ECOLANDSCAPES
Category: Gray Merriam’s Ecology Blog
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Supply-Side Conservation Fails
Impacts on semi-natural ecosystems stem from: human numbers X resource demands. Larger human populations that use fewer resources per person can have an equivalent environmental impact to smaller human populations that use larger amount of resources per person. Consider impacts of many African populations compared to impacts of North American populations. The point is
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This Land is my Land — Absolutely?
The notion that individuals have absolute ownership of pieces of the landscape underlies the engagement of some humans to the land. But the reality of absolute ownership of everything about the land fell away long ago. In Canada, the landowners’ rights to impose their wishes on the water flowing over their land were restricted by
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Ways of Knowing
There are many ways of “knowing”. Each produces a different base of knowledge. We each have access to and fondness for a mix of “ways of knowing” and consequently we can “know” particular situations or problems in very different ways and all feel certain that we are correct. Absolute truths are elusive. They keep changing.
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Scientific Equivalence and Equivalent Value. What are they?
Several issues in stewardship and in conservation involve the values of various ecological entities. Sometimes our actions or our plans change those values. Recently, we frequently trade pieces of environment believing that they are equally valuable. Stocking splake in a lake means changing the value of that fishery and of that lake. Tree planting promoted
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About Quagmires — and other mires
Historically, we have called wetlands some name that implied low value or even evil and unquestionably available for dumping garbage or other fill. Today we know more about how wetlands function and about their many values to us, to other creatures and to moderating water flows. Learning more about the types of wetlands may help
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Stewardship Workshop Report
Report
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Is Wood Good?
There is widespread confusion about how “green” it is to burn wood instead of other fuels. The basic information lacking in much of the discussion is also missing from much discussion about adding or removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Green plants, including trees, take up CO2 in photosynthesis and store it in their
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Leaves Fall
Autumn can seem sad. Leaves drifting down can hint at our own mortality. But on the spectrum of beauty of all the seasons, autumn ranks high. Aspens go golden early. Gilded leaves overlay the constant green of pine and fir. Then red maples emblazen the wetland edges, fringing the hillside oaks and sugar maples. Down
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Tree Leaves Power Bird Migration
Fall migration increases the demand for fuel for forest birds. Before the colours change, tree leaves contain a huge store of potential fuel. How to get that fuel in the tree leaves into the birds to power their long migratory flights? Easy. Convert those inedible leaves into caterpillars. Fall webworms (Hyphantria cunea) find those
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ESA and SARA — Paper Tigers
The Ontario government has passed a new regulation that exempts several types of industrial development from the Endangered Species Act of 2007 (ESA). Essentially the deregulation means that exemption from the ESA is assumed and the burden of proof is on the challenger. In addition to the new deregulation of the ESA, the Green Energy