the production and trade of palm oil have significant environmental and social implications. unsustainable palm oil production exacerbates global climate change. developing countries, which often lack resources to address climate change issues adequately, bear the brunt of its impacts.

by advocating for sustainability certification programs, we uphold the ethical imperative to minimize harm, promote justice, and act as responsible global citizens.

unsustainable palm oil production poses significant ethical challenges and has far-reaching consequences that affect the environment, society, and global responsibility. palm oil, widely used in food, cosmetics, and biofuels industries, has become a highly profitable commodity, driving extensive expansion of plantations. this trend is corroborated by sources such as “oil palm in indonesia” authored by john d. watts and silvia irawan in 2018. however, the rapid growth of the palm oil industry has come at a grave cost.

one of the primary ethical concerns of unsustainable palm oil production lies in its severe environmental impact. palm oil is not only bad for the climate — as their forest habitat is cleared, endangered species such as the orangutan, borneo elephant and sumatran tiger are being pushed closer to extinction. this loss of biodiversity raises moral questions about our responsibility to protect and preserve other living beings on earth.

according to efeca briefing note, deforestation for palm oil also contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, exacerbating climate change and its associated moral risks. the degradation of peatlands, often cleared for palm oil cultivation, releases large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming. the adverse effects of climate change disproportionately affect vulnerable communities in developing countries, which often lack the resources and adaptive capacity to cope with the consequences. 

the palm oil industry’s expansion creates economic disparities, particularly when small-scale farmers are pushed out by large plantation companies, leading to monopolization. small farmers may be forced to adopt unsustainable practices to compete or find alternative livelihoods, exacerbating environmental and social issues. the unequal distribution of benefits and profits within the industry raises questions about justice and equitable development.

the lack of transparency in palm oil supply chains allows for unsustainable practices to persist without proper scrutiny. following the investigation of the rainforest action network  a big number of palm oil-producing companies source from suppliers engaged in illegal and environmentally damaging activities, such as land grabbing, deforestation, and peatland drainage, and human rights violations. this lack of accountability in supply chains hinders efforts to trace the origin of palm oil products and makes it challenging for consumers and stakeholders to make informed decisions based on ethical considerations. consumers who want to make ethical choices may find it difficult to identify products that are genuinely sustainable and produced with respect for the environment and human rights.

as rainforest rescue states, in 2021, approximately 66.7 million acres of rainforest had been cleared for palm oil production globally. according to rainforest rescue, “forests and human settlements have been destroyed and replaced by “green deserts” containing virtually no biodiversity on an area the size of new zealand.”

palm oil plantations often replace diverse and ecologically valuable forests, leading to a significant loss of biodiversity, while the use of pesticides and fertilizers in palm oil production lead to soil and water pollution. obligatory sustainable certification programs can help protect biodiversity by promoting the adoption of practices that preserve existing forests, conserve wildlife habitats, and promote reforestation efforts. 

besides, unsustainable palm oil production is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, exacerbating climate change because clearing forests releases vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere due to draining peatlands.

what is more, palm oil cultivation requires significant amounts of water, leading to water scarcity and contamination, and generates considerable waste.

multiple sources, for example, international labour rights forum report serious violations of workers’ rights in palm oil production, including forced labor, child labor, harassment, violence against human rights defenders, and discrimination against women. safe and fair working conditions are lacking, emphasizing the necessity of sustainable certification programs to address these issues.

many smallholders in the supply chain are subject to untransparent agreements that burden them with unexpected debts and unfair remuneration for their products. for instance, nestlé purchases palm oil from mills in sabah state, malaysia, as swiss ngo solidar suisse reported. the report highlighted ruthless exploitation and forced labor on the oil palm plantations, where a significant portion of the workforce, approximately 840,000 people, are illegal immigrants from indonesia, including up to 200,000 children, earning wages below the world bank’s extreme poverty line.

as the forest people programme funded by the uk government states, in indonesia, about half of the palm oil labor force is women. palm oil companies contribute to discrimination and violence against women by failing to prevent sexual violence by their employees. they also contribute to other rights violations that disproportionately affect women.

smallholders and indigenous populations who have inhabited and protected the forest for generations are often brutally driven from their land. human rights violations are everyday occurrences, even on supposedly “sustainable” and “organic” plantations. for example, forest people programme funded by the uk government concluded that in 2010, the indonesian government’s national land bureau reported that it had recorded 4,000 land conflicts across the archipelago in the palm oil sector. according to forest people program, “in liberia, it is estimated that 40% of the population reside inside concessions for rubber, oil palm, forestry, and the extractive sector.” nestlé buys palm oil from exportadora del atlantico in honduras. the palm oil mill in the aguan valley has been implicated in a violent land conflict, with accusations of involvement in the killings of at least 140 people. 

companies frequently violate the cultural rights of indigenous peoples by destroying sacred sites, cultural artifacts, or monuments, causing the loss of intangible cultural heritage, and preventing communities from practicing traditional livelihoods.

in conclusion, implementing and enforcing obligatory sustainable certification programs for palm oil production is crucial to mitigate the moral risks associated with climate change, addressing environmental protection, workers’ rights, and social responsibility, and promoting a more sustainable and equitable global trade market.

certification programs will promote responsible business practices that benefit communities, promote social well-being, and contribute to inclusive development. furthermore, certification programs should encourage transparency and accountability in corporate practices. companies are required to disclose their social and environmental performance, fostering trust and enabling consumers to make informed choices.

and yet somehow i hadn’t seen a native wildflower until i turned 15 and even then it was one singular beautiful yellow flower with greenish red leaves blooming on a cold march day. this trout lily, erythronium americanum, was my first experience with a wildflower. how could it have taken me that long to see a wildflower? this question sent me on a crusade of research to find out the answer.

a wildflower journey

the united states is home to a large variety of wildflowers that provide a vast array of services such as habitat and food for many native insect and animal species. unfortunately, due to the vast decline of important wildflowers such as milkweed, many populations of specialist species of insects that depend on these flowers have also declined as a result.

one staff member at suny college of environmental science and forestry, molly jacobson, a pollinator ecologist at the school, has helped restore some of these plants by helping esf become an affiliate with bee campus usa. the initiative at esf is part of a larger national initiative to help conserve native pollinators.

the bee campus is just one part of the bee city usa initiative created by the xerces society for invertebrate conservation. this is an international nonprofit organization that protects the natural world through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats. when i asked jacobson about what it means to be a “bee campus,” she said it’s a pledge to create pollinator habitats, decrease pesticide use, and perform community outreach each year as well as a variety of other things. esf became an affiliate in 2022, continuing a long history of commitment to the environment. 

clearly it’s important to protect wildflowers and spaces for the pollinators, but the pollinators themselves must also be proactively protected. according to jacobson, pollinators are incredibly diverse and the term pollinator can include bats, birds, bees, flies, and even beetles depending on where in the world you live. 

however it’s also important to know that no pollinator purposely pollinates plants, but it’s more of an “accident” through evolution and some species are better at pollinating than others. for example, a bee with a lot of hairs is better than a wasp with few to no hairs, however without any of these species, many of our flowering plants and flowering crops would struggle. 

furthermore, without many of these native flowers certain more specialized insects would also struggle to survive. in fact, jacobson even mentioned that the biggest threat facing pollinators is a loss of habitat, meaning that planting even a five foot area of native flowers could make a huge difference in the ability of pollinators to survive in your local area.

she went so far as to say, “restoring habitat on any scale makes a difference.” but, was the reason for me not seeing many native wildflowers due to a lack of diversity in native pollinators or was it due to me not knowing where to look?

planting flowers to protect the “specialists”

this question led me to talk with jeffry petracca, an entomologist from long island, ny. petracca explained that native plants are irreplaceable, as you decrease the biodiversity of native flowers and plants, you lose the amount of native pollinators whether they are insects or other animals, especially in animals that are “specialist” species, those that may only get their nectar from one species of flower. this relationship works both ways and some plants are only pollinated by a few or even one species.

according to petracca, the biodiversity of pollinators on long island, whether they are bees, wasps, flies, beetles, or butterflies; has overall decreased significantly over time. there are subsequently less and less native flowers being seen as well, which he believes is mostly due to habitat destruction through the development of housing, roads, and shopping centers.

but why is biodiversity and the presence of flowers so important? petracca explained that the more biodiversity a region has, the more stable and resistant to changes the local environment and ecosystem becomes. for example, in an area of low diversity, a flower may only be getting pollinated by one species of beetle, but if there is a cold snap that devastates the population of that beetle, then the flower is no longer going to be pollinated that season. 

conversely, in an area of high biodiversity, that flower may be getting pollinated by 10 or 20 species of bees and beetles. so while a few of those species may suffer due to the cold, the ecosystem as a whole is less affected. 

similarly to jacobson, petracca believes that planting native plants in your garden and yard is a great way to help native pollinators in your area. however, when buying plants you must be careful that the plants you are buying are a wild strain and haven’t been specially bred to to not make pollen or nectar.

when buying these “native” flowers you must also make sure they are a species native to your area or state, as some species of native flowers may be native to the united states but not necessarily your area and would provide less of a beneficial effect. 

there are many state government environmental agencies that have sheets and information online to help people locate information about which plants are native to their region. many participants in the bee campus program are also putting out information online and, of course, there are a wide variety of books that are available that have native plants local to your area.

while abundant, inspiration can be fleeting and ungraspable. i lived in south texas, a region diverse in culture and ideology, but eternally linked to mistakes of the past; thus persists a narrative that leads some circles to resent science, even fear it. particularly within the latinx community in the region, against whom science and twisted methodologies have been weaponized.

making an impact

it is hard to be inspired to change the world for the better when the tools you are given are enshrouded with fear. but as a latina of that community, it fell upon my shoulders to erode that trauma that still resides deep in our daily lives, so my inspiration emerged as two objectives: 1) create pathways for students to become familiar with conducting research and normalized to the advantages and limitations of science, and 2) to create something impactful. 

in 2018, i developed a strain of bacteria capable of detecting the explosive tnt, and when it decomposes, dnt. in 2019, i founded herodotus research and development for my 17th birthday. the goal is to implement domestically in the united states to make a fool-proof highly resilient and uncompromisable product that can be shipped around the world to regions afflicted by war-related hazards. why? because of the number 17,000; that’s about how many people around the world are killed or injured by landmines and “remnants of war” each year.

also, because of the number 15 million; that’s how many acres of land in the united states are polluted by those “remnants of war” or munitions-related chemicals. i encountered these statistics as a descendant of veterans. these statistics are haunting, and they present a profound conclusion that innovation cannot right the wrongs of history, but innovation can right the future. 

an innovation for the earth and for community

i founded a program in which high school students accompanied me to the university to conduct their research on topics applicable to their interests. this grew into a class in which middle schoolers shadowed the high schoolers and conducted research. my community was eager to learn, but nobody tried to learn with them, and science became inaccessible. there was hope for technology changing lives for the better, and there was a desire to lead those discoveries. i went from presenting alone at the state science fair to accompanying a team of proud latinx students to their blue ribbons. 

the innovation in this video is not just a way of detecting and removing dangerous chemicals in the environment. this video was recorded in the av closet of my high school with my business partner and a few friends who all believed they were contributing to something impactful. my community felt the value of increasing accessibility to science education. this is a true innovation, empowering others to innovate, and it can be applied everywhere on the globe. 

this film was created with the goal of inspiring nuance in whatever stance you take on animals in the captivity of zoos & aquariums.

to watch the full short film, please click here.

the goal, peixoto later explains, is to restore a healthy microbiome to a reef thrown out of whack by coral diseases, triggered by pollution, ocean acidification, and warming waters. 

“we are causing the problem [that is] affecting these microbiomes,” says peixoto, of the king abdullah university of science and technology in thuwal, saudi arabia. “so we need to try to restore it, or at least to protect it to be as similar as what it was before.”

the potential of probiotics

in the coral village, peixoto is testing to see if a carefully curated dose of probiotics – bacteria that are beneficial to its host – could help reduce the bleaching diseases that are killing tropical reefs from the caribbean to australia at an alarming rate. a growing cohort of microbiologists believe that beneficial bacteria, already commonly used as nutritional supplement and agricultural fertilizer, might help not just corals but also many other at-risk animals and plants. led by peixoto, a global group of 25 experts made the argument in a perspective piece published in nature microbiology last year.

the concept of probiotics for wildlife has only been around for roughly a decade, so scientists are still teasing out which bacteria to use as they study the cascades of microbial interactions in both the host species and environment. but with extinctions looming, researchers are hurrying to test probiotics on everything from farmed norwegian salmon to honeybees. so far, most of the tests have been confined to labs, though there have been some small-scale field tests, too. 

in 2019, for example, probiotic expert gregor reid mixed sugar and three strains of lactobacillus bacteria to treat diseased honey bees in ontario, canada. a couple weeks later, larvae from treated hives had significantly fewer pathogens than those from untreated hives. he thinks other combinations of probiotics may be even more effective and is eager to explore the possibilities at a time when bee populations are declining.

“the bees are dying off,” says reid. “and the day they die off, we’re toast as a species.”

frogs are in a similar boat: in recent years, hundreds of frog species around the world have been ravaged by the batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (bd) fungus. in 2011, scientists caught frogs in the sierra nevada mountains that hadn’t yet been exposed to bd and bathed some in water with a naturally-occurring bacteria, and the rest in pond water. a year later, they returned to the site and couldn’t find any of the untreated frogs, but 39 percent of probiotic-treated individuals were recovered, indicating that the probiotics had at least some effect. 

disease ecologist molly bletz of the university of massachusetts at amherst, who studies frogs from madagascar, has also shown that some microbes resist bd in the lab. “it’s complicated,” she sums up, “but with glimmers of hope.” 

one complication is that there are so many potentially beneficial bacteria to choose from, depending on the species being treated and its particular environmental risks. bletz has cataloged over 7,000 amphibian microbes – and scientists aren’t limiting themselves to just the host’s resident microbes. “if it’s a species that is super-susceptible to the disease, maybe they just don’t have the right bacteria,” says bletz. so in other cases – like reid’s bees, which received bacteria harvested from a healthy woman’s urethra way back in 1980 – scientists are experimenting with foreign strains. 

despite all the potential treatment variations, biotechnologist gabriele berg, a coauthor of the nature microbiology piece, says the fundamental practices for microbial interventions are similar. “if it is in our gut, or if it is in the rhizosphere [plant roots], or if it is on the nose of a bat,” she says, “the rules and the principles are the same.” 

recognizing these commonalities, peixoto, berg, and other microbial researchers have joined forces to outline safe steps for any probiotic intervention, whether it be in corals or frogs. their framework, included in the 2022 paper, calls for careful selection of probiotic strains and consideration of environmental impacts, among other recommendations. 

a carefully considered call to action

it’s essential that experts reach a consensus on ethical and safety considerations of these treatments before the technologies are widely used, says rachel backer, an independent scientific consultant based in vancouver who has researched plant-microbe interactions in hops and cannabis. 

what could go wrong if probiotics are let loose in an ecosystem is the kind of question that keeps her up at night, she says.

“these are complex products to regulate, because they’re just inherently complex,” says backer, who was not a signatory on the paper. she argues that the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in agriculture is a precedent to consider. antibiotics were initially seen as a miracle for livestock farmers, backer says, but their overuse has led to pollution and antimicrobial resistance.  “if we keep making the same mistake over and over of not considering these things, it becomes pretty indefensible,” she says. 

peixoto notes that probiotics typically don’t last forever (unless they colonize a host, which can happen). and though she acknowledges the risks, she argues that doing nothing is also indefensible. corals, for instance, have an alarming prognosis; a recent report projected that 70 to 90% of live coral would disappear by 2050. her team is working tirelessly, applying probiotics three times a week to the underwater coral village, while developing an automatic dispenser that can spray probiotics from the comfort of home. peixoto knows that it’s optimistic to be already increasing the efficiency of various treatments when there has been so little field testing. but she sees no other option. 

“we don’t have time. we can’t develop these things one at a time,” peixoto says. “when you’re talking about terminal patients… this is urgent.”

for me, being able to use this creative outlet to share such a powerful narrative shows that anyone, using any of their interests/talents, can raise awareness about environmental issues. my art is a reflection of myself and the issues that are of importance to me.

i want to inspire others to partake in environmental activism in any way that they can. this video not only includes inspiring stories of conservation successes (such as that of the gray wolf and the bald eagle), but also showcases statistics of extinction that will hopefully display the dark reality of the situation we face.

many seem to forget that we are currently in an age of mass extinction, and that a threat to one species is a threat to all. we must learn to respect the flora and fauna that we share this land with, and protect the wildlife that we have already caused harm to. this video aims to achieve this by presenting viewers with an emotional and artistic chronicle of the holocene extinction. 

in a climate report published in october of 2022, the united nations environmental program stated that current un policy will lead to a global 2.8°c temperature rise by the end of the century.

as threats loom and deadlines near, two fellows of the comer climate conference have worked to determine the concrete effects of climate change in their research, looking at both the past record and future predictions of the earth’s processes. 

looking toward the past

crystal rao, a geoscience graduate student at princeton university, bases her research on past environmental changes and their impacts on species using analysis of isotopes, or different forms, of nitrogen in fossils. rao uses the ratio of two common forms of nitrogen as a standard, and compares it with the nitrogen inside the tooth tissue of the megalodon shark. 

from there, she reconstructed a picture of the trophic level, or the position on the food web, where a megalodon shark is at the top. rao said, due to its high rank in the energy level, the megalodon could “basically eat anything in the ocean.”

however, this species of shark, roughly 50 feet long, suddenly went extinct 3.5 million years ago. rao said as the climate changed, the food source the sharks relied on to fuel their massive body depleted and eventually led to their deaths.

in other words, a shift in climate broke the existing food chain balance, potentially leading to the downfall of an entire species. “as climate shifts, maybe the production in the ocean could change,” rao said. “and depending on what the ecosystem responded to, there could be less food availability for those megalodon sharks.”

eyes on our climate future

while rao’s work examines a species belonging to an ancient era, another comer scientist’s work takes estimation into the possibilities of the future. 

edmund derby, climate science ph.d. student at oxford university, utilizes simple models of arctic sea ice from his past research in 2009 to examine the bifurcation or tipping point accompanying ice cover changes throughout the season. 

derby’s research presents climate from basic principles to its core behavior. in the scientific model, when atmospheric carbon dioxide exceeds a certain point, after all the arctic ice melts, it is no longer possible to gain back the ice. his model investigates this tipping point under a model when the arctic is covered in ice all year round. 

“when you’ve reached this tipping point, you don’t get a reversible change once you’ve lost your ice cover,” derby said. 

the temperature of the arctic is intrinsically connected with the rest of the world. in a phenomenon known as arctic amplification, the arctic warms twice as fast as the rest of the world. as the light-reflective ice melts, it gives way to more heat-absorbent ocean water. 

according to derby, the difference in temperature between the arctic and at the lower latitudes determines the rate of arctic temperature rise.  

this is an example of sensible heat transport: heat moves from colder to warmer objects when they are in close proximity. in the same sense, as the arctic warms up, the transfer of heat to the arctic decreases. 

however, in a changing climate, the transport of water vapor or clouds into the arctic can counteract the cooling of this cold to warm heat transfer. the water vapor causes local temperature in the arctic to rise. 

in his research, derby is adding more factors into the model to make it more realistic to the arctic ice cover, and to investigate whether the global rise of greenhouse gas will impact the ice melt at a local level. 

rao said in her field of geoscience, the past informs the future. studying the ancient past of earth’s environment builds a better understanding of the complex systems involved. “only when we can really understand or estimate the future better, then we can come up with better plans in terms of how we do climate adaptation and climate mitigation,” rao said. 

the numbers of climate change may seem small, but in the timescale of millenia, a small change now may mean a colossal shift into the future. 

through rao and derby’s research, of both the past and the future, concerns of climate change continue to loom in both the vanishing fabric of the arctic and the demise of a species. 

established in 1991, the tbep is a product of the national estuary program as a part of the clean water act of 1987. the organization’s goal is “to build partnerships to restore and protect tampa bay through implementation of a scientifically sound, community based management plan.” this plan is funded by the bay mini-grant program, which disperses funding to organizations in the community whose projects work to protect the environment of tampa bay. 

the money for these grants comes from purchases of specialty “tarpon tag” license plates which depict the famous tampa bay tarpon, a highly prized game fish common to the gulf of mexico. 

to gain a little more insight into the tbep and their community work, sheila scolaro, community programs scientist at the tbep, discusses several of the projects funded by the tarpon tag license plates and explains why community science is such an important part of tampa bay. 

this interview has been edited for length and clarity.

q: could you tell me a little bit about yourself and your background?

a: my name is sheila scolaro. i’m the community program scientist for the tampa bay estuary program. i’ve been with the estuary program for about two years. i am a florida native, from near the mouth of the manatee river/bradenton area. i grew up snorkeling and fishing the grass flats of that area, and i remember being really young and kind of becoming really fascinated at the diversity of life hiding just below the surface of the water.

so i knew that i was going to dedicate my career to protecting these sensitive estuarine habitats and coastal habitats, so that future generations would have the same opportunities to explore this amazing underwater world like i had. after i graduated from high school, i went to the university of florida and i studied plant science. and then from there, i got a job at the fish and wildlife research institute studying sea grasses, so i traveled all around the gulf of mexico studying seagrass and water quality. 

i worked at the fwc for about four years and then i ran the seagrass and water quality monitoring program for sarasota county. and now i am at the tampa bay estuary program where i coordinate our volunteer seagrass monitoring effort. and i help coordinate a lot of our community engagement activities.

q: so what got you interested in your current job that you have now? what led you there? 

a: to me, science is really important and management should be based on science, but there seems to be a disconnect between the scientists and the community. part of that issue is that we as scientists, we write in a lot of jargon. i wanted to try and be a bridge between the science and the community so that community members didn’t feel isolated. and they have the same knowledge that the scientists did.

q: could you explain a little bit about your role at the tbep?

a: i help to engage community members. we try to educate our science to the community members so that they can be more informed members of our community and to help them be better stewards of our environment. we have 3.8 million people that live in this region now, and a lot of them are from out of state. i know that most people came to florida because of the beauty of tampa bay, so they don’t intentionally want to do anything to hurt it – so we tried to help them be better stewards. 

some of the things that i do (are that) i manage our bay mini-grant program, which is a community program that’s funded by the “tarpon tag” or the tampa bay specialty license plate. it grants up to $5,000 that is offered to community organizations for projects that help to protect and restore tampa bay. i also coordinate a program which is called “give a day for the bay,” encouraging community members to get out and be part of tampa bay’s restoration story. 

q: what are some of the projects that you’ve been a part of over the past couple of years?

a: we have a lot of projects that we fund through a mini-grant program and through all of the tampa bay programs. so with the bay mini-grant program, we’ve tried to find anywhere from 20 to 25 projects a year. our goal is to fund about $100,000, so i’ve been involved in quite a few projects. the rain gardens are, i think, my favorite – we have quite a few of those. each year we have a request for projects that goes out in the summer and we try to highlight or prioritize a specific action which is basically one of our goals to implement. 

q: what exactly is a rain garden, and why is that your favorite type of project? 

a: rain gardens are areas that collect water and essentially slow water movement and allow for that water to percolate through the system. it pulls out all of the nutrients and contaminants in the water before it gets to tampa bay. as somebody who has focused a large part of their career on seagrasses, any project that improves water clarity or water quality is something that i like to be involved in… (it’s) an exciting project for me because it also gets people outside, gets people digging, digging in the dirt, which i think is really important – getting your hands on nature, feeling nature i think is important. and recognizing the beauty of florida native species.

q: what do you think is the importance of community management and community projects in this day and age?

a: i think it’s important to know a little bit about the history of tampa bay to kind of put the community in context and how important that community is to this area. in the early 1950s, tampa bay’s economy was booming and we were rapidly developing, but we had poor wastewater treatment, so we were discharging raw sewage directly into the bay. we had poor nutrient management, and we were just rapidly developing. we had algae blooms over almost the entire bay, but in the northern portions of the bay, the algae blooms were the worst.

by the 1980s, we lost about 70% of our sea grasses, which is a critical habitat for many of our fishes and wildlife species in the region and in the estuary. in about the 1970s, the community kind of stepped up and there was a community outcry. they basically joined forces and started this movement called “save the bay.” they were really the impetus for change in tampa bay. they demanded more from their representatives and they were the ones that kind of got the restoration started in this area.

without the community, the bay might not look the way that it does today. to me, the community members are still at the heart of our restoration story. so community is everything. you know, we’re the ones who live out here, we play out here. we’re the ones that have a large impact. and so if we can be better stewards of the area, even if it’s just our neighborhood, then it can have a pretty large impact on the estuary as a whole.

q: what are some of the impacts that you have personally seen through community programs like this? 

a: i think they have a big impact in the local communities. i mean, in this one park in gulfport we saw the implementation of one project and then another group was inspired by the project – the rain garden that was installed – and now they want to do another one and potentially there will be other spots that have rain gardens also. i think having those small community projects that are visible to the neighborhood, are inspiring to me, to other groups and to new locals and to tourists.

i will just say that we’ve gotten very comfortable lately (with) how beautiful tampa bay is. however, we’re seeing some major changes in the estuary. anecdotally… we’re getting reports of large scale macro algae blooms. we had harmful algae blooms in the northern part of the estuary from 2018 to 2020. we lost 16% of our seagrasses which is pretty substantial.

we’ve had two consecutive reporting years where we lost the grass, and we’re expecting another one…that’s concerning for us as bay managers.

what i would like to say to community members is that it’s time for us to once again come together as a community and recommit to protecting tampa bay because it took 30 years to restore the estuary and we don’t want to miss out or take for granted what those who came before us did. 

florida residents can get the specialty license plate for $17 a year, helping fund community projects around the tampa bay area, like the ones described by scolaro. for those who want to be more involved in the projects, visit the tampa bay estuary program website.

finding community organizations and ways to support them, like a license plate, can be great ways to take small steps toward building stronger community-based management.

the connecticut veterinary medical diagnostic laboratory (cvmdl) recently identified a domestic case of the rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus type 2 (rhdv2) in the state. the cvmdl is part of the university of connecticut’s college of agriculture, health and natural resources.

dr. guillermo risatti, the director of the cvmdl, oversaw the lab’s identification of rhdv2.

“whenever there is an outbreak – in this case a significant die-off of rabbits – most likely what happened is that the owner called the vet, the vet saw it as an unusual event and let the state know,” risatti said. “then the lab jumps in and has to conduct a foreign animal disease investigation.”

a spreading crisis

dr. emily reinhardt is an associate director of the cvmdl and an assistant clinical professor of veterinary pathology at the university of connecticut, or uconn. she added that the cvmdl had been monitoring regional cases of rhdv2 before the first case in connecticut was brought to the lab for identification in september.

“it’s been informally on the radar of the lab for a while,” reinhardt said.

as risatti mentioned, the identified case of rhdv2 was sent to the cvmdl because a significant number of rabbits in a domestic population died in a short amount of time.

“dr. lewis, the state veterinarian, reached out to us to let us know the virus had been identified in new jersey and that we should be on high alert,” reinhardt said. “soon after, she submitted to us the domestic case that was diagnosed as positive.”

according to reinhard, the symptoms of rhdv2 are easily identifiable.

“the classic sign is the bloody nose,” reinhard said. “the rabbit just dies suddenly, and often has a bloody nose.”

according to the usda, the blood-stained nose is from internal bleeding that the virus causes. infected rabbits may also develop a fever, be hesitant to eat or show signs of nervousness or respiratory issues.

part of the concern over the disease is that rhdv2 is extremely contagious and often fatal to infected rabbits, reinhardt said.

“it’s a more infectious variant of the classic rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus; the fatality rates are higher and it targets a wider age range of rabbit than the classic variation,” reinhardt said. “there is a higher threat to wild species with this variation; it’s more dangerous.”

wild rabbit populations already fragile

much of the current concern regarding rhdv2 is the possibility of the disease entering connecticut’s wild rabbit population, reinhardt said. “the risk to connecticut’s wild rabbit population relates to the disease’s high fatality rate.”

rhdv2 could also remain in the wild rabbit population as a reservoir, and perpetuate a cycle of transmission between wild and domestic populations, reinhardt said. “it can be transmitted on fur, wood, animal droppings or urine, shoes or by pets, so there is risk to any domestic rabbit with access to an outside area.”

other experts already had concerns regarding the state’s wild rabbit populations before the identification of rhdv2 in connecticut.

chadwick rittenhouse, ph.d., is an assistant professor in residence in the department of natural resources and the environment at uconn who has done extensive research on wild rabbit populations in the state.

there are two species of wild rabbit in connecticut – the eastern cottontail rabbit and the new england cottontail rabbit, rittenhouse said in an interview. the new england cottontail is native, whereas the eastern cottontail is invasive. population numbers for the new england cottontail are already low, rittenhouse said.

“the new england cottontail’s range is being overtaken by the eastern cottontail,” rittenhouse said. “they are very indistinguishable from each other, often we have to look at genetic information to tell the two apart or identify the species of a specific rabbit.”

in 2015 the new england cottontail was not considered an endangered species despite relatively low population numbers, rittenhouse said. he says that now rhdv2’s rapid spread poses a greater threat to the new england cottontail species.

“so there is huge concern over this disease,” rittenhouse said. “we know it can pretty much decimate a population, quite literally reduce it to one-tenth of its original size, as it did in the southwestern united states and a few other places.”

low population numbers for the new england cottontail rabbit mean that if the often-fatal rhdv2 disease gets into connecticut’s wild rabbit population, it could lead to extinction.

“if rabbit hemorrhagic disease wipes out a large proportion of the new england cottontail population, and there are not enough of them left to repopulate, it could be the end of the species in the wild,” rittenhouse said.

the threat of extinction

this threat of extinction also has negative implications for other populations in the connecticut ecosystem, he said.

“rabbits are food for other species in the food chain,” rittenhouse said. “if we snap a finger and all the rabbits are gone, their predators will have to switch prey, and therefore put pressure on other populations.”

these extinctions of one population in a food chain are often due to the effects of climate change. and extinctions don’t just impact one species – they disrupt the entire food chain and surrounding ecosystem, experts say.

still, extinction threatens many animal and plant species each year. mark urban, a biologist and associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at uconn, highlighted the importance of reducing extinction rates and maintaining biodiversity.

“i think it’s a mistake that we just monitor species and populations to extinction,” urban said. “we need to do something about it, rather than just watching them decline.”

but experts say that there are limited outcomes for rhdv2 and connecticut’s rabbit populations at the moment.

miranda davis, ph.d., a wildlife ecologist and assistant professor in residence in the ecology and evolutionary biology department at uconn, said the spread of rhdv2 to the wild rabbit population could be devastating.

“when we get a novel disease or disease variant introduced to a system, oftentimes the host species have very little resistance,” davis said. “this is particularly true if the host species is a dense population, like rabbits, and the disease can easily spread like wildfire.”

according to davis, the hope regarding most threatening diseases is that they become endemic, like the flu in the human population.

“there isn’t necessarily a way to entirely get rid of it, but it also doesn’t kill individuals at a high enough rate to wipe itself out,” davis said. “the population just has to deal with it.”

a proactive solution

experts say a large part of preventing extinctions via novel diseases relates to disease identification. this work is done in labs like the cvmdl.

risatti explained that the cvmdl is a member of the united states department of agriculture’s national animal health laboratory network. one of the lab’s main goals is to respond to disease events such as this one quickly.

while rhdv2 has not been identified in connecticut’s wild rabbit populations yet – the only positively identified case in the state was in domestic rabbits – the threat of this happening remains. and rhdv2 is likely too fatal to hold out hope for reaching an endemic level, rittenhouse said.

“the best solution we know of right now is the vaccine,” said rittenhouse, referring to the rhdv2 vaccine available from europe. state agencies are looking at getting this vaccine to where it is needed in connecticut, before the disease reaches the state’s wild rabbit populations.

“it’s not feasible to catch and administer a vaccine to all the wild rabbits in connecticut, but we can give it to our contained or domestic rabbit populations as a start,” rittenhouse said.

this year, visitors looking for a fun fall activity are in for a surprise when they head to at’l do farms, located just outside of lubbock, texas, for there will be no corn found. in its place – a maze of multi-species cover crops that contains seven different plants. sorghum, sunflowers, pearl and foxtail millet, cowpeas, sun hemp and radishes will all work together to reduce water inputs. 

a family affair

eric simpson was born and raised on the same property that at’l do farms still calls home today, and agriculture has been a family affair for generations. originally, the land was a monoculture system that rotated growing cotton, sorghum and wheat until the mid-’90s. 

when a low period hit, the simpson family was forced to reevaluate their business. they decided to use the land in a different way and planted their first corn maze in an attempt to bring visitors to the farm and generate a new stream of revenue. 

“it became more and more profitable and in fact, we slowly transitioned out of the production side of agriculture and now we just do the maze and a kind of agritourism type of industry,” simpson said. 

at’l do farms has operated the maze and other fall attractions for 21 years and the farm now welcomes over 50,000 visitors each season.

slideshow by katie perkins

a dry area in drying times

dubbed the llano estacado by early spanish settlers, this region is an approximately 32,000 square mile plateau situated atop the southern boundary of the ogallala aquifer that receives an average of 18 inches of precipitation a year. 

widespread drought and as little as one-tenth of an inch of rain during the winter of 2021 meant corn had a slim chance of growing to the height necessary to construct the maze. 

“what we could see from last year is it didn’t rain pretty much from september all the way until may,” simpson said. “corn, which is a very water-intensive crop, just wasn’t going to cut it. because of climate conditions, it just didn’t rain, and it forced us to make a better decision.” 

these conditions sent simpson to the drawing board in order to find a way the maze could still happen while reducing its water consumption footprint. his neighbor uses a traditional pivot irrigation system but simpson knew he did not want to be reliant on the ogallala aquifer.

globally, approximately 70% of groundwater that is drawn out of aquifers is used for crop irrigation. 

“the entire agriculture industry right now is propped up on the ogallala (aquifer) as its water resource,” simpson said. “the ogallala is depleting at a way faster rate than what is being recharged.” 

the ogallala aquifer is a finite resource. in the next 50 years, 70% of the ogallala aquifer is estimated to be depleted, with the main withdrawals stemming from the agriculture industry. 

“i think in my lifetime we will see a drastic transition away from agriculture on the llano estacado because of a depleting aquifer and extreme climate change,” said simpson. 

an artist by trade, simpson never planned on returning to the family farm after graduating from texas tech. he found himself back in west texas after being accepted to an art residency in lubbock.

“it was at that time that i saw that farming didn’t have to be the way that it’s always been here,” simpson said. “in the sense that you could make changes about biodiversity, soil health and planting drought-tolerant crops.” 

forging a new maze

creating a polycultural farming system like simpson has done at at’l do farms this season has a multitude of benefits for the health of his land. the variety of plants attracts pollinators, reduces erosion, decreases pesticide and herbicide usage, reduces harmful pests, and increases nutrient cycling. 

“lubbock is notorious for being a little bit behind the times, but i think that’s ok,” simpson said. “it gives us young folks the opportunity to see what other folks are doing in other parts of the country and jump in.”

simpson and his family are forging new paths in the agriculture industry and he believes they can spark change amongst his peers in the agritourism industry. change towards a more sustainable future. 

“to my knowledge, we are the first ones to do a multispecies crop for a maze,” simpson said. “i think we are showing people throughout the country the options for doing types of things like this.” 

looking toward the future, simpson says he definitely wants to continue planting non-traditional crops for the annual maze, building healthy soil and working with the land — not against it. 

“as long as we can continue to make little baby steps towards alternative and more drought tolerant and resistant practices, that’s what we are going to do to keep the farm alive,” simpson said.