Hmmm… Interesting discussion. Personally, I enjoy your posts. I think your observations are valuable and you raise questions well worth raising. It’s legitimate to speculate on the causes behind observed changes, provided that it’s clear that we’re speculating. The speculation may or may not be valid, but it can be thought-provoking. I can be guilty of spreading doom and gloom, as well, and don’t like to depress people, but I, once again, prefer to read your observation and thoughts than not. From: David Webster [mailto:dwebster@glinx.com] Sent: January 2, 2022 3:04 PM To: Naturens Subject: [Naturens] Endangered nature 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