is required. and is focusing on the dump.
My team, Death or Glory, uses a The long stack does have its short stack, and we are most dangerbenefi ts, though. When everyone is ous when we get a 10-20 yard pass spread out more, there is less risk to the sideline. The disc is then even of picks or two people making the
“Try putting the handlers toward the back of the stack for the first cut. ” 45 yards away at the back of the stack ately to the open area and is close is not a viable threat. If the closest enough that the thrower can get it player is still 20 yards away, only there right away before the other cutbacks to the disc are available. defenders have time to switch.
There is even an option to go deep on the fi rst pass, since the last person in the stack is only 20-30 yards away. If his defender poaches, then the last player moves immedi
same cut at the same time. With a short stack, you need to have a better defi ned hierarchy of who cuts fi rst by calling a specifi c play or using the team’s one or two best cutters. The other players must be ready to cut if a poach happens or the main cut is stopped. If players are spread out like in a long stack, then typically only one or two players will be in a good position to cut, and it is easier for each player to determine whether someone else is cutting. If you are in a short stack, there are eight or 10 other players in your peripheral vision, and it can be hard to tell what each of them is doing and whether any are cutting. If there is only one other offensive player and his defender that you can see, any motion you detect is likely to be a cut.
The long stack is better suited to a rigid or almost rigid sequential offense. Many teams are fairly strict about having plays go from handler to handler to middle to deep. Also, sometimes teams have “triplets” where a handler, a middle, and a deep are a unit, and each unit cuts for others in the same unit.
The short stack requires a little more concentration, familiarity and discipline, but it’s better for an established team that doesn’t change much from year to year. The long stack is easier to learn, better for a sequential offense, and an individual’s role is defi ned pretty much by their assigned position. In the short stack, the role for each player depends more on ability and the called four-person play, rather than where he lines up in the stack.
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The typical stack with begin with a handler 15-20 yards from the disc, followed by the other handler, the middles, and finally the deeps, with everyone four or five yards from the nearest neighbour.
Typically, the first player in the stack cuts first. If this cut is unsuccessful, the second player cuts. If either of these players gets it, one of the middles cuts to the same side of the field, then the deeps cut from the middle. This gets predictable rapidly, however, so the beginning team should look at mixing up the order a bit. Try putting the handlers toward the back of the stack for the first cut. Keep the order in the stack the same, but let a deep or middle make the first cut, and have a handler cutting away as the second option. Specify a four-person play before the point, and allow the players to set up anywhere that will enable them to get open. INTERMEDIATES:
Shorten the stack by placing the first player closer to the disc and by decreasing the space between players.
This opens up the “away” cut from the first player in the disc, either a curving forehand or backhand or a hammer over the defenders so the receiver is running away from the thrower at a 45-degree angle. Specify alternatives to the four-person play, so that if a cutter gets shut down, there is a designated short fill or long fill to continue the flow. Sketch out specific plays designed for particular players. ADVANCED:
Experiment with drastically alternative stacks, such as with one player always behind the disc, or two players even with the disc at the side.
Move the stack toward one side of the field and play one receiver out by himself and give him plenty of room to manoeuvre. Introduce the concept of audibles, so that with a simple call by a player, the play is changed. An example of this would be “two one,” which would indicate that the first and second cutters should exchange roles. 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No kidding, this is for real.
This is a regular-sized disc and it really glows! It uses a battery L.E.D. & Fiber Optic Technology. An excellent gift for that discplaying friend with everything! Check’em out at the Ultimate Disc Golf Store, 142 Rideau Street., 613-241-9876. 3