All posts by Jonathan Spilky

The Times They Are a Changing

Blog Assignments, Marsh Restoration, , , , , ,

It is without a doubt that mankind is the dominating species on planet Earth.  Over the past few thousand years humans have continued to cultivate a desire that has been a part of man since the dawn of time – a yearning to control and rule over the natural environment.  Man’s ability to adapt and create new things from his environment has been evidenced as early as the creation of fire.  It is in our nature to use our surroundings to better our own situation.  In light of this, it should be no surprise that in the course of man’s self-centered quest for the continuous betterment of his condition there have been more than a few instances of collateral damage.  In our haste to implement what we view as improvements, we often find that we should have looked before we leapt.  One such example is the case of New York City’s salt marshes.

We are living in an age where our grasp is catching up to our reach.  Our technological and scientific breakthroughs are accompanied by equal developments in public philosophy and social culpability as the global network continues to fortify and expand.  I think that this increased connectivity, which we are lucky enough to have at our disposal, has imparted upon us a wider sense of responsibility for the harm we may cause and a feeling that we need to be aware of the consequences to our actions.  The restoration effort that has gained traction in the past decade is a wonderful step in the right direction.  Yet even here we are plagued by the nagging doubt that we might not know best.  In the reading, there was quite a controversy over which plants to have reintroduced to salt marshes undergoing restoration.  While we do not know now if there will be a lasting effect if phragmites is introduced in lieu of the native spartina, it is definitely a step in the right direction.  As Bill Sheehan said, “Phragmites, it’s green most of the time, and it ain’t condos.”  Certainly, as a civilization that praises the pursuit of perfection we can hold ourselves to a higher standard than that for restoration efforts.

“Those Who Do Not Learn [from] History are Doomed to Repeat It”

Destruction of the Salt Marshes

The era of the colonists was one of wonder and exploration.  Imagine the awe-inspiring feeling of landing on a massive new continent, never before mapped or seen by a European person.  Seeing a social structure that greatly differed from their own, the colonists did not deem the Native Americans “civilized” and in their wide-eyed greed claimed the vast expanses of rich and fertile land for themselves.  In the eyes of the colonists, all of this land was simply an enormous bonanza to be utilized as they wished.  This habitual hegemony of less powerful peoples and unresisting environments practiced by Colonial era European nations is well documented.  Consequently, it should be of no surprise that those elements of the environment that seemed superfluous were either discarded or altered to fit the needs of the colonists.

Although the fundamental value system of earlier civilized nations was flawed, I think that part of the impetus for these destructive tendencies in colonial America was the most basic of all urges: the need for survival.  In order to acclimate to a strange environment with a relatively difficult living situation, the colonists resorted to whatever means they thought would help them flourish and survive.  It is obvious that the colonists did not have the technical wherewithal or the mindset to be concerned with potential damages that were inflicted on the environment.

While our intellectual and scientific capabilities may have dramatically improved since the times of the colonists, our values have not.  We cannot be afforded the same leniencies that are granted to our ancestors because, put simply, we know better.  Even with our knowledge of the havoc we wreak on our environment, we as a society continue our opportunistic harvesting of our planet’s resources with myopia more severe than that of our predecessors.  We can either continue to be aware of, but neglect the consequences of our actions or use the knowledge that we have been blessed enough to acquire as a tool to repair the damage we have caused.

Karmic Respect, as Learned from the Lenape

Land of the Lenapes

Reading through the chapter on the Lenape people of pre-colonial North America, one of the aspects of their lifestyle that struck me was the deeply symbiotic nature of the relationship that the Lenape shared with their natural environment.  As the Lenape cultivated, protected and sustained their surroundings, the plants they lived with gave back in an equal manner in terms of both sustenance and reparation.  The reparation I mention came in the form of healing processes that the Lenape contrived from their knowledge of various herbs and plants, which they were intimately familiar with.

This idea of “green medicine” was a sacred one to the Lenape.  One who was considered talented and intelligent enough to have knowledge of the properties of every native plant was placed on the level of a prophet and could only achieve the level of a “medicine person” by having a spirit dream and being infused with a personally binding understanding of the flora and fauna.  Since there was an almost religious aspect attached to the medicinal characteristics, the healer was required to retrieve the plants with a great amount of respect and ceremony – lest the remedy not succeed.

Much of the attitude of the Lenape towards plant life and the environment in general stems from their belief in karmic renderings affecting their lives.  While respect for plant life and “Mother Earth” might not have been inherent to their culture as an absolute and considered necessary for the reasons we consider today when debating whether to recycle that milk container or not, the Lenape still treated their surroundings in a way that they believed would help them live a sustainable lifestyle.  However different their lifestyle might be from ours, I think it is an important lesson that can be learned from these ancient Native Americans.

Bio Blitz: Israel Edition

Bio Blitz

While I was unfortunately unable to attend the Central Park Bio Blitz, I have had other experiences with nature that have provided me with a fresh appreciation of the world around me.  A couple years ago, I spent six weeks of my summer backpacking and touring Israel on a program with a bunch of my friends.  While I had visited Israel many times before, I did not expect how vastly different my experiences – separated by only a year – would be.

As a group of twenty or so, we spent a month and half driving Israel literally from top to bottom.  We stopped and hiked different mountains and trails in environments ranging from the leafy mountains of the north to the miles of desert eight hours south.  Much like New York City, Israel is a place that I have grown up with and feels familiar to me – and much like the Bio Blitz, my tour allowed me to take a closer look at a landscape that I thought I already knew so well.

The highlight of the trip was a four-day camping expedition from coast to coast that really allowed me to go over the place that I love inch by inch and gain a new understanding of what really makes up a place.  My trip through the wildlife of Israel taught me that there are many layers at any given site.  There is the constructed – what we humans have built – there is the historical, there is the personal, but beneath it all there is the environmental and geographical, what has been there for thousands of years and what will continue to be there for many more.  The memory of running into the Mediterranean Sea at the end of our journey will stay with me no matter what happens to the specific beach I was at.  While not as hard to do in the still-growing Israel as it might have been in New York City for those at the Bio Blitz, in order to fully appreciate the land I needed to forget my previous knowledge of all the things I knew in order to see the things that I didn’t know.  For example, in my opinion it is much more difficult to appreciate mountains as landmarks than after having hiked over one to see the sun set at the top.

Having walked through the land gave me a sense of ownership and personal connection on a level that I didn’t get even after living there for the summer before.  Experiencing a place through its nature and natural environment lets you connect with a place in a deeper way that lasts longer because your connection is not bound to any one thing – it’s to the place itself and it will always be there.  I wish I could have used the opportunity given by the Bio Blitz to deconstruct New York City in the same manner, but I hope for and expect us to do much of that in our class.