Beth's Everything Blog

Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category

If you live in Kansas, there are about four days in the spring and four days in the fall when you can comfortably get outside and garden. (Comfortably is the operative word.) Like the rest of the country, we’ve had incredible amounts of rain so weeds are bountiful. One day last week, I decided I had to do something about them before they choked out everything else. I knelt in the bed by the patio with my back to the fence ready to weed my way forward when I heard the most beautiful bird song. I looked up to see a brown thrasher not ten feet away pecking between the patio bricks. I sat very still until he flew up to a branch on the silver maple and continued singing. Then he flew into a bushy spirea under our bedroom window. I waited until he emerged and then cautiously peeked around the bush until I spotted his Missus sitting nervously on a nest. Thrilled, I backed away.

Nesting birds fascinate me even if they are only sparrows. Our yard is a jungle of cedar, pine, perennials, bird baths, ponds and weeds so ferreting out all the bird nests isn’t easy.  For example, a cardinal pair chose the gutter over the recreation room as their ideal spot. ??? I kept seeing the mom and pop team on the roof but it took me awhile to figure out what they were doing up there.

The silver maple is over a hundred years old. It is hollow all the way up and down and I shudder every time we have a big windstorm for fear it will blow down. It is, however, the perfect place for the neighborhood wild life to raise their young. Many generations of squirrels and raccoons have grown up there, not to mention blackbirds and woodpeckers. Fights do occur but all in all, they seem to get along remarkably well and to see two black eyed baby raccoons huddled together in the crouch of the tree while mama goes a hunting brings a smile to even the most urbanized souls.

Near the back fence sits an old shed in which we once stored gardening stuff. I mention it only because a hole underneath has become the favorite place for a ‘possum to raise her seemingly inexhaustible supply of young.  A year or two ago, Louie carefully brought in six babies, one at a time. Each was about six inches long not counting the tail and had little needle sharp teeth. The first one ran under the sofa and we had to call the Prairie Village dog catcher to get him out. After that, we learned to pluck them up immediately by their tails (being extremely careful of those sharp teeth) and put them on the far side of back fence hoping mom would find them there. That summer we also learned, much to our neighbor’s relief, that me must shut the doggy door at bedtime. Otherwise, Louie would roam his territory all night long chasing and barking at nocturnal beings.

Back to bird watching, we now have purple finches at our feeders. I used to see them when lived on our farm down south but climate change has forced them to move further north. Now, they mingle with the red house finch and we have to look close to tell them apart. They aren’t the only backyard birds on the move. The Audubon Society did a study in 2009 and found 305 birds that are changing their winter and summer grounds including Robins, owls and chickadees. Wherever you live, be on the lookout for new species to your backyard.

Purple finch on the  left: House finch on the right

From where we stood, the town lay in a picturesque valley protected by a range of distant snow-capped mountains. Off to the west, a bank of dark clouds rolled our way headed straight for Trinidad. Dudley, my miniature dachshund, and I had gone out for a brief camping trip.  We hurried to the car and followed the markers to the State Park. I pitched our tent near a stand of pine trees. Someone told me that if you hang something red nearby, the hummingbirds will come so I tied a red sock on the antenna of the SUV. It wasn’t long before a squadron of tiny, ruby throat hummers showed up. Noisily, they buzzed the bit of red cloth, their tiny, iridescent bodies flashing in the fading light.

Then, like angry giants, black clouds roared out of the mountains. The sky grew ominous. We crawled inside just as the first big drops splattered on the roof. Dudley wasn’t afraid of lightning and thunder but the sound of the rain worried him a bit so he nestled next to me, his little chin resting on my knee. He perked up when I broke out a can of spam and shared it with him. (I know . . . spam. . . but it can be surprisingly good at times like these.)

The night turned cold and we crawled into the sleeping bag. Dudley wiggled his way down to the bottom and we fell asleep to the din of a typical summer rain.

Morning came early. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I peeked out the flap and gazed with delight at a pristine fairyland. Sky and earth had been scrubbed clean leaving the air crisp and fresh. Translucent droplets of water clung to pine needles like tiny magnifying glasses. As we made our way to the lake, our feet left footprints in the dew. Peering into the still water, we stared at the reflections, our own and those of surrounding mountains. Dudley spotted a tiny water bug skimming across the glassy surface and leaped after it, shattering the mirror and the fragile images of birds flying overhead.

We returned to our tent and shared a breakfast of fruit juice and cereal. Too soon, the sun rose high, signaling time to leave. I removed the sock from my antenna and watched sadly as the little hummers disappeared.

I am having a hard time getting anything done these days because I am so enthralled with the eagles.

If you haven’t been watching the eagle’s nest in Decorah Iowa, you’ve been missing one of the greatest shows of spring. Luckily, it’s not too late. The eaglets are approximately three weeks old and if you check on them often, you can literally see them grow. There are three babies. The oldest hatched on April second, the next on the third and the youngest April sixth. They have great parents who feed them bits of fresh fish, squirrel and once, pieces of a foolhardy crow that had had its eye on one of the  newborn babies but was quickly dispatched by mom and dad.

From tiny hatchlings, the babies have grown to sizable handfuls. Their doting parents keep them safe and well fed. During the recent snowstorm, Mamma eagle kept them warm and dry by hovering over them with her body and spread wings.

Don’t miss this mesmerizing show which is streamed here 24/7.

And for much more fascinating information about the eagles and other raptors, read Amy Riles blog.

More great Internet stuff  is coming up soon and if you haven’t watched POWER SURGE on PBS, do try to catch it. You can probably find and record it in the wee hours of a the morning.

Finally, today is EARTH DAY. Do what you can.

At a family dinner last weekend, seventeen year old Samantha said, “In class we discussed how radiation from the Fukushima Japan nuclear plant has already drifted over Kansas.” A degree of anxiety showed in her eyes.

“Not enough to hurt you,” her father said.

“This time,” she answered cynically.

Maybe that’s what it will take, I thought, a global disaster big enough to bring all the people of the world to the realization that we are truly on the brink of a catastrophic disaster.  The planet will survive but will we?

First, consider the countries that are overpopulated and already have little or no clean water, sanitation, health care or food, failed states fueled  by violence, far away countries with strange sounding names like Somalia, Chad, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Closer to home, poor little Haiti, already in desperate straits, suffered an earthquake that decimated  its population and left millions more homeless and starving.

We continue to build ethanol plants, even though we know that one tank full of ethanol takes enough corn to feed a human being for a year.  In fact, most of the commodity crops go to feed animals, not people.

In The Republic of the Congo, half the population is under the age of 14 and everyone is at high risk for food and waterborne diseases such as hepatitis A and typhoid fever as well as litany of other illnesses.

It’s not as easy to see the results of carbon emissions, but our atmosphere is changing and the results will have a profound effect on food production, health, water and sanitation the world over.

We must do something, and soon!

Maxwell Gladwell defines the tipping point in his book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Differences as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.” Lester Brown, described as “one of humanities greatest voices for the environment,” believes we are nearing the tipping point and unless we recognize the peril and do something, we may be too late.

Here are ways to avert disaster.

Build renewable energy plants. 90% of the homes in Iceland are heated by geothermal  power, an energy source gaining in popularity here in the U.S. China is the largest producer and user of solar panels. The deserts of Algeria contain enough solar energy to power the economy of the world. Instead of building more coal plants which are irrefutable causes of pollution, or nuclear plants built in highly populated communities, we must make geothermal heat readily available, expand production of wind farms and build solar plants which utilize the incalculable  power of the sun.

Get involved. Join and support one of the conservation organizations (i.e. The Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy and the Natural Resources Defense Council.)

Elect people who care about the environment, will help to cut co₂ emissions 80% by 2020 and will vote to raise taxes on companies like coal plants that produce deadly pollutants.

Become a participant in one of the micro-credit organizations of the world such as KIVA.

Working together, we may be able to make the crucial difference.

Ever wonder why some people can grow bigger and better flowers and veggies than you? Is it their green thumb, the weather or the lack of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in the soil?

That’s the stuff that makes young roots proliferate. There seems to plenty of it in good dirt like the floor of the forest but you definitely have a problem if you’ve been trying to grow plants where the earth has been freshly turned and clay lies on top. Then, you need to dip the roots of your new plants in AMF before planting. It will help your plants survive, take up water and nutrients, resist drought and disease and generally grow better.

Of course, there is more to do than just that. You should enrich your soil with good top soil and rich, organic compost. Your garden needs nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium too. But if you start with AMF, you’ll be ahead of the game.

Scientists now believe that the chance merging of AMF and vegetation growing in the ocean played a vital role in bringing plant life from the sea to land. Where AMF is found in greatest supply, all vegetation flourishes. So if you live where the soil is poor, it might be worth a shot.

Here in Kansas, spring is definitely on the way. The crocuses and surprise lilies are up and the grass is greening. If you like to start seeds indoors, now’s the time to do it. Here’s a good web site that tells you how.

Arranging spring flowers is a snap. As soon as your tulip heads shows color, whether in your garden or where you shop, bring them into your home. Cut a bit off the stems and put them in water. They are thirsty little critters and allergic to heat. I love placing one or two tulips in a bud vase with a leaf. Their stems often bend but that’s normal and makes them look so graceful. They should last five to seven days.

Some people like to break the stems of daffodils even with the ground. I cut mine as soon as they show color. They too need to have a small amount of their stems cut off before plunking them into water. Yellow daffodils bunched together in a square or round vase will warm the heart and bring spring into your living room.

Speaking of growing things, here’s an alarming statistic. Nearly 90 percent of the worlds corn, which by the way, is subsidized by our government, is used for either ethanol (40 percent) or animal feed (50 percent). Along with other crops such as cotton, soy beans and vegetables, it is genetically engineered and sprayed with insect killing herbicides. One of the shattering results could be the end of biodiversity.

At the risk of losing big money from the industry’s lobbyists, our congressmen do nothing.   SourceWatch is one web site to this check out.

Meanwhile, enjoy your herbicide free garden or someone else’s.