Newsletters
October 2017 - Black Duck, Deptford Pink (Bioreserve Flora)
WELCOME TO GREEN FUTURES!
OCTOBER, 2017
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
A time to be born and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to harvest;
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build;
A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance;
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them;
A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to give and a time to give up;
A time to keep and a time to throw away;
A time tear and a time to mend;
A time to be silent and a time to speak;
A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace;
-Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
GREEN FUTURES – Time to go?
Green Futures was started by three Fall River school teachers 25 years ago appalled by a ridiculous plan by local development interests and the Fall River city administration to grab 1,500 acres of public open space land for “future development.” What did they want to develop? They weren't sure, but there was federal infrastructure money available for cutting down the forest and leveling hills and they wanted some of it. Some of the cockamamie suggestions for what the land might be used for included an expansion of the municipal airport to become “Logan South”; a horse racing track and huge race horse breeding facility; a stadium for a professional sports team and, I kid you not, a Chinese theme park!
Our walk to “Save the Forest” attracted over 250 environmentally concerned participants ...and this was before “social media.” We were successful in thwarting this land grab attempt. The Save the Forest Walk evolved into the BIG WALK which helped facilitate the creation of the first bioreserve in Massachusetts, the 16,000 acre Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve.
Over the years other successes, many with active support from state and regional environmental organizations and concerned individuals, have included the re-zoning of municipal watershed and state forest land, within Fall River, from “industrial” to “watershed protection” and “recreational open space”; closing of the inner city, health destroying, Fall River incinerator that since the day it opened never met clean air standards; prevented construction of a regional solid waste transfer station on the shore of South Watuppa Pond; aided in closing filthy, coal burning and outdated Montaup Electric; helped close the largest coal fired power plant in New England; supported the EPA requiring the construction of the ugly, but necessary, cooling towers at Brayton Point Station to stop their thermal pollution and entrainment/entrapment of fish eggs and larvae; organized the Coalition for Responsible Siting of LNG Facilities which fought Hess LNG for 11 years until they scrapped their ill-conceived plan and left Fall River; supported the federal designation of the Taunton River as a Wild and Scenic River; worked for 25 years on a bicycle path, first proposed by a Boy Scout as his Eagle Scout project, along the old Quequechan River railroad line.
While we were doing all these things and more we were hoping the anti-environmental attitudes of Fall River's political, business and civic leaders would change. That they would understand that a clean and welcoming city and regional environment would attract the businesses, industries and professionals they say Fall River needs to escape the decades old poverty and ignorance that plagues the place and usually finds Fall River annually listed as somewhere between the 1st and 10th “worst” community to live in here in New England.
Unfortunately few things in Fall River, other than the environmental benefits that have occurred through our advocacy, have improved over the past 25 years. Sadly, many of the improvements we've advocated for and made are presently being attacked and/or undermined by local political leaders and others that place self-interest way ahead of service to their community. The present city administration is the most pathetic we've seen. Fall River's mayor is a smarmy kind of guy and by his own admission under investigation by the FBI. Except with a few exceptions, over the past 25 years, the Fall River City Council has been a haven for buffoons that often don't read or understand what they are voting on, but will talk until midnight about it. Fossils from past failed administrations hang on serving as advisers and counselors well past their “sell by date.” Very little transparency in city government and city hall employees are very careful, afraid to speak out on city issues.
Healthy and thriving communities have clean water, clean air, protected forests, parkland and native wildlife. Environment comes first. Will Fall River ever be a healthy and thriving community? Not in the foreseeable future.
When we started we did think we'd see at least a little improvement in those leading and representing our community and a growing interest in protecting our shared environment. Apparently not. Hey, it's Fall River, the laughingstock of the Commonwealth.
We will see if there is a Green Future in Fall River's future at our next member's meeting, October 19, 2017.
“Everything that has a beginning comes to an end.”
- Quintilian
RECEIVED FROM OUR READERS THIS PAST MONTH
Solar arrays on forest and farmland remnants a big mistake. https://www.ecori.org/renewable-energy/2017/9/4/large-solar-arrays-help-wastewater-plant-stir-open-space-debate#commenting
Another loss for Maine? http://www.pressherald.com/2017/09/08/mining-company-plans-to-buy-northern-maine-mountain/
And, http://www.pressherald.com/2017/05/13/mainers-liable-for-defunct-mine/
Although he says he's just like Teddy Roosevelt ...he's not. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/shrink-at-least-4-national-monuments-and-modify-a-half-dozen-others-zinke-tells-trump/2017/09/17/a0df45cc-9b48-11e7-82e4-f1076f6d6152_story.html?utm_term=.c6da2d4576c8
Canada's endangered species on the brink. http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/technology/wwf-living-planet-index-1.4288173
Double the effect. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/deforestation-has-double-effect-global-warming-previously-thought-1638323
No “chick-a-Dee-dee-dee”? http://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2017/09/20/is-climate-change-the-swan-song-of-the-black-capped-chickadee
California bug museum. https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/fall-2017-bugged/bug-collection-brief-tour-essig-museum-entomology
The Charter of the Forest. https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/events/law_library_congress/thecharteroftheforest_bna_9192017.authcheckdam.pdf
BIORESERVE FAUNA OF THE MONTH – Black Duck (Anas rubripes)
Photo – Courtesy U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The black duck is the quintessential New England duck. Wary, wiry, self-reliant and tough as New England granite.
Both males and females quack. The female quacks louder and more frequently. Black ducks are in the family Anatidae. They are large dabbling ducks (ducks that feed on land and in shallow water dabbling and upending, tipping their body vertically, to feed on aquatic plants and invertibrates). Other local dabbling Anatidae are mallard ducks, wood ducks, Canada geese and mute swans.
Black ducks average 2 feet in length, have a 36 to 38 inch wingspan and weigh 2 to 3 ½ pounds. Males have overall blackish-brown plumage with a lighter head and a darker streak running from the top corner of their bill, across the eyes, to the back of the head. Males and females have a purple speculum (bright patch of plumage on the secondary flight feathers of certain duck species) without a white border. The closely related mallard duck has a blue speculum edged in white.
Mature male black ducks have bright yellow bills and bright red legs and feet. Females and immatures are lighter in color and more mottled than males and have greenish bills and brownish-orange legs and feet. Both sexes have white inner wing linings only visible when they extend their wings or are flying.
Black duck breeding range is from eastern Manitoba, east across Canada to Labrador and Newfoundland. In the north from northern Quebec and Newfoundland south to northern New England, northern New York, Michigan, Wisconsin and extreme northeastern Minnesota. Migratory range of the black duck extends all the way down to Georgia and extreme northeastern Florida, west to the Mississippi and then north to the Great Lakes.
Black ducks used to breed in our southeastern Massachusetts neck of the woods. We haven't seen any black duck hatchlings since the early 1970s. Over development and pollution/urbanization as well as global warming apparently prevent them from now nesting in our area.
Where they still breed males return with the female to her native area. The female, hen, black duck builds a nest of down she plucks from her breast along with a few reeds and marsh grass usually in thick vegetation on a high spot in a marsh or swamp or nearby on dry land. Hens lay 5 to 12 pure white, greenish-white to brownish-buff eggs.
Eggs hatch in 23+/- days. The newly hatched ducklings are precocial, very alert to their surroundings and cute as only a yellow and brown ball of animated down can be. They follow their mother to water and the protection of dense emergent vegetation and begin feeding on protein-rich insects and aquatic invertibrates. The ducklings grow rapidly and begin to fly at two months old.
Mallard ducks are closely related to black ducks. Black ducks evolved to live in forested areas. Mallards evolved out on the open plains and prairies. They are not as wary and more accepting of humans and have adapted to living even in our cities. Mallards started moving into New England with the clearing of the forest. Their ability to outcompete and hybridize with their close black duck cousin and their adaptability to put up with us probably means the black duck will eventually fade away as a distinct species. That would be too bad.
Most people find ducks delicious. So do coyotes, fox, mink and a whole bunch of other mammalian carnivores and omnivores. Bald eagles, great horned owls and the larger hawks also enjoy duck. Crows, blue jays and snakes are major predators of unguarded eggs and snapping turtles eat ducklings by grabbing their feet and dragging then underwater. Only the wary, wiry, self-reliant, tough ...and lucky ...survive.
BIORESERVE FLORA OF THE MONTH – Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria)
The Deptford pink is a beautiful alien originally hailing from the English town of Deptford. How did it get to New England from old England? Were its tiny seeds hiding among valuable vegetable seeds and grains brought over by the Pilgrims? Maybe tangled in the wool or hair of colonial sheep, goats and cows?
However it happened, it happened in more places than just here. Today, the Deptford pink is found on every continent except Antarctica.
Locally, the Deptford pink is quite common. Most people miss it because it is small and hides among other meadow forbs and grasses.
The Deptford pink is the perfect wildflower to slow people down and force them to take a closer at the rest of Creation. Henry David Thoreau in his book “Walden” wrote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Most of us spend too much time “desperate” for money, property, status, the latest electronic junk, etc. Let's stop being so desperate. One only gets so many summers …and here in New England they are all too brief. Next summer stop to check out the Deptford pink and the rest of Mother Nature's handiwork too. Feel that “desperation” slowly slip away as you explore field and forest.
Although an alien, Deptford pink is not invasive. It mixes in, benignly, with whatever is already growing there. Individual plants reach a foot or two in height. The have a long tap root and do well in dry soil. The green leaves are narrow and three inches in length. The flowers form at the top of the stalk and bloom throughout the summer.
Deptford pink flowers measure a quarter to a half-inch in diameter. The five pink petals have serrated edges and are an astonishingly bright pink with small white specks here and there. In the center of each blossom are male pollen containing anthers and female pollen accepting stigmas. These blossoms are pollinated by small bees, wasps and small butterflies.
Following pollination a slender seed capsule forms filled with dozens of seeds. When ripe the seed capsule splits upon and releases the seeds to the wind.
The Deptford pink is found throughout North America except for the extreme desert southwest.
OFFICIALLY AUTUMN NOW – Enjoy!
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