| <div class="ck-content"><h3>When Not If!</h3><p>I really like Kamala Harris' call to action, and just realized how much it aligns with my views on invasives. Namely: </p><blockquote><p>When we fight, we win.</p></blockquote><p>She could have said “If we fight, we win.” But that sounds very different, does it not? It leaves open the possibility that we will <i>not</i> fight. That there's some sort of argument to be made over whether or not we <i>should</i> fight for our rights and future of our children.</p><p>In this moment, facing the most important election of my life, there can be no "if"." There can only be “when.”</p><p>And the same is true for invasives and for the fight to save the biodiversity of our world (in other words, the fight to save the lives of billions and billions of non-humans). </p><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>WHEN we remove invasives, the planet wins.</strong></p><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>WHEN we rescue trees, the planet wins.</strong></p><p>So repeat after me: <strong>No more ifs. Only WHENs. </strong></p><p>And by the way, I offer this prediction for the election:</p><ul><li>The Harris-Walz ticket will win the popular vote decisively. Kamala Harris will receive more votes for President than anyone else in the history of our nation.</li><li>She will also win the electoral college vote, but more narrowly.</li><li>The Democrats will take the House and Senate.</li><li>Red states controlled by a supermajority minority will try to reject their electoral votes, but will be stopped by the courts.</li><li>Trump will be in prison by the end of 2025.</li></ul><h3>New Worksite in Cary</h3><p>I use this website to schedule tree rescue (invasive removal) events. But it is also available for other groups around North Carolina (and beyond!) to use. So I am always excited when a new group and new location is added to the calendar of events. </p><p>At Triangle Land Conservancy's Wild IDEAS event last week, I met lots of wonderful planet healers, including Margaret Partridge, who heads up the Reid Chapter of the NC Native Plants Society. I was delighted to hear that she has been working since 2013 to clean up the Black Creek Greenway in Cary.</p><p>We are now publishing events at the Greenway on Rewild Earth. So if you live in/near Cary and are available on Wednesday mornings, sign up for the Nov 13 and/or Nov 20 events!</p><h3>When Cities Go Green</h3><p>I really enjoyed learning about Hamburg, Germany's “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/24/hamburg-green-space-contract-agreement-wildlife-biodiversity">green space contract</a>.” Lots of good lessons to be learned by city governments around the world.</p><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">Schumacher’s….schematic of the “natural development of the organism Hamburg” has steered the city down a greener path than its neighbours. Stitched together by a series of green axes and rings, nature reserves make up more of the state of Hamburg than any of the other federal states in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/germany">Germany</a> – nearly 10%. “We call it Hamburg’s green network,” says Barbara Engelschall of the city’s environment authority.</p></blockquote><p>It's been a challenge to implement green space in Hamburg, but they have a framework and lots of public support. Maybe when the next election for Chapel Hill mayor and council come around, we can choose leaders who do <i>not</i> prioritize development and developers ahead of pretty much anything else.</p><h3>Not Sure About This</h3><p>Another <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/oct/23/long-extinct-animals-resurrected-robots-evolution">article from the Guardian</a>, this one about “resurrecting” extinct animals as robots really has me wondering. </p><blockquote><p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(18,18,18);">Scientists say the nascent field of “paleo-inspired robotics” can bring fossils to life and help researchers explore how changes in anatomy have affected the way animals move, their speed, and how much energy they use….“Building a robot [based on these living species of fish] will hopefully give us a little bit of insight into what kind of evolutionary pressures, or what kind of mechanics, started to force fish to develop these different anatomies that would be useful on land,” he said, adding that such learning would help the team develop paleo-inspired</span><strong> </strong><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(18,18,18);">robots of extinct fish.</span></p></blockquote><p>It's really hard for me to see the value of this. Well, that's not quite true. I see how there can be some value, but at this late stage in the extinction+climate crisis, I find it hard to <i>justify</i>. And I mean it in this sense: just about every single thing humans do take consumes energy and kill more of nature. Knowledge is not free. The price for human acquisition of knowledge is paid by non-humans.</p><p>And folks, I hate to say it, but at this point in history, we<i> are</i> in a “zero sum game.” </p><p>Every act of consumption that is not tied directly to healing our planet is making things worse and should be avoided whenever possible.</p><p>Every act of consumption that <i>is</i> tied directly to healing our planet is a virtuous act. Do more of those! </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> |