Extinction is forever - A close call for an ebony

Islands are evolutionary laboratories providing genetic isolation of any organism that disperses there with the result that new and novel species often arise that grow no where else.  Then there are those species (just 1) that build boats so that they may disperse more easily, and bring with them their pigs and goats, much to the detriment of endemic species that arose in isolation from such organisms.  Here's a story of a near brush with extinction, the St. Helena's ebony.  Long thought extinct, two bushes were found growing on a cliff beyond the reach of grazing goats.  With the assistance of Kew Gardens, this species' extinction has been forestalled for now, by using these two survivors to propogate new plants, something not easily done without today's biotechnical tools.  Without botanical gardens with such conservation programs the situation around the world would be much worse.  Of course, what difference does such a species make?  Why should we care?  Why should we expend so many resources rescuing this tree?  Maybe next time the species will be something really important, and knowing how to do it would be a good thing.  And who are you to judge this species of no consequence?  And to give you some idea what TPP means, parochial dolts, unfortunately dolts put in charge of higher education, wonder why we "waste" time and money teaching our students about rain forest as if all that matters, or should matter, takes place within the non-biological borders of Lincolnland. 

Earth Day - we have met the enemy

TPP has been around since the first Earth Day, and while a lot of people now pay at least some lip service to the topic, progress has been pretty slow.  Recycling has been a bright spot, here and there, and it's nice to see more thought being given to energy-efficient architecture.  In a few places wind energy has begun to have a presence.  But tough questions about carbon emissions, population, and climate change, go wanting largely because of gutless politicians, the media, and miserable state of politics just about everywhere.  So it's nice to see the Earth Day events, but the enormity of what needs to be done is quite daunting to the point of being depressing.  We seem to be a species that cannot act except in response to crisis.  Ah well.  Here's a reminder of how long Earth Day has been around as a "happening".  Although the famous phrase was first used in Walt Kelly's Pogo Earth Day poster in 1970, it was repeated the next year in a 2 frame strip where Pogo famously says ....

Master Gardeners - what to make of them?

Over at the Garden Rant blog there's quite a discussion about the Master Gardener designation, and the rule that people so educated not use the MG as a credential commercially.  On one hand, these extension programs to provide interested amateurs with a lot of information and knowledge is a great thing, it's educational outreach, one of a university's missions, but the term Master Gardener is ridiculous really.  Locally, TPP corrected a Master Gardener, where upon she bristled, and said, "I'm a Master Gardener."  Yes, you're the plant amateur, I'm the plant professional and you got that wrong.  Of course, TPP isn't a master gardener either; he's a doctor of botany with decades of experience, who grew up with gardens, has always had a garden and now gardens as a hobby and for mental health, but it's a funny thing about botany, it applies to gardening.  TPP can't even count how many gardens he's visited around the world, and he learns things about plants at a level that most amateurs cannot comprehend.  This is not an ego trip about intelligence; it's the simple consequence of an ever increasing knowledge network where the more you know the easier it is to learn still more.  TPP didn't understand this until the accelerated learning effect started to kick in sometime during his 2nd year in graduate school; that was 40 years ago.  Think about that.  Someone who has been learning botany at a rate an amateur can't imagine for more than 4 decades.  A real master gardener would be someone who has degrees in botany and horticulture and years of experience running an actual garden or arboretum.  Locally an amateur Master Gardener writes a gardening column for the newspaper and it's pretty well done.  The extra education has given her the confidence to look things up and pass them along accurately.  The MG program gave her access to a whole new world of information.  A similar program exists for Master Naturalists, and a group of them are presently collaborating with TPP because they still need the expertise and direction of a professional "naturalist", and yes, it's not a stretch to say TPP is a professional naturalist, to do useful, meaningful "citizen science".  Fortunately there are some things that dedicated and interested amateur naturalists can do that might get overlooked or ignored by professionals because of the different levels at which we operate.  So my master naturalists are going to conduct a floristic survey of natural areas to generate a vouchered database of plant diversity because 100 years from now someone will be interested to find out how well these conservation areas have done at conserving.  It would be great if someone had done this 100 years ago, great but discouraging, which is likely to be the same reaction 100 years from now, but 100 years ago the idea of conservation, of protecting diversity, was really not on their radar screens, so the collections were rather haphazard in this regard.  Even still they tell us what is missing; locally: Indian paintbrush, yellow ladyslippers, and more.  These programs are certainly worth the effort for the people involved if they can find something useful to do with this education, but at the same time, they remain amateurs. In the present day it's hard for amateurs to make a useful contribution to science (doing a floristic survey will not add to TPP's credentials in any way really) unless in collaboration; the usefulness of master gardeners is less clear to me, but a horticultural colleague says they have been very important as volunteers in the development of a horticultural center, under the direction of a professional gardener.  So TPP supports such programs so long as the participants don't make overly much about the resulting designation. And that was probably the purpose of the MG rules about use of the designation.    

Eradicat in New Zealand

Eradicat?  Eradicate cats?  In New Zealand?  In one sense this fellow is right.  Cats are hard wired to hunt and kill anything furry or feathery thing they can get their paws on.  And they are very good at it.  This can and does harm wildlife.  While all of this is true, it still does not follow that the solution is to eradicate cats.  Clearly this fellow likes a good suck-up pet like a dog, but that's on him.  The Phactors have a wildlife friendly yard: plant cover, water, food, and yes, every now and then some wildlife must be relocated because in general woodchucks exceed our yard's carrying capacity.  But our kitty girls don't harm any wildlife even though they dearly would like to.  The reason cats harm wildlife is because of irresponsible owners.  One, cats are pets, and all the best people have them.  Two, as pets as opposed to purposeful breeding stock, they should be neutered.  Three, cats should be indoor animals unless supervised.  The idea that it's cruel or mean to keep cats inside (incarcerate?) is pure BS.  Our kitties only venture out of doors when harnessed and attached to a long lead, or like the F1 who has a tall fenced yard and a lazy cat.  Let's face it, you really can't walk a cat, but you can let a cat prowl around, explore, and get some exercise without turning them loose.  Would you turn a 5 year old loose in a big box store?  Of course not, to do so is irresponsible.  Even still every so often a squirrel with lower IQ or a less attentive attitude, neither good for survival, has come close to letting our mightiest hunter get her paws on them and improve the local gene pool.  So far it's only been good clean fun allowing both parties some exercise.  We can agree with the concept of eradicat by eliminating the circumstances that allow them to go feral.   

What do botanists do when not in their office or lab?

Field work!  Protecting biodiversity is a tough job, and biologists are racing against extinction, mostly from habitat loss, and now perhaps from climate change.  To help document and preserve plant biodiversity requires documenting species with specimens and in the case of rare species collecting seeds.  Usually you don't find important specimens growing in city parks, so field botanists end up in very remote areas where access can be difficult.  Sit down at a table of field botanists, buy them some beer, and ask them how many vehicle axles they've broken.  Ask them how many times they've been bogged down in the mud.  Ask them how many times they've been drenched trying to keep their specimens safe and dry.  Ask them about the worst illness or parasite they ever picked up in the field.  Everyone of them will have a story.  Even TPP has his blood enshrined in the CDC for bringing home a disease organisms fortunately without its vector.  Here's a nice promotional/educational film of a field expedition out of Kew Gardens on a plant collecting trip.  A short segment starting at about 6:30 shows you some views of the spiny forest in Madagascar.  HT to Agricultural Biodiversity who always finds the best stuff.

The Cost of Environmental Regulations

By now the anti-environmental mantra of the GnOPers is well known to all in the USA where conservative has nothing whatever to do with conservation. Duh! Other than thinking that safe guarding the environment is a good thing, the Phactor, like most other people is unable to judge fairly whether such regulations, onerous as they may be, are hurting industries, the economy, and costing us jobs. Dealing with waste and emissions certainly costs companies, although the idea that environmental degredation is an OK business practice results in another cost subsididzed by the environment and everything else that uses it and needs it. The current crop of GnOPe presidential hopefuls have made it pretty clear that they think EPA rules and regs hurt the USA's economy. Without being overly cynical, if such a thing is possible these days when speaking of politics, it strikes this thinking person that like most of their other positions this is simple-minded thinking, or campaign rhetoric, or most likely both, as no towering intellect has been demonstrated among them. After all if new regulations require new technology, somebody gets employed to design it, make it, install it, and maintain it. The money it costs industry A to safe guard the environment doesn't just disappear, it goes to industry B, C, D, and E, generating jobs in the process. So it comes as no surprise really when people who understand these things better agree with my basic understanding of the issue.

O'Really bugs me, again.

There are few people that the Phactor disagrees with more often than Bill O'Really. So it was rather ironic that the day after blogging about how to get kids of all ages interested in plants, his column "Kids fear bugs; how will they fight Chinese?" (sorry, you'll have to look it up yourself) arrives in our daily rag. The title was such a disconnect; what could one have to do with the other? But his lament was well-meant, right up to the last part, and he has touched upon part of the problem of getting people familiar with and appreciative of nature. O'Really was right; you can barely get today's youth out of the house let alone getting them to spend any time in nature. They are as he observes machine-heads. You take kids out to the greatest place ever and they sit down and try to access their text mail or some game or the internet, just as if they were in an airline terminal. Wow! O'Really and the Phactor agree about something! People who are raised this way are never going to by sympathetic to conservation efforts let alone be expected to make any sacrifices to protect nature. No surprise here, O'Really didn't make this connection. Instead he worries about how they would fare in a war against the Chinese! It takes a pretty twisted mind to make that connection, but that's the O'Really we all love to mock as the dumbest smart guy around.

Friday Fabulous Flower - Someone else's very sexy Gesneriad

The biggest downside to having been identified early as a talented teacher was that it generated a career trajectory wherein universities offered me jobs and then sort of expected the Phactor to be on campus. Now this is nothing negative about teaching or its rewards, but my highly developed observational skills would have made me a great plant hunter. So there is a touch of envy when these museum/botanical garden colleagues show off some of their latest exotic finds. This one is truly a wonderful gesneriad. Wow! Sorry, uncertain what the species is. Perhaps a Columnea, but don't know this family well.

Floods & flood plains

The Army Corps of Engineers are not my favorite bureaucracy; worst land lords ever, but that's another story. Lately though they had a choice to make about flood control and neither was going to prove popular or be without a cost. All our rain up here north goes south via the Mississippi River drainage, and near southern Illinois flooding is frequent because of the confluence of several major rivers: Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio all enter the Mississippi. The rapidly rising water was threatening Cairo (pronounced "kayro") Illinois, a thriving metropolis of two to three thousand people. To prevent that city from flooding, the Corps broke a down stream levee on the Missouri side flooding thousands and thousands of acres of thinly populated largely agricultural land. This is a hard equation to solve, but probably the agricultural land, former flood plains bottom land, is the more valuable, but Cairo would impact more people, but not so many that the choice is obvious. Other than a couple of BBQ places, there isn't much to Cairo that cries out for saving, but some people call it home. So the Phactor will endeavor to make both parties feel better. No one should have built a city there nor decided live on flood plains either. The land isn't really yours; it was borrowed from the rivers, and at times like this, the river needs it back. And therein is the whole problem; human intervention has created this problem by not "going with the flow". Back in the old days settlements along the Mississippi were either on bluffs or way back across the flood plains on the lower shoulder of the river valley; remnants of them can still be found in places. Nice fertile soil out there, washed down from up here, but dang it, you can't farm it when it floods. And it was tough getting to those river boats for transportation and commerce, so all those nice levees were built, and the wetlands were drained, and people decided to live on the bottom lands or the river shore for a matter of convenience. Well, things aren't so convenient now, but it was a fool's dream that you could permanently steal land from a big river that built the land in the 1st place. So while it's not nice for the individuals whose lives and livelihoods are disrupted, it's all the result of poor choices made some time ago. The lowest and most flood prone areas, especially those upstream, should be restored to wet land areas that will act like sponges, slowing the flow, and taking the pressure off the main channel, and of course, many organisms would benefit whose populations have suffered from the loss of wetland habitat. But we're talking about the Army Corps, the same brainiacs that channelized the everglades and Mississippi delta. Now they got a plumbing problem a lot worse than the one in my old house with the result they must make no-win choices. So think they'll go for longer term solutions, or just put a bandage back in place?

Feeding a hungry world

This is good news if you want a career in botany and plant science. The world is going to need lots of people who understand plants, who understand ecology, who understand conservation, who understand people, and who can put it all together. Because who else is going to feed a hungry planet? Pay attention people, this is the future calling.

Conservationists are pagans

Do you love the environment and nature? Worried about carbon dioxide and global warming? Do you want a greener world? Well, according to a Catholic cardinal you must be a pagan treehugger and Mother Earth worshiper. Why don’t you know the Christian God gave you a planet to destroy? So all those greeny activities must be akin to pagan rituals. What a revelation! Let's bring back the May pole as a celebration of fertility and renewal. Considering the alternative, the Phactor is fine with being a green pagan. Maybe that’s something like a leprechaun. HT to Deltoid.

Turning your backyard into a natural area - involuntarily

This is situation is sort of sad; the land owners were conned, or at the very minimum taken advantage of by unscrupulous real estate developers. They buy a lot, build a house, and then find out their backyard occupies a conservation easement and things like patios, gardens, lawn, non-native ornamental trees are not permitted. Now that's real ecological lawn care. How is it possible to buy a property without this being disclosed? As development spreads into more rural areas, such conflicts in land use become more common, and like it or not, typical lawns are not endangered communities, which is why the easement existed. The solution seems simple. Go with the flow and have a natural backyard, that is, as natural as a secondary growth recovery from dozer blight can be, and move your garden, patio, and all to the front lawn (it's a way to meet more neighbors), and be thankful the easement didn't go through your master bedroom. Of course to property rights absolutists, this is an abomination, but no matter where you live, there will be restrictions, so buyer beware. Darn those rules; the Phactor has always so wanted to keep chickens.

New Year's Conservation News

Like many biologists, the Phactor is both concerned about and supports conservation efforts even though his research is not focused on that issue. Conservation is an interesting field where PR is as important as the research, and generally biologists are good at the latter and poor at the former. That being said, it explains my uncertainty of how to react to this particular New Year's Eve conservation PR activity planned by the Center for Biological Diversity. CBD is going to distribute 50,000 condoms this evening each displaying one of six different slogans and artwork : the polar bear (“Wrap with care, save the polar bear”), jaguar (“Wear a jimmy hat, save the big cat”), American burying beetle (“Cover your tweedle, save the burying beetle”), snail darter (“Hump smarter, save the snail darter”), coquí guajón rock frog (“Use a stopper, save the hopper”), and spotted owl (“Wear a condom now, save the spotted owl”). Needless to say the six species are considered threatened or endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Oh, let me see it! How big of an audience does one expect will be viewing these PR messages? After all this is quite a bit different than a lapel button or bumper sticker. One wonders about sizes: snail darter vs. jaguar, and new sexual euphemisms: burying the beetle. And did George Carlin ever approve the term "tweedle"? What are parents to do because the tweedle is used in a children's book (hmm, a tweedle beetle bottle paddle battle, or some such phrase, if memory serves. F1?). Wonder who the lucky people will be? What will be the ratio of male to female recipients? What will be the age range of the recipients? If you want to have the biggest impact on human population growth the mean age will be about 16, and you might have a bigger impact giving 500 condoms to 100 teenagers (You want the bear or the hopper tonight?). Clearly the Phactor isn't cut out for PR work. And this seems a good note upon which to finish the year and wish us all better for 2011. So becareful out there tonight; you never know what someone will hand you in the name of conservation.

Seasonal Holiday Blogging - Mistletoe in Trouble?

Mistletoe has long been a "magical" plant growing as it does hemiparasitically upon other trees and staying so obviously green through the winter upon its deciduous host. This is the stuff of Norse mythology (Baldur again), and another source of winter greenery. Clearly the usual kissing under the mistletoe is a pretty pagan practice, as is the custom observed by some of removing a berry and eating it until none are left and then the magic is gone. Although this usually involves the european species, Viscum album, which seems to be more toxic than the North American species, the rumor that eating the berries is a dangerous activity seems over blown. Lastly, collecting mistletoe, and the loss of old apple orchards (a favorite host) has people, particularly Druids, worried about its conservation in the UK. Wish it could be grown on one of my oaks, but my estate is a tad too far north.

Had the draft of this brief post done a day or two ago, and can you believe a science blogger with no spine at all (he wishes) and with no pretences of any botanical leanings posts a similar article, and when he should have been grading exams like yours truly, but a HT to PZ anyways.

Everyday should be Earth Day

The Phactor remembers the first Earth Day in 1970; he was a senior in college and that does date him even if he was a bit precocious. Unfortunately it did not receive as much attention that year as it should have because there were so many distractions that revolved around anti-war protests (Vietnam), trying to graduate, and thinking seriously about a long-time girl friend.

In trying to think of something profound to say, I find myself simply saddened by the state of the Earth. The whole panoply of environmental issues always ends up being argued from a political perspective, but the ecological perspective is quite clear. Our species has exceeded the carrying capacity of our environment. Humans began the path to the present day when they stopped living as gatherers and hunters and shifted to making a living via agriculture. This is not an indictment, just history.

My own particular role in this has been the simple, but not always easy task of helping students understand how nature works and the place of humans in all of this, so that they may use that knowledge to make wise decisions. Of course the flaw in that is the assumption that knowing something is important to making decisions, which often has not been the case in politics. When ideology trumps knowledge it all goes out the window.

A great deal of the Earth’s natural communities have been altered, damaged, or destroyed, but there still remains a resilience that gives the Phactor some hope if we can abate the rate of destruction. Unfortunately so many people are so estranged from nature, from their food and resources, it creates an ignorance or indifference to the natural order of things. People just don’t know, care, or understand what living their lives is doing, insulated as they are by human technology. In the words of Porky Pine penned for Earth Day by the great Walt Kelly, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Being ethical demands that our actions not harm others, and that principle must be extended to actions that do not unduly harm the ability of our environment to sustain us. So be mindful of the full impact we make, both on our own personal little hummock, and elsewhere, and try to help others know why it’s important to have a "green" ethic, otherwise you become an enemy of people.

PS Many people attribute that quote to Pogo because of an Earth Day poster made by Kelly a year later, but he didn't say it in the original cartoon.

Good on ya, mates!

If there is some small hope for the future of our planet, it's to be found in kids like these. Actually I'm not worried about the planet. Earth did fine without humans for 3.8 billion years, and it will do just fine without them too. So it's really just our species that's a worry, and all of those other organisms that will become extinct because of us.

But this is how revolutions start, small, locally, people doing what they can when they can. So here's my congratulations to these kids, you, and other people like you, are the best people on Earth today.

Wildlife friendly yard to a point

My wife and I own a most excellent property, a big park-like yard right in the middle of our city. Properties like ours are rare, especially when their fate is usually to be subdivided and developed. Indeed, the former owner worried that an unscrupulous buyer would take advantage of a buildable lot to make a quick buck. Our goal is to garden.

Our yard is certified friendly to wildlife, and indeed many animals live in and stop by. Night before last we watched a little red bat swooping over our lily pond to grab drinks of water. The birds are certainly a constant delight. But there are times when my love of wildlife wears a bit thin in the rodent department. The rabbits are a bit annoying, but the fox squirrels and woodchucks can be a downright pain.

My early kitchen garden was coming along quite nicely: spinach, lettuces, broccoli, snap peas, scallions. And they were fenced to keep the rabbits at bay. But a woodchuck pushed under the fence and made quite a nice feast of our early garden. Small gardens only provide a modest meal for such gluttons, and here I publically declare war. Live and let live extends only as far as the boundaries of my garden. I cannot say how it will be done, but with some luck and our superior intellect, a truce will be reached whereby the garden goodies will be eaten by the people raising them and a woodchuck will continue their life of plant consumption elsewhere, a distant elsewhere.

I'm all for ecology within limits. So let this be a warning to the squirrels. A repeat of last year's consumption of every single strawberry long before they were ripe will have severe reprecussions. You've been warned. Exile awaits.