All posts by salexander

Restoration

Marsh Restoration

Deciding whether or not the restoration of salt marshes is necessary is no difficult task. There are many different factors that must be taken into account when trying to come to a conclusion. While restoring marshes is a nice idea in theory, there are many components that could cause detrimental affects to the area. First of all, human intervention goes against the natural process of life. Leaving a recolonization of non-native plants to grow is allowing nature to follow its path. This will allow a new culture of plants to thrive and leaves room for various species to develop and expand. Overtime, nature will be able to heal itself without the need for humans. While it may be believed that because humans have caused this destruction, they should be the ones to clean it up, I don’t think this is necessarily true. Just as nature was present before humans, it will be present afterwards as well. It is not our job to continue to pursue the region but instead our job to allow time and avoid interaction.

Attempting a restoration of a marsh with native plants calls for many different factors to be taken under consideration. Restoring tidal conditions, balancing salt levels and introducing new species are only a few of the many dilemmas that must be addressed. While some species may have gone extinct due to salt marsh destruction, other species have thrived with these new changes. If native animals are reintroduced, it may be unlikely that the two will be able to coexist. Who is to decide which animals matter more?  Also if restoration does take place, human intervention cannot be for a short time period. Instead, it would take years to properly track and insure that the restoration is going to as plan. Often times, these long term projects lose interest and funding to continue on. If the project is only half completed, the effects could be detrimental and leave the environment in a worse state than before.

I think that instead of human intervention after the fact, we should instead focus on preventative actions. Although these preventative actions may not help in cases like the destruction that Hurricane Sandy caused, it can help in other ways. Most destruction is due to human interaction rather than from natural causes and there are numerous ways to keep our impact minimal.

Lack of Knowledge

Destruction of the Salt Marshes

Throughout history, there have been a select few themes that we see countries entering into wars for. Religious warfare, political domination and overall need for power have driven nations into total war with one another. An overarching theme that we see is that more land leads to more power. This is why Europeans all competed with one another to find new areas of exploration. Although the Portuguese and Spanish had started off trying to find new routes to India for spices, the day that Christopher Columbus accidently stumbled upon the Americas was a different kind of turning point. The knowledge that there was a whole new world out there was exciting to the Europeans because it meant there was a new frontier to economic growth. Finding the Americas provided a possibility of imperializing a huge mass of land, people and all. There were natural resources that had never previously been available to them and to them; it meant they had to exploit it for what it was worth before competition challenged them. At the time that Europeans first settled, I think that they were unaware of the long-term effects that their destruction of salt marshes was causing.

Europeans only understood that there was money to make from the destruction of the environment. For them, it was never about stopping and thinking what their actions were causing because during the time, there was little knowledge of the consequences. Now in hindsight, we are aware how their actions have altered the natural environment in a way that can never fully heal. But we only know this because of the knowledge that has been instilled upon us. Now we know how harmful our actions can be to the area around us because studies have been conducted and proven. We are constantly bombarded with facts about global warming and rising sea levels and know that humans have contributed to these ongoing disasters. Back then, people never fully realized how damaging their actions were.

European settlers had the constant pressure of other nations stealing their lands so them, if they didn’t cultivate the land, another nation would. They knew that the only way to secure the wealth of the land was to exploit it and send it back to their motherland to be sold for a profit. Leaving the area intact was out of the question because for them, what was the point, if not to make profit? This lack of knowledge showed how their impact on the environment was more of an “innocent destruction” rather than intent to destroy paired with a lack of concern. Had the Europeans been well educated in the consequences of their actions, perhaps they would have stopped to think of their impact and in some ways tried to lessen the destruction that can never be truly undone to salt marshes.

Lenapes

Land of the Lenapes

We live in a time in which food is down the block at the grocery store or perhaps only a phone call away. Because of this, it may be difficult to fully wrap our heads around the idea that at one point in history, food had to be fought for. While local Chinese restaurants may have to get competitive in order to pay the best price for meats and vegetables, it is safe to say that they do not have to hunt before delivering food to your doorstep.  The Lenape culture however, had no such luck. Instead, the Lenape people had to use various methods of hunting and gathering in order to provide enough food for their families. Many times, the natural environment had to be disturbed in order to obtain enough food to sustain their families and tribe.

Although the Lenape people were surrounded by and came into contact with many tribes who used sophisticated methods of agriculture, they stuck primarily to hunting and gathering. While they were less advanced compared to the people around them, it was enough for sustenance.  The Lenape quickly proved that they were able to “exploit the rich natural resources of the region.” Using bone and bird claw hooks as well as nets on sticks, the Lenape were able to fish in the lakes and rivers close by. Fishing usually yielded striped bass, sturgeon and herring. If there was a surplus of food, the seafood could be steamed which helped preserve the food until wintertime, when fresh game may be lacking. The Lenape people also survived on hunting small animals such as swans, pigeons, geese, turkeys and partridges.  While deer and bear were continuously hunted despite seasons, autumn was an especially popular time to hunt. During this season, two to three hundred Lenape people would perform “deer drives,” in which the forest was lit on fire in order to lure deer into premade traps and snares. These deer drives provided the Lenape with enough meat to last them through the winter.

These practices beg the question of how much harm the Lenape caused the natural environment in order to hunt. At first I thought that burning the forest immensely destroyed the environment. After doing some more research I learned that controlled fire can actually help the natural environment rather than harm it, like I had originally thought. The Lenape used fire for many different purposes. Fire was used to clear fields, control weeds and burn woodland undergrowth. This actually helped to “prevent growth of underbrush, encourage growth of grasses and improved the soil.”  While the Lenape people may not have understood the scientific benefits of burning the land, their actions proved to promote the growth of the natural environment.

BioBlitz

Bio Blitz, Land of the Lenapes

Upon hearing about the BioBlitz, I knew that if there was one place to find abundant nature in New York City, it was in Central Park. After being contained in a subway cart for an hour, it was refreshing being able to wander around Central Park. I eventually found myself at the North Meadow Recreation Center, where we were told to meet at 2 p.m. The building was small but packed with students. Walking up to the table, I registered for my four hour shift and was sorted into the Insects group, the one group I was hoping not to be apart of.

After a quick explanation of what we would be doing, we split off from the other students and headed into the North Woods section of the park. We ventured off the path with New Yorkers lying on picnic blankets and tourists taking pictures and went onto the hiking trail. This area was much more secluded, the paths were barely visible and the trees obstructed the sky. From here we split into smaller groups and were given tools to help us find insects. My group consisted of two other girls and myself and our first task was to lure ants. We were handed ten petri dishes and zip lock bags filled with chocolate chip cookies and tuna fish. We set off to find five locations where we placed one dish of cookies and another dish of tuna within a foot apart from one another. In this process we stumbled upon a hidden waterfall, which was a pleasant surprise.

From there, we moved onto my least favorite of the tasks: aspirating bugs. Using a sifting tray, we took a large sample of foliage and separated the large leaves from the dirt and small insects. From there we sucked the bugs from the tray into a clear vile. Even though I knew that the bugs would never make it into my mouth, I was still not keen on the idea. After a few unpleasant minutes of aspirating, we finally had trapped around six or seven bugs in the glass container. Proud of ourselves for overcoming our fear of insects, we enthusiastically dropped our findings into a small bottle of alcohol used to kill the creatures.

The group then got to connect nature and technology with the introduction of Google Glass. There were three Google representatives who taught students how to use Glass and from there we got to venture out with nets in hand. Sweeping the nets back and forth among the plants helped trap a few insects and with a simple spoken command of “OK Glass,” the entire experience was recorded.

I used to always get ride of pesky insects as soon as I noticed them flying around me. Although the BioBlitz hasn’t completely changed that habit, (I’ll still get the flyswatter out if I need to) the event has however forced me to think about these miniscule insects and the role they play in their own ecosystem. The four hours spent in Central Park opened my eyes to how diverse wildlife is, even in the concrete jungle of New York City.