| <div class="ck-content"><h3>Our Planet Healing Gets Noticed</h3><p>Back in April 2024, I was given approval to “adopt” Bolin Creek Trail over by Franklin Street. It was a horrible mess of wisteria, privet, spindle and more. Privet pressed right up to the trail itself, so you couldn't see the creek, couldn't see anything, really. At first, I worked by myself, then a handful of other volunteers began to sign up on a regular basis, and then we formed a new <a href="ncwf.org">NCWF</a> chapter and that group really ratcheted up the effort level, with several big tree rescues.</p><p>We held 34 workdays along the Bolin Creek Trail in 2023, and another 17 in 2024. After clearing away the privet that filled the understory, we then planted hundreds of native trees and shrubs, and 1000s of river oats. Most lately, the NCWF chapter returned to put cages around the plants that are of most interest to deer (aka, mammal weeds).</p><p>Town of Chapel Hill has been delighted with our work. And that is now reflected in their 2024 <a href="https://americanhiking.org/national-trails-day/">National Trails Day</a> event. That's right - the first Saturday in June is National Trails Day ("A Day of Service for Hometown Trails and the People Who Love Them")!</p><p>This year, <a href="https://www.townofchapelhill.org/government/departments-services/parks-and-recreation/recreation-events/national-trails-day-interactive-trail-experience">Parks and Recreation</a> is leading (well, <i>led,</i> by the time you receive this newsletter) “<span style="background-color:transparent;color:inherit;">a guided trail walk along the Bolin Creek Trail. During the </span>walk,<span style="background-color:transparent;color:inherit;"> we’ll hear from local Adopt a Trail project leaders Steven Feuerstein and Jeanette Bench, who have worked tirelessly over the past year, to remove 5 acres of invasive privet, and replant indigenous plants and trees along the trail corridor.”</span></p><p>Now it is Saturday evening. The event went very well. About 30 people in all participated. We had great fun appreciating the work done and educating folks about the impacts of invasives.</p><p>And I….I saw things I could not unsee. We walked along a part of the trail that was <i>between</i> two areas we'd cleared. I thought we were done. Far from it. First, I saw small and medium-sized privet, and then I encountered <i>giant</i> privet, easily 20 feet tall:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1z8CzVLP0ufyEqt5ZzVi-Hw0ofqQoJ9SL&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE" width="600" height="400"></div><p>I wanted to stop right there and then, and get to work. Not that I had my saw or anything. So on we walked and then….all around us, big native trees were under attack by spindle / wintercreeper / eonymous. In the photos below left, all that dense, dark green around the tree trunk are spindle branches growing off the vine. On the right, you can see the thick, brown vines growing up the trees.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1vdEA8LACi3CqVHxl92H9Pee0J-eqUEZ0&sz=w480-h680"></div><p>From what I can tell, spindle doesn't kill trees as quickly as kudzu and wisteria, but they engulf the tree trunks, which will certainly inhibit the growth of branches on the tree. Plus, they consume resources (water, CO2, sunlight, nutrients in the soil) that would otherwise be available to native species.</p><p>And so, in what is likely no surprise to many of you, four hours later I returned to the trail and got to work. The spindle was even worse than I'd realized. Check out all the thick vines I cut and painted; I put the lopper in the pictures for scale - this was definitely all saw work, and some of it long and hard.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1Xu7psoSmEwbD8UZTN7xAWOQQWz0f7-98&sz=w630-h270"></div><p>Wow, that felt great. And it's gonna feel great over and over, as I walk the trail and see all that tree-engulfing green go brown and then fall away.</p><p>But wait! What about the giant privet? I was kind of tired, my dogs were home thinking about dinner, but I was determined. So up the trail I went. Along the way, I came across some nasty big kudzu vines, and took care of those:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1wSeRjEMK7wlUW8DNcZgOuwjC7mUbilPp&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE" width="600" height="400"></div><p>That's right - in case you didn't know it, big, old kudzu vines are dark brown and ripply. If you see them, cut them! That will certainly kill lots of kudzu up in the trees. And if you can also paint the stump with an herbicide, even better!</p><p>Finally made it to the privet. And, once again, had underestimated the seriousness of the problem. But my trusty Silky Ibuki saw made (relatively) short work of even the biggest trunks:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1wcsqt9LVev0etexBdebXbd7sjwwudZlo&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE" width="600" height="400"></div><p>With this lovely result:</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1QVt4xAIgrwNAlji-HMmziQzltgFYe-2N&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE" width="600" height="400"></div><p>But wait, what's that back behind the privet? OMG, a truly massive oriental bittersweet vine….so that got cut, as well.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=16xBmvqG2r3gXsnVZ6P9O7FNx83-gEY1F&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE" width="600" height="400"></div><p>All in all, a wonderful day for our non-human neighbors living along Bolin Creek!</p><h3>AI hastening climate chaos and extinctions</h3><p>I am so disgusted by the insane hype surrounding generative AI (ChatGPT, etc.). Over and over again, we are told that the latest breakthrough, a.k.a., “progress”, is going to transform peoples' lives, making them more productive, freeing up time to enjoy life, blah, blah, blah.</p><p>And over and over again, it becomes clear: technology is used first and foremost to make rich, powerful people richer and more powerful, and used second-most to destroy the natural world to achieve the first goal.</p><p>Generative AI threatens all of that, and much more destructively than anything that has come before. </p><p>I won't even get into the immediate terrible impacts of AI (disinformation, undermining of democracies, deep fakes, explosion in child pornography, etc.). Instead, I will bring your attention to the devastating impact it will have on non-humans, on the natural world.</p><p>From a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/30/ugly-truth-ai-chatgpt-guzzling-resources-environment ">Guardian column</a>, “The ugly truth behind ChatGPT: AI is guzzling resources at planet-eating rates”….</p><blockquote><p><span style="background-color:rgb(254,249,245);color:rgb(18,18,18);">Despite its name, the infrastructure used by the “cloud” accounts for more global greenhouse emissions than </span><a href="https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.climatiq.io%2Fblog%2Fmeasure-greenhouse-gas-emissions-carbon-data-centres-cloud-computing%23%3A~%3Atext%3DGlobal%2520emissions%2520from%2520cloud%2520computing%2Cthat%2520fuel%2520our%2520global%2520economy.&data=05%7C02%7Cc.rainer%40ucl.ac.uk%7C2620eba33e264a39739008dc78e223c0%7C1faf88fea9984c5b93c9210a11d9a5c2%7C0%7C0%7C638518159855203643%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=3bg43PcEc4GfhDme8oXF3hN4VZEVuL4Kk1M8%2FEFnoDQ%3D&reserved=0">commercial flights</a><span style="background-color:rgb(254,249,245);color:rgb(18,18,18);">. In 2018, for instance, the 5bn YouTube hits for the viral song Despacito used the </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/06/why-irish-data-centre-boom-complicating-climate-efforts">same amount of energy</a><span style="background-color:rgb(254,249,245);color:rgb(18,18,18);"> it would take to heat 40,000 US homes annually.</span></p><p><span style="background-color:rgb(254,249,245);color:rgb(18,18,18);">Large language models such as ChatGPT are some of the most energy-guzzling technologies of all. Research suggests, for instance, that about </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jun/08/artificial-intelligence-industry-boom-environment-toll#:~:text=Data%20centers%20use%20water%20in,(184%2C920.45%20gallons)%20of%20freshwater.">700,000 litres of water</a><span style="background-color:rgb(254,249,245);color:rgb(18,18,18);"> could have been used to cool the machines that trained ChatGPT-3 at Microsoft’s data facilities.</span></p></blockquote><p>We will not stop the AI juggernaut. Too many billionaires have decided that this might be their ticket to becoming trillionaires. No matter the dangers, no matter who is now being, and who will be, injured, no matter how many more species are driven to extinction, they will foist AI upon us and insist it is making us healthier and happier.</p><p>But there is some good news: <strong>you can keep AI out of your life</strong>. You can choose to not benefit (sure, there are some beneficial use cases) from or utilize any AI-powered sites and apps. You can put down that damn, damning, damnable “smart”phone and head outside to do some planet healing. </p><p>All of this reminds me of another of my mantras: </p><blockquote><p>Whenever possible, use the <i>lowest</i> level of technology possible to get the job done.</p></blockquote><p>We don't need AI. It is being foisted upon us. Stay away from screens, and you will have stayed away from AI.</p><h3>Red, Blue, Green Plastic Degrades Faster - Avoid It!</h3><p>Came across this troubling <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/27/ditch-brightly-coloured-plastic-anti-waste-researchers-tell-firms">article in the Guardian</a>: </p><h4 style="margin-left:0px;">Ditch brightly coloured plastic, anti-waste researchers tell firms</h4><blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">Retailers are being urged to stop making everyday products such as drinks bottles, outdoor furniture and toys out of brightly coloured plastic after researchers found it degrades into microplastics faster than plainer colours.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;">Red, blue and green plastic became “very brittle and fragmented”, while black, white and silver samples were “largely unaffected” over a three-year period, according to the findings of the <a href="https://le.ac.uk/news/2024/may/microplastic-colours">University of Leicester-led project</a>.</p><p style="margin-left:0px;"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(18,18,18);">The findings demonstrate that the black, white and silver colourants protect the plastic from damaging ultraviolet (UV) radiation, whereas other pigments do not. UV damage changes the plastic’s polymer structure, making it brittle and susceptible to fragmentation.</span></p></blockquote><p style="margin-left:0px;">So when possible, choose a black, white or silver choice for your plastic. </p><p style="margin-left:0px;">Taking small actions like this and others will not solve the problem, but they could slow things down and maybe even save a life or two. Surely that's worth living a little bit more intentionally?</p><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">A poem for rewilders</h3><p style="margin-left:0px;">Green Mountain</p><p>by <a href="https://www.poetrynook.com/poet/li-po"><i>Li Po</i></a></p><p style="margin-left:0px;">You ask me why I dwell in the green mountain;<br>I smile and make no reply for my heart is free of care.<br>As the peach-blossom flows down stream and is gone into the unknown,<br>I have a world apart that is not among men.</p></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> |