I grew up in Illinois, where the prairie is revered - sort of. Schoolchildren in my home town are taught to take pride in the native prairie of Illinois while their parents build new housing developments and suburban sprawl. For god's sake, I can sing the entire
state song extolling the prairie and natural beauty of our state. We don't treat it very well if we value it.
**Please recommend this!** This diary ties together two diaries that were recommended today - RenaRF's diary about Katrina and Salvia's diary about global warming. If we all care about those 2 issues, we need to take action. Political action, yes, but don't spend your Saturdays naked on the couch eating Cheetos - if you really care you can do something to help in addition to blogging.
A woman in my neighborhood planted native prairie plants in her yard. She even burned it occasionally (a healthy prairie burns annually) with fire department supervision. My mom thought her yard was an eyesore. I think she must have moved years ago and someone made her house and yard "normal" because I don't remember seeing it for many years now.
I always kind of wanted to be that woman when I grew up. Of course, if I don't live in an area where prairie is native then I can't do it. And I'd rather chew off my own leg than live in the town where I grew up.
Wherever you live, you can probably participate in some way of the restoration of native plants and habitats. I'll include a bit at the bottom about wetlands and such. I read today in the latest Sierra Club magazine about how much more vulnerable Louisiana is to hurricanes because of the damage to their wetlands. The Louisiana wetlands can absorb quite a bit of storm surge.
If you've read Salvia's myth-debunking diary, you've got the facts about the reality of global warming. Global warming warms the Gulf, which whips hurricanes into a frenzy. They say that global warming makes each hurricane longer in duration and greater in severity. Tropical Storm Zeta formed today in the eastern Atlantic. At the same time as we are encouraging climate extremes, we are also making ourselves more vulnerable by ruining our natural defenses - wetlands, barrier islands, native habitat and species, healthy soil, etc.
Rena's diary today really upset me. If you haven't read it, read it. I really never thought that sort of thing could happen in America. It wasn't just environmental degradation that led to it of course - government incompetance helped.
After reading all of that, I started searching the web for information about prairie restoration projects. It made me feel like these ecology projects go on about us like wizards live among Muggles. Sure, I had taken a field trip or two as a kid to preserved or restored prairies - but the organizations and projects I came across on the internet were RIGHT in my own backyard, and they were about as visible to me as Platform 9 3/4 was to me when I lived in London.
The point of it all is that nature is fucking SMART. We all rant and rave about how we believe in evolution here and we should teach it in schools. Well... native plants evolved and they can thrive without pesticides and fertilizers. Native plants are better for local wildlife too. There's a harmony to it and as long as we go with the flow, nature will do the heavy lifting for us. Compare that with the effort of keeping a perfectly green lawn... watering, fertilizer, weeding, pesticides, mowing... it's a pain in the ass!
So back to talking about the prairie.
The best resource I came across was a guide to restoring prairie by none other than a teacher at my old junior high (I told you this stuff was going on right in my backyard!). It was quite a shock because I can't even begin to describe what a hell that school was for me. Maybe I don't need to because everyone has it rough in junior high. If you've seen Supersize Me, they actually go to my old junior high and interview my seventh grade gym teacher in it. Everything made that school hell - including many, many of the teachers. The teacher who wrote about the prairie was there when I was, but I never had him for class.
His resource for restoring the prairie was Fermi Lab. You may think of physics when you hear Fermi Lab but they have a large prairie and a bunch of buffalo too. I went there on school field trips as a kid.
The site says the following about prairie restoration:
Prairies and wetlands naturally conserve water and prevent runoff and erosion, thereby helping aquifer levels, protecting topsoil and reducing the extent of flooding. The ecosystems that are being built and enriched maintain and protect many native plant and animal habitats. As these habitats improve, increased numbers of birds, mammals, reptiles and insects appear. Animals that were rarely, if ever seen before the restoration project, are now becoming common place. Birds include, herons, egrets, sandhill cranes, woodcocks, upland sandpipers, snipes, vireos, bob-o-links, hawks, vultures, and an occasional bald eagle, among others. Mammals include, foxes, coyotes, deer, mink, weasels, and even a few badgers have been seen on site for the first time in a generation. Several blanding's turtles, on the state's endangered list, have also been seen. Experts say that less than one tenth of one percent of the Illinois prairie remains in its original condition. Many of the prairie plant species, both grasses and forbes, have never been seen by most of the general public. These plants are now flourishing in the prairie areas currently being restored and enriched at Fermilab.
What Can You Do
Solving the problem of global warming is monumental. I think I saw a stat that the US is 25% of global emissions. So yeah - we suck. And our government sucks. The Shrub is a worse invasive plant than kudzu. Impeachment is now an option, at least according to signs visible from highways all over the country. And 2006 is mere hours away.
But you can also take small steps all by yourself. It won't solve the problem - but the thousands of us on here are a start. To those who say that one individual can't make a change, I say: Do you vote? Sure we aren't all Cindy Sheehan but why the hell do you go to the polls every November if you don't think you can make a difference? You do make a difference. For one thing, you vote with your dollars. Voting machines may be faulty but barcode data is accurate. So your consumer habits and other things in your daily life may count a bit more than that butterfly ballot you thought you punched for the Dems. We can't wait for our government because we'll be waiting for too long.
So here are my ideas:
More ideas are available at my website. Some other sites I like are Arbor Day, Audubon Society, and Earth Day.