| <div class="ck-content"><h4>UNC students complete another great term of invasives removal</h4><p>April 28th was the last tree rescue of the 2023-2024 UNC school year for our Alpha Phi Omega and Epsilon Eta volunteers.</p><p>In the half dozen workdays they did from February to April, the progress in clearing out privet from Battle Branch Trail was immense. And Community Center Park has much less privet, olive, paper mulberry and English Ivy.</p><p>If you're looking for a reason to be optimistic about the future of the planet, about the fundamental goodness of humans, feast your eyes on the enthusiastic, dedicated, hard-working planet healers below!</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1RVgcZUNii_HlpAuKGWoTXeIBU-M9blZo&sz=w600-h200"></div><h4>One more challenge to combatting the biodiversity crisis</h4><p>I was going to write “climate change crisis”, but what I really am talking about (usually, in these newsletters) is the biodiversity crisis, that is, the ongoing death and destruction of non-human species and their habitats by humans.</p><p>I subscribe to a newsletter from <a href="https://substack.com/@wecanfixit?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email">Professor Kimberly Nicholas</a>, “<span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(54,55,55);">Climate & sustainability scientist, Lund University. Author of actionable, evidence-based climate advice: 📖 UNDER THE SKY WE MAKE." Her April 25 newsletter was different from most. It was titled </span><a href="https://wecanfixit.substack.com/p/riding-the-waves-of-grief?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(54,55,55);">“Riding the waves of grief,”</span></a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(54,55,55);"> and talked about how she responded to the recent, sudden death of her mother. It is moving and challenging, and I encourage you to read it. It also reminded me of a big concern I have about the years to come. This paragraph captures it:</span></p><blockquote><p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(54,55,55);">Honestly right now, I don’t care about climate change. It feels irrelevant, distant, and impersonal, and I am focused on my immediate experiences. Right after my mom died, my focus shrunk to an almost unbelievably tiny pinprick. I could not conceive of any future, could not make decisions or plans beyond the immediate moment. </span></p></blockquote><p>Which, not to sound like a broken record, is another reason I feel such urgency to act now. As the climate and biodiversity crises intensify, more and more humans will be killed and traumatized. Fewer and fewer humans, consequently, will be able to see past their grief and trauma, and have any energy or time for others, especially non-human others.</p><h4>Invasives change the soundscape</h4><p>“<span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(33,36,56);">A team of researchers led by Grace O'Malley, a Ph.D. candidate in biological sciences, and Gabrielle Ripa, a Ph.D. student in plant and environmental sciences, have discovered that the silent growth of non-native invasive plants can affect the soundscape of an ecosystem. These altered soundscapes, the acoustic patterns of a landscape through space and time, may provide a key to better observing the hard-to-see physical and biological changes occurring in an ecosystem as they are beginning.”</span></p><p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(33,36,56);">Fascinating </span><a href="https://phys.org/news/2024-04-invasive-species-impending-ecosystem.html"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(33,36,56);">article</span></a><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(33,36,56);"> in phys.org.</span></p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800a/2024/invasive-species-sound-1.jpg" width="600" height="400"></div><h4>Explore the world's protected areas</h4><p>Protected from what? you might ask. No, you probably wouldn't. What else would the world be protected from, besides humans?</p><p>I offer you this delightful website: <a href="https://www.protectedplanet.net/en">Protected Planet </a></p><blockquote><p><span style="color:rgb(36,36,36);">Protected Planet is the authoritative source of data on protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs). It exists due to the extensive efforts of governments and other stakeholders to map, monitor and report data on protected areas and OECMs. Through the Protected Planet website, users can explore the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), World Database on OECMs, Global Database on Protected Area Management Effectiveness (GD-PAME), and a wealth of associated information. Start by exploring the </span><a href="https://www.protectedplanet.net/"><u>interactive maps on the home page</u></a><span style="color:rgb(36,36,36);">, or any of Protected Planet's </span><a href="https://www.protectedplanet.net/en/thematic-areas"><u>eight thematic areas</u></a><span style="color:rgb(36,36,36);">.</span></p></blockquote></div><div class="ck-content"><h4>Receive all my reports on tree rescues!</h4><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><p>Resources you might find useful:</p><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> |