| <div class="ck-content"><h3>UNC students have returned!</h3><p>OMG. On Sunday, I held the biggest volunteer event ever (for me). Forty-one members of Alpha Phi Omega, a service group at UNC, turned out to kick off this year's (that is, the 2024-2025 academic year) planet healing. This is the third year I am working with APO and <i>they are amazing</i>. Here's the picture I took of these excited students after we were done:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1XrKAAFyIkDKw3IxaHLj3-LmVDKNwAawa&sz=w600-h400" alt="APO in force"></div><p>What's even more exciting about this event and the year to come is that it took place at the Coker Pinetum, a small preserve nestled right within the UNC campus, but managed by the NC Botanic Garden. Because it's an NCBG property, I was able relatively easily to get permission to remove invasives in it. I am also working on getting approval to remove invasives in UNC properties that are managed directly by UNC, and that's going to be much tougher.</p><p>Anyway, the Pinetum is a lovely, relatively narrow stretch of natural space with the Meeting of the Rivers creek running down through it. The side to the east of the creek is in relatively good shape. The Botanic Garden has done work there and in the northern section to remove invasives; also, neighbors are also doing what they can. The section of the Pinetum sandwiched between Manning Drive and the creek, however, is a terrible tangle of privet (really big privet), wisteria, porcelain berry, bittersweet and more. </p><p>So there's lots to do and I was so excited when Ana of APO told me that she had 40 students signed up. Wow. Such a big group also presents several challenges, including:</p><ol><li>Making sure I have enough glasses, gloves and tools for everyone</li><li>Providing the volunteers with the advice and supervision needed to work safely and effectively</li><li>Being organized enough to make sure volunteers aren't standing around with nothing to do</li></ol><p>Of these three items, the 3rd is the hardest. </p><p>Regarding gear, well. Here are the contents of my Prius V, unloaded so i can fill the car up with fencing for this Saturday's stilt grass event:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1WLtvRqbZ8tfeOLDM7LFjKjQGllIs5AZF&sz=w400-h600" alt="tools"></div><p>Turns out I have about 40 pairs of glasses, 30 loppers, 30 saws, 60-some gloves (but different sizes, so we definitely ran out of M and L for the volunteers. Sigh.). So we did OK on gear. And by the way, wow, you can stuff a Prius V full of a lot of stuff!</p><p>As for support and supervision, I was fortunate enough to have three friends serve as co-leaders of the event. Thank you SO MUCH, Barb, Lawrence and Eddie! Having these experienced tree rescuers, each with their group of 10 or so volunteers, made all the difference. It meant I could move work with one group closely, but also feel confident that the other volunteers were in good hands. And I could rotate through the different groups, checking in, taking pictures, offering advice.</p><p>If we were removing autumn olive in Brumley, it would have been relatively easy to keep everyone busy and focused. We could remove autumn olive that filled the understory across multiple acres, Lots of space to spread out, with cut-and-paint tasks that were things pretty much everyone could do, solo or in pairs.</p><p>At Coker Pinetum, we were squeezed into the section between Manning Dr. and the creek, and then further crowded by the invasives themselves. Some of the privets were really big. And lots of the privets were covered with invasive vines. So you cut down the privet, and that's just the start. It needs to be dragged away, lopped into pieces, wrestling with the vines and the heaviness of all the leaves. </p><p>I wasn't entirely successful in keeping everyone productive the whole time (I'd walk from one group to another and see a few students standing around, lopper in hand, trying to figure out what to do), but I think everyone came away feeling like they did a whole lot of good, and had a great time doing it.</p><p>Here's one of my favorite photos from the day:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1sZVpFiwqf6NgKKAyrPdodpi3YzOJop7B&sz=w600-h400" alt="big pull"></div><p>You can see they are pulling hard. What's hard to see is that all of that green stuff (cut privet) to the right of group to the end of the photo is shaking as they pull: an enormous mass of invasives. You can really get a feel for what they are doing by watching the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1991TwZmh5JhLQkUwTo98bekFL-ZsAuhE/view?usp=drive_link">video</a>.</p><p>My only dissatisfaction from the day had nothing to do with my wonderful volunteers. It was that I couldn't get a lot of good before-after shots. By which I mean, I've got great <i>before</i> pictures, but with 40 students spread out along so much of the creek, and with them cutting so very much, we just didn't have time to pull it down, make piles, and get to a “clean” after state. Talk about silly whining. Well, the incredible after pictures will came later this fall, as we go back to finish breaking down the privet cut today, and then keep on cutting.</p><p>Alpha Phi Omega, you are the best!</p><h3><strong>The climate crisis is the biodiversity crisis is a human crisis</strong></h3><p>Loss of bats to lethal fungus linked to 1,300 child deaths in <a href=" https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/sep/05/loss-of-bats-to-lethal-fungus-linked-to-1300-child-deaths-in-us-study-says-aoe?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">US, study says</a>.</p><blockquote><p>Because bats feed on crop pests, their disappearance led to a surge in pesticide use. Research found a rise in infant mortality in areas where the bats had been wiped out</p></blockquote><p>It's unusual for studies to be able to move definitively past correlation when it comes to understanding the knock-on effects of the biodiversity crisis (i.e., human-caused extinctions of species). In this case….</p><blockquote><p>White-nose syndrome [fungi decimating bat populations around the world] essentially creates a randomised controlled trial: because the spread of white-nose syndrome was closely monitored, Frank could compare counties that had lost their bats with those the disease had not yet reached. “The bat disease wasn’t expected, and it shouldn’t have preferentially targeted certain groups over others,” Taylor said.</p></blockquote><p>Not good, not good at all. Another reminder to all of us planet healers: let's do all we can, as quickly as we can, to save our native species - and save our children's futures!</p><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">Anthropomorphize, please! (wait, maybe not)</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">“When dogs recall toys, and horses plan ahead, are animals so different from us?”</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">This, so much this:</p><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">The details differ, but really it’s the same story, turning up every few weeks, for around a decade now. The revelation – and it’s always presented with a dramatic flourish – is this: animals are much more like us than we thought.</p></blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">Check out wonderful <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/07/when-dogs-recall-toys-and-horses-plan-ahead-are-animals-so-different-from-us">article</a> in the Guardian. Definitely one my most favoritest, peeviest pet peeves. Over and over again, humans who closely observe other species conclude that “they are just like us.”</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">Though I like to frame it differently: <strong>We are just like </strong><i><strong>them</strong></i><strong>. </strong>That helps remind me that life on this planet does not revolve around humans. We are not the “highest form” of life or the end result of billions of years of “evolutionary progress."</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">In fact, please do <i>not</i> anthropomorphize. </p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1sWMU--tEqtEODGlUueCMewnN8AgTVGpv&sz=w423-h157" alt="REPLACE"></div><p>Instead, the next time you see a squirrel leap up a tree, say to yourself (or out loud if you're feeling really good) - as I did this morning: “Hello brother, hello sister.”</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">Because, seriously, particularly when it comes to other mammals and in relation to the vast web of life, the similarities vastly outweigh the differences. And those similarities have to do with the most fundamental and important aspects of our lives: how we feel, how we love, how we solve problems, how we take care of our families, how we agonize over loss. </p><p style="margin-left:0px;"> </p></div> |