What's IMHO? And the only way I'm naive (and this is changing) is that I think people who are concerned about environmental issues know about vegetation and ecosystems in their own region. They actually don't know and don't really want to know unless it's about the rain forests or Africa or pandas (yes, I know these are tragedies!) It's freaking me out!
Bird people care about habitats though - especially wetlands and meadows. Gee, do you think they'll be able to lobby for habitat diversity????? In NYC, the mayor has a few projects like Million Trees that are certainly admirable, but thousands of trees are being desperately planted and many are already dying! But it takes attention away from the massacring of birds out at JFK airport - located beside, if not in, the Gateway National Park Wildlife Refuge of Jamaica Bay, by the way. See, you got me all upset Joe! It was an innocent discussion about meadows, grasslands and prairies! Jenny On May 1, 3:51 pm, "Joseph Zorzin" <[email protected]> wrote: > Decisions are made on raw, hard core politics- whichever special interest > group buys the most politicians- gets to have the most say- it's as simple > as that. To think that the decisions are based on science or the long term > good of the public are naive, IMHO. > > I like finding meadows in a forest too- the problem, after recreating them > from woodland, is how to maintain them. Often our public agencies instead > clearcut forests to create "early succession habitat"- but it only last a few > years before growing back in- so to solve that, they keep up a cycle of > clearcutting so to always have some of that early succession habitat. However > a clearcut ain't a meadow and all that clearcutting happens to be just dandy > to the timber industry. Then again, maybe I'm being cynical. > > Joe > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: JennyNYC > To: ENTSTrees > Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 2:15 PM > Subject: [ENTS] Re: Meadow Question > > Ed, > > Wow, thanks. I'm finding all kinds of stuff now. Jennings sounds > great. > > Now I am wondering about restoration projects that involve cutting > down parts of forests to create meadow (if it is determined that > meadow was there for a long time before the forest encroachment.) > Since there isn't a whole lot of space for recreating natural > ecosystems in the northeast, I wonder how decisions are made about > priority. Should the ecosystem most threatened by species extinction > take precedence? > > Do you think meadows within a forest add to their aesthetic value? I > love coming into one from a trail. Maybe you already have this in the > paper. > > Thanks, > Jenny > > On May 1, 11:11 am, "Edward Frank" <[email protected]> wrote: > > Jenny, > > > You might look up the word prairie on a web search. There are many areas > of prairie across the east coast. They typically form where there is a soil > type that is not good for tree growth. At Jennings Environmental Education > Ceneter in western PA the site says "The Jennings prairie remains due to a > thick layer of impermeable clay that prevents most tree species from becoming > established. Plants and animals that do live on the prairie must tolerate > shallow soils, fluctuating periods of drought and saturation, and fire. Even > under these harsh conditions, this ecosystem teems with life." Other ones > exist at places like serpentine barrens where the soil is poisonous to trees > but grass and some herbs can establish. Another area is along flood plains > frequently flooded. Some trees can establish there, like sycamore and silver > maple, but often frequent harsh flooding will create an area that is occupied > by grasses because they replenish faster than trees. Finally there are grass > areas in environments that are frequently burned. Many of these are reverting > to scrub oak and pine forests as people have messed with the fire cycle. To > some degree many of these pockets of grasslands are on a very long term > transient, but they can exists for thousands of years at a locality before > transitioning to another ecotype, but they can also form in new areas as well. > > > Ed Frank --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
