Dragonfly Tales
- STEVE MELCHER –
Plant a Tree – Plant a Mop
Protect and Plant
A bit of History for those of us who fell asleep in middle school earth science class.
There shouldn’t be any debate about sea levels rising, but you might have a few questions.
Where is all that water coming from? Melting glaciers
Why are the glaciers melting? Rising temperatures
Why is the temperature rising?
One of my first jobs out of college was working at the Wallops Island National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) flight station as a wetland scientist schlepper. We were charged with mucking through the salt marshes making measurements of critical habitats and measuring sea levels. You may not be familiar with the barrier island called Wallops Island but you may have heard of the more famous bigger sisters just to the North: Chincoteague and Assateague. Chincoteague, pronounced ‘Shinkoteak’ is the home of the famous ‘Chincoteague Pony, (Misty of Chincoteague) and Assateague is the home of the famous Assateague Lighthouse where Verner von Braun stayed after WWII for a time. The locals have developed a way to pronounce the islands’ names without moving their lips, probably to prevent the ever present mosquitoes and deer flies from becoming an unwanted snack. NASA still has an active meteorological missile program on the island and the radar array is still used to track those missiles, satellites, and even migrating birds and butterflies. Wallops Island Flight Facility is famous for being seen on national news every December 24th tracking some guy in a sleigh pulled by eight flying ungulates!
The scientists stayed in a nearby abandoned Navy base and dined and had drinks at the Rocket Club, of which I still treasure a few swizzle sticks from Stingers, Side Cars and even a drink called “The Rocket”. Scientists from all over the globe came to the island to study evidence of the Holocene transgression. This sounds like something from the middle ages published by the Vatican but it’s actually a geological phenomenon. In this case, the Holocene is the time period or epoch that began about 10,000 years ago, at the ending of the last ice age. A marine transgression occurs when sea level rises. Sea level can rise because the land is sinking or when glaciers melt. The Holocene epoch has been a time of rising sea level so much so that NASA was concerned about losing the missile bases and Santa Claus trackers (radar dishes) to the salt water waves of the Atlantic. So, they hired some scientists to make some baseline measurements to see how much time they had and then brought in the Army Corps of Engineers to shore up the eroding island. Data shows an average rate of sea level rise of 0.06 inches per year from early measurements in the late 1800’s. However, since the 1950’s, the average sea level has risen at a rate twice as much, or 0.12-0.14 inches per year. This is all relative of course. A rise of 0.14 inches doesn’t seem like much to a fjord in Norway but is critical to an island where the highest point (Goddard Mountain) is three feet above mean high tide. A storm could come through and knock out an entire communications array. Assateague Island, just to the North, was “born” during the 1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane. Fenwick Island was split in two by the storm, creating a whole new island we now call Assateague. Wallops Island was already kidney shaped and in danger of splitting in two when I arrived in 1974. In the ’70’s we were measuring rates of 8 inches per year on the barrier islands. This was primarily due to a loss of critical wetland habitat which acts as a sponge to absorb storm surges in addition to sea level rise. This was the beginning of our understanding of the dangers of sea level rise, which is just one aspect of what has become known as the Climate Crisis.
The Big Picture
We knew sea level was rising due to melting glaciers. We knew glaciers were melting due to rising global temperatures. These were all “natural” phenomena. But when we put the numbers together, we found there was something missing. We found that man’s activities, especially burning fuels, was contributing as well. The missing factor was listed in the environmental accounting program as “inadvertent climate modification.” Today we realize just how much the industrial revolution has contributed to climate change; scientists are thinking of changing the name from the Holocene to the Anthropocene (human dominated) Epoch.
For those of us who fell asleep in high school chemistry class
Temperatures are rising due to a number of factors, some natural, some manmade. Cities, pavements and land stripped of forests absorb more heat than undisturbed areas. The glaciers are reflectors of heat and they are melting which means more radiant energy is absorbed. The contributing factors scientists use to measure temperature changes are called “radiative forcings”. Greenhouse gases are one of the major radiative forcings. Remember the Greenhouse Effect? The five main gases responsible for the greenhouse effect are water vapor (H2O), methane ( CH4), nitrous oxide ( N2O), ozone (O3) and carbon dioxide (CO2).
We’re going to concentrate on the increased concentration of the last gas on that list: Carbon Dioxide. There have always been natural sources of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere such as animal and plant respiration, decomposition of organic matter, forest fires and volcanoes. The greatest natural source of CO2 is from the oceans. These are all natural sources of carbon dioxide. However, there is the human contribution; the “inadvertent climate modification” factors. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that it is “extremely likely that more than half of the observed increase in global average surface temperature” from 1951-2020 was caused by human activity. About a third of all the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is manmade. Where does the manmade carbon dioxide come from? Electricity generation and building heating by combustion of fossil fuels are the largest producers of anthropogenic (man-made) carbon dioxide. There are charts and data tables online for you to peruse to find out other manmade sources of greenhouse gases and how you can reduce your carbon footprint.
Spigot and the Mop: The Carbon Cycle and Carbon Sinks – Another science lesson
Carbon sinks and spigots in the same article, amazing. In a simplified version of the carbon cycle, carbon dioxide is emitted by natural sources, absorbed by plants and the ocean and then returned to the atmosphere to be cycled back into plants. A simple example would be a tree decomposing and releasing carbon dioxide and then another tree absorbing the carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. The decomposing tree is the spigot and the living tree is the mop. Nature has always had a big enough mop to clean up what was coming out of the spigot until the industrial revolution. We now contribute so much carbon dioxide to the cycle that nature’s mop is unable to absorb it all. We not only have to turn the valve on the spigot to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but we also have to restore the mop by protecting nature’s carbon sinks. The atmosphere, the oceans, soil and forests are our planet’s largest carbon sinks. The oceans are at a critical point of no return, what scientists refer to as a tipping point. If the oceans become so acidic that the inhabitants cannot survive the oceans will “reboot.” Rebooting is an unfortunate term borrowed from the computer geeks that involves a total shutdown and restart of the system, something that may take several minutes on your laptop but several thousand years for our oceans. We are quickly approaching that tipping point, corroborated by the massive loss of corals around the world. Restoring the mop involves building it back as well as protecting it from further loss. When we clear cut forests, which are major carbon sinks, we are removing strands from the mop nature uses to absorb the carbon dioxide. We’re asking nature to continue the carbon cycle with a smaller and smaller mop as we clear cut more and more forests. According to the World Wildlife Federation half of the forests that originally covered 48 percent of the Earth’s land surface are gone. The federation goes on to suggest that we set aside tracts of old growth forest that are strategic carbon reserves to help reduce the effects of climate change and treat them as we would endangered species. Global deforestation is responsible for 10-20% of worldwide CO2 emissions. Because of droughts, fires and clearing for plantations, parts of the Amazon Rainforest have become carbon negative: emitting more carbon than they store.
But What Can I do?
“The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives.” – Sioux
“Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it.” – Arapaho
Every shroomer (folks that harvest wild mushrooms) knows that you don’t harvest all the mushrooms in a fairy ring. Leave some to propagate for your next trip into the woods. I’m sure the early hunting gathering inhabitants of the Finger Lakes did the same. When they came upon a patch of wild leeks in the forest, they probably learned that if you harvest them all you won’t have any there on your trip through the next season. Do what you can to protect the mop and to protect those remaining forests by not contributing to the sources of deforestation and contributing to those organizations that are trying to protect them.
Plant a Plant
“A man doesn’t plant a tree for himself. He plants it for posterity.” – Alexander Smith
Plant a tree, plant a mop. Think ahead; at least seven generations.
We need to protect and preserve the mop but also build back the mop. As advanced as we think we are, we need to change our thinking of how we treat the Earth. One way is to plant trees, not for paper production but for carbon sinks of future generations.
Hundreds of years ago the Iroquois tried to teach the invaders from the East such chestnuts as “don’t poop on your plate, don’t pee upstream from the village, and don’t take more than you need.” Thinking of a bountiful life for your grandkids was around long before trust funds were developed. A “Great Law of the Iroquois” was to think and make decisions for those who will be around in Seven Generations. Imagine thinking that the decision you make today will impact your progeny in 140 years. Imagine if our ancestors from polluted towns like Pittsburgh in 1880 had thought about the consequences of burning fossil fuels and what effects it might have on the world of their progeny in Honeoye Falls today.
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now. There are still tall trees along a section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike where it crosses the Susquehanna River into Cumberland County that were planted by my father while he was a teen working with the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) back in the 30’s, almost 100 years ago. He joined FDR’s “tree army” and planted trees in Pennsylvania before joining the regular army and blowing up trees in Europe. His father, my grandfather, had a farm and clown camp near where the Yellow Breeches Creek enters the river. Pop Melcher grew strawberries and future gymnastic clowns and entertained guests from his earlier days as a Coney Island Kop. In the 50’s I picked strawberries alongside the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Chester Conklin, Snub Pollard and Buster Keaton, in sight of rows of spruce and oak trees planted a generation earlier by my Dad. Thank you, Dad; and thank you FDR for the CCC’s efforts.
“Forests are the lungs of our land.” – FDR
Some of those trees still stand, but only on the steep hillsides where it was unprofitable to plant houses. The last crop on many farms just like ours was a housing development; another reason to support your local farm and preserve green space.
The trees my father planted were probably 18 inch bare root saplings. He didn’t directly benefit from the shade of that tree, the carbon absorbed or the oxygen it provided. It takes around twenty years for a tree to become mature enough to absorb significant amounts of carbon dioxide. The year I was born in the 50’s, an acre of those trees was absorbing twice the carbon dioxide produced by the average car at that time. Forests are a proven and effective drought preventing, flood mitigating, and carbon storing system. We need to preserve our old growth forests as well as plant a diversity of trees to create new forests to become the carbon sinks of generations to come.
Planting a Tree
“When one plants a tree they plant themselves. Every root is an anchor, over which rests with grateful interests, and becomes sufficiently calm to feel the joy of living.”
– John Muir
The European Union has goal of planting 3 billion trees by 2030. The World Wildlife Federation started its 1 trillion trees campaign just a few years ago. The Bonn Challenge wants to restore 350 million hectares of forest by 2030. Odonata Sanctuary, in your backyard, wants to plant 500 trees a year. The oxygen you breath could be coming from a tree planted at Odonata Sanctuary. We recently received a check from Ms. Leonard’s HFL 2nd grade class. They had a fund raiser and decided to donate the money to a local sanctuary. Along with helping to pay a vet bill for Hank the donkey and a new heat lamp for Charlotte the pig, part of those funds will be used to purchase trees from the Monroe County Soil and Water Conservation District’s Conservation Tree and Shrub Program.
I’m hoping that the class of 2032 will come and visit the trees they planted and perhaps even bring their grandchildren in 60 years to breathe in the oxygen and experience the shinrin-yoku they helped create.
“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” – Warren Buffett
shinrin-yoku
In 1982, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries created the term shinrin-yoku, which translates to “forest bathing” or “absorbing the forest atmosphere.” The practice encourages people to simply spend time in nature — no actual bathing required.
“I know something about Forests. I’m raising one.” – SA Melcher 1995 Nature Study Journal
This essay is dedicated to one of my ‘nature heroes’ recently retired from the Ganondagan State Historic Site: Peter Jemison
