High Point September 13, 2019

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Echo Lake September 8, 2019

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Timberbrook Lake September 7, 2019

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the landscape we live in

Suddenly it seems the stilt grass is everywhere

Called to my attention when Don pointed it out

Surprised to see it here as well as in Ohio

Where he lives and teaches ecology subjects.

Walking the trail at the Celery Farm Nature Preserve

One early September afternoon thinking my thoughts

Immersed in the heat of late summer lingering over the lake

Shallow water glazed speckled green with duckweed.

Given that this immigrant grass has arrived from Asia

Sent to us in packing material used in commerce

Left untouched by the native ravenous deer

This place will once again never look quite the same.

Taking root and taking over in the shaded areas

Displacing the preferred previous vegetation

Disrupting the native host ecosystem we value

Continuing the long history of transformation.

Some of us want to try to stop these invasives

Like Jim who mobilized us to pull garlic mustard

And I joined the effort to show support for the attempt

Though the result was an exercise in futility.

Effective biological intervention is possible sometimes

Like the beetles imported to control the loosestrife

But the phragmites have taken over so much

The best we can do is weed whack along the path.

At the same time a different invasion is happening

In Indonesia where the palm oil plantations proliferate

Decimating the orangutan forests cut and burned

Replaced with a wildlife dead zone monoculture.

This grass and those palms connect as a paired impact

Making a kind of inadvertent cultural exchange

An unintended consequence of our global economy

Where the Indonesians are bearing the brunt of it.

Altered landscape at the Celery Farm is nothing new

Since the Dutch and English invaded these parts

Harvesting peat and draining the swamp

Bringing foreign animals and planting foreign crops.

The species succession continues in our time

As Fred points out the way it was some years ago

When least bitterns nested here instead of Canada geese

Introduced in a case of good intentions gone wrong.

Fred planted wildflowers and now butterflies abound

And many other volunteers have made enhancements 

Because this is really a kind of community garden

Designed to benefit wildlife and benefit us in turn.

The mile-a-minute spreads like wildfire

As the hordes of deer browse all the oak saplings

And yet this is just another example of success

Not unlike the wonderful success of our species.

Every generation knows only the landscape we live in

Aware as we age that everything is temporary

Perhaps accepting that nothing remains the same

Perhaps trying to preserve the memory of an earlier time.