| <div class="ck-content"><h3>Upcoming NC Invasive Plant Council Symposium: Save the Date!</h3><p>The NC-IPC annual symposium will be held on February 11-13 in Wilmington. It's actually the 2024 symposium, but the date got pushed back for a few reasons. So…we'll celebrate our 2024 efforts to restore native ecosystems in early 2025. I'm pretty sure our non-human friends won't mind a bit, as long as we keep up the struggle! </p><p>I attended the symposium for the first time in November 2023, and it was great. To be with so many like-minded - and like-<i>actioned</i> - people; to learn more about the impact of invasives (negative and - to my surprise - positive!); to be fired up to take on even more in 2024: just delightful.</p><p>We (yes, we!) will be making some big announcements at the symposium, so I hope you can join us. But I realize that almost everyone on the Rewild Earth list lives around Chapel Hill and most will not be able to travel cross-state to the event. If you can, though, you will not be disappointed. There will be a much bigger emphasis on working with and encouraging volunteers, as well as more hands-on sessions.</p><h3>Beavers Gone Wild Along Stoney Creek</h3><p>I took a pre-Thanksgiving hike with my dogs at Brumley South. We started on Wood Duck Way, but soon went off trail down to Stoney Creek. I am sure glad I did, because I discovered that a beaver or beavers are (best as I can tell) working hard constructing a new dam. I am across tree after tree, felled by their incredibly strong and sharp teeth….here's a montage of a number of the trees. The long photo in the bottom right is a field of something like a dozen small sweet gums that they cut down.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1E_4KoTTYYGzBFvH-PlvKIouY1igaEnwZ&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div><p>And just a bit down the creek, I came across this beaver dam just starting to appear above the water line.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1pt4x14j3Nd53i2Y01euLTS76pjKJ7UzK&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div><p>I expect they have to create a rather thick platform of large trunks under the surface of the creek to support everything above it. I love to see evidence of beavers. It is a sign of a healthy or at least healthier ecosystem. </p><p>And that's not all the beaver sign at Brumley South. Beavers are busy building a home jutting out from the bank of the pond (as opposed to a lodge out in the middle of the pond). In early November, it looked like this:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1DUSWhTJX2zaG_sLupWAstx0Wn1pvC4kc&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div><p>Most recently, the pile had grown a lot larger and many of the pieces of wood near the water are held together with some kind of paste.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1u_K64cPd8ChlX3R2vpVZMbw_fdR6g04z&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div><p>They also seem to be digging access holes next to the path. I guess it's good to have multiple entries and exits.</p><h3>Woody “Debris” In Streams?</h3><p>Brian Mayell, a retired conservation manager, has been helping Tim Logue and his merry team of volunteers in Hillsborough with invasive removal and restoration work along the Riverwalk. He also recently discovered Brumley South and is now starting various restoration experiments along a streamlet running parallel to a section of Wood Duck Way. For sure, you will be hearing more about this effort (and invited to help) in 2025. </p><p>He shared a <a href="https://extension.psu.edu/novel-stream-restoration-method-for-wild-trout-and-ecosystem-health">very interesting video</a> with me a week ago. And after resisting watching it (I have a serious aversion to watching video on screens, see “Disconnect and Reconnect” below), I finally clicked the play button and was glad I did.</p><p>In my own completely amateurish way, I try to envision the way the world would be without humans, or with humans who are not rapacious destroyers, and then follow that path as much as possible. In this video, Luke Bobnar of the Western Pennsylvania Conservatory explains another way in which the clearing of forests for timber has impacted the ecosystems even as they regrow: trees, large and small, that would have fallen into streams and rivers were removed. That had a massive ripple effect (ok, many fewer ripples, in point of fact) on invertebrates and the fish that feed on them.</p><p>So they are now deliberately felling trees into waterways with hopes of restoring another aspect of a healthy, native ecosystem. I watched Brian doing an adapted version of this on Saturday, using branches and trunks of large privet that had been cut, rather than trees. I am excited to see how this develops!</p><h3>Disconnect and Reconnect</h3><p>These days, I barely ever check out the news, and then just the headlines (though the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us/environment">Guardian Environment/Wildlife articles</a> are still a go-to spot for me, on the Internet). Let's face it: we can expect to be solidly depressed by events, whether they be the onslaught of the fascists or the unprecedented unprecedentedness of our changing climate, for years to come.</p><p>Which means that now, <i><strong>right now</strong></i>, is the time to develop or deepen habits and routines that will keep you healthy, sane and maybe even just a little bit joyful at life.</p><p>For me, the formula is clear: <i><strong>disconnect</strong></i> as much as possible from screens, from the artificial world. D<i>efinitely </i>make social media and doomscrolling the very last thing you spend time doing. Take all that former screen time and use it to <i><strong>reconnect</strong>, </i>Reconnect to the natural world around you. Reconnect (face to face) with your friends and family. Do things for others, most especially non-human others. </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> |