I love my readers

Ha ha! It's great to always find your comments, Matt! You ask about a hunting story?

I suppose I should spill the beans about it. A friend of mine who has known me since my childhood read my post about hunting and said essentially.

"Adam, you're a vegetarian, and you always have been. Why the sudden change? If you want low impact food you can eat beans and rice! Say it ain't so!" This happened to be the mayor of Montpelier Mary Hooper.

The mayor reads my blog. It's no big deal.

Anyway, here's my reasoning for hunting, followed by my story about it.

(1) RESPONSIBILITY
I demand to interact with my food. Aldo leopold said "Heat doesn't come from the furnace and pork doesn't come from the supermarket." People who don't realize that should forego their right to vote and speak. It is essential for a citizen to appreciate and understand food production.

(2)ENVIRONMENTAL
The production of any food can be calculated in units of food per unit of human effort. It's often done in terms of pounds per man hour or the like. Well, think of the inputs into hunting as opposed to farmed meat. The game just farm themselves so to speak, so the human inputs are much much lower (factor in the administration of the fish and game department, gasoline, the hours of work you did to afford the seven dollar orange vest...) Also the herd needs to be controlled for the good of the deer who survive, and thus the herd as a whole.

(3)CHALLENGE
I am an aspiring naturalist/ecologist. I need to learn constantly about nature. Hunting adds an element of success and failure to the outdoor experience. Stumbling on some deer is very different than finding them or tracking them down intentionally through reasoning, skill, and humility. This added challenge increases my learning curve for the woods. Sure you can identify a flower, but what if it's not around? Can you find it? Two very different skills, one is hunting, the other is observing. Hunting leads to great knowledge about the connections of the forest.

(4)INDIGENY
Can I ever become indigenous to this land or any other? This is my best chance. Search around through it. Suffer in it. Get lost in it and start to develop beliefs about it. Ill never be an Indian, but I can stubbornly be myself until I somehow fit in better.

It's late and I'm... not doing french homework.

Green Christmas

Let's make it happen people.

In the comments section below, I challenge you to come up with gift ideas that promote sustainability. With black friday gone, it might be late to start talking about this.

My aunt Pat, years ago ran a workshop called green christmas and her suggestions were great. A pyramid of snowballs with a candle inside for a luminarie, reusable festive bags rather than wrapping paper, and other trash reducing ideas.

my personal favorite of hers was this:

"Share traditions rather than gifts." It's simple and beautiful. A tradition I started almost four years ago now is a candle ceremony at Christmas dinner. Everyone eating dinner with you gets a candle and one person has a match. The person who has the match lights someone else's candle and tells them why they are lighting their candle. It is very memorable. I lit my older brother's candle and said,

"I'm going to light your candle because your my brother and you've taught me so much. You've influenced me more than you know and every time I meet someone, they end up knowing about you within three days because I want to tell them about you."

My uncle Chris said to me, something like, "Adam it has been great to watch you grow up and what you've accomplished and I'm sure you'll continue to accomplish great things and make us all proud."

It doesn't have to be completely serious either. We have fun with it and we joke around, so it's just kind of a nice thing. And then you can either let the candles light your meal or blow them out and save them for the next year, or whatever you want.

Spread the Cheer, not the Gear.

Bluegrass

There is an actual species of grass called Kentucky Bluegrass latin name: Poa pratensis. I always thought it would be cool to have a bluegrass band named Poa Pratensis, Or just Poa. Only other botany nerds would get it. The plant is the dominant lawn grass in America so why aren't our lawns blue all the time? According to Dag Ryen, who wrote a letter to the editor of the Washington Post in 1993, the leaves of kentucky bluegrass are completely green. The seed heads on the other hand are blue, but only develop when the grass is allowed to grow to its full height of two to three feet. Maybe practicing a little backyard conservation would reveal what type of grass is in YOUR lawn!

Anyway, I made thirty buxx and scored a free dinner playing bluegrass mandolin in a coffee shop/art gallery in Arlee, MT. My friend, Erin plays fiddle in a bluegrass ensemble called the Gravely Mountain Boys. She's a girl, so I don't know why they're called that. I think the group has been around since long before Erin was part of it. Possibly before she was born. The group consists of Dick, an old guitar player/singer, Ron, a younger guitarist/singer, Dick's son, a banjo player, and Ron's daughter, a fiddle player. It's a family affair you might say!

Well, they were missing their banjoist so Erin offered me a spot on stage for the night. It was a beautiful Montana night. Cold and crisp with good sunlight shining on the staggering mission mountains. We practiced before hand at Ron's house where I got to sit in an official bluegrass rocking chair! It was perfect for picking, armless so I had all the elbow room I needed, and it allowed the perfect amount of slouch. We warmed up on a few tunes and then went to the coffee shop.

It was a fun show and I played bones for them, a traditional Irish percussion instrument. I had to use all my musical knowledge to keep up with these boys! They weren't telling me what chords to play, I had to figure it out by looking at their guitar playing hands. But then again, they were using capos so I had to transpose as I went along, while trying to look natural and lively on stage. It was hard. I only jumped in to take the lead a couple times at the end. And with the stress of being on stage I totally biffed the ONE song that I already knew! Red haired boy is a tune that I play constantly, but I messed it up. Oh well. Everyone knew I was an outsider anyway so I think they cut me some slack. My friends Courtney and Dan came to watch, Courtney came later because she was in a hottub looking at the mountains under the moonlight while the Mountain Boys and I ate soup and shmoozed with the locals.

Fun night.

Too much of a good thing

Corn was one of the three sisters. Corn Beans and Squash, the staple vegetables of native agriculture in the Eastern U.S. Back then it's storability and high caloric density made it an essential crop for life in the rugged American landscape. Now we see it as an enemy.

Its all a matter of scale. Why are there huge tragedies? Because there are huge countries. Why are there huge environmental problems? Because we have huge economies. Why were there huge 4and a half billion ears of corn harvested in Iowa this year? Because there are huge subsidies that make this unfeasible crop into the best case scenario.

Reasons I'm opposed to Corn:
(1) Corn is being grown mainly for cattle feed and it's unhealthy for the cattle and those who eat the meat
(2) Corn is being grown in a big way to produce ethanol, an alternative energy that is extremely unsustainable
(3) Corn is not eaten whole. It is eaten at the molecular level.
(4) Corn takes a ton of fertilizer which contributes to global warming.

Explanations:
(1) Again, its a matter of scale.
Feeding grains to cows is pretty standard, at the rate of one or two scoops a day. That's why we have silos, I guess. But it's well known that if a cow gets into the silo, it will gladly eat itself to death! That's too much grain. Turn a cow out onto the pasture and it can't eat itself to death. Grass fed beef and bison are the way to go. That or wild game.

(2) Ethanol production is a bad idea. Growing forests sequesters more carbon than Corn fields do. If they could make ethanol from cellulose it would be worth it. Until then, leave ethanol alone. The equation doesn't balance.

(3) Corn products are lame. Aren't Americans sweet enough without them? I can't wait until the days when most foods have a list of actual ingredients on the label rather than a list of chemicals.

(4) Corn requires MASSIVE inputs of fertilizer from year to year. Nitrogen is the plant's limiting nutrient. This element is a very mobile element though, since it has several gaseous phases that it can transform between by means of microbial processes. Nitrous Oxide, NO2 is a biproduct of fertilizing with Nitrogen. NO2 is released in significant quantities to the atmosphere during ethanol production. Each molecule of NO2 is 25 times more effective a greenhouse gas than a CO2 molecule. Put that in your pipe and smoke it! Actually don't smoke, you're hurting the environment.

"But Adam!" you say. "80% of the Atmosphere is already Nitrogen! What difference does it make to add more?"

"Well, I'm glad you asked." I reply. "Most atmospheric Nitrogen is N2 which is an extremely stable molecule with a triple bond. NO2 is a different molecule with different properties." for example it has the capacity to FRY THE EARTH."

But it's still a matter of scale. Corn can be grown sustainably through crop rotation or fertilization on a smaller scale. Is the world's population at fault here? No. The earth can sustain this many people I believe. But not these people.

Tracking

I can't wait. I'm going hunting for the first time this weekend. I refuse to let the deer be my adversary in this endeavor. I don't know if I will kill anything, one never does. Talk about low impact food production! Wild game is a great food source.

I just treed a raccoon in Greenough park with Kane (wolf, see earlier posts)! I thought this was pretty cool. I saw his wet footprints on the river rocks, and followed them, followed the little guy right to a cottonwood that he was climbing. He clumb the thing like a rock climber moreso than a squirrel: using his fingers, rather than claws. He was wet and bedraggled, climbing slow. I didn't stop to watch him, didn't stop to bother him you know? Well it sure was exciting. Especially since he could have been a river otter since the tracks are very similar between the two animals.
Similarities:
five toes, size, area found.

Differences are:
Raccoon Otter

walks on tippy toes Has webbed feet with a larger hind foot
visible tail drag that swooshes between feet

Dear Readers.... Both of you. (a response to comments from the last post)

Good points Matthew, and very thoughtful. I think you are correct about our government subsidizing corn and soy and I think that oughta be a crime. I saw the author of Omnivore's Dilemma, Micheal Pollan speak at the Bioneers conference last year. I really enjoyed him and he brought up a lot of the points that you cited from his book. Including an incredible grass farmer who could sustainably produce astronomical quantities of meat by managing the grazing regimes of his animals. I call him a grass farmer because of something a Montana Rancher once said.

"Ranchers are grass farmers. Cows are just the vehicle of turning that grass into a profit. We could be grazing Giraffes out here if we wanted, but I think they'd have pretty sore necks."
Jim Stone.

Your main points,
1.) Cessation of local food production does not necessarily displace food production farther away.
- corn and soy prices are managed by manipulation of production rates
2.) Grass may sequester more carbon if it is cut periodically
- it has a faster growth rate before it reaches the stage of woody stems
- grass evolved with herbivory and fire, and has special adaptations to these disturbances
- self pruning of grass roots in response to loss of above ground mass helps soil

My responses
1.) I think your point here was that the Government's purpose of paying farmers to let their fields be fallow was not a soil conservation reason, but rather a control of commodity prices. Be that as it may, corn and soy as Michael Pollan agrees, are not foods. They are exactly what you said. The process of manufacturing high fructose corn syrup is very inefficient and is only possible due to government subsidies. These subsidies make it cheap to purchase so it is a cost effective sweetener for food processors. Lame. Local food production is depedent on high quality soil and heads up soil management, if the government paid organic farmers in the middle of Vermont's woods to let their fields be fallow, then we'd be in trouble, huh? Do I have a point? not really. Is this example applicable to my backyard in the first place? No. But it is always a pertinent question that any conservationist or citizen should ask. "If we preserve this piece of land, are we exporting those environmental impacts to farther away where we have no control over how the land is managed?"

2.)
- I agree, Cut the grass when it is growing at its optimum and you have yourself a little carbon farm!
- Yeah grass is sweet. It doesn't mind getting walked on and eaten, it doesn't mind droughts and it doesn't really mind fires. It stores most of its life force under ground where it is safe from these petty things that kill foolish trees.
- Here we both assumed that by not cutting the grass, self pruning rates will slow down. This assumption led me to write that the soil would be further stabilized, and it led you to write that lack of root decay will be detrimental to soil formation. I believe we were both wrong. Thinking more closely I believe that the disturbances that cause root decay in a yard are not limited to the lawn mower. Insects, deer, and other biota will munch on the grass.

Also, in order to balance the equation, there are functions that release carbon to the atmosphere as well that need to be considered. I mean decomposition. Microbial respiration in the process of decomposition releases CO2 to the atmosphere. Grass clippings decompose relatively quickly. As do root trimmings underground. The more complex the chemistry of the plant body in decomposition, (i.e. wood more complex than leaves) the slower the release of CO2. If the grass stays whole, bends over under snow, then revives in the spring, its possible the decomposition rates will be enough slower that the slower rate of photosynthesis (or Carbon fixation) is offset. I don't know. Another interesting point: a grassy land will spend part of the year in its dry, light colored state. This color will reflect light and taller grass makes more shade. These factors may reduce soil temperature, to below the soil temperature under a dark green bed of grass. Microbial chemical processes, such as decomposition, are slowed down in lower temperatures. Could this also be an important factor in Carbon cycling?


Dad, It is hard to say about the source of the water, but Isn't there a storm drain right above our driveway? I think that the dye would be a good experiment, or just pouring water on the ground on a dry day. Certainly I think the pavement is the main problem because it is impermeable to water. The cool bricks sound really awesome, I think the less pavement we have the better!

The swale will probably work, but the carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat and other benefits make the grow zone more appealing to me. The Swale essentially increases soil infiltration rates, wich is exactly the purpose of the grow zone, except the grow zone does not require any work to construct, either human respiration, nor vehicular respiration to convey the gravel or what have you.

As far as the bad effects of the soil erosion, they are very small scale. A few understory plants like mosses and stuff will probably get covered up and killed, but then again a seed might fall on that freshly deposited soil and thrive there. This is more of an exercise in soil retention than an urgent solution to Earth's problems. Over a large scale, say an entire town, or the entire united states, if we all stopped mowing the grass... I wonder what would happen. What about that spot between the highways? Why do they mow that? Maybe they oughta stop.

Backyard Conservation

It's been a while since I've taken the time to sit under a tree at the campground, but its good to be back. I was moved to post today because I was reading my soils textbook, The Nature and Properties of Soils by Nyle C. Brady and Ray R. Weil. It is a thick book and about as dry as an Aridisol, but I read the section about soil conservation and the section about soil chemical pollution.

Well, soil erosion is a huge problem in our country. Not only is it a bummer because we're losing precious soil, but also because it affects water quality. There are many factors that affect rates of soil loss and just as many ways to fix it, but why don't I give you an example of what it looks like in my own backyard in Montpelier.

There is a rill forming on the slope at the bottom of out driveway. The rill starts at a sudden drop off at the end of our mowed yard. The sudden drop off here has created an increase in the velocity of the water and thus increases the ability of the water to pick up and hold sediment. The kinetic energy of the water has torn apart this hill in several rills that expand from year to year, depositing bare mineral soil on top of the leaf litter in the forest below and exposing rock that was previously hidden inside the soil.

My brother and I filled the slope with debris from the forest to try and slow the water down. When the water in the rill slows down, it loses its ability to hold sediment so it deposits sediment on the sides of the sticks and stones we used as debris. At least that is the idea. We also constructed little temporary dams out of grass and sticks, that should allow water to flow through but stop some sediment. Also our treatment may be flawed simply because when an equal volume of water is forced through a smaller opening it actually speeds up. Oh well, we'll see if it hurts or helps.

Now I have a new plan to stop this erosion. And it is a really good idea if I do say so myself. My textbook said that 60% of soil loss prevention has been due to government plans of letting agricultural land be fallow rather than farmed. If land grew back into grassland it was worth a certain amount to the farmers and if it grew into forest it was worth even more. People were paid to NOT work! Well this leasing system may still be going on today, but I have doubts about its effectiveness on a global scale, If we aren't growing crops in our own country, they are being grown somewhere else, and what regulations on soil losses do they have in Mexico, the Carribean? Anyway, on the backyard scale it makes perfect sense, because the yard isn't used for production. If it is allowed to grow into a grassland or even a forest, the benefits could be amazing.

Benefits:
1. Global warming
2. Biodiversity
3. soil loss reduction

Letting the yard grow saves lawnmower gasoline while sequestering carbon in plant biomass to fight global warming. As plants photosynthesize, they take CO2 from the atmosphere and use it to maintain their metabolism as well as to build their physical structures, forests sequester much more biomass than grassland, but either one is better than a mowed lawn. The reason why tall grass or wild grass sequesters more carbon than a mowed lawn is because grasses maintain a balance between their leaves and their roots. Say you've let your grass grown to be six inches tall and then mow it, the grasses new leaf length of 2 inches cannot sustain the mass of roots that it did at six inches because its photosynthesis potential was cut down to one third. The grass will self-prune its roots under the soil, almost like a root mower is following behind your real lawnmower. If the leaves are allowed to grow, so are the roots which also stabilize soil.

I propose to let two areas of the yard grow wild. The first is the area directly above the rills, it is a shallow slope, maybe 5% and it is already covered in short grass. If it was allowed to grow, the grass would create a heavier root mass due to greater biomass above ground. It would have biodiversity increases as well, with wildflowers and insects having more prevalence there. The hardy stems of tall grass would slow the velocity of water even more than the flimsy short leaves that are there currently. The area would have improved cover for rodents, who need to stay hidden in order to not get et up by big ol' birds. When the insects and rodents dig holes in the soil, it increases water infiltration rates, so less water will actually reach the rill.

Furthermore, more leaf area over the soil in this spot will increase the interception of precipitation as it is falling, this means that the water slows down on its descent to earth, giving it more time to evaporate before hitting soil. This interception has been shown to reduce inputs of water into a system, which is just what we want here.

The other part of the yard that I propose be left uncut is what I believe to be a significant source of water collection contributing to the problem. Uphill from the driveway there is a strip of very steep terrain, maybe 50% slope. It is mowed every month or so by a special lawn mower guy named Jackson who specializes in steep slope mowing, good conversation, and wearing shorts all the time. This slope is a strip between the road and our driveway that covers perhaps a half acre. A quarter of this area is probably contributing water to this rill problem that we have. If this wedge of land were left unmowed, it would have all the same effects as above, but rather than trying to slow water down after it is already moving fast, it will attempt to reduce water inputs in terms of quantity and velocity.

Again more grass will promote soil infiltration capacity, and the interception will decrease overland flow in general. Because even during a rainstorm, the rain drops are evaporating as they fall and while they sit on the ground or on leaves.

The other important way this treatment will help is that in the spring when there are seasonal flows of water from melting snow, there will still be the dead stalks of tall grasses and wildflowers to promote evaporation and sublimation and reduce water velocity.

Perhaps you should consider a treatment like this in your own yard. Consider the carbon sequestration along with the reduction of gasoline consumption. That alone could make a big difference. I think it is a very reasonable thing to let part of your lawn go wild and see how you like it. Heck, maybe next year you'll sell your lawnmower. And if enough people do what i suggest, maybe it will offset the electricity consumption of the computers we used to talk about it.