All posts by Serinna Bradfield

Salt Marsh Restoration

Marsh Restoration

Human actions have led to many changes in the ecosystem. One negative effect of our actions has been the destruction of salt marshes. As much of a mess we seem to have made of our planet, it is still in our best interest to try and preserve and restore it by any means necessary. In the case of salt marshes, however, it may be more beneficial to not put our efforts into restoring them.

Because of their destruction, many salt marshes have low salt levels. In these cases phragmites are often found to be growing where spartina grass would normally be. Bill Sheehan’s quote, “Phragmites, its green most of the time, and it ain’t condos,” is referring to the fact that they are naturally occurring plants just like spartina. The phragmite grass has grown naturally and provided many benefits for the ecosystem, so in Sheehan’s opinion it wouldn’t make sense to destroy phragmites to replace the grass with spartina. is reference to condos means we didn’t pave over and construct something else to develop the area. This is important because it shows how the appearance of phragmite grass means a natural change is beginning at the salt marshes, and it is not necessarily a bad one. This will most certainly be a slow proess, but at least in Sheehan’s eyes we’re letting nature take its course. Though spartina is very beneficial for the salt marshes, phragmite grass provides a habitat for various fish to live in and is utilized by different bird species. If humans choose to restore the salt marshes they would have to remove and destroy much of the phragmite grass. This would lead to several species of fish dying off because of the destruction of their habitat and might effect bird migration as well. On top of that there is no certainty that the spartina will grow back, and even if it does it may not make up for the damages caused by removing the phragmite.

When we visited the Salt Marsh in Jamaica Bay earlier this month we saw the destruction caused by Super Storm Sandy. The storm left the salt marshes in ruins, and restoring them to how they were before hand would take years of time and close observation. The storm happened without human interference so its clear to see that destruction of salt marshes can occur naturally anyway. The time and effort needed to restore the salt marshes to their natural structure, filled with spartina grass, is not worth it.

Attempts to restore salt marshes will only be a temporary remedy for the problem. The proper remedy is time; with time the marshes will heal themselves. For now our best option is to leave the salt marshes alone and let the phragmites and spartina grasses grow together. Doing this will allow the species that rely on phragmite grass to remain unharmed while the spartina grass can naturally grow and restore the salt marshes. This remedy is more permanent and less harmful than trying to restore the salt marshes ourselves.

Destruction of the Salt Marshes

Destruction of the Salt Marshes

Many of the worst things done to the environment throughout history were done without knowledge of their harmful effects. When Europeans first started colonizing the Americas, they saw the new lands as resources to use for their benefit. At the time, the standard in Europe regarding land was that if land was not usable for agricultural purposes, it was useless. This standard was simply based on a lack of proper knowledge that would come out years later. One of the biggest mistakes that these settlers made was draining the salt marshes.

Before the settlers arrived, Native Americans occupied the land, and were very respectful. They came from societies that focused on hunting and gathering, and a lot of Native American beliefs were based on respect and love for nature. The natives took only what they needed from nature and always made sure to “give back” by performing ceremonies to honor nature. European society was very different, and to them, respect for land and nature was a rare quality. They used the land somewhat carelessly because they needed it for survival. It was no surprise that when they started settling in the Americas they needed arable land as quickly as possible.

Salt marshes, seemingly useless to the first settlers, are actually an extremely productive ecosystem. Various organisms depend upon salt marshes for all or part of their lives, and salt marshes produce more basic food energy per acre than any other known ecosystem. Salt marshes also keep natural water clean by filtering out sediments, nutrients, and other toxins from upland runoff. The European settlers of course had no idea the harm they were causing when draining these salt marshes – they were simply trying to survive. They had an agriculture-based lifestyle, and destroying the salt marshes provided easily accessible land to serve their purposes. It would be unfair to blame them completely for the damages they caused to the ecosystem during this time because they simply did not know any better. Though the side effects were extremely harmful, it was probably not intentional in any way. The environmental cost of creating arable land was unknown to them at the time, and they were simply doing what they needed to get by.

There is no excuse however, for the continued destruction of salt marshes today. Since the mid 1900’s we have been aware of the damage we inflict by destroying salt marshes. We continue to learn more and more about how precious our ecosystem is and how important it is for the future of our planet to preserve it. However, we have continually contributed to the destruction of salt marshes, along with other natural resources, to make room for our industrialized society. These behaviors should not be tolerated, especially since we now have knowledge about how harmful this is for the environment, which the European settlers did not have. Somehow we still manage to eat away at our natural resources and destroy our planet even with this knowledge that our ancestors lacked.

We can blame whomever we’d like for the destruction of salt marshes, but in reality were just blaming ourselves. It’s now our job, being more educated, to put a stop to the destruction of our planet’s natural resources and work to fix the destruction we’ve caused in the past.

The Lenapes and Cosmology

Land of the Lenapes

“Honor and respect our lives, our beings, in life and death. Do what you have failed to do before. Stop doing what offends our Spirits.” The War Chief gave his promise, and the animals returned with the warriors to the Lenape homeland. That is why, as the storyteller concludes, “Ever since that time we Lenape have always offered tobacco and shown the utmost respect when hunting or upon killing an animal for food. We never took more than we needed, and we used as much of the animal’s remains as we could.”

The Lenapes’ relationship with the natural environment was greatly influenced by their practice of cosmology. They believed that all living and nonliving things had a spirit within them, called a maneto. The manito’wak could cause mischief in the Lenape society if they were displeased or offended by the people. To appeal to the manito’wak, the Lenapes performed seasonal rituals in the spirits’ honor. One of the rituals was in honor of the Keeper of the Game, in which the fat of the first buck killed was offered as a sacrifice. Other rituals included the sacrifice of the first fruits, offerings of  burnt corn to the deer and bear spirits, and offerings of fish shaped bread to the fish spirit. Tobacco also played an important role in these spiritual rituals. All of these ceremonies and sacrificial offerings were done to insure a bountiful outcome, whether of fruit, fish, or game, and to give thanks to the spirits for any previous bountiful outcomes. The Lenape believed that honoring the spirits with these rituals was necessary, and failure to carry out the rituals would result in terrible consequences. In order to have the food and resources that were essential to the survival of their people, the Lenape had to give thanks to the spirits that were believed to control such things. Otherwise, they would have unsuccessful hunting and gathering experiences and would struggle to survive.

The Lenape’s practice of spiritual rituals showed the highest respect for the natural environment. They only took what they needed from nature, and regularly thanked nature and the “spirits of nature” for allowing them to use its resources for survival. They recognized and respected the power of nature, from the natural resources they used for crafting to the animals they consumed: “To replace what you have taken by making a tobacco offering is a recognition or acknowledgement of the life you take, whether it is a tree cut down to make baskets or an animal killed for food”. Their belief that things both living and nonliving had indwelling spirits led to their reverence for everything in the natural environment.

Today, we might think of offering sacrifices to spirits as absurd. However, the Lenape’s belief in cosmology and spiritual rituals had the purpose of expressing gratitude towards nature, and this practice had a positive impact on the natural environment. Rather than abusing the land, the Lenape people took care of it and practiced a kind of give-and-take relationship with nature. This shows that the Lenape were thoughtful about their impact on nature, and took the utmost care in making sure that it was fully appreciated. The Lenape clearly had a positive, appreciative relationship with the natural environment.

My BioBlitz Experience

Bio Blitz

Hiking around Central Park at dawn on the last day of summer vacation is not something I thought I would ever enjoy. However, I decided that it would be a unique opportunity to explore the wildlife of the park so early in the day, since not many people would be around. Although my group made every effort to make it to Central Park on time, we had some bad luck with the trains and ended up being 45 minutes late. Thankfully the BioBlitz director was able to get us set up with a group not long after we arrived, and we set off to explore the birds of Central Park.

Immediately we encountered some morning doves, robins, and cardinals. We learned that the morning doves are related to pigeons, which was apparent by the similar way that they walk and move their heads. The director also explained that the “robins” we saw were actually thrushes, but they are called robins because  they resemble the European robin. Even though we were given binoculars, it was a bit of a challenge to locate some birds that were pointed out to us because they were hidden among the leaves on the trees. Unfortunately for us, there didn’t seem to be many birds to observe after the first few that we saw, possibly because of the early hour and humid weather.

Although our group didn’t get to see as many birds as we thought we would, we still saw plenty of interesting things around the park. We passed by a few waterfalls and bridges, which I found to be very peaceful and beautiful, and we saw plenty of plants and flowers. We also went down a lot of paths that I’d never seen before and probably wouldn’t have explored on my own. Being surrounded by trees and plants almost made me forget that we were even in the city, because I would normally associate the city with skyscrapers, traffic, graffiti, etc. It was definitely a different perspective of New York City for me.

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Having only been to Central Park twice before, BioBlitz was a great opportunity for me to explore and familiarize myself with such an important and famous part of New York City. It was a bit of a let down since our group only saw a few birds, and mostly just wandered around wondering where they all were hiding. The good part of it all was getting to see the city in a much different way than I ever had before, and it made me feel more connected to the city’s natural environment. I think its incredible that a great amount of wildlife and nature can exist in the middle of such a chaotic urban area. Overall this event made me appreciate Central Park more, and hopefully I’ll see a few more birds the next time I decide to visit.