Backyard Wildlife Habitat and endangered plants

I Came across this on the web after watching a Discovery Channel show on encouraging wildlife in your backyard. For a nominal fee ($15), The National Wildlife Foundation will certify your yard as an offical Backyard Wildlife Habitat and subscribe you to their Habitats newsletter and a free year's membership to the NWF. The "certification" process is just an online survey, so clearly there is some measure of faith involved on their part. It seems unlikely, however, that people would lie just so they can pay money for a certificate and a newsletter. With the various types of "wild" terrain in our backyard already, qualifying was a breeze - as it should be considering deer, woodchucks, rabbits, skunks, turkeys, toads, snakes, all manner of small rodents, and lots of birds are pretty happy with our digs. There's also a red fox around, though I haven't seen him in our yard. It's a good sign that our suburban neighborhood is supporting a predatory population. Of course they've had bears and mountain lions nearby, so perhaps there is such a thing as encouraging too much wildlife in your yard!

Since part of the NWF's emphasis is on sustainable and native gardening practice, I got interested in tracking down the native/non-native/invasive pest labeling of a lot of our plants. I knew some of this already, because I have been intentionally choosing and cultivating native plants when possible (the violets, the lady's slippers, the snowball hydrangea, etc.). Unfortunately, some of the plants I like (hosta, daylilies) are technically interlopers and even invasive (in the case of the fulva species of daylily), whereas the barren strawberry weed that has spread annoyingly throughout our yard is actually considered threatened/endangered in New England. I don't know where they've been looking, because my yard is covered in it. I was happy to know the one plant (other than poison ivy) that I've been actively ripping out everywhere I can is an invader from Europe: Red Sorrel. This stuff if the bane of my landscaping efforts. It spreads like wildfire through subsurface runners, and you can never get all the runners out, which just means more pop up behind the ones you pull. It's the gardener's version of wack-a-mole. Apparently it is related to rhubarb and has some reported herbal/medicinal uses, but trying to keep it constrained to the "wild" section of the yard is a constant struggle. It is supposed to be good for sore throats, though. Maybe I should boil some up to help me get rid of this nasty cold I've got ;)

The OCD woodsman

Every now and then I realize I've got a touch of obsessive-compulsive disorder. I always check the door locks twice (home and car), and I often have to turn around at the end of our street to make sure I put the garage door down, even though I know I did. It's not that I'm afraid of a break-in, we live in a pretty quiet neighborhood and I routinely go to bed with only the screen door closed, or the windows down in the car, etc... It's more that somehow my brain thinks making sure things are locked when I leave them is really, really important.
It comes out in other ways, too. When I wash my son's bottles and food containers, I always organize the cleaned items by type and color. If I had the time, the CD's and books would be alphabetized (aforementioned son removed the time necessary for this sort of distraction). I can't remember if I was always this way, or if it is an unintended consequence of my scientific training. Mild OCD is certainly an asset in the lab - it tends to prevent stupid mistakes.
The most amusing manifestation was this past weekend when I was working in the woods behind our house. I took down a few dead trees, including one giant oak (My new Craftsman chainsaw got quite a workout. It is so much better than the cheap Homelite I had beat into the ground - sometimes literally ;) After felling and bucking the trees, I found myself incapable of relaxing until I had stacked the wood at the edge of the yard and picked up all the small branches and debris. I was organizing the woods!
It's not the first time, either. All the big deadfall in the woods around our house has or will pass through our fireplace, and the small stuff is now organised into parallel rows that outline a walking path. Our road has a wooded stretch that's owned by the state, and they haven't maintained it since God was a boy. There is so much deadfall and debris that my hands itch to get in there and clean it up every time I drive by. Something deep in me is offended by the sight of messy woodlots. I know the deadfall provides vital habitat for a wide variety of animals and plants, but even that doesn't stop me from wanting to organize it. It must be that New England pragmatism coming out in me - wood on the ground is wasted wood, and that's just wrong. Strangely, the natural chaos of the deep woods doesn't bother me; it's appropriate there. But in disused former New England farmland in the pine vs. hardwood stage of succession, it's annoying. Don't ask me why.

Spring nights

Much poetic fuss is made over hot summer nights and stark winter nights, but seldom are the nights of spring exalted beyond the arrival of the spring peeper tree frogs (the pinkletink to Islanders, or Hyla crucifer by Linnaeus's reckoning). However, Spring days and nights in New England have spectacularly clear air as well. It is related to the crystal clarity of late Fall, but the arctic wind flow necessary to cleanse the air in Fall makes it too cold to enjoy for very long. In Spring, the air feels not so much frozen as freshly thawed. I'm always depressed on the first May or June day where the dry heat and quick-cooling clarity of Spring air is replaced by the humidity of summer.
I was driving home from work a few nights ago and the moon (waxing crescent, according to the SunCult plugin for Firefox) looked amazing. Though only a small part of the moon was illuminated by the sun, the air was so clear and still that the darkened bulk of the Earthside moon was also dimly visible. It was also a late Spring day last year when I drove my in-laws out to Mt. Wachusett; the air was so clear it was like you could reach out and touch Boston, 50 miles distant. The next day summer broke, and the air wasn't that clear again until October.

Don't rock the boat

For some reason I just find this fascinating.
I got this survival table from the National Ocean Service Coast Pilot, volume 2 (free download). I guess the underlying message is, if you're going to sail in cold water, wear survival gear! I wonder what the stats are below 32 degrees (ocean water freezes at 28.5 degrees). I've heard unprotected survival time in arctic water is 5 minutes, so maybe that's the answer.

This also from the Coast Pilot, Volume 2, Chapter 3 (224)

The cooling rate can be slowed by the person’s behavior and insulated gear. In a study which closely monitored more than 500 immersions in the water around Victoria, B.C., temperatures ranged from 39° to 60°F. Using this information it was reasoned that if the critical heat loss areas could be protected, survival time would increase. The Heat Escape Lessening Posture (HELP) was developed for those in the water alone and the Huddle for small groups. Both require a life preserver. HELP involves holding the upper arms firmly against the sides of the chest, keeping the thighs together, and raising the knees to protect the groin area. In the Huddle, people face each other and keep their bodies as close together as possible. These positions improve survival time in 48°F water to 4 hours, approximately two times that of a swimmer and one and one-half times that of a person in the passive position.

I bet people were just busting down the door to be part of that study "well, first we're going to drop you in incredibly cold ocean water..." Right. The CP goes on to describe immersion hypothermia, stats, etiology of death, and emergency lifesaving measures in great detail (the CP describes everything in great detail - the manual is huge). Here's chapter 225:

Near-drowning victims in cold water (less than 70°F) show much longer periods of revivability than usual. Keys to a successful revival are immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and administration of pure oxygen. Don’t bother with total rewarming at first. The whole revival process may take hours and require medical help. Don’t give up! The U.S. Coast Guard has an easy to remember rule of thumb for survival time: 50 percent of people submersed in 50°F water, will die within 50 minutes.

The next few chapters deal with frostbite, "optical phenomena" and somewhat incongruously, dew formation and protection of cargo from moisture. Like I said, for some reason this is fascinating reading to me.

Free Online Chart Books from NOAA

Anyone who sails on the Chesapeake bay needs to know about this: NOAA is making booklet charts of the Chesapeake available for free download, as a test of the service (Thanks to Chesapeake Bay Magazine for alerting me to this). The NOAA Office of the Coast Survey website has a lot of great stuff available, like online editions of the US Coast Pilot guides (made for primarily for commercial shipping, but interesting reading on topics ranging from identifying whale species to the proper nomenclature and protocol for reporting of icebergs) and access to the historical maps and charts collection.
They used to also have an online chart browser that would let you select and download high resolution images of historical maps, modern charts, and coastal aerial photographs. Unfortunately, they now apparently want you to pay for them. It's too bad - they make great desktop pictures.

Oil rig of Damocles, part II

John Kenneth Galbraith died Saturday at the age of 97. An advisor to presidents, professor at Harvard, and author of many books Galbraith wrote The Affluent Society in 1958, deriding the "consumer sovereignty" model of American economics and calling for an economy oriented toward the common good. Unfortunately we have yet to fully implement his advice. Sounds like my to-read list just got a little longer. I was previously unaware of his work, Thanks to Dantzler Smith for correcting this deficiency (occasionally people in the blogome say intelligent things. Also the author has a link to Duke Basketball Report - clearly a like mind. His blog is a worthwhile read.).

The oil rig of Damocles

This post started out as a comment to Jesse's post on voluntary poverty, found here. Turns out I had more to say on the subject than was really justified in a comment. It's an interesting convergence of thoughts, I've had the Sword of Damocles and the Green "footprint reduction" ideal kicking around in my head for a few days. Jesse's post served as an accretion point.

Every now and then I get the urge to simplify - even to the point of living an ascetic life. The furthest I get is to sell a few old books and CDs. I think I would enjoy truly living simply - on a self-sufficient commune, or as a monk. I might even be happier than I am now. The problem is I'm also rather attached to my American middle class life, my career, my house, my car, my books, my facile access to quality medical care, etc. Like other utopian ideals, a life of simple, possession-free contentment is just a daydream. Even if I achieved this state, I know I'd soon miss the consumptive life I left behind.

On ‘habitat-for-humanity’-style mission trips, I've worked and lived with people living close to or below the poverty line. They are some of the happiest people I've ever met. We go down there to put a roof over their heads, but they teach us something more valuable – happiness is not found in possessions or on the bottom line; the most valuable things in life cannot be purchased. That said, they struggle just to scrape by, to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. They eat a less healthy diet and have less access to quality medical care. They are less educated, and they understand less and interact less with the world beyond their immediate lives. There are tradeoffs to a truly simple life. Perhaps the greatest burden of living in historically unimaginable wealth is that we have an equally large responsibility to use our wealth and power to improve the world, and reduce humanity’s impact on it.

For the good of the planet, the modern world needs to become content with less (Americans, in particular, with a lot less), but it won't happen quickly. The modern world is built upon a framework of overconsumption; like a patient on life support, it would kill us to pull the plug – the transition must be gradual. For those enlightened souls who believe in living simply to remove themselves from society will only dim the wits of society, and it won't prevent any mini-malls. The best we can do is teach our peers and our children to reduce our footprints - to be happier with walking trails than Wal-Marts; to understand oranges ought to be a seasonal fruit (or an outright delicacy), to understand that universally available fishsticks means eventually no one will get to eat fish.

To borrow a turn of phrase from Lincoln: It is for us the wealthy, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who support living within ourselves have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us… that we here highly resolve that extinct species shall not have vanished in vain – that this nation, this culture, this world shall have a new birth of freedom in sustainability – and that humanity and all the living beings under their stewardship shall not perish from the Earth.

One final thought: the Benedictine monks of the Weston Priory in Vermont allow/conduct spiritual retreats at their monestary. One of these days I hope to take at least a few weeks there in solitude. It's a safety valve in the back of mind, if the crush of modern life gets too strong.

Drink of the Month(s)

Drink of the Month highlights Long Trail brewery this month. New England breweries tend to focus on British and German styles, as opposed to the new American styles highlighted by Northwestern breweries - and none do it better than Long Trail. Like Boston Brewing Company (Sam Adams), their flagship beer is an adaptation of alt, a German style of ale that predates lager brewing ('alt' means old). With pronounced maltiness and use of German hops, I find this beer to be more satisfying than the typical American ale. Long trail also makes a very nice British IPA, which is unusual since most American breweries tend to go the Northwest IPA route. Long Trail's best beer, though, and one of my favorite beers in general, is Double Bag. This delcious heavyweight is a stickebier (secret beer) - a heavy alt. Presenting with 7.2% abv, this is definitely not a session beer, unless your session is in front of the fire on a cold New England night. Mighty tasty, though. I seldom find myself out of the mood for a double helping of Double Bag.

And like Spring in the Northeast, April's Drink of the Month was a little late in arriving. Here it is:

The Drink of the Month for April is Ipswich Brewing Copmany's Oatmeal Stout. This Stout lives up to it's name, with a riot of dark malts, toasted oats. Brewed in the American style, this jet-black beer has liberal amounts of Northwestern hops to compete with the aggressive use of dark malts in an all-out assult on the senses. The beer has a fabulous chewy, grainy texture that took me three tries to approximate in my homebrewery (and won first-place medals once I did). Large amounts of home-toasted steel-cut oats turned out to be the key! Ipswich Oatmeal Stout is not a beer for the delicate palate, but if you like dark beer in general, and American-style stouts in particular, there is none better. Drink this beer by itself (it will overwhelm any food it is paired with) and as cold as possible - it is particularly suited to chasing the sun away on warm summer nights. Ipswich was bought by Mercury Brewing Company not long ago, a move I feared would alter the character of this signature stout. Fortunately, Mercury seems not to have messed with the recipe. Distribution took a dive for a while, but they seem to have ironed that out as well.

Brewing water profiles

I've recieved a number of google hits looking for brewing water profiles for famous cities. I've updated the nomograph entry to make it easier to find these profiles. For more, see the nomograph entry in the Brewer'sLOG subsection of my blog.