19 Comments
Jul 2, 2023Liked by Melanie Newfield

Great article Melanie. Your note about plants that like scree slopes is a perfect excuse to post a link to a picture of an animal that prefers scree, the impossibly cute pika, inspiration for Pikachu. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:American_pika_(ochotona_princeps)_with_a_mouthful_of_flowers.jpg#/media/File:American_pika_(ochotona_princeps)_with_a_mouthful_of_flowers.jpg

Our local soil is glacial till. Our bluffs are constantly eroding at an average rate of a foot a year. The debris replenishes our beaches. Sometimes a slide is more catastrophic, as in this one a few miles north of me: https://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/ledgewood-devastated-by-landslide/

Further inland, a combination of weak soil, river bank undercutting, in appropriate development, and local government inaction caused this disaster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Oso_mudslide

And then, of course, we've all waiting for "the big one" - a 9.0 on the Cascadia subduction zone.

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Thanks John, that pika is so cute with its little bunch of forget-me-nots. We have insects taking on the ecological functions of mammals, so here is the New Zealand equivalent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinacrida_connectens#/media/File:NZInsects3.JPG

The Oso mudslide is mind-blowing. I can't get my head around the scale of it.

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Jul 4, 2023Liked by Melanie Newfield

That's a scary looking insect! Have you seen them in the wild?

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Not that species, but related species, yes. There are close relatives which are rare and I was lucky enough to see them (and actually hold them) on an island sanctuary.

https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/marlborough/places/te-pakeka-maud-island/

There are species which are less closely related but still pretty similar which are common in the city where I live. I find them in the garden often enough. They're a bit grumpier than the rare species I got to hold though.

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Jul 2, 2023Liked by Melanie Newfield

Thanks for an in-depth and longer look article about erosion and forest management. The Canadian forest ecologist Suzanne Simard also has decades of practical and research knowledge about how to plant, manage, renew and sustainably harvest biodiverse forests. See https://forestry.ubc.ca/faculty-profile/suzanne-simard/

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A wonderful reference to Suzanne Simard! Her pioneering work into the communication networks under the ground between trees is amazing.

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Yes, I love Suzanne Simard's approach and work! There was a wonderful NY Times Magazine article about her a few years ago, it's here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/02/magazine/tree-communication-mycorrhiza.html

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Jul 3, 2023Liked by Melanie Newfield

Yes, and what I love about her work is it's such a holistic way to look at forest systems. Has some resonance with Matauranga Maori...

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Thank you so much, I will definitely check out her work. Perhaps she might even be interested in speaking with me.

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Some more of her writing and my summary - this is what I mean by holistic thinking (you can see I'm passionate about it!)

https://emergencemagazine.org/.../finding-the-mother-tree/

This moving interview speaks to so much that underlies the ideological problems we face; the limitations of reductionist western science which dissects rather than looks at whole systems, the commodification of nature and forests in particular, a model of nature which still privileges competition rather than cooperation, the resistance to new discoveries and paradigms and putting that knowledge into practice, our disconnection from a living, breathing, intimate and spiritual relationship with nature, the ignorance and discounting of indigenous knowledge, and the importance of transformational thinking to inform present and future.

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Jul 4, 2023Liked by Melanie Newfield

Here is another, this one a recent interview with Steve Levitt: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-smart-is-a-forest/

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This is really informative. Thank you

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Thank you, I appreciate it.

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Jul 3, 2023Liked by Melanie Newfield

Hi Melanie - I'm in no position to comment on the science of the "Wood wide web" and Suzanne Simardi's research, however I've recently read, courtesy of NZ Geo (May June edition), ... "a recent review, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, now says that study was flawed: “The claim that mature trees preferentially send resources and defence signals to offspring through CMNs has no peer-reviewed, published evidence.” The reviewers point out that many other field studies never found CMNs: “With current technology, it is difficult to confirm that continuous, non-transient mycelial connections exist between trees in the field.” https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/unpicking-the-wood-wide-web/

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Thanks Dave, that's really interesting. I'm checking out the paper now, it's pretty interesting. But even putting aside the claims about common mycorrhizal networks, just the well-supported basic facts about mycorrhizal fungi are mind-blowing to me. I remember the first time I learned that many plants were benefitting from the fungi growing entangled with their roots. What we see as individual plants are actually not existing in isolation.

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What an informative post Melanie. As a play on "all politics is local" it seems your detailed trip around New Zealand tells me "all erosion is local". I think the great importance of your story is there is a great need for involvement on the local level on almost all matters as that is where the expertise lies.

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Thank you. When I look at how we manage the land in New Zealand, I think about the saying, "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail". We go back to the same things everywhere and we definitely need to think more locall.

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It seems a Maori map surveying the land might prove incredibly useful for identifying at-risk erosion zones. It's wonderful that lore has survived into the twenty-first century, and NZ is in a position to learn from it.

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I think it would. There was a case some years ago when the agency which is responsible for road building changed their plans for where the main road was to run between two major cities, over concerns raised by local Māori. There was an outcry from the public, because a lot of money was spent on something many pākehā (European NZers) considered to be a myth.

18 months later, the area where the road had been planned was badly damaged by a flood. But the road-building agency had listened to Māori and put the road somewhere which was fine.

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