EcoLandscapes

More than a decade ago, some New Zealanders imported brush-tail possums from Australia to establish a fur trade. Longer ago, rats got to Kiwi land with settlers. Stoats (weasels) were introduced to control European rabbits that had earlier been introduced. European deer were introduced by hunters. Humans distorted ecological relationships that they did not understand.

The […]

When we speak of Climate Change, we often think only of temperature change but another powerful effect is changes in timing of natural events.

Consider spring in our area. Spring melt came earlier last year and the wetlands of the Kennebec Wetland Complex filled, taking the peak off the potential spring flood. But then, the filled […]

Australian ecologists have explained a clear example of how human enterprise depends on the population structure of an entire food chain in the ecosystem. Effects of the top predator affect all of the chain down to the shrubby plants and the grasses.

Encroachment by woody shrubs is a serious problem for livestock producers because the shrubs […]

With so much media attention and social discussion of the issues at the USA border and the flow of asylum-seekers in Europe, we should be wondering what causes the need to seek asylum in so many places?

The obvious simple answer is: too many people with too little livable habitat for humans. How come?

Historically, religious groups […]

Most concerns about glyphosate have been ecotoxological. In addition there is the fact that glyphosate, C3 H8NO5P, adds phosphorus to any area receiving it. Across US agricultural lands, P added by glyphosate increased from 1.6 kg P per square kilometre in 1993 to 9.4 kg P per square kilometre in 2014 with peak values exceeding […]

Social media has made it possible for anyone to spread almost any utterances widely and rapidly. Badly used, social media can be a misleading source or a disastrously effective propaganda tool. The fundamental issue is the notion that an outlet can be fully ‘open’ to any input and, at the same time, a reliable source […]

All the upstream headwaters of the Salmon come together in Kennebec Lake. Kennebec truly is the nexus of the Salmon headwaters.

At the extreme eastern end of Kennebec, an extension of Crooked Creek joins tiny Cox Lake to Kennebec. Cox Lake receives Crooked Creek that flows south from the west end of Hungry Lake and its […]

I find the priority given to human beings over all else to be philosophically mistaken. Just because humans have come to dominate the trajectory of the global system does not mean that it is correct to rank humans as more important than anything else. That philosophical position is shallow anthropocentrism.

Intellectually, placing the highest priority on […]

A textbook by well-known authors defined biodiversity as: the total of all species, populations, communities, genetic pools, and possibly vital processes on the globe. Biodiversity has no clear meaning for researchers or for urban greens. The felt need is there but something else is needed.

The need is not just for the variety of living things […]

The word “Biodiversity” has become prominent in the press and in our daily language. What does it mean?

Often it just means how many kinds of plants or animals –- the number of species. A common aim is to conserve the highest number of species. But a large number of species with only few individuals of […]