<div class="ck-content"><p>I hope you will agree, better late than never!</p><h3>A world of wonder….</h3><p>Oh radiant dusk!<br>Low sun piercing the forest:<br>golden shrine of light.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1VrBmrDQ4ZbmsWCU53lDIwtYSbiF6aIWr&sz=w400-h600" alt="radiant dusk"></div><h3>Forest stories</h3><p>I have written lots of stories, but they are in English. If you can’t read English, then they are not stories - to you. In the same way, trees tell stories or more accurately forests (and oceans, and mountains….) tell stories. But if you cannot read their language, you cannot read the story, so it might seem like the stories aren’t there. But they are there, in multitudes. Over the last decade, I've spent an increasing percentage of my life outdoors, mostly in forests. I think I've gotten pretty good (or at least better) at reading <i>some</i> of the stories. I will give you an example. Here's the forest telling a story:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1fMCCKFJ9VgzVsKrEyTFTcYpxy1Y06md7&sz=w600-h400" alt="fallen tree"></div><p>I will translate:</p><p>A big tree toppled (that's the dark blob in the middle; it fell away from us). When an opening appeared in the canopy, sun came pouring through. In a healthy forest filled with native species, the next generation of native trees start growing faster, competing to fill the spot in the canopy. And there certainly are small trees there. But there were also microstegeum seeds (Japanese stilt grass). And so in the area directly under the canopy gap, the stilt grass has grown up nice and thick. Away from the sun (to the left and in the foreground), you see a more “natural” (unaffected by invasives) forest floor. </p><p>I can also predict the future:</p><p>Unless humans take action, the stilt grass with seed and spread, with each season. Eventually the hole in the canopy will close, but by then the stilt grass will be well established and continue its creep (without sun, it grows more slowly but. still. grows.). Maybe this grass will not interfere with the growth of new trees, </p><h3>A chart of planet healing</h3><p>Professionally, I'm a database programming guy (specifically, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/practicallyperfectplsql">Oracle PL/SQL</a>). I work with data, figure out how to best organize it, like to track it. So it will come as no surprise to you that I am doing this for my invasives work. Here's how that works (sorry, gonna get geeky for a moment): I maintain a Google Drive of all the events I am involved with (and a bit more besides). I create a folder for each event and then upload photos there from the event. Each night, I load all the new images and folders into the Rewild Earth database. I then have a chart I can consult to show me how much we are getting done.</p><p>The chart you see below is for March 2024 through Sept 22, 2024. We are averaging over 30 tree rescues a month! (the blue line are the number of those events that I do by myself) And, of course, there are many other similar activities by others.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1VFfYysnbCLj2mAbSbls9AsrGMkqopDnH&sz=w305-h395" alt="REPLACE"></div><p>In all of 2023, I recorded just over 200 tree rescues (and there were <i>many</i> more by others). We are already over 250 for 2024. So exciting!</p><p>Thank you for all you do to heal the planet!</p><h3>An unexamined life?</h3><p>With a title like “I decided to spend a day as a dog. It was completely idyllic, at first ...”, I was expecting to greatly enjoy this <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/22/i-decided-to-spend-a-day-as-a-dog-it-was-completely-idyllic-at-first">Guardian article</a>. But then I encountered this:</p><blockquote><p>Dogs, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/sep/11/the-happiness-of-dogs-by-mark-rowlands-review-a-masterclass-in-canine-philosophy">Rowlands</a> says, are “resplendent in their lack of self-examination”; reliably able to access “unbridled happiness”. Dogs have never felt the adrenal jolt of opening an angry email or tried to insert an image into a Word document. They don’t ask themselves what the point is or wonder if they’re good dogs: they know they are (people tell them constantly).</p></blockquote><p>I really, truly don't understand why people keep saying things like “lack of self-examination" about other creatures. And publish it in books!</p><p>As if they could possibly have any clue.</p><p>We don't even really knows what goes on in the minds of other humans. To think that we know what goes on inside a dog's mind and decide that it has no “self-examination” is absurd. </p><p>Two dogs are members of my family: Moonbeam and Falcor. They each have strikingly different personalities, different ways of seeing and living in the world (from each other, and from me), of relating to other dogs, and to humans. I watch them closely and communicate with them a lot. Moonbeam, in particular, clearly has a vibrant, active mind, constantly assessing, calculating, deciding on courses of action consistent with her desires and needs. </p><p>This doesn't mean I believe she or they think precisely like I do, “self-examine” the way I do, or experience the world the same way I do. But it sure does mean that I would never even<i> think about</i> dismissing the richness of their inner life (how they think and feel). Nor judge them by casting baseless aspersions, that serve (no matter how unintentionally) to raise us above other species. </p><p>Falcor and Moonbeam:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1ehNpR7MWs_6xFYjZ6OD_-vuOC8FID87D&sz=w400-h600" alt="dogs"></div><p> </p></div><div class="ck-content"><h3>Receive all my reports on tree rescues</h3><p>If you'd like to get some good news about restoring native habitats delivered straight to your brain upwards of a few times a week, sign in to <a href="https://rewildearth.net">Rewild Earth</a>, click on your name in top right, then My profile. Under Communication Preferences, switch “Send reports of all events” to ON. </p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1BeynVqu8taOGrsvi56u0mmDKuNJko22h&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE" width="358" height="138"></div><h3>Resources you might find useful</h3><ul><li><a href="https://shop.naisma.org/collections/buckthorn-blaster">Buckthorn Blasters</a>: safe, easy herbicide delivery system from the North American Invasive Species Management Association. Don't start cutting without them!</li><li><a href="https://nc-ipc.weebly.com/nc-invasive-plants.html">NC Invasive Plants list</a>: recently updated by NC-IPC, the NC Invasives Plants Council.</li><li><a href="https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/AG259">Overview of different herbicides</a>: glyposphate, triclopyr and others - which should you use?</li><li>Volunteer for <a href="https://triangleland.org">Triangle Land Conservancy</a>: the biggest land conservancy group in our area. </li><li>Volunteer for <a href="https://ellerbecreek.org">Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association</a> (Durham): a wonderful group working hard to maintain contiguous natural areas along Ellerbe Creek.</li></ul></div> |