this makes modest work carried out by stewards like winifred spar and the friends of roger’s wildlife refuge immensely valuable. the friends of roger’s refuge have tended to princeton, new jersey’s preserved marsh less than a mile away from the town’s pre-eminent campus for the last 55 years. they’ve built and reinforced bridges and towers, hacked away at invasive plant species and replanted natives in their place, cleaned trash, and advocated for the continued protection of roger’s wildlife refuge. 

the refuge has long been considered the premier site for birding across the state of new jersey, but these days it doubles as an active site for wildlife education to outdoor enthusiasts of all ages. as bird populations rebound in the refuge, visitors, new and old, marvel at the sights and sounds long absent in the marsh. the friends of rogers wildlife refuge’s work demonstrates that a powerful solution to otherwise intractable issues is focusing on the wild spaces closest to home and encouraging our neighbors to do the same.

movement 1: the morning sonata

the sounds of the city drifted to a hum as the shifting trucks rattled through cracks in the road forcing the riders to jig in their seats. the sun’s heavy rays rolled along weary backs popping like a snare. at mid-day, the heat tames the forest, the tempo is slow and muddled. sounds meandered from trunk to trunk, where shaded hollows shield sleeping wildlife. after noon, there was an intermission. the sun-beaten visitors circled in chatter, reflecting on the superb acts of the morning.  

movement 2: a slow adagio 

as night rolled in and the clamor and clang of dinner dishes ceased, all visitors retired to their hammocks. there they wrapped themselves in fabrics coated in scents of home. they closed their eyes to reveal lids painted with the stars of a serene night sky. the unseen, skillful singer hummed to them good night lullabies. and though the sleep could only be described as complete peace, they often stirred to the low, gurgling growls of monkeys deep in the darkness offset by sweet chirps swimming from birds’ breasts flickering in the forest foliage.

movement 3: daybreak minuet

at dawn, buzzing cicadas bounced vibrations from tree to tree ushering in the audience and introducing the first round: wisps, whips, and whistles whirling across treetops, whispering to the crowd below. the meter quickly was uncovered by restless flies for their masterful demonstration. waving trees, free-falling leaves, and the decomposing matter on the forest floor, too, displayed a capability to dance about the scenery with expert sonic capacity; truly, they proved to be the liveliest of the bunch. spotted skipping above the shading, petite primates conducted the vegetation in 4/4. the morning composition was soon to reach its climax – but, for that the musicians needed silence, not excitement. experienced artists know how to make a scene whole: sometimes one must step aside. the wind, she was delicate, shy, and moved with secrecy; so, with swift elegance she navigated her way. upon her arrival, the act reached its pinnacle. as she departed, it dissipated into the rain.

movement 4: final allegro 

the evening was the act of the duets – all solo specialists retired for the day following the imposing performance at noon. all voices, all vibrations, paired. each body dedicated itself to magnifying the other. this wasn’t simply harmonizing, but magnetizing, drawing together both players and drawing the ears of all listeners. the result was nothing less than the creation of a single essence; a buzz to a chirp, a ring to a thump, a rustle to a breeze.

sounds of a natural melody

in the amazon no sound fights for dominance, and no sounds fight for a place. all cast members of the musical give room for the next one in. by relinquishing control over the external world, one gains complete control of their self and their sound.

the amazon conducts the sounds of biodiversity with great mastery. hierarchy is its great baton; there cannot be balance without it. some shall sing fortissimo one moment while others sing pianissimo, and their positions can switch fluidly with the measure. the spotlight is wide and bright. the symphony would not progress so seemingly effortlessly if not for this understanding. birds in the canopy sing with excellency, yet they cannot thump in the tree trunks below.   

however, the ear of the performer is not the same ear possessed by the listener. the audience has not studied the nuances of tone and volume made second nature for the musicians and conductor after years of sitting in the fire learning from life.

for many listeners, as the howler monkeys play fortissimo at 5 am and the crickets play mezzo piano underneath, the crickets sit in the background far beneath howler monkeys, and instead of keeping rhythm, maintaining pace, and accentuating the roars of the beast – it’s their time to shine as well. in fact, without the crickets, the howler monkeys’ roar would serve only as a somber moan and not as an enthusiastic declaration of their entrance. much in the same way a saxophone cannot dazzle the crowd with a melodic masterpiece if the drums do not stay in the pocket to be felt.

our interpretation of the sonic landscape being built on the ends of our ears appear drastically different when the barriers we build around each individual performer are absolved and their sounds are given the freedom to interlope, overlap, and support one another. of course, this is not a concept ingrained into the listener. therefore, most listeners must actively work to tear down those artificial walls built around the musicians and their instruments.

for many listeners who sit down and listen to a concert, the measure of music quality is the similarity in skill level between all performers on their respective instruments, not discern a complete. for a piece to pass into the threshold of immaculate, all players must execute with precision; if they play their part then it will come together as it says on the paper. and while, only the proven play on the highest stage, a robotic performance is far from exceptional.

the squirrel monkeys that skip from branch to branch do not do so with an impervious cadence, the buzzing insects do not rumble a continuous vibration, and the wind, with her paralyzing performance, leaves gaps of hesitation at her climax.

these performers do not play the same part in different ways, but play different parts in different ways. the excitement of the concert comes to those who devote time and effort to break down those interloping barriers; to let loose a wide-ranging palette of sounds and colors that come from the imperfections of the amazon’s musical masters. that the sonorous conservatory of the amazon can produce a sound that suggests uniformity with a cast of eccentric characters is what makes this the lauded exhibition that it is.

—

as a child, i held a very intimate relationship with the dirt, the trees, and the geese that flocked seasonally to the green pond of piedmont park in downtown atlanta, georgia – no different than any other child and their respective place of play. it felt as natural as breathing to contain a massive respect for the oceans, wind, and expansive fields of lush, multicolored grasses. both their beauty and purpose left me awestruck. i aimed for the oval office, the united states presidency – the nation’s first black president – not so that i may tackle social issues, improve upon foreign relations, redefine our economic system, or bolster our military. no, i wanted this for my planet.

my immature imagination devised policies concerning alternative, fuel-efficient transportation, installing clean energy infrastructure on public and private estates, creating inclusive agricultural programs that give children not of wealthier backgrounds an equal opportunity to fresh, nutrient-rich produce, and, of course, establishing a “take-a-tree, give-a-tree” program, which does exactly as the name implies.

nevermind that these programs would lead to a largely inadequate presidential campaign, or the years of studying it would take before i could learn the politics it would take to make such a reality possible, or whether the everyone desired to live under this ideology. and if my recollection serves me right (which, otherwise, it is not so apt to do) i was about 9 or 10 years old then. i wished only to start a conversation about something i cared for so much, and everyone will, at the very least, listen to the president no matter outlandish their declarations.

unfortunately, what i was not aware of was that a clear majority of world citizens, let alone those in the u.s., are not quite capable of appropriately communicating similar sentiments to those four or five times as old. removed from that imagination, many men and women find themselves trapped on an island of silence.

this is as literal as it is metaphorical, as jacqueline patterson, director of the naacp environmental and climate justice program, described to me of her first experience in the dealings of such silence. as a peace corps volunteer located in jamaica during the early 1990s, patterson recounts her difficulties with a contaminated water supply caused by improper management of a shell petroleum depot, “with no recourse for adjustments.” it was immediately a situation of “david and goliath,” she goes on to say. why? the surrounding community’s poor education on environmental issues proved crippling especially when tasked with overcoming such a corporate giant as shell.

with deep roots in women’s rights activism, patterson looks to lay bare the civil rights facet of environmentalism, primarily as it impacts women, and places great emphasis on the skill of storytelling as it pertains to educating as she tells me, “(we need to) move away from the polar bears and melting ice caps, jargon, charts and graphs, and numbers, create a human, personal perspective on the matter.”

personal perspectives such as the domestic abuse women may regularly face based on the rising temperatures accompanying global warming, and inability to produce “essentials” as expected of them – a great conflict for women in post-katrina louisiana, and others feeling the effects of climate change abroad.

and as our planet becomes drastically smaller, the united states, patterson explained, is disproportionately driving climate change; it is no secret to many, our wasteful tendencies. however, whether by improper influences or individual effort (250,000,000 tons of trash are disposed in the united states per year, with no end in sight), we pollute like no other. sadly, the impoverished countries and communities of continents overseas, or abutting, live no better than those impoverished communities her at home. indigenous communities, the original inheritors, inherit no more than run off from extraction processes which occur no further from their home than sits a gas station from mine. black communities are more likely to be located near toxic facilities, even more so than white counterparts who make $35,000 less annually. yet, poor communities on the whole are, by political design (the hardly known, yet largely felt definition of value placed on collections of residences across the country), not going to be protected from environmental devastations such as hurricane katrina, from which some neighborhoods still have not recovered from in more than a decade following the natural disaster.

but i won’t contradict patterson’s wishes any longer and let the numbers, charts, and jargon be to discuss what is most important in the face of these many disconcerting statistics and facts: education and communication. when giving workshops and panel discussions on the topic of climate justice, patterson often received a response similar to, “why are we talking about the environment? the naacp is not an environmental justice organization, i expected this to be on the justice with a social climate.” shortly thereafter, other responses spurred her to emphasize environmental and climate justice as a civil rights issue, battling problems like those prior, and educating several on why it should be considered in that way.

intersectional education within the classrooms of our young citizens, was patterson’s first suggestion of educational reforms. for example, certain social studies courses should include dedicated social justice instruction, of which environmental and climate justice is a topic. for adults beyond the school system, applied education programs covering energy audits, disaster resiliency, and clean energy installation may be partnered with self-testing toolkits, creating a personalized education adaptive to the individual’s schedule and allowing for that convenience we so often require on a topic that we should be required to learn.

as for communication, i simply suggest that we encourage speaking – there is nothing more powerful. simple community meetings, consisting of everyone for older leaders to their promising inheritors, take only the effort to organize, for i have learned first-hand, that people want to speak, but are lost on where to begin or whom to do so with. so, why not each other? plenty of middle america communities bring together members of suburbia to discuss the effects of environmental/climate change as it pertains to their communities, and they occur infrequently enough to let more change occur, and give those participating a chance to observe their change.

if individuals gain a greater awareness of their surroundings, they will begin to self-educate to understand, to build that relationship with their home.

the goals of the environmental movement — fundamentally — is to spread knowledge of the planet, to spread conversation on the planet. and not just with your friends and family, but everyone, including those disenfranchised women, men, and children who reside beyond the conversation, but are no less affected. in fact, as i have briefly shown, it is rather the opposite.

patterson described environmental and climate justice issues as both geographical and political issues; however, no amount of political or big business (as shell so appropriately displayed) strong-arming should impair any able-bodied woman or man’s ability to move into action in their community and communicate, display that courage to speak, with all those living about them. it is a job of the leaders of this movement to remind us of a portion of our purpose as residents of this planet, but it is the duty of all to carry out that purpose.

countless soaring oak trees towered over us — or lay fallen atop great, rich mounds of earth, black with carbon. dozers, diggers, and other mammoth machines trudged along acres of spectacular disarray, operated by hulking workers contracted by goodwyn mills caywood and north state environmental. dust hovered about the air, either lifted by the barest of breezes from above – an odd presence that was nevertheless welcome – or raised by the sheer force from below.

all of this was, of course, blanketed underneath the sun hanging in the wide-open sky. an interesting introduction to the mobile bay’s watershed management project.

it is imperative that before going any further i explain, or at the very least outline, what a watershed is: a basin-like landform defined by highpoints and ridgelines that descend into lower elevations and stream valleys. or, to simplify, a total area of land that drains into a body of water.

watersheds are defined by hydrologic unit codes (hucs). coastal alabama, for example, is made up of 31 huc-12s (hydrological units made of 12-digit codes categorizing these specific areas of land made up of water systems – creeks, rivers, and streams – all feeding into a watershed), or cataloging units which serve as the sub-regions of sub-regions of sub-regions of regions of hucs. (you can thank the u.s. geological survey for this madness.)

the mobile bay watershed, which covers two-thirds of alabama land area and portions of bordering states (georgia, mississippi, and tennessee), is the 6th largest watershed in america by area covered (42,662 square miles) and the 4th largest watershed in america by water flow volume (62,000 cubic feet per second). that’s 28,000,000 acres covered and 460,000 gallons of water produced a second. those water systems that make up those confusing hydrological units mentioned earlier, all flow through, into, and out of the mobile bay, ultimately producing 15% to 20% of the nation’s freshwater.

so where does the national estuary program and their watershed management project fit into this?

mbnep was founded in 1987 by hundreds of local minds of coastal alabama as means to include the community in environmental decision-making for their home. since the 1970s, coastal alabama — like much of america — has seen a great deal of urban development, primarily due to resituating residents of alabama making moves closer to the coast. much of this development has seen an introduction of the following in dangerous amounts: hard surfaces, which increases the speed and volume of water through water systems; erosion and sediment displacement caused by the powerful water movement; and chemical run-offs, usually in the form of nutrient pollution (i.e., nitrogen and phosphorus). so, those 31 huc-12s that make up coastal alabama carry in displaced sediments and nutrient pollutants in powerful moving water disrupting the nursery habitats that are the estuaries, further recede at-risk shorelines, and threaten the surrounding community’s way of life.

in response, mbnep developed a comprehensive conservation and management plan outlining objectives over the course of a five-year period, most recently from 2013-2018, tackling the six common values ranked most important to the coastal alabama residences: access (to water and open spaces), coast (healthy beaches and shorelines), fish and wildlife, heritage and culture (connection between watershed and community), environmental health and resiliency, and water (drinkable, fishable, and swimmable).

the watershed management project is a facet of the comprehensive plan, and watersheds receive their own comprehensive management plan, which are prioritized by areas of most to least stressed – a set of characteristics outlined by the epa – and are accounted for accordingly. successes of the plans thus far include restoration of the d’olive creek watershed and the development of a comprehensive plan for the three mile creek watershed; both areas are prioritized as most stressed.

d’olive creek serves as a demonstration of the efforts of the bay’s national estuary program. completing a comprehensive plan for the d’olive creek watershed in august 2010, the mbnep made swift their efforts to begin implementation for their section of the plan concerning joe’s branch tributary, a section of the d’olive creek watershed beginning in spanish fort, alabama, and extending to daphne, alabama.

a 25 step-pool conveyance system filled with a sand filtration matrix was completed in 2013 to bring an end to the transport of 100,000 tons of sediment per square mile carried along excessively into the mobile bay, triggered by collapsed banks in spanish fort in 2011. and while there have not been any exact numbers distributed, water quality flowing from joe’s branch has visually improved, and thanks to the step-pool conveyance system, the energy of water flowing down the 1,000-foot slope has been greatly reduced.

mbnep continued progress this past year, completing restoration of the d4-d6, or interstate-10 (the awesomely massive site i visited), tributary of the same d’olive creek watershed in august 2016. this site witnessed the construction of a 30-acre floodplain coupled with an elevated streambed which featured installed energy dissipating structures.

when speaking with the engineers on my visit to tributary d4-d6 back in june, i learned of the important feature to their approach: taking notes from the planet; adopting an individualized engineering approach according to tributary. no design was the same, because no ecosystem is exactly the same. the planet is by far the greatest engineer we’ve witnessed. all that we find in nature, so staggeringly beautiful, ingeniously crafted, uniquely designed, but so universal in purpose – persisting life – was conceived by earth, not by man. and as obvious as the idea may seem, it is clear just how important a role it plays, or should play, when one deals in matters concerning the planet. these projects were not a reconstruction, or a refashion, but a restoration – a return to the earth to let it live.

prior to november 2013, this island’s northwestern shore went largely ignored by many, slowly eroding. decades passed, a few feet would turn into a few hundred feet into a few acres.

boats, storms, waves, and winds have all played their role in swallowing a great chunk of the island’s northwestern shore.

it was in 2013 that this process of erosion could go on no longer. one more storm and the shoreline of fowl river would be exposed to the same harsh conditions accelerating the deterioration of the shorelines currently undergoing stabilization. however, without the collaborative efforts of the small company pushed forth by the mobile bay national estuary program and others, mon louis island would not resemble times of old — an unfathomable reality.

standing on the four and a half new acres of restored marsh and island shoreline, it could be hard to believe that the very ground beneath your feet was the product of a project that spans back only to early july. it could be even harder to believe that six months from now when the same marshland is filled with vegetation bursting forth, painting the brown canvas a lush green. for those who would, do not feel ashamed, for i, too, remain dumbfounded at the progress of the project even though i stood in the very waters being filled with dredged material that now serves as that restored marshland, taking photographs with tom herder, the mobile bay national estuary program watershed protection manager and mon louis island shoreline stabilization/restoration project manager.

our trip to the site of the project occurred a month after our trip to the oyster reefs along the island during the warmer, more humid late july. broken oyster shells lined the then-shoreline, prodding the soles of my feet from the hidden shallows of the water murky with dredged materials. the pungent aroma of sand, silt, and mud dug up from eight feet below the surface of gulf coast water filled the air like a thin film.

dredgers sat on floating barges taking massive clumps of dredged material and relocating it to the then-shoreline. these massive machines sat off to the right of my shoulder, speeding through the thick waters and heavy earth reclaiming what had been lost to decades of erosion.

the pictures i took during that afternoon, unfortunately, did not capture the weight in the presence of those machines or the earth they moved. and this weight did not lie only physically within the moment, but in both the years before, when habitats and homes to many organisms, big and small, were slipping away into the ocean. and the years to come, when those same habitats and homes are being rebuilt and re-stabilized, giving birth once again to all kinds of critters populating the land in this life and filling my stomach in the next.

of course, this progress could not have occurred without the efforts of three years ago.

in november 2013, the national fish and wildlife foundation board, identified the restoration and stabilization of the northwestern tip of mon louis island as an emergency project. in a july 2016 fox 10 news interview, herder revealed that this project is the first alabama coastal restoration project to be funded by “bp money.” that is, money derived from criminal penalties related to the deepwater horizon spill that must be “tied” to damaged habitats or living resources, according to a facebook post by herder.

though $1.2 million was initially granted through the national fish and wildlife foundation environmental benefit fund, and an additional $800,000 alabama deepwater horizon incident grant was identified and secured by alabama senator bill hightower in early 2015.

between those two timestamps – november 2013 to early 2015 – herder and the estuary program began their collaboration efforts with marine scientist supervisor and living shoreline expert c. scott hardaway, as well as the experts at the u.s. army corps of engineers and thompson engineering, to analyze exactly how critical the situation was on the northwestern tip of mon louis island.

this small group was tasked with overcoming multiple challenges, according to herder, such as where to obtain — and how to transport — dredging materials, how to construct the rock “pile on” and breakwater, and how to conduct this process as environmentally friendly as possible. what resulted from their efforts over the course of the year was a four-phase plan for the project, herder said: 1. construct a 1,540-foot “dog-ugly” breakwater of riprap, or rubble used to form the foundation for a breakwater, to stabilize the northwestern tip; 2. fill in the marsh; 3. dredge the army corps of engineers-designated fowl river open water disposal area, the fowl river navigation channel, through hydraulic pumping (a method that eliminates environmental impact as channel sediments will naturally replace all borrowed material); 4. plant the marsh with native species.

as of late october, phases one through three have been completed. the continuous breakwater has been constructed, the marsh has been filled, and the dredge materials have been placed and settled.

moving forward, the members of the project expect the riprap to serve its purpose disrupting tidal flows, boat waves, wind energy, and storm damages, while they now wait until may at the latest to begin planting native species to restore the missing greenery of the marsh. of course, the breakwater is not impermeable and it is documented that this is an understood fact. but now, habitats can be revitalized, fowl river once again has a strong line of defense, and the community along the mobile bay can rest easy knowing that decades of erosion have been reversed and the northwestern shoreline of mon louis island has been stabilized. that’s all thanks to the efforts of this persistent group — and the necessary funding.

and work will not stop at the tip of mon louis island, just as it did not begin at the tip of mon louis island. it is the success of efforts such as these that, again, show all is not bleak on our shorefronts. members of the marine science community at large will continue to save our coast —not just the gulf coast, but all our coasts — one shore at a time.