Dear All,
I recently was taken to task on Facebook and responded and
then thought that posting on Naturens would be desirable.
Dear all,
Recently I posted the following
comment with regard to plants flowering out of season;
shown in quotation marks.
"Not positive to see anything
blooming at the wrong time of year."
And this post was removed by admins
with the following explanation for removal.
Additional notes from the
admins
David, It is time
to stop being the harbinger of doom and gloom. If you cannot say
something nice about our members' photos, please say nothing.
I wish to
briefly explain, with examples, some of the reasons for my
concern. Which some apparently consider to be unwarranted "gloom
and doom".
I wish to draw
attention to a growing problem; a natural world in which vital
connections are sometimes failing to connect because they have
been wiped out or delayed.
There used to
be an extensive colony of native bees on a sandy bank in
Kentville near the junction of Brooklyn Street and Cornwallis
Street. I noticed this in the early 50's and it thrived until
one recent year when we had a lethal combination of severe cold,
a strong south wind and no snow cover. There has since been no
bees there. The same applies to a large area on privately owned
woodland in what is commonly called Palmeter Woods. Wild bees
were relatively common along many of the roads and paths there
but have gradually shrunk to zero. The same applies to lands
which were on or west of the former Kentville School and former
bee colonies along the rail trail west of Kentville.
In season,
honey bees and wild bees are fairly common in my yard, because I
aim for maximum diversity, but as an example of recent hardships
in one recent summer there was only one good day when calm warm
air suitable for bee feeding coincided with open blossoms.
I bought my
house about 1964 and by always keeping "Yard Waste" for the
compost piles, mowing selectively with a brush scythe and
selectively pulling overly aggressive plants have a diversity
far greater than usual for 'lawns' which frequently amount to
short grass mono-culture.
The spring of
2021 was unique in negative ways; very dry. In all previous
years earthworm activity commenced as soon as the soil thawed
near the back door where vegetation is sparse due to foot
traffic so such activity is not hidden in tall living or dead
plants; earthworm casts and composting by pulling two to many
petioles part way down a worm hole to culture edible fungal
growth.
There was no
earthworm activity last spring and when I dug the garden
earthworms were very scarce. Roughly less than 5% of normal.
In previous
years swarms of Cluster Flies were a pest when cooked corn was
eaten outside. The life cycle of Cluster Flies depends upon
earthworms and only Yellow Jackets were attracted to cooked corn
last summer.
Leaves of Red
Maple and Norway Maple developed large blotches of discolored
/dead tissue and I understand this was fairly widespread.
When I moved
to Kentville in 1960, summer evenings were punctuated by the
pents of Nighthawks; they are long gone as is the warble of
Meadow Hens. And more recently bats were nearly wiped out and
seldom seen. All due I think to a common reason--"yard waste".
The food which
could nurture a pyramid of diversity in every yard is now, from
most yards, trucked great distances to be composted, indoors I
understand. That really is a waste.
In my
relatively small yard, mostly occupied by house, driveway, shed,
garden and tiers of wood, 146 vascular species and 23 fleshy
fungi have been moved in or have moved in to stay a while.
Climate change
is not something which will occur here in the future; it is well
underway and action can be taken to slow or stop it.
Since 1980 I
have used much firewood to supplement furnace oil (e.g. in
winter 20-21 the radiators came on only once so most oil was
used for domestic hot water.)
As an aside
let it be noted that the capture of carbon by trees which die
and rot in the woods is zero. All of the carbon which that tree
captured during growth is returned to the atmosphere when it
rots. However if, by burning wood one consequently burns less
fossil fuel then ones carbon footprint shrinks.
But individual
action can shrink carbon footprint. And if enough people do so
our natural world may be saved.
In the summer
of 2021 I had the oil furnace replaced by an electric boiler and
had solar panels installed to generate power and they became
operational sometime in July. So far it has generated power
worth $47,835.
And in time
this may well more than cover the cost of installation which
included expensive upgrades to 1942 wiring.
Dave Webster