Joe’s earlier post on the fishing derby sounded really cool and made me curious, so I googled the topic of fishing derby benefits to species conservation. Rather than stumbling on the benefit of fishing derbies that Joe discussed, I stumbled upon another benefit. Apparently some fishing derbies are being planned and put on with the intention of eradicating invasive species! This article (accessible in link I attached at the bottom) discusses two ice fishing derbies put on at Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming to eradicate the area of burbots or lings that were illegally introduced years back with the tagline:

“Wanted: anglers to ding a ling or bash a burbot.”

Apparently game and fish biologists have found that these derbies successfully control this invasive fish population. They are particularly supportive of this event as these invasive species pose a significant risk to the lake’s sport fishery and to Kokanee salmon populations.

This idea that sport could double with conservation efforts put a funny image in my head. What if we had contests to get rid of all sorts of invasive species? What about a purple loosestrife, zebra mussel, or european starling derby?

http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/fishing-derbies-aimed-to-eradicate-invasive-species/article_9e685c4e-baec-5bc9-89db-79824719317f.html

Modern Day Butz Mill Property

For this week’s update we decided to go a different direction; we decided to learn about what is currently going on at our site. We figured this would give us an even better idea of how much the site has changed over time.

Butz Park-a passive, neighborhood, public park. It is 1.62 acres. It is a preserved parcel adjacent to state route 22. The park is so steep no recreation features exist in the park; it is basically a remainder parcel from highway construction.
www.easton-pa.com/rec/openspace.pdfwww.easton-pa.com/rec/openspace.pdf

Safe Harbor arose from two roots, a program for the city’s poorest residents started by the Easton Drop-In Center in 1983 and a demonstrated need prompted by Lafayette College students in 1988. Soon a group was formed, 400,000$ were raised in a capital campaign, and a permanent facility was built by 1990-Safe Harbor. Government grants provide much of Safe Harbor’s funding, as well as donations from other groups and organizations. Safe HArbor is a two-story building with of housing capacity for 22 men and 14 women overnight. Safe Harbor is an emergency transitional shelter, providing clean housing for up to 120 days while residents reclaim their lives and acquire life skills needed to gain employment and permanent. In addition, during the day Safe Harbor also serves as a safe place where low-income and functionally disabled adults may receive two meals a day and social rehabilitation services. Safe Harbor serve approximately 275 homeless single adult men and women each year; 80% from Easton, 15% from Warren County, NJ, and 5% from Lehigh County. Last year over 44,000 meals were served at the center, and visitors also have access to medical checkups and testing as well as a clothing closet.
https://safeharboreaston.wordpress.com/ourhistory/

Public Works is the largest and most diverse department with roughly 100 staff members that provide and manage a wide variety of programs: wastewater treatment, sewage collections & conveyance systems, highways and roads, engineering, parks and recreation, garbage, and recycling, public buildings maintenance, parking facilities, street and traffic lights, and public motors fleets (this explains some of the stuff we saw the other day while capturing the site). The specific Public Works building by our site is the municipal complex and recycling drop-off center.
http://www.easton-pa.gov/pwabout.html

The other day I had the opportunity to have a quick chat with Dr. Shana Weber and some students. Right before she walked into the meeting we were discussing how great it is that we have so many environmentally motivated clubs, but how much of a bummer it is when or events and activities overlap. We talked about how it feels like we are stepping on each others’ toes, and how nice it would be if things were planned out in a way to avoid this. As this discussion was coming to close Dr. Shana Weber came into the room and we had a great discussion about the prospect of a Sustainability Coordinator on our campus, and what this position could do to benefit the endeavors of our various clubs. One point of her discussion really spoke to the group of us, as it addressed this issue we had just been talking about. She talked about how her role also allows Princeton to coordinate all environmental efforts on campus. Rather than working on their missions separately they have been able to make their work coordinated efforts at Princeton, and her position also allows her to push the clubs to get more done together. They have a council that meets with her and they discuss progress, goals, and action so that no efforts conflict, but rather all synergize. Following this meeting we felt inspired by this, and decided to bring all the groups together into what we are calling the “Environmental Coalition” for now. Next week we are going to have our first meeting to work on the formation of the group similar to the Green Council Dr. Shana Weber introduced to us during the conversation. We are very excited to see how this will facilitate the environmental efforts of our groups on campus! Thank you for the inspiration Dr. Shana Weber!

“The extension of ethics to this third element in human environment is, if I read the evidence correctly, an evolutionary possibility and an ecological necessity. It is the third step in a sequence. The first two have already been taken. Individual thinkers since the days of Ezekiel and Isaiah have asserted that the despoliation of land is not only inexpedient but wrong. Society, however, has not yet affirmed their belief. I regard the present conservation movement as the embryo of such an affirmation” (239).

This quote stood out to me be I found that it contains a sense of optimism, that Leopold feels we are in the starting stages of our conservation movement at that time of extending our ethics to the land.

“A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of these ‘resources,’ but it does affirm their right to continued existence, and, at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state” (240).

This line in particular stood out to me because we recently discussed the concept of Deep Ecology in my conservation biology class. While discussing this concept we spoke of the intrinsic value all things had, their equal right to existence, and their equal value to us humans. I think this line shows Leopold wants to be realistic about this goal he is putting forth, but he is also expressing the deep ecology rooted in his idea for the Land Ethic.

“(A) regards the land as soil, and its function as commodity-production; another group (B) regards the land as biota, and its function as something broader” (258-259).

Another line from the Land Ethic that caught my eye. I really love this synergy I am finding between Conservation Biology and this class. We looked at anthropocentrism vs. deep ecology, and I think group A expresses the anthropocentric side, while group B expresses this deep ecology side. It is interesting to see a concept we took notes on in that class, demonstrated in a reading we done for this class; it is nice to see these things in a variety of ways.

This weekend I had the chance to sit down with some friends on a rainy night and watch the Disney classic, Pocahontas. One line in particular from the movie spoke to me in coordination with a line from Leopold’s Land Ethic. Both Pocahontas and Leopold are addressing this issue we have with claiming the Earth around us as property when it is not right. I thought it was so interesting to see the same sentiment coming from two very different pieces. I also do not think this line in Pocahontas would has resonated with me as much as it did if I had not read the Land Ethic right before. Here are the lines from the two that I put together:

“You think you own whatever land you land on
The earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name”
–Pocahontas

“There is yet no ethic dealing with man’s relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it. Land, like Odysseus’ slave-girls, is still property. The land relation is still strictly economic, entailing privileges but no obligations.”
–The Land Ethic

After looking at the images from the Course of the Empire set, we had a thought about how this related to our site. When looking at historical images and reading about the history of the industry of the Bushkill you can imagine at some point in time how busy and alive things along the Bushkill were. In a way we found this to be like the Consummation of the Empire. As time has gone by the destruction of this empire, or industry, has occurred. As we have discussed in previous posts we now see our site currently as a sort of infrastructure graveyard, in a way similar to the image of Desolation in the last image of the set. As structures lay in ruin in this image they also lay in ruin at our site. Furthermore, we discussed a sense of optimism in this image in class, that perhaps the clouds were clearing and there was to be a revival. This is also how we felt as we constantly felt the potential in this site for something more, to become once again a more natural place or a part of the community. It was interesting to see this piece the other day as it gave us something to compare and contrast our ideas and progression of thought about our site to.

We also pulled together some of our own photos to put against the collection. Seeing the images side by side really helped us imagine how drastically the area has changed and went along with these recent thoughts we had.

Additional interesting history tidbits!

“Butz park is a preserved parcel adjacent to state route 22. The topography is extremely steep and no recreation features exist on the park. It is a remainder parcel from highway construction” -http://www.easton-pa.gov/rec/openspace.pdf

Really cool website of additional images from 1752 to 1900 of Easton and along the Bushkill (photos from Lehigh >:l). Here is one that displays some of our site!

http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/cdm4/beyond_viewer.php?CISOPTR=7660&ptr=7896&searchworks=cat30&DMTHUMB=1

A funny thing happened last week; I was sampling on the Bushkill for some research, wearing my clumsy waders and toting my cumbersome field equipment along the bank, when I stumbled upon a gaggle of geese. Who knew geese could give you such a brutal stare down. As I emerged from behind some trees I could feel their merciless, death stares as they saw the culprit of the disruption of their peaceful dip. I hesitantly approached my sampling spot fearing these birds would rather greet me with a painful snap of the bill than with a friendly hello. In class we have discussed a couple of times whether or not we think humans have a place in nature or not and if we can find our place in nature. Cronon addresses this as well in our most recent reading. I believe that we can, but for a brief moment during this interaction with the geese I felt very very unwelcome in nature and like I was too “human” to belong in a place like this. I wonder if anyone else in class has had an experience in nature when they felt very unwelcome too?

“As I walked in the woods I see the birds and squirrels; so as I walked in the village to see the men and boys; instead of the wind among the pines I hear carts rattle. In one direction from my house there was a colony of muskrats in the river meadows; under the grove of the elms and buttonwoods in the other horizon was a village of busy men, as curious to me as if they had been prairie dogs, each sitting at the mouth of its burrow, or running over to a neighbor’s to gossip. I went frequently to observe their habits” (Thoreau 182).

I really enjoyed how Thoreau made this extension from natural society to the society of man. It was interesting to see him place the two side by side and to witness his fascination with the ways of man. I would really like to discuss this passage and how people felt about the of nature to of man back and forth.

“As I drew a still fresher soil about the rows with my hoe, I disturbed the ashes of unchronicled nations who in primeval years lived under these heavens, and their small implements of war and hunting were brought to the light of this modern day. They lay mingled with other natural stones, some of which bore the marks of having been burned by Indian fires, and some by the sun, and also bits of pottery glass brought hither by the recent cultivators of the soil” (Thoreau 172).

We have discussed the connectivity to history through water, so I found this passage to be fascinating as it appears to assign a similar relationship to soil. These do not appear to be the typical thoughts of one working a field, but his approach to perform the once sacred husbandry affords him this example of deeper thought/reflection as well as some more spiritual thinking. While soil changes throughout time, it has the ability to contain relics from throughout history and a presence of deep history connecting soil and time.

“We reproduce the dualism that sets humanity and nature at opposite poles. We thereby leave ourselves little hope of discovering what an ethical, sustainable, honorable human place in nature might actually look like” (Cronon 7).

Cronon feels the duality we have established between humanity and nature is the root of some of the problems we find between ourselves and nature. How do we feel about this duality and how it may impair our relationship with nature?