Keeping our Rivers and Wetland Woods

Science and politics overlap. History and the future are linked to the present through the overlap. For some, this overlap is the link needed to foster interest in science. Globally, rivers and wetland woods need attention. What can you do to help keep this global resource environmentally sound and sustainable? Plenty. Each of us can find at least one task we can accomplish toward the goal of sustainability.


The Hudson 1903


Maybe your role is getting involved in zoning. Maybe you are the one to save one wetland woods, to un-tile one children's ballpark so homes don't flood (Does the park have to be dry every day? Perhaps reading on a rainy day is better than flooding homes, for example). Maybe you can help save the Hudson River, or the Potomac, or the Yellow River, or the Wallkill? Maybe you can save the river nearest you!

Maybe you'll just save habitat, water, and, food for mushrooms or plants or animals (including people).

Perhaps you'll read a Beatrix Potter book to school children, or talk to them about Silent Spring. Maybe you'll share photographs from, "before the malls." You might take a child fishing or for a walk in the woods.

Maybe you'll be the one to change environmental impact studies so they include studying the natural environment (in addition to things like traffic patterns).

You might just be the one to create a documentary that changes the environment for the better because it reaches the hearts of so many people.

Perhaps just adding a comment here will inspire someone else, or, share just the needed tidbit of information.

Everyone can do something toward a sustainable Earth. Reflecting on our rivers and wetland woods and our roles in preserving them, and on the politics involved in preserving them, benefits everyone. I'll post a few items which might start such a reflection. Please feel free to add more by e-mailing them to me or adding them in the comments (by clicking, "Comments," below the post).

RiverKeeper

The National Trust

Beatrix Potter Resources

Rachel Carson (Silent Spring) Resources

Build our future (Our Stolen Future)

(c)2009 J S Shipman

Fungi offer Unique Opportunities

The Plenary Session of Botany 2008, the international botany conference currently going on in Vancouver, BC, Canada, was filled with excitement. Dr. Paul Stamets gave the talk, science highlighted with his personal flair.

The audience continued to talk about the great ideas he presented at a social event where science ideas get exchanged rapidly in a fun way. Many discussions continued long into the night, so stimulated by Dr. Stamets' presentation.

Go to his abstract or read his works, Mycelium Running, for example. You will learn about fungi that offer unique opportunities.

A problem with ants? No problem. Too many toxic wastes? No problem. Oil spill? What do human hair and fungi have to do with cleaning that up? If you aren't excited yet, you really need to read Stamets. He is giving you ways to save the world and reduce ecological disaster. It's time to step up to the plate. (And if you'd like to contribute to the cause, contact him directly. His work is soooooooo great, you might like to donate a few pennies or a few million to the the ten million dollars needed for starters...but in the meantime, you can see what is available now and you can plant a forest destined to become an old growth forest!) Imagine all your descendants walking through the forest you planted. And, oh yes, you might just find a few tips on how to make your garden grow or how to survive the bird flu pandemic.

Mushroom Books

Mushroom Cultivation Texts, Identification Guides & More...

Remember what an herbarium is...

You might remember previous posts on herbaria. Here is a link that you might enjoy that can expand your knowledge of plant families while you learn more about herbaria and international cooperation.

Here is a virtual herbarium of European plants.
http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/aart/index.html

Can you find similar plants near where you live? Can you draw pictures of them? In today's electronic age, perhaps you would like to take digital photos. Enjoy the diversity of living things. Contemplate their unity in how they share biochemical mechanisms, like DNA.