Site Discussions

The more you get involved with the natural world around you, the more you grow to love and protect it.  These children, in acting out their favorite species, were no longer “only human” on that blue-skied day, but also the animals they represented.  The air touched their “wings”, and the snow and dried grasses enveloped imagined “claws” or delicate “paws”.  Their “food” came from the trees and fields and streams around them.  I am now in my mid-sixties, but similar youthful experiences and imaginings in growing up on a Vermont farm have helped to keep me focused on conservation, preservation, and appreciation in a way that I might neverhave done, had I not been exposed to the gifts of nature in those early developmental years.  Every generation needs and deserves such an opportunity .

I believe there is no right or wrong answer. I live in NYC and have a cabin retreat with several hundred acres of woods and fields in upstate NY (Marcellus shale territory). I like the NYC activity but also appreciate the upstate rural community. NYC water can’t be beat and fresh well water is a necessity. Not rich and can use “gas” money, but at what expense? Am I pro-drilling, anti-drilling? As a NYC resident I oppose gas drilling because of potential dangers to the water supply, but am in favor of gas drilling to ensure low-cost clean energy. As a rural landowner I oppose gas drilling because of environmental concerns but am in favor because of economic concerns. I guess if it came to a vote I would vote yes and my wife would vote no. Go figure

Very good article.  My only quibble is the alligation that the native people in northern quebec are against the hydro projects.  This is not true.  While there is some, mostly from away, who do complain about the diversion of the water most do not.
I have visited Chisabi (not the correct spelling) and have found that the lives and standard of living has improved.  Evan the “old ways” of summer migrations for hunting and fishing are still praciced by those who wish. In winter the village privde warm housing, education and health care as well as an active social environment.

Few want to go back to the old life…an those who wish to can.

The Quebec hydro project have by and large been a win win for all.

A wonderful article, and thank you for writing it. In particular, thank you for noting that the communities being flooded are largely poor and rural, which most reports have not pointed out. I have no answers to the energy analogy, but I do think that alternative energy, like wind and solar, really is needed, my personal criterion being do the least harm to people and the planet. It would be preferable if the issues surrounding these forms of energy generation were more sensitively addressed. Windmill size—do they really have to be so huge, noisy, etc.? (Another analogy: As a non-skier, I view the stripes and hardware to accommodate skiing, snowboarding, etc. a blight on the beautiful mountains. Why are they okay, but not windmills?)  Siting anywhere is always tricky, as what is okay for some isn’t for others. Pitting rural against urban also is not helpful; there are always tradeoffs that are not to everyone’s liking, different perspectives have validity, and as you note, sometimes we have to consider the common good. Texas and Louisiana used to say to the northeast “Let them freeze in the dark.” Should we now be saying let them flood? Let people who live differently from us suffer? It will continue to become a meaner and more fragmented world if we do not also take distant places into consideration, including the cost of hydropower to the native peoples in Quebec. The art of greater good and compromise continues to fade, and the reality of ever-growing populations and technologies tells us that from buggy whips to unspoiled open spaces, some things will disappear or change. As I said, I have no answers, just hopes and preferences.

Great conversation starter. I’ve been following the discussions around Northern Pass with more than casual interest, and I believe you’ve hit the nail on the head: we city-folk like cheap power, but we don’t want to pay the social or environmental costs of that power. I want my fridge to keep running, but I don’t want ugly, EMF-producing transmission lines in my backyard.

Our neighbors to the south are no different. Just last week, the Connecticut Siting Council rejected a proposal to build the state’s first commercial wind farm, saying the turbines would mar the landscape (http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news18442.html). Like me, the ratepayers of southern New England want to have their power, but without the visual impacts.

This tension is more basic than urban versus rural. Ultimately, it comes back the all-too-human desire to reap the benefit without paying the full cost.

exactly whose land would be taken here?  I thought the Northern Pass ran along existing rights-of-way

Carolyn: Nothing has been there since the beginning of time. On the contrary organisms have been moving into new habitats from the beginning and that is good. There is nothing wrong with a constant flux of introduced species into new habitats, in moderation. They can be absorbed gradually by the community and become part of the web of life (food chain, energy flow).
The trouble with introductions is that we, humans, have been doing this in massive amounts. The planet has not seen such a thing ever before. Ecosystems cannot take such enormous alterations of the balance that took millions of years to accomplish.
That is why I made the comparison with a musical piece in which you can introduce a fragment from another piece and weave it into it until it works properly. But, if you tried to introduce a large number of alien pieces it may be too much. It would require huge amounts of time to knit it together again and then it would be an entirely different composition.
Sometimes it is impossible to do anything about the aliens that have already been introduced and established. But we should try our best to prevent new introductions from happening.

I just wanted to say what a great magazine with some fascinating articles. It gives a greater understanding of woodland/forest habitats in general.

Yes, I have come to the same sort of peace with litter. That doesn’t mean that I don’t pick up truckloads of it, just that it doesn’t spoil what would otherwise be a beautiful day outdoors.

I keep wondering . . . is everything we consider “native,” a plant or an animal that has been here (whatever “here” is for any individual) since the beginning of time? Or has the population of a given region changed, by various means, at various times? If so, that raises the question of what is native as of when, and what is considered natural change.

Reminds me of the old saying that a weed is a plant the gardener doesn’t want in his garden or lawn. Many weeds are native plants with beneficial food or medicinal properties. But we rip them out by the roots and poison them with chemicals because they grow where we don’t want them.

Then, of course, there’s us—the ultimate alien invading species. Most of the plants, animals, and insects we now consider invasive arrived on our coattails. So should we ban ourselves from moving around? Should we tear ourselves up by the roots and burn us because we are a scourge?

It’s hard to keep a balanced perspective about all this.

An enlightening book on the subject of non-native plants is: INVASIVE PLANT MEDICINE - The Ecological Benefits and Healing Abilities of Invasives, by Timothy Lee Scott. c.2010

Very funny Virginia.  When in Alaska and driving from Seward to Anchorage my son and I spotted a lone girl sitting in the weeds alongside the highway. I turned around and went back to inquire as to what she might be doing, sitting in the rain and digging something?  She said she too was digging up non-native plants and proceeded to describe it to us.  I think she would greatly appreciate your writings-just as much as I do. Thanks for all your great articles and exquisite drawings and art work.  Hiya(Andy Crosier)

Thanks for the musings about honeysuckle Virginia.  Indeed my own attitude about honeysuckle in particular has matured after several decades of dealing with it in the Taconics in SW Vermont.  I have observed and learned two things about honeysuckle over that time-

It can be relatively easily “shaded out” under a closed canopy, which makes for viable control opportunities in forest management.

Honeysuckle can be an effective “deer fence” in areas of high deer populations.  I have seen sugar maple and ash regeneration get up through moderate to heavy honeysuckle in areas where a heavy deer population wouldn’t have allowed it otherwise.

Q: THE IMPORTANCE OF STAND STRUCTURE IN MANAGEMENT

Hi, I agree with your contempt of non-native species.  However, the beautiful berries of the Honeysuckle would lead me to believe that it is a good plant for our native fruit loving birds.  I get totally irate when I see the non-native House Sparrow trying to out compete the Bluebirds, Tree Swallows, and Purple Martins in my area, too. So, most people don’t ‘get it’ when it comes to invasives, myself included.  Thank you for your post, we did get rid of a buckthorn plant (15’ tall) after we did figure out that it was indeed that plant (again, berries equals food for birds right?).  How do we get the word out??  We must keep each other informed.  Thanks,  Judy in SE Wisconsin

We also have to remember that with the encroachment of humans on our natural places, some of the invasives provide essential nourishment for our migratory and overwintering birds. If all the Asiatic bittersweet, multiflora rose, Japanese honeysuckle, Japanese barberry, and burning bush were to be eradicated, our bird friends would be sorely pressed to obtain enough to eat to fuel migration or make it through a snowy winter’s night.
Though I also eliminate many of these invasives (and others) on sight, I neither hate them nor love them. They are not responsible for being here, humans are.

The trouble with introduced species is not with the organisms themselves. It is with our meddling with nature, introducing organisms into other ecosystems. It is as if we would take a beautiful segment of a symphony and stick into another equally beautiful piece of music. The result would be bad. It is possible to weave this new fragment into the larger work with some effort; but multiply these additions many times and, what do you get? Something beyond repair.
So let us direct our anger to the perpetrators, or better yet, let us try to undo some of the damage to ecosystems and most of all: let us stop moving things where they don’t belong!
http://polinizador.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/introduced-species-discordant-notes/

last year on the porch at our camp, i left the chrome colored scoop on top of the snow where i was getting some to melt for washing up.  when i came out later, it was full of what turned out to be, under my hand lens, some of these little critters.  they were more brownish.  there must have been a quarter to a half a cup in a scoop that’s not more than a 4 by 6 inches.  i had to sneak up on them to see them closely, and they were both lovely and creepy at the same time.  i strain the wash water carefully before i use it…

it is indeed amazing to see them be there one second and gone the next. they are a marvel of engineering.

Although I appreciate Virginia’s comments and do not go completely ballistic myself, being on the shore and in southeastern Connecticut we constantly deal with Oriental Bittersweet, Autumn Olive and Phragmites.  All will try the patience of Job and are a never-ending challenge.

I don’t know what a venus fly trap and a bladderwort and a sundew all have in common!