All posts by Moette Nehama Schwartz

Restoration is a Must

Marsh Restoration

After visiting a salt marsh and witnessing first hand the destruction caused by Super Storm Sandy, I would immediately agree that salt marsh restoration is crucial in maintaing the unique features of such a productive eco-system.  However, Bill Sheehan’s quote, “Phragmites. It is green most of the time, and it ain’t condos,” implies the opposite. Phragmites might not be as ecologically productive as spartina grass, but the phragmites is still more useful to the environment than paving over the salt marsh to create condominiums.

Due to the low salt levels of many salt marshes,  phragmites is growing in environments where spartina grass is usually found.  Nonetheless, phragmites provides habitat for many fishes and is utilized by many bird species.  In the short term, destroying the phragmites and restoring the marsh would mean a loss of wetlands. In addition, the spartina grass might not grow back, and other native species are often killed during phragmites removal.  Certainly, this kind of restoration sounds more destructive than effective.

Restoring a salt marsh is complicated, but I do not think the only options are maintaining non-native plants or creating apartment buildings, as Bill Sheehan mentions.  When restored, a natural community returns to the marsh and food webs are re-established.  Restoring a marsh is possible, important, and does have benefits.  However, this work needs to be done by a group of experts who are invested in the completion of the project.  The experts, whose motivation should be to improve the environment,  would  hopefully ensure that the work that was done did not further harm the salt marsh.  The work will be slow, but the final product will have a positive impact on the eco-system.  This type of restoration is effective, as opposed to bulldozing the phragmites or killing the plant with herbicide.

There is a second quality of phragmites that Sheehan does not mention, but that would probably impact his favorable view of phragmites.  In connection to our conversation in class about weeds, phragmites, while a productive plant, is growing like a weed. This does not mean the plant is undesirable, but it does mean that it is growing uncontrollably, in non-native environments.  Phragmites might be useful right now, but the long term effects of the plant in areas it does not belong could be harmful to the environment.  Phragmites does need to be contained in order for it to continue to be a productive element in the eco-system.  Anything in large quantities posses trouble for the environment.

Bill Sheehan is correct when he says that phragmites is more useful than condos, but salt marsh estuaries, with both spartina and phragmites grass is even better than just phragmites. Restoration of the marsh with native plants is a must.

 

Innocent Destruction: A Lack of Understanding

Destruction of the Salt Marshes

Imagine the excitement the colonists experienced when they arrived in North America, particularly New York, and were overwhelmed by the acres of land and salt marsh estuaries.  The colonists had cattle, and their cattle needed a place to graze.  First the land surrounding the estuary was used, but eventually that land was no longer fertile and more land was needed.  The colonists may have drained the salt marshes to serve their own purposes, but they did not understand the consequences of their actions.  The colonists had only one main idea in mind, and that was to survive in this New World.  By draining the salt marshes, the colonists had more pasture for their cattle.  The colonists could then continue eating their cattle for food and using the animal skins and bones for clothing, tools, building, and trading.  This was innocent destruction.  There was no science to cure the simple diseases they were dying from, let alone understanding or science that proved that salt marsh destruction has negative effects on the environment ranging from the loss of certain species, an increase in costal flooding, and an increase in mosquito population.

It says in the Scientific American:  “Such lands are not only unproductive of anything which can subserve any important purpose, but they are productive of numerous evils.” The Scientific American has already taken the next step in actively destroying salt marshes.  The magazine states that salt marshes are hotbeds of evil and should therefore cease to exist. This quote is from 1868, more than 200 years after the first colonist step foot in America.  While science was still lagging behind in 1868, society had some understanding of salt marshes if they could attribute evils, whether correct or incorrect, to estuaries.  They might not have known all the positives of salt marshes, but they probably had a better understanding than the colonists.  By this point in history, people are destoying salt marshes because they lack a concern for the environemnt and are selfishly pursuing their own goals.  However, the colonists did not consider the salt marshes to be troublesome, because once again, they had no understanding of science.  Even if their homes were filled with mosquitoes or bad smells, they probably did not realize the cause was salt marshes.  They did not destroy salt marshes maliciously as the Scientific American is advocating.

The colonists were not concerned with the environment, but I do not think their actions were thoughtless.  The colonists were probably aware that they were destroying part of nature, but the colonists made what they considered to be a thoughtful choice.  The salt marsh was not a productive element in their society, so they chose to drain it.  What is interesting though, is that the colonists’ actions might not fit under the category of technology.  When the colonists decided to fill the salt marshes, scientific understanding was certainly lacking, but the colonists did not use fancy technology to drain the estuaries.  They  simply filled them by blocking stream outlets.  Science does not only need to catch up with technology, science needs to stay on track or even ahead of human intervention of any sort, including, actions taken without understanding the consequences in the big picture, actions taken to try to help a situation but might actually hurt, and of course actions that actively and knowingly destroy the environment.

The Land of the Lenapes- Medicinal Nature

Land of the Lenapes

How I love the smell of herbs! There is nothing that smells quite like thyme seasoned on grilled tomatoes, or the freshness of mint tea.  Herbs, which grow in the natural environment, can beautifully flavor and enhance foods.  However, herbs can also have medicinal purposes.  The Lenapes, a Native American tribe, had extensive knowledge of herbs and their power to heal diseases.  In fact, the Lenapes made medicines out of herbs, roots, plants, and bark.  For example, they would brew a special tea called catnip tea, which is a plant that is related to the mint family, for a sick member of the tribe, or strengthen the infirm by covering them with strawberry leaves.  There are two fascinating things about these natural or organic cures.  The first is that the herbs worked effectively to alleviate their ailments.    This can be assumed because the history of using herbs  as medicine is long and well intwined in the Lenape society.  The second is that the herbs healed diseases we still have today, such as rheumatism.  Therefore, it is not surprising that some of the organic cures have been passed down to our society.   Many medicines now contain at least one ingredient derived from plants.

Through this picture, it is clear that the Lenapes were dependent on the natural environment in order to maintain their health.  There may have been hundreds of herbs that had medicinal purposes, but  the Lenapes tended to move from site to site, based on the seasons.  What did they do if they needed the herb that cured cold symptoms but there was non growing nearby? There was no pharmacy for them to pick some up.  It is possible that they carried certain herbs with them from place to place, or that many herbs cured the same thing.  If this were the case, the Lenapes had a vital and continuous relationship with the natural environment, as they were always bringing the parts of nature they deemed important, the healing herbs, with them.

The Lenapes also respected the natural environment.  Not only did they understand the medicinal effect of herbs, and how something so small could have such a large impact on their health, but they also respected the environment that the plants grew in.  The Lenapes did not run through nature cutting down every catnip plant they saw.  They treated the plants with dignity, as would be appropriate to something with such great powers.  There was a procedure for collecting plants that had to be followed with respect to proper rituals, otherwise the cures did not work.  This included dropping a tobacco offering at the first plant the collector found and then picking the next plant of the same kind.  In addition, bark was only peeled from healthy trees.  The Lenapes took their rituals seriously.  They believed in the curative effects of the herbs, and while being dependent on the natural environment to provide the plants, the Lenapes respected the natural environment from where the herbs grew.  The Lenapes were in a constant, dependable, but respectable relationship with the natural environment.

Communing with Nature: My Bio Blitz Experience

Bio Blitz

A friend of mine recently vacationed in Costa Rica.  She came back extolling the beauty of Costa Rica, and then asked me an interesting question: “Think anyone who visits New York would describe it as pretty?”  I answered probably not.  I would characterize New York, or at least New York City, as urban and busy.   While there is certainly beauty in the intricate workings of the city, my friend was clearly referring to the aesthetic pleasures of the natural environment of Costa Rica.  However, I might have been mistaken in my answer to that question.  One often loses the beauty of the natural environment of New York City amidst the skyscrapers, but it does exist if one takes the time to notice it. This past Monday, during my Bio Blitz session, I felt connected to nature while being in New York City, something I never thought possible.

When I first arrived at Central Park I was hesitant about the objectives for the day.  I live in Westchester; I can enjoy nature in my backyard.  Then, I was placed in the insect group. I was not excited. Not only have I always been squeamish around bugs, I was hoping I would be involved with something more unique like birds or mammals.  Nonetheless, my group headed out with a golf car full of devices used to collect insects including aspirators, aerial nets, and sifters.  Before we even arrived at our specific location, the day started looking up. We walked on a beautiful, green path and ended up by a stream with a water fall. A water fall in Central Park in New York City?! No way. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised, and of course took a lot of pictures.

Suddenly I was handed an aspirator or a device used to suck bugs, and it was time to begin the collecting process.  It took me a few minutes to get over the disgusting idea of gathering bugs with a tube I was putting in my mouth even though there was no way I could swallow anything.  With a bit of encouragement from the other two girls I was working with, I did use the aspirator.  In that second while using the device and successfully capturing my first bug, I experienced an interaction with nature  as a result of my  close contact with the natural environment and organisms other than human beings.  Yet, I was not scared.  I was calm and collected and focused on what I was doing.   I was even a little bit sad as I watched the insects die in the vials of alcohol. The experience of using an aspirator was completely new for me.  I was in sync with the natural environment not only because I was near my subject, but because I was an active participant within the environment and not just an observer like I am in my backyard.

In addition, the staff with our group from the Central Park Conservancy and our park ranger helped foster our connection with nature.  They were very knowledgeable and passionate about insects and nature.  Who knew there were so many kinds of ants, and that they are attracted to tuna fish and cookies?   I appreciated the staff’s expertise and learned much more at Bio Blitz than I would have sitting in my backyard watching insects from afar.  In Central Park I really got my hands dirty. Due to the excitement of the guides with our group and our proximity to and participation in the natural environment, it was easy and enjoyable to be swept away in the moment.  Even though I was in New York City, I felt connected to natural environment.