All posts by aschnaidman

Reconstructing, or furthering destruction?

Marsh Restoration

The question as to whether or not salt marshes should be restored to their original states is a tricky. While on the surface it may seem ideal to use our powers of technology for good and to bring back what once was, I believe that there are serious flaws in the rationale.

I believe that removing non-indigenous species that have started to grow naturally and replacing them with indigenous species that no longer grow naturally is futile when regarding the fundamentals of the issues. Salt marshes became invaded and destroyed by human intervention. Therefore, human intervention caused the problems in the first place, and although the intentions this time are for constructive purposes, this isn’t to say that results can be certain.

The best thing that people can do now is to once again let nature takes it’s course. The ecosystems that exist in salt marshes are comprised of an incredibly network of saline levels, food chains, and other ecofactors. While experts may be on the project, human logic and experimentation is very fallible. By trying to artificially recreate an ecosystem, humans are likely to aggravate the situation. On the other hand, by letting the new, non-indigenous species thrive naturally, the marshes will rebuild themselves. They will not be the same environments that were once there, but they will be natural nonetheless.

Think of this metaphor. The United States is made up almost entirely of immigrants and decedents of immigrants who came to this country over the past 300 years. Very few Americans are actually “indigenous”. No one will argue that we should try to replace the non-indigenous Americans with Native Americans. It has been generally accepted that there is a new meaning to what it means to be “American”. The same logic should be applied to salt marshes.

The Lenape Relationship to Nature Through Cosmology

Land of the Lenapes

The Lenape peoples’ spiritual relationship with their environment is, I believe, rooted in their physical closeness and dependence on natural resources. Spiritual and religious beliefs arise out of a yearning towards a higher power as a driving force behind the universe. The Lenape, in their utterly nature-dependent lives, had no choice but to trust in nature as the ultimate source of power. Yet they were the ones who managed nature and learned to adapt and control it, and therefore they themselves became a part of the process.

Therefore, the idea of a total interlinking between man, animals, plants, and all other naturally existing elements, formed. Such spiritual beliefs would later be adopted by the American Transcendentalist poets like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Robert Frost, but they originated in Native American tribes and in this case, the Lenape. The idea of maneto, the “spiritual indwelling of all things” ties the people together with the land and the animals. Humans are no more powerful than a rock. Rather, the maneto does not favor one entity over another. By linking themselves spiritually with nature, the Lenape acknowledge their subservience and solidarity with nature despite their ability to cultivate and manipulate resources.

The spirituality of the Lenape sharply contrasts what New York and modern America would become. In most modern societies, nature exists entirely apart from daily life. People live in the age of concrete and technology, and nature becomes “an escape”. Resources are cultivated and processed by specialists for broader society to enjoy. We do not live in constant contact with naturally existing resources, and therefore there is no spiritual connection to the land. In a weird way, we develop religious tendencies towards the entities that are most poignant in our lives. The current generation has an attachment to technology that uncannily reflects the Lenape attitude towards nature. The Lenape had a need to be constantly favoring the spirits that surrounded them in all natural things. They brought sacrifices and attributed and fixed all problems likewise. The current generation does not entrust its well-being in crops, but in phones and and other gadgets. While we may think that the Lenape relationship to the cosmos is a foreign concept in modern, intellectually leaning (and atheism prone) society, this sort of total subservience still exists, it is just manifested differently

This isn’t to say that I think that the Lenape’s focus on spirituality with regard to nature is necessarily superior and our generation is lost and such and such. They held “fluid boundaries” with their natural surroundings, and our smartphones are pretty much limbs at this point. Does that make us any worse off? Unclear, I think. But at the very least we have a basis of comparison that we can relate to so that we can better understand the Lenape’s spiritual connection to the cosmos.

Rethinking Bio Blitz

Bio Blitz

 

My experience at Bio Blitz was a paradox. The natural environment in which we were hiking, combined with the nearby sounds of urban life, felt like two completely different worlds, existing side by side. While I did hear nature sounds during the excursion, like crickets and birds and waterfalls, the distant hum of traffic was incessant, and made an impact on my experience. It was difficult for me to truly appreciate the “nature” of Central Park because the apparent existence of an adjacent urban world was a constant reminder that, despite its lush abundance of flora and wildlife, Central Park is not a naturally existing location.

That being said, I did not really expect to most rustic of experiences at Bio Blitz. I went into the event knowing already that while I might have my hiking shoes on, 5th avenue is just beyond those trees. When we were informed that we would be examining “wildlife” I could not imagine that there would be much to explore aside from the local creatures like pigeons and raccoons, and an array of bugs and insects.

For the most part, I was right. There were no exotic species that blew me away, and the most active creature we saw was a raccoon scurrying away into a bush. There was, however, a charm to seeing even the most ordinary wildlife in a somewhat natural habitat. A cave might have been manmade, but the magnificent spider web at its opening was constructed by an insect merely going about its natural order. We saw many bats, as my shift was during the later hours of the day and transitioned from light to dark. The habitat that the bats lived in did not naturally exist, but that did not stop the bats from living the same way as a bat in a natural cave. The habitats and environment in Central Park are manmade, but the wildlife clearly manages with the illusion of a real habitat.

At one point I looked at my shoulder and saw that there was a small green bug resting on my shirt. It was interesting looking; it looked just like a single leaf on a clover, folded in half with tiny red eyes. As intrigued as I was by the insect, the reaction felt forced. I felt like it was my responsibility to act as though this little insect was a rare and precious find, and not just a common occurrence of a bug sticking to my shirt. It might as well have been a fly. I suspected that much of the wildlife on the trip was highly typical and did not yield many breakthroughs on urban forest life.

This is not to say that as a manmade environment, Central Park is not “real”. It functions the way any ecosystem would, and is designed to imitate unadulterated nature. Overall I did not feel a connection to the wildlife of New York City, mainly because I do not imagine New York City as having green wildlife. In my mind, New York is concrete, the concrete jungle, if you will. Adding green in attempts to imitate natural reserves nearby seemed almost satirical to me. It is wonderful that Central Park provides an escape from the daily hustle and bustle. Why pretend, however, that New York City is anything other than what it is? I was not fooled by the abundance of plant life; the loud honking and sirens were just as apparent as the humming of the cicadas. I felt like Bio Blitz, while a worthy excursion, tried to hard to pretend that New York City houses legitimate wildlife akin to reserves.

I would propose a new outlook on said wildlife. Instead of acting as though we are preserving something, we should act as though we are creating something entirely new. A hike within a city can be an entity in of itself. There is no need to pretend that Central Park is Yellowstone.