Earth Day Resolutions 2016

Last year on Earth Day I got incredibly fed up and ranted on my personal blog about how frustrating I find the lackluster celebration of this miraculous place that we live and are also slowly killing on a daily basis (here) and called for an Earth Day tradition that will actually accomplish something, even in a small way. Everything I said in that post is compounded by the recent scientific study showing that 93% of the Great Barrier Reef is bleached and 50% is dead (here). The video in that last link is heartbreaking. One of the greatest and most meaningful experiences in my life - personal and professional - was living at the Lizard Island Research Station in Australia and snorkeling on the GBR every day. I cannot put into words how beautiful, otherworldly, and completely transformative it is. The fact that National Geographic reported that it's possible the entire reef, the largest living organism on the planet, could be dead by 2050...it's too big and too sad to comprehend.

And that, I think, is the essential problem. Climate change is too large to hold in your mind. If you actually thought about the impact we are collectively having on the planet and what it will mean even within our lifetime it would crush you and so you don't think about it all that much. That is certainly my instinct. It is so hard to care about something so big and so hard, especially in our disposable, consumer culture which constantly tells you not to care. But I really think no one has said it better than the Lorax:

The Lorax, Dr. Suess

Last fall I was lucky enough to work on and attend the Midwest Youth Climate Convergence, in which youth from all over the Midwest came together to talk and learn and strategize. It was an incredibly reifying experience because there were hundreds of us who gave up our Halloween weekend to come together and learn about the climate fights we're all fighting - from high schoolers who volunteer for interfaith groups encouraging sustainability to folks who started their own companies to reforest parts of India or to help get neighborhoods switched over to renewable energy sources, to a group who started an organic farm co-op in southern Minnesota. We brainstormed about stopping oil pipelines and getting universities and cities to divest from fossil fuels and how to grow a green economy. I went to talks on how the current system is being maintained and why it is necessarily broken and also how to use the system to create companies to do good (taught by the same guy, who was awesome) and through all of it we focused on justice and compassion and love. Although the issues we were tackling were huge and terrifying, it was probably the most hopeful I have ever felt because we all cared so much and we were all acting and we were all together.

The climate movement is real. We're not alone. It's hard, being fairly nomadic and isolated at this time in my life, to feel that way but there is a great community of folks doing a huge diversity of things who all care passionately. And so despite the broken system and despite the warming planet and despite the doomsday news there is reason for hope.

But we need more folks, to do big things and small. And so I am once again challenging you to make some Earth Day Resolutions! Remember to make them achievable, something small you can keep in mind even when you can't hold the enormity of climate change. Here are mine for this year:

1. Bring reusable bags to the grocery store every time. This INCLUDES the reusable mesh bags for produce. I made this one last year and was not the best at following through. Just keep them in your car all the time and don't forget to bring them into the store!
2. Continue to improve my outreach skills, talk about issues, and volunteer to help with social media/media outreach. I like writing about things that I'm passionate about. I think I'm pretty good at it. I want to get better. It's hard to volunteer from afar and it's hard to try to plug in to new groups wherever I go, so it might even just be blogging here more and trying to get folks excited about the things I love about nature. To love a thing is to defend it.
3. Buy locally sourced (at least domestic, and as local as possible) produce. Learn to cook more things if the thing I want isn't in season (this will be considerably easier in Florida, I imagine).
4. Buy second-hand stuff as much as possible.
5. Recycle some old shirts I don't wear anymore and use them as rags and brush cleaners so I don't use as many paper towels.

Those are mine. I look forward to seeing yours. Remember: we're all in this together.

When is an Oak Tree an Evergreen?

When it's a live oak!

One of my absolute favorite trees is the southern live oak (Quercus virginiana). They range from Virginia to Texas, mostly along the coast as they like moist sandy soil and flooding. I love them because they are huge, gnarly, excellent climbing trees that are green all through the winter.

Don't you just NEED to climb it? This is "The Big Tree" in Texas, about 500 years old and not even the oldest one!

Yes, they are an oak species (Quercus is the same genus as the bur and white oaks in the Midwest) that keeps its leaves all winter! It's wonderful! It makes all winter seem like early spring to someone who is used to snow and everything looking dead. The crazy part, though, is that they lose their leaves in the spring and grow new ones basically immediately, which means that springtime in Charleston (and anywhere else there are a lot of live oaks) looks like this:

But then also like this:

The live oaks do a neat trick of growing new leaves as the old ones fall so they never really look barren and dead even when dead leaves are strewn around their roots in huge piles. New leaves look like this:

You might recognize that as "not what oak leaves look like". They usually look like this:

http://justpict.com/image-white-oak-leaf.html

Live oak leaves are thick, leathery, waxy, unlobed, and much smaller than species like white and bur oaks. The thick waxiness helps them withstand salt spray in their coastal range. I couldn't find anything in my research as to why their leaves are shaped so differently (I looked). My best guess is that the adaptation helps them survive in the high winds of the coast. They are extremely sturdy and durable trees and in many areas are constantly windblown. I think large, thin, lobed leaves like other oaks would blow off, killing the tree even though it is strong enough to withstand it.

And they are extremely strong. They live for hundreds and hundreds of years in incredibly harsh conditions - windblown, salt-sprayed, surviving hurricanes and floods. They grow fast and they grow heavy and tough. Before they were largely ornamental shade trees, they were used for shipbuilding. In fact, the USS Constitution, nicknamed "Old Ironsides" was actually made of live oak. For context, it was launched in 1797, survived several battles at sea during the war of 1812, was active for nearly 100 years, and still sails - the oldest warship still afloat.

http://newenglandboating.com/

Whooops I digressed from Natural History Nerd to just plain History Nerd. Sorry about that! Anyway, the point is: live oak trees are the greatest. They are beautiful and wonderful and they live so long that they've collapsed spring and fall into the same season. There is basically nowhere better to be than up a live oak tree.

YOLO (You Obviously Love Owls)

Welcome to my new nature blog!

I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but I love owls. I mean, I just had one permanently etched into my skin, so...yeah, I'm pretty committed at this point.

"But, Karis!" I hear you all cry in unison, "How do you possibly remember what all the different owls sound like?"

WELL, I'M GLAD YOU ASKED THAT, INTERNET.

I'm not going to cover all owl species in this one blog post, and - like most animals - owls make a variety of noises and I'm just going to cover the most common ones, but here are some of the most likely responses to "I HEARD A  BIRDLIKE THING AT NIGHT, WHAT WAS IT?!"

Let's start with the one everyone learns first:

Barred owl

Strix varia

Says: Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you aaalll? (Four staccato notes repeated followed by a longer trilled note. Sometimes heard without the long trilled note (the "aaalll" part) but it is still a barred owl!)

More about barred owls

The one that is frequently confused with the barred owl:

Great horned owls (the kind of owl that lives on my side)

Bubo virginianus

Says: Who's awake? Me tooooo. (Three staccato notes followed by two long notes)

More about great horned owls

If you hear an extremely stereotypical owl it is probably:

Long-eared owl

Asio otus

Literally just says "Hoo." I didn't think any of them actually sounded like this, but they totally do.

More about long-eared owls

If you hear a noise that sounds like a tiny tiny horse (and you are East of the Mississippi) it is probably:

Eastern screech-owl

Megascops asio

These guys make a lot of noises but the most common/cutest is called the "whinny". Seriously. A tiny tiny horse. They also trill a lot. They're adorable.

More about the eastern screech owl

If you are West of the Mississippi and you hear something that sounds like a bouncy-ball dropping with increasing frequency it is probably:

Western screech-owl

Megascops kennicottii

They don't really sound anything like the eastern screech-owl. Bouncy-ball increasing in frequency is really the best way I can describe it.

More about the western screech-owl

If you hear something that sounds like A NIGHTMARE TERROR BEAST it is probably:

Barn owl

Tyto alba

Seriously. Like nightmares and/or murder victims.

More about the barn owl

And that's owl for now! I will probably do another installment with more owl noises in the future. Let me know what you think of my new blog and if there is anything you particularly want to learn about and I will see what I can do.

Also, title stolen from Jeph Jacques. You can totally buy a shirt that says it here.