HOMEGROWN NATIONAL PARK -2023 EARTH DAY

                                   Homegrown National Park -2023 Earth Day edition

Who would have thought that our very own backyards could be one of the main sources to save our planet's species. Professor Douglas Tallamy has offered up a burgeoning concept which makes total sense..... 

But first, let's talk about this picture that captured my imagination: Taken from the 2023 Spring edition of Sierra club magazine, this article discusses our shifting world. What do you think it is represents? I asked my wife, Loraine for her interpretation of the picture. It was similar to mine, but different as well. Her key insight was the human on the left represented unreality (myopic) and the bird's was reality. I guess what I am trying to say is we humans, just don't look at the big picture and how we affect the survival of other species. 

Gabriele Wienhausen, a fellow docent at Torrey Pines State Reserve and former UCSD professor turned me on to this book. "Nature's Best Hope" available on Amazon-see link below:

Nature's Best Hope What Dr. Tallamy is basically saying, is our National Parks are fragmented, and the ideology behind the "Endangered Species Act," only saves species not corridors. We are still losing species at an accelerating rate over time. Hmm... not good. So his idea is to get rid of our lawns, or at the very least reduce it by 50%. Lawns are a monoculture approach to nature. One type of grass is usually planted and this provides hardly any local insect interaction. And unless you mulch your leaves you are adding fertilizers with phosphates and and nitrates, which adds to contaminated water runoffs. Overall, 30% of all the water used east of the Mississippi, and 60% in the west is used on lawns. Wow, that's a lot of water especially since in the near future the federal government is going to be re-allocating water from the Colorado river to the western states. And, if we did reduce our lawns by 1/2 in this country, we would save 20 million acres, equivalent to.. get this: Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Canyonlands, Sequoia, Olympic, Denali, North Cascades, Badlands, Grand Tetons, Mount Rainier, Everglades and the Great Smoky Mountains National Parks.--Double Wow! 

So, Dr. Tallaway suggest a unique approach: Homegrown National Park!  This challenges everyone who owns a home and their local communities to get involved.  Here are some good reasons to do this and some ideas to get started. I am a numbers kind of guy so here it goes.

REASONS TO REORGANIZE YOUR YARDS: LESS LAWN

1. Insects are vital to the survival for plant species. They pollinate 85% of all plants and 90% of all flowering plants.

2. Insects are species specific.

3. 80% of all the plants in a typical yard are from some other place: (South America, Europe and Asia) and our planted because of their aesthetic values. Therefore, they have not evolved to support a sustainable relationship with local insects, and most of these species of plants use a lot of water.

4. We haven't mentioned birds yet. Approximately, 96% of the North American terrestrial bird species-raise their young on caterpillars (larva of butterflies, moths etc.) not seeds from our bird feeders. 

5. Caterpillars are loaded with carotenoids (essential in a healthy diet = gives the orange color in carrots, it is found in kale, tomatoes etc.) and help give the colorful effect to the bird's feathers. Caterpillars contain twice as many carotenoids as other insects and more than 3x the amount found in spiders. 

6. Introduced Eurasian plants such as honeysuckle, autumn olive and glossy buckthorn have 1% fat by weight in their berries compared to 50% fat by weight in native plant berries, such as: spicebush, poison ivy, myrtle, and dogwood. 

HOW TO GET STARTED: (Start swapping out your lawn for native species)

1. No need to change it all at once. When spring arrives, start small and add local plants over time. 

2. Ask your local nursery or do some research and ID the Keystone plant species, which are vital to insect interactions. Find the key plants which attract the major pollinators such as: moths, butterflies, sawflies, and bees. Try to plant only native (xeriscape- low water use) plants.

3. Interesting enough, caterpillars don't hang out on their host plant when they get ready to pupate. They have been found 25 yards away from the host plant, and in the duff litter below the plant (especially trees). Loraine has been involved in the San Diego CA Monarch Butterfly group on Facebook. We purchased a couple of Milkweed plants last year and have been fascinated ever since. *Why is called milkweed? The milkweed sap has a monster glue grip in most species, clamping their jaws shut, but the Monarch as a great technique to get around this. They chew the tip of the leaf off first, and if the sap comes out they crawl back to the main vein and severe it. 

4. If you have room in your yard, plant an Oak tree - that would be great.  Nationwide, Oak trees support up to at least 934 species of caterpillars. 

5. Build a bat or bee box to attract pollinators. cool Bee Box

6. Add a small water feature fountain or pool to attract the birds. 

7. Bob Irwin, a good friend of mine, and a phenom gardener, suggests to start your alternative planting from organic seeds. This very cool site he uses is called grow organic: Organic seeds 

                                            Next up:  8 billion...and Nigeria: The human population

A mostly xeriscape yard
with added rocks for
 variety and texture.

 passed 8 billion sometime last fall. Let's see; when I was in college in 1974 at SDSU we had 4 billion. So its doubled in the last 50 years. And, according David Rust at Stanford, is projected to increase by 34% by the year 2050 (a 2.3 billion increase). Here is an interesting way to put this in perspective, we have increased our population 1600 times since the advent of Agriculture, 10,000 years ago..Not good! Especially since we are still missing the concepts of living sustainably as a species.

Interestingly, future growth is mostly centered in Sub-Saharan Africa where more than 50% of the increase is expected in 8 countries over the next 25 years. Five of which will be in Nigeria, Egypt, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and The Democratic Republic of Africa. During this time, Nigeria will pass the United States as the 3rd most populous country in the world. The problem is, besides the poverty, it will occur in an area the size of Texas, with a little spill over into Louisiana. Wow! What to do, What to do? 

National Geo. 4/23

Although in many countries fertility rates are dropping in places like Japan and China, the exponential base still exists for growth. And even though this is happening somewhere else... I guarantee you it will affect our children and grandchildren through and increase in CO2 release, overfishing, pollution etc.  So, can we as a species set something in motion? How about a mass marketing, political, and religious movement headed by the United Nations and social media in places like Nigeria. Unfortunately, places like Nigeria mis-trust the government and birth control. So new strategies need to exist, such as: more community meetings with women, and making sure all women receive a higher level of education, so they can make their own decisions about how many children they want. There is one organization I support. In 1933, Albert Einstein made a call out to help refugees before he came to America, this organization evolved into the current IRC (International Rescue Committee). It has 87% of its donations going to Programs around the world, 8% for Administration, and 5% for Fundraising. Here is their link: IRC

QR codes: During the pandemic, a good friend and fellow docent at Torrey Pines Reserve, Mark Embree, came up with an idea of creating a plant guide for our visitors. He asked me to help, I said sure, and the project which started out as a fundamental dichotomous key, evolved into a interactive approach to learning by using QR codes. We wanted to approach this project by eliciting curiosity and exploring the adaptations of the plant's leaves. When I first showed this key to my daughter Torrey, a UMASS professor, she pointed out the visitors will not be "imprisoned in a classroom to work out a key". She suggested we use QR codes to bring this to the general public. After a one hour tutor session from Torrey, we were on our way. Using choices, participants are directed to a website which has "Discovery Points" using their senses, and a "Did You Know" section about the plants characteristics.  

Amberly & Margaret

And along the way, some of the QR stops have a major environmental concept to explore, such as: (biodiversity, sustainability, stewardship, etc.). This project has taken several years to complete and Mark and I have connected new synapsis in our brains. Ha Ha! With his English background and my Science background, we brought what we think will be a new standard for engaging the public. Gabriele Wienhausen, helped us by getting and invaluable intern from UCSD- Amberly Clark, and we even had our local plant expert, Margaret Filius, a fellow docent help out.

Mindful Walks at Torrey Pines: 

Loraine is one of the leaders in these really cool interpretive nature walks called: "Mindful Walks" at Torrey Pines State Reserve with some fellow docents. Drawing upon the elements of nature, and the natural beauty of the Torrey Pines Reserve, they help bring conscious awareness to one's senses by connecting to the present moment, and appreciating one's relationship with nature. They lead these guided walks along the various trails at 8am on Sundays in front of the visitor's center at the Torrey Pines Reserve.

I would also like to give Loraine a shout out for being a recent Docent of the month at Torrey Pine Reserve. Way to go Loraine!!

So what else can we can all do? Keith Unbreit from the city of Oceanside, just won the "Oceanside Water Utilities award" for his yard, called the "WaterSmart Landscape Contest." His garden looks as lush as any yard which contains exotic plants. And, Torrey, in her yard has put in an AI bird feeder, which attracts all sorts of birds, photographs and IDs them.

Award winning
xeriscape garden. 

AI Birdfeeder

One last thing: Big picture stuff. I love this picture below.Look at it closely, all the interconnections involved for one fish species, the Dorado Catfish. Born at 1000 feet above sea level in the Andes (#1 top left), it migrates down the Amazon river providing fish for the villages along the way. Finally, ending up in a Delta in the Atlantic (#4) where it stays a few years, before migrating 3,000 miles back the original spot (#1) to lay eggs for the next generation. Is now under stress from overfishing and pollution. We have to constantly remind ourselves to keep other species fate (and our dependancy on them) in the forefront of our thoughts when sharing the environment with them. 

Nature Conservancy: Spring 2023

I remember back in the day 1990. I explored deep in the jungles of Ecuador to a Reserve called Jatun Sacha. In pursuit of the meaning of life, I had an abrupt awakening as I was swinging thru the trees off the giant Kapok tree, and while standing on the banks of the Rio Napo river. Texaco had been running lines thru the Jatun Sacha Reserve in search of more oil (for the US), and in so doing at the various  connections of the pipes had major leaks of crude oil. These leaks affected the local tribes by wiping out their fishing grounds along the way. Needless to say, I never bought gas from Texaco again. This was brought to light many years later as they were sued by a coop of tribes for 15 billion dollars for wiping out their 

livelihoods. And this was my "wake up" call to get involved. I rallied my students over the years and we purchased close 150 acres of rainforest and donated it to add to the Jatun Sacha Reserve. 

Swinging from the
Kapok Tree

On the banks of the Rio Napo

 

So let's make this Earth Day 2023 special in your own way. Maybe, start by planting some local species and taking out some of the lawn in your backyard. Happy Earth Day to all of you..and I would love to hear from you--cheers jerry 

Newest edition to
our backyard;
Cleveland Sage.
Pollinating bees love it.