| <div class="ck-content"><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">TriWild heads to Williamson Preserve</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">TriWild is the name of the invasive removal program I started for Triangle Land Conservancy at Brumley South Preserve. It started as a one Saturday a month series. Then we went to twice a month. Then at the turn of 2023, I proposed that we hold them <i>every Saturday. </i>Which we have cone. Lately, we've taken it up to <i>twice a week</i> - Mondays and Saturdays. Since 2021, we have held 195 tree rescues (as I like to call them) in Brumley South. Wow!</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">Now we are going to expand the TriWild program to TLC's Bailey and Sarah Williamson Preserve in eastern Raleigh. That's in part due to some recent very wonderful developments in my life. I will now be very near Williamson on many Mondays. I met with Patrick Boleman, the Eastern Land Manager for TLC, yesterday and we've come up with a plan for me to start leading (or doing myself) the removal of large and widely spread Chinese privet and Bradford pear.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">Here's the before picture from the work I did there today: The Bradford pear stretching up above the top of the photo is easily 25 feet tall, with multiple 5-inch diameter trunks (from a previous cut). It was a monster. The lower mess are two big privet (6 inches thick at the base. </p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1gXPPMiCAA2Mta7HAiTMxtgGONH1pcg0W&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div><p>And two hours later, with the help of a chainsaw:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1vE_v_HKkKDbfDFQh_Pa1JXaGJZ54MLXh&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div><p>Very satisfying. And <i>so</i> much more to do.</p><p>Please, if you live in or near eastern Raleigh, check <a href="https://rewildearth.net">https://rewildearth.net</a> for events scheduled at Williamson. I'd love to have your help.</p><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">Invasive plants drive homogenization of soil microbial communities</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">I'd rather we didn't keep discovering new ways in which invasives harm our native ecosystems and hasten the climate and biodiversity crises, but, well, here you go:</p><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);">Invasive plants are doing more than just taking over landscapes — they’re also changing the soil beneath them. A new study co-authored by </span><a href="https://profiles.rice.edu/faculty/matthew-mccary">Matthew McCary</a><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);">, assistant professor of biosciences at Rice University, reveals that these species are reshaping soil microbial communities across the U.S., making them more uniform and altering how ecosystems function.</span></p></blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);">Full article </span><a href="https://news.rice.edu/news/2024/new-study-finds-invasive-plants-drive-homogenization-soil-microbial-communities-across-us"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);">here</span></a><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);">. </span></p><p style="margin-left:0px;"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);">With the help of many readers of this newsletter, we have removed invasives from many acres of some of our most precious intact native ecosystems. So with a certainty we have also supported diverse microbial communities. Yet another way we are healing the planet!</span></p><h3 style="margin-left:0px;"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maggots to the rescue</span></h3><p style="margin-left:0px;"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know, I know. Very few people really want to read about, talk about, or see maggots. But hey they've evolved on planet earth for as long as humans (and elephants and butterflies and sharks and….); they deserve as much respect and admiration as any other species. Anyway, this </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/11/maggots-to-the-rescue-food-waste-wild-fish"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">article</span></a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> offers an outstanding feel-good story about maggots and how when humans treat other species with the respect they deserve, wonderful things can happen:</span></p><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">A group of young Kenyans are working on an unusual solution to the problems of food waste and fish feed produced unsustainably from wild-caught fish stocks: maggots.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">The larvae of the black soldier fly are now devouring unwanted food in projects around the world. Their excrement, known as frass, can be used as a fertiliser for land-based crops, and their protein-rich bodies, harvested before they turn into flies, can be fed to livestock.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">In Kenya, the environmentalists behind Project Mila, which in Swahili means tradition, are employing the larvae to clean up food waste, as well as nurture mangroves and feed fish in coastal farms.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">Project Mila’s team of volunteers collect organic waste from households, markets and restaurants in the south-eastern coastal city of Mombasa, and feed it to voracious larvae, which produce frass while helping to clean up the city.</p></blockquote><h3>Very brief reflection on the election</h3><p>My mind veers away from what happened on November 5th. I can't hardly believe it and do not want to accept what it means (and what it says about so many of my fellow citizens). I am deeply thankful for the bizarre results in North Carolina. We are now living in the “best” red state in the nation. </p><p>My message to all my friends and fellow planet healers:</p><p><i>Take care of yourself, especially your mental health.</i> It's an excellent time to strengthen your connections with friends and family, to find love and support from each other. Minimize time on screens, maximize time in the real world, outside, among the trees. </p><p>And, as I am reminded by volunteers over and over again: <strong>heal thyself by healing the planet</strong>. Spending a couple of hours in the woods saving native species will do wonders for your physical health and mental outlook.</p><p>Hope to see you out there soon!</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> |