Highlights

March 2024 - March Walk; Losing diversity, Spring!

ACTIVITY ALERT - MARCH WALK IN THE FOREST

Goodbye to Boreas, welcome Persephone!
 
 
The February Full Moon Walk was rained out. The next walk will be March 9, Saturday, 9 a.m. 
Meet at Fighting Rock Corner, intersection of Wilson, Blossom and Bell Rock Roads, Fall River, within the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve. We will be watching for very early signs of spring as we walk along.

Approximate length of walk 5 1/2 miles. Dress for the weather. Water and snack always a good idea. Rain or heavy snow cancels walk.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Some early signs of spring, like the mourning cloak, question mark, and eastern comma are March butterflies that were mentioned in our past February Walk announcement. Skunk cabbage was also mentioned and should still be flowering now. Some additional plants are also in flower like the spicebush that flowers before the leaves pop out. Everyone knows pussywillow. Snowdrops aren't native, but often go feral and so does yellow coltsfoot. Some other spring enthusiasts like spotted salamanders and wood frogs are heading to vernal pools to meet up, mate and lay eggs. Eastern garter snakes are out early too looking for a delicious, I guess, frog or salamander for breakfast. 

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ACTIVITY ALERT - MARCH WALK IN THE FOREST


Saturday morning dawned cold, raw and wet. Recent heavy rain and more predicted means brooks were overflowing and low area forest trails were wet and muddy. 

Not warm enough this morning for early butterflies to be out and about. Walk leaders Roger and Liz saw their first mourning cloak of the year yesterday, March 8. Need some sun and temperatures, at least in the low fifties, to get more mourning cloaks and other overwintering butterflies to leave their hibernaculums. If you see a March mourning cloak, email us at (info@greenfutures.org) and let us know the date of the sighting. Forecast shows high temperatures in the fifties this coming week so keep watch. 

No yellow coltsfoot flowers blooming yet, but skunk cabbage was abundant, lush and loving all the rain.
Following photos by Liz.

 
Windy March is blowing, with all its might. Brooks are overflowing with foam all white. Though it's cold as winter, snowy, blowy, little pussy willow came to town last night.


We've been watching for them since February. They are everywhere now. Thermogenic plants, like our local skunk cabbage, have the ability to produce heat which allows them to shorten their period of winter dormancy thereby giving them a competitive advantage by allowing them to start growing while competing wetland species are still dormant in winter mode. The warmth emanating from the plant also disperses the flower odor and encourages pollinating insects to hang around the spadix (flower) longer.
 
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INFO ALERT - A sin and a shame!


Losing the land and native biodiversity one species at a time. The Trustees go WOKE!

“I will argue that every scrap of biological diversity is priceless, to be learned and cherished, and never to be surrendered without a struggle.”
 E.O. Wilson

Way back, 24 years or so ago, E.O. Wilson, the father of biodiversity and a truly wonderful  human (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Wilson) came down to speak at UMass Dartmouth, along with state environmental officials, us and many other persons concerned about the loss of native biodiversity in our world and to conduct a bioblitz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioBlitz).in the brand new Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve. Happy times we thought.

The Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve (SMB), an example of the formerly once extensive native forest of the Narragansett/Bristol Lowlands Ecoregion was saved, just in time, in this fastest growing region of the state. Statewide Massachusetts loses more than 44 acres of open space to development every day, and in this sprawl is consuming land at three times the rate of population growth. The SMB encompasses and protects natural communities representative of the region. It also contains several important communities and species considered at risk by the state's Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program.

We were told by state environmental officials, when the SMB was just a dream back in 2000, that The Trustees of Reservations was coming onboard as a "partner" in the creation of the SMB to make sure, since they are a private, non-profit land trust, they would not stray from the mission as the possibly politically influenced state agencies involved might. On top of that, The Trustees promised to build a state of the art environmental education center to interpret and educate and celebrate the fragility and importance of our shared natural environment. They reneged on that promise when they couldn't find any "old money" in economically challenged Fall River and local folks failed to join their organization. A big disappointment when they fled to Westport and wealthier locals.

The Trustees do have some wonderful properties and historic buildings scattered across the state. For some reason, here in the SMB, they recently went hard on a money grab for an ecologically damaging project. They are not living up to their mission. What is the mission of The Trustees of reservations? They say, "The Trustees of Reservations is here to protect and share the Massachusetts places people love for their exceptional scenic, historic and ecological value." They lie.
 
The Trustees reneged on the promised education center, but did hire a wonderful and savvy outdoor educator who led childrens walks and adult ones too out interpreting what Mother Nature was doing. Some of you may remember attending Linton's walks and talks. We used to partner with him and The Trustees on their annual Salamander Soiree every year right about now. Those vernal pool walks, late at night, brought out hundreds to view Mother Nature's magic creating more environmental advocates. After years of effective and faithful service The Trustees coldly eliminated his position. 

The problem, as we explained to them after reading their real "WOKE" ...yes, really woke and ridiculous ...grant proposal, seeking funding to build a nature trail for physically challenged inner city "BIPOC" children, was that they would, in the area they wanted to build, damage an ecologically significant wooded section of the SMB. Like other things The Trustees have promised, we didn't think they would move forward with their ill-conceived project. However, unfortunately, they succeeded in getting funding. No funding they probably wouldn't have proceeded. 

We want children, all children including The Trustees BIPOC ones and all the disabled, impaired, physically challenged and all other children and adults too out learning and responsibly recreating in our natural environment. We don't have to ruin the limited acreage left to Mother Nature in our increasingly developed, populated and polluted world to do that. There is a place for inside and outside environmental education planned for the SMB and hopefully coming soon. Sooner if The Trustees truly want to bring all people along to experience the wonders and value of nature and help save the SMB.

Lastly, we are still waiting for answers to the following questions we originally asked when they proposed their ill-conceived project to destroy priority habitat next to deep and dark Shockley's Swamp, a hardwood and cedar swamp, full of mosquitos and deer flies.   
* Where will the BIPOC children go to the bathroom? A porta-potty, portable toilet? Sooner or later, when no one is around, the porta-potty will be tipped over and/or vandalized. The SMB is an urban forest and heavily utilized by people that are mostly good, but sometimes bad.
* Will medical staff be on duty if a child injures themselves or gets sick and the nearest hospital is miles away in Fall River?
* EEE, eastern equine encephalitis is a rare but deadly disease especially in eastern Massachusetts usually from July to early October. Insecticide spraying is not allowed in a bioreserve or in a public water supply recharge area for obvious reasons.
* Ticks. Global warming/climate change means some ticks, like the black legged deer tick, are now active all year long. Once again, climate change/global warming is seeing new tick species moving north and east into our area. Deer ticks in all of  Massachusetts now may also carry babesiosis and anaplasmosis and Powassan disease. Lone star ticks recently spread into Massachusetts. They spread alpha-gal which currently there isn't any treatment for. Lone stars also carry ehrlichiosis. The, so far rare, groundhog tick may also carry Powassan disease. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever is very rare in Massachusetts, but has been found in the southeastern coastal areas, Cape and Islands and is carried by the American dog tick and brown dog tick which, both specious, can also carry tularemia. For more on the most common Massachusetts tick species, tick diseases and avoidance go here, 
*West Nile Virus carried by the Culex pipiens mosquito is an uncommon disease, but the pipiens mosquito is very common in Massachusetts.

The Trustees ...do the right thing! Stop disrespecting the SMB ...the land, the vegetation and the animals that depend on it. Work on the plans to get the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve Environmental Education and Discovery Center, that you promised over twenty years ago. Everyone will help and they'll all thank you. Help us save and interpret the SMB women, men, children, BIPOC and nonBIPOC, non-binary and the other 72+ expressed genders too. 
 
  

The Trustees Copicut Woods property within the SMB. Earth moving equipment Ripping at the bones of Mother Nature. Destroying biodiversity. Damaging priority habitat for a "threatened species in Massachusetts" the marbled salamander. 

 

New England woods are filled with rocks pushed along and then left by the last glacier. Are these local rocks or were they purchased, acquired by destroying the environment somewhere else to dump here in the SMB?


Marbled salamanders spend a lot of their time in subterraneum burrows. This compacted mesh trail in the forest will not only fragment their habitat but could possibly crush them. Are they going to eventually pave this trail? This ill-conceived and foolishly funded project, possibly paid for by gas tax revenue, has no place in a bioreserve. Just east of Shockley's Swamp it also will have impacts on the swamp's remaining snowshoe hare. Snowshoe hare in this area, on the southern end of their range in New England, are disappearing due to climate change/global warming. They were formerly abundant in the SMBs Atlantic white cedar bogs. They are still abundant north of us through New Hampshire, Maine and Canada.



The beautiful and now more threatened than ever marbled salamander.
Just found on the internet from Zoo New England- "Middlesex Fells which is right next to Stone Zoo, is one of the former homes of marbled salamanders in northeastern Massachusetts. During the 1930s, the salamanders became locally extinct when increasing urbanization made the habitat unsuitable for them. "Middlesex Fells is a DCR property in a heavily urbanized area close to Boston and has been fragmented by folks cutting their own trails. The Freetown State Forest within the SMB is also a DCR property and the same thing is happening there. Get involved in saving your natural environment, Do something about it. The vandals are scaling the walls in broad daylight!

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INFO ALERT - Welcome Astronomical Spring, March 19, 4:20 a.m., in Our Neck of the Woods!


Here Comes The Sun!

A perfect time to appreciate our natural environment here in Massachusetts. Take a walk on the wild side and observe the change of seasons. 

Wild nature is essential to our health and our future.  We are slowly losing our planet's biodiversity globally and right here in our own backyard. Mother Nature needs more friends and advocates. Remember, mother knows best.

Our next walk in the forest will be April 13. More details to follow in our next email. Watch for it.

 


 

 

 


 

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