The Green Tangent
Personal musings on Forestry, Urban Forestry, and NatureArchive for Nature
Illegal Aliens
While driving home today from a Georgia urban forestry information update session, I heard a radio blurb about how Mexican drug cartel violence has spilled over into Texas, including murder and beheading. Over 60,000 illegal aliens have been picked up in an Arizona sector of the Mexican border in the last four months alone. National security pundits have raved about the need for increased patrols and other border-hardening measures ever since 9/11.
Just hours before this news, I heard a Georgia Forestry Commission forest health specialist, Chip Bates, preach doom and gloom about how other illegals easily penetrate our porous borders. “It’s only going to get worse,” said he. These alien invaders included such pesky perps as laurel wilt disease, phytoplasma disease of Sabal palm, and light brown apple moth. Bugs and rots from far away countries hitch rides inside the millions of cargo containers that enter our ports every year. As ports and foreign imports expand, so do our chances of more invaders ravaging our fair land.
Why care about a few nondescript critters? Consider that, according to USDA statistics, in 2008 , farm receipts for crops was almost $179 billion. We are talking about our national food source here. Many of these non-native insects and diseases have no known natural predators or control agents outside their homelands. A particularly nasty case in point is the so-called light brown apple moth (LBAM), Epiphyas postvittan, which showed up in California in 2007. Mr Bates described this little leaf roller as the “Eats anything it lands on” moth. Here’s how the USDA characterized its concern for ag interests in California: “LBAM is of particular concern because it can damage a wide range of crops and other plants including California’s prized cypress as well as redwoods, oaks and many other varieties commonly found in California’s urban and suburban landscaping, public parks and natural environment. The list of agricultural crops that could be damaged by this pest includes grapes, citrus, stone fruit (peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, apricots) and many others. The complete “host list” contains well over 1,000 plant species and more than 250 fruits and vegetables.” This pest quickly spread to a dozen counties, thanks in part to California citizens complaining of aerial control spraying. I guess they think fresh food just comes from Safeway …
The lessons learned from forest losses due to Dutch elm disease, chestnut blight, and gypsy moth included establishing quarantine and testing methods, yet emerald ash borer, woolly adeldgid, and Asian longhorned beetle are tearing up modern-day timberland and suburbs alike. Sudden oak death is moving toward the southeast (after “import” into California) while laurel wilt disease is here. And I haven’t even touched on the exotic weed plants and animals that are taking over our natural areas.
Securing our borders against biological agents is just as much a matter of national security as keeping the terrorists out. While I don’t normally cogitate on conspiracy theories, consider this: Could non-native pests be deliberately introduced so as to reduce our agricultural capacity, damage certain commodity markets, or as good old fashioned corporate sabotage? Is it all just “Ooops, this little creepy-crawler came in on a wood pallet from China”? What if citrus canker was brought to Florida so as to increase foreign market share? A “dirty bomb” slipping in and going off in a major population center would be horrific, but would it be any more so than if some critter was sent here to devour our corn crop over the next ten years? We may end up begging for some food along with that barrel of oil.
Exiting January in a Blaze of Glory
Black and white but red all over, a maple tree two doors down shows it’s true color. A full blooming tree in January? Must be Florida – or a land dreamt of by those residing in colder climes, fighting off the cabin fever. Migrating birds – both silver-haired and finely feathered – flock south to frolic in sunshine. A pair of nesting hawks screech between treetops as squirrels create a blurry gray barber pole, chasing around the trunk of our backyard oak. The signs of Spring slowly materialize, despite intermittent chilly nights.
Most every January elicits new resolute talk of change, but this year the Changes were more dramatic. People might say they will, or want to, “turn over a new leaf.” This always struck me as odd and rather un-botanical. Plants grow new leaves, they don’t turn over old ones to reveal a previously unseen side. Trees exhibit what psychologists (or is it psychiatrists? I get them mixed up) say should happen to humans if true change is to occur: it must come from within us. Flowers, fruit, and leaves sprout from inner tissues. Woody plants actually cover up the entire old tree, scars and all, with new wood every year (hence the rings). Ah, that we could smooth over the wrinkles and wounds of time annually. The down-side, of course, is an increase in girth. Don’t say it …
So where did this “turning over a new leaf” thing come from? As part of a conversational English group for visiting professors and students, I am regularly called upon to explain an odd colloquialism or idiom. For this one, I had no ready answer and so resorted to the source of the answer to life, the universe, and everything: Google.
Leaves grow on trees and trees are made into books, therefore, books have leaves. To quote Wiktionary Leaf : A sheet of a book, magazine, etc (consisting of two pages, one on each face of the leaf). Further, I discovered that the left-hand page of a leaf is the verso, and right-hand page is the recto.
So, turning over a new leaf implies turning a page in the living diary of our life and revealing a new face or a clean face. The Goenglish.com website defines this idiom as “You turn over a new leaf when you commit to changing your life for the better.” So, do we turn the page to read what is there – this new thing we are to become, or is the page blank and waiting for us to pen the new direction?
Trees get their instructions from DNA contained in their meristematic cells and a new shoot forms. These cells differentiate and become buds and then leaves. Where do you get your instructions to initiate change, to fill in that blank page with new directions for life? The news media? Family or friends? A paid professional? The horoscope in the newspaper? A government official? A fortune cookie? A spiritual guide?
Personally, I don’t wait for January to compile a list of things that need to change in my life. As a Christian, I try to allow the Holy Spirit to direct my decisions and to prompt me about change items throughout the year. Change comes from within and when I conciously choose to allow this divine direction, He is faithful to provide it. God designed trees to change and grow once a year. He designed people to receive His prompting for change whenever we need it. Allow God to direct your growth and you will be ablaze for His Glory, rather than going down in flames under your own power.
What did nature do for you today?
Today I received an interesting email request for information. How would you answer the questions “What did nature do for you today?” or “What did you do for nature today?”
Coming from Matt Zylstra, he writes, “In around 5 weeks, the next Olympics begin — not the ones with healthy looking over-achievers who paraded in China — but the Olympics of Conservation…the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona. Our eyes4earth initiative will be giving a workshop titled: “What did nature do for you today?” So we are asking — pleading! — for your creative help from all your various locations around the globe and help us showcase the most diverse responses possible… You can answer these questions yourself or you can ask friends, family or even strangers on the street. Or even any ‘famous’ people you might know. It is up to you how creative you want to be. Please tell us the date and exact place/location to which these questions relate (city/town name at least, but GPS /[X,Y / Long. Lat] /coordinates are even better — you can use GoogleMaps to help you). The answers can be in whichever way you like on whatever day you like in wherever place you like. The answers can be in a language other than English (but please send us an approximate English translation — especially if it is a language other than Spanish, Dutch, Flemish, German, Portuguese, French, or Italian). The answers can be done with more than just one person. The more responses we get the better!!!” Click their link to check out how others are answering The Question. They will accept pictures, video, audio, art work, or even text.
A group calling themselves Earth Collective has organized to “reinforce links between a healthy natural environment and human well-being” and they have set up the eyes4earth website. Should be fun and thought-provoking to read how different people answer The Question. Get your responses in no later than 23 September 2008.
With the increasing urbanization of cultures around the globe, people are losing touch, I mean real dirt-under-the-fingernails touch, with our natural world. Ask kids where milk comes from and they might tell you the name of a local grocery store.
But the disconnect goes further than that. What level of understanding do most people have about the services provided by ecosystems that sustain human life? Notice I didn’t say “help sustain” human life. Earth’s oxygen would be quickly be depleted if not for natural systems’ constant replenishment. The water cycle, the phosphors cycle, the carbon cycle all chug along thanks to wonderfully and fearfully integrated natural systems.
In short, human life is sustained by ecosystems that are largely taken for granted. Except when they break. Or get sick. Or cause us to get sick. When drought relief comes roaring ashore in the form of a tropical cyclone (hurricane) we tend to step back (or run for cover!) and breathe a collective “Whoa, Dude!”
We’ve heard the rhetorical question “Have you hugged a tree today?” relating to oxygen generation, carbon sequestration, cooling shade, wildlife habitat, sound abatement, water cycling/management, and fruit production services provided by those woody sentinals. Now we should add “Have you thanked an ecosystem today?” to the conversation.
The Hunt for Red … February?
One needn’t look far to spy red today, Valentines Day, the official lovers holiday.
It’s interesting to me that the color
red inspires visions of love,
At the same time,
red commands us to STOP!
Then a lovely lass struts by dressed in her Valentine’s Day finest and any wise male at once understand the connection …
Here are a few delightful red items I’ve spied in my yard recently:
Bloomin’ Wonderous
Did you hear it? That was the sound of the first flowers bursting forth here in north central Florida. The white flatwoods plums were quickly followed by the electric magenta of redbud blooms. Oh yes, and don’t forget the ultimate showman: the Japanese magnolia.
I’m beginning to see a couple red maples turn, well, red, and fully expect to see the white flowers of black cherry, peach, and pear within the next two weeks. And then in March dogwoods will be racing the azalea, cherry laurel, wisteria, among others for center stage in the landscape. How do I know? Experience. And notes.
A couple years ago I carried a legal pad in my truck and every time I saw a new flowering species bloom, I made note of it. Now I have a spreadsheet with months across the top heading up columns of flowering trees, shrubs, and vines. While February and March are especially busy blooming months, a couple other species will wait until April, May, and June to show off. Then we have to wait until September or October for the golden rain tree to break the green monochrome of summer.
Why do we long for flowers, to experience the beauty of nature in all it’s forms? E. O. Williams put forth the hypothesis that there is an instinctive bond between
humans and other living systems, a bond that he called biophillia. He proposed the possibility that the deep affiliations humans have with nature are rooted in our biology. Wilson thought of himself as a “scientific humanist,” rather than spiritual or religious, and felt that science could be used to investigate religion. Because of our biophillia, our natural love for other life forms helps to sustain life. Why else, he argued, does mankind so enjoy the domestication of animals or planting a garden or gain such a positive emotional response to activities that might be described as “enjoying nature?”
The Bible answers that question in many ways. Since we are spiritual creations, we naturally seek a link to the Creator. Romans 1:20 explains this link in that God’s “fingerprints” are all over His work and in plain sight for us to discover. Scientific discoveries can bring us to a closer understanding of God’s Wisdom and amazing creativity.
And so I enjoy the discoveries an outdoor hike can bring: a solitary wild bloom; the gnarled trunk of an ancient oak; the heady perfume of yellow jasmine; a white wave of herons heading to roost; the nano-scale moss forest on a rotting log. Yes, even the strait towering rows of a pine plantation can form the cathedral for a worshipful walk in the woods. Wonder at the blooms of spring and enjoy the Creator in His creation.
