rotorua canopy tours brands itself as a company heavily invested in ecotourism, which involves more socially conscious forms of tourism that protect the environment, benefit the local communities, and educate the tourists. ecotourism, when implemented properly, can provide enormous contributions to the environment and the surrounding community. the idea is to create a win-win-win situation: a company thrives, the environment and its inhabitants benefit, and tourists enjoy an informative and thrilling activity.

a proactive approach 

while ecotourism sounds like a creative solution, it is not a complete panacea. tourist activities, even if well intentioned, attract more visitors to an area which puts many of these natural wonders under more stress. this increased foot traffic can harm the wildlife directly or even indirectly, through the introduction of invasive species or the altering of animal behavior. furthermore, when ecotourism is not carried out properly, it can undermine the lives of locals and extensively damage the environment.

rotorua canopy tours has spent over $250,000 nzd (new zealand dollars) on sustainability measures in an effort be the best in the ecotourism industry. they’ve devoted much of their workforce to conserving the forest in which it operates by trapping possums, rats, and stoats. while it may sound counterintuitive for conservation to involve trapping, this work is vital to protecting the forest. all three of these species are invasive to the area, have no predators, and also prey on the native bird populations, decimating their numbers and degrading the entire ecosystem.

the company’s approximately 750 traps have culled tens of thousands of pests and restored 280 hectares of forest since trapping started in 2013. harry haywood, a senior zip line tour guide for the company, has been working in the tourism and conservation industry for nearly 10 years. he said, “when we started in 2012, we had about 98% saturation of pests in the forest. nowadays, the possums are around 0.8% saturation. last i checked, the rats are around 20-22%, but that’s up from around 12%, due to us being in a mast season.” a mast season is a cyclical period when trees drop more nuts and seeds than during a typical year.

evidently, the efforts of rotorua canopy tours provide enormous benefits to the dansey road scenic reserve, the forest that contains the zip line course and is owned by the new zealand department of conservation. the company’s founders strongly believe in rehabilitating the forest, and according to haywood, wrote it into their contract with the department of conservation. while this agreement helped the founders secure approval to build the zip line course, it also aligned perfectly with their values and mission.

this partnership benefits both sides, as the department of conservation allows rotorua canopy tours to operate in the forest in exchange for a lease payment and the trapping work. in fact, haywood explained that the company’s workforce and funding greatly exceeds the resources the department of conservation would have been able to allocate to this forest.

“for me it’s resetting the traps, rebaiting them, and documenting numbers and statistics,” haywood said of his role in the conservation efforts. “we also work with a local scientific group on various studies and discovered four new species to science, as well as assist in the reintroduction of certain native bird species.”

normalizing sustainable practices in ecotourism

at the end of the day, the goal of any business is to boost its profits as much as possible, which begs an important question: what responsibilities to the environment do ecotourism companies have?

many climate activists, business leaders, and philosophers have debated this very question. brian berkey and eric orts, professors at the university of pennsylvania’s wharton school, argue that businesses hold an ethical responsibility to forgo some profit opportunities in order to address the climate crisis because the world cannot sustain current business practices.

the good news is that it does seem intuitive for ecotourism businesses to conserve the places they operate. “it may not necessarily be [a business’] responsibility to look after the country, but they should want to protect the place they are in. if the glaciers are disappearing and the forests are destroyed, then ecotourism businesses won’t make any money either,” said haywood.

with profits inevitably at the heart of the issue, part of the impetus for companies to change may come from consumers’ choices about where their money goes. ecotourism remains a viable option for travelers seeking an adventure while minimizing their environmental footprint, but this depends on businesses implementing principles of ecotourism. 

at the end of the day, looking out for the environment remains the top priority. “the zip lines are a fun way to get from point a to point b, but you’re really there for the forest,” said haywood. “you may not realize it until you’re out there, but you’re there for the forest, and seeing it look the way it does partly because of our work feels good.”

today, we talk about a fun and tasty way to combat invasive species by putting them on the menu. invasive species are organisms introduced into an environment outside their native range that cause catastrophic economic and environmental damage. controlling invasive species can be costly and time-consuming but including them on your plate could be a viable way to manage and even reduce populations. we share a fun and simple crockpot feral pig pulled pork recipe. 

feral pig pulled pork sliders – recipe courtesy of invasivore.org

ingredients

4lb feral pig shoulder roast

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

½ tablespoon garlic powder

½  cup yellow mustard

brioche slider buns

water as needed

directions

1. coat pork roast in mustard to act as a binder for the dry rub.
2. combine seasonings and spoon over the pork roast, ensuring the rub adheres to the pork.
3. coat the bottom of the slow cooker with vegetable oil.
4. add pork roast to the center of the slow cooker.
5. cook low for 6-7 hours or high for 4-5 hours until meat easily falls off the bone or shreds easily if using boneless. once the internal temperature reaches 195°f-205°f it will be ready to shred and safe to eat. 
6. while still in the slow cooker, use a pair of forks to shred pork meat, removing fat as desired.
7. enjoy on a toasted bun.  optional: top with coleslaw to enjoy your sandwich “southern style!”

**note: if you notice your pork roast getting dry during the cooking process, add water until the roast is halfway submerged and maintain the water level for the rest of the cooking.**

ice plant is a succulent-looking plant that is native to south africa, a place with a similar temperate climate to the coast of california. ice plant was probably brought to the pacific coast in the 1600s with colonization, but started its boom with purposeful and widespread planting in the early 1900s. continuing until the 1970s, people believed that the drought resistant, quickly growing mat-like structured plants were beneficial for sand dune and soil erosion. they thought that these non-native plants would hold sand in place better than the native shrubs and allowed ice plant to thrive as it took over dunes and out-competed native plants. what people know now is that the ice plant is extremely aggressive and actually destabilizes soil as its leaves are big and heavy, good for storing all of the water it sucks up without losing much, and the roots are shallow, clinging to the soil tightly, increasing erosion and the frequency of landslides. the mats of ice plant build up so much biomass that the soil below sometimes, unexpectedly, collapses. 

at the time, in the mid-2000s, as i wandered the marin headlands with my other eight year old classmates, one practice to try to eradicate ice plant was to physically crush it. so in learning about watershed systems and local ecology, we also walked up to the top of some sand dunes overlooking rodeo beach and discussed ice plant and the harm of the wildly out of control plant. then, each of us took a turn pickle-rolling down the dune, smashing as much ice plant as possible under our little bodies. and making sure we avoided the abundant poison oak also surrounding us. the instructors there at naturebridge in the headlands then pointed to another portion of the dune that had no ice plant on it. they told us, see, this is where another group rolled before and look! now there’s no more ice plant. and i felt like we were really doing something! just from rolling down a sandy hill, i could help get rid of this bad (invasive) plant that was crowding out the good (native) plants. 

here we are in the spring of 2022 and i am still doing the same thing, but a little differently and having learned and grown a lot in the years since third grade. i volunteered one saturday in february with the big sur land trust, pulling ice plant from martin dunes in marina. the day started by getting picked up by a friend, the volunteer coordinator for the land trust, so we could all carpool. we headed to marina and drove through dry, tired-looking agricultural fields, arriving at a badly rutted dirt parking lot. though there was a deep pit with various tire tracks through it in the middle of the lot, the dirt looked like it hadn’t seen rain in years. and it probably hasn’t. or at least seen enough of it. once all of the volunteers assembled, we ventured out to the beach and then along the dunes to an unmarked trail of sand between dunes that wrapped to a couple of decaying wooden picnic tables. and for the next couple of hours, we all worked by hand to pull out as much ice plant as possible and lay it root-up in piles in the sun so that the plant would die. something that has changed in my time since rolling over ice plant in the headlands til now has been my deep immersion into climate change and environmental justice. and what i noticed while ripping plants out of the sand is that ice plant is just like climate change. 

you need to get to the mother root 

ice plant generally has one big main “mother root.” there may be smaller sections of root that spread out and run right under the sand, but they all connect to this one thicker root. same with climate change. when looking at the climate crisis, there are so many different aspects to get invested and discouraged by. there’s the acidification of the ocean and collapse of marine systems and food and livelihoods of millions. there’s the deforestation of the planet’s lungs and burning of the very trees that make it possible for humans to breathe and survive. there’s the growing variability and inconsistency of global circulation patterns and currents, the driving forces of all global systems. what gives the planet weather and climates and moisture and nutrients and much more. and with that, the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events that our human systems don’t have the capacity or care for. every season is record breaking and one day may bring intense heat while the next has intense rain. weather whiplash. there are polluting power plants in the backyards of communities that have long disproportionately suffered the harms of a small group of elites prospering. there are millions and millions of refugees, fleeing instability, violence, climate disasters. and this is just a glimpse. you need to get to the mother root. the other roots may be thinner and slippery, hard to grab onto. or they may be in stringy clusters, difficult to continue to pull out of the sand. but all of them connect back to the mother root. what connects all of these different injustices and the destruction and suffering? climate change is rooted in the separation of people from the rest of nature and prevailing mindsets of domination, extraction, and exploitation. this disconnect between people and the environment looks like the proliferation and thriving of colonialism and racial capitalism. the whole plant can’t be killed until the mother root is found and yanked out, laid down to dry in the sun, and decimated by the power of something much bigger and stronger than it. 

the sneaky bastard is everywhere, especially where you don’t expect it 

don’t forget to give ice plant some credit. it is a sneaky bastard. and if you don’t look closely and with an eye for it, it can evade your gaze, hiding under other plants and intertwined with the beautiful plants you do love. that bastard of colonialism is much the same. until you open your eyes and are able to see the tricky ways of colonialism and exploitation, you might not see the small patch of ice plant hiding under the shelter of the taller, native saltbush. and these ideas of domination and extraction seem to have proliferated almost everything. if you look closely, at the toaster that you can buy for $4, past the convenience and ease and higher standard of living for most people (alongside much larger gaps in equality) you see metals and other materials that have been mined in all parts of the world and then shipped somewhere else to come together in manufacturing and then sold somewhere else. these areas are where people aren’t paid a fair and livable wage for the work they do. and where the natural environment also pays the price in having its soul and structure extracted in the cheapest, often more destructive, way possible. and maybe these people or companies or countries don’t have a choice in how they contribute to the global market. trading their mined exports for more accessible imports and safety and a better relationship with the powerhouse countries that have gotten to where they are with centuries of colonialism. colonialism hides along in the shadows, creeping on through, touching all in sometimes not fully seen and understood ways. all issues and injustices today can be traced back to a disconnect between people and the environment. this mindset that is essential to colonialism, of domination and disrespect for other beings, leads to extraction and exploitation, now so widespread that people are actively killing other humxns, animals, plants, the future. these destructive dominant ideas also only accept and duplicate themselves. as audre lorde wrote, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” hierarchies reinforce themselves so that those with power can stay in power. mats and mats of ice plant are pulled out, only to reveal oxalis below them, another invasive plant. the small green sorrel leaves peek in between fingers of ice plant, finding shelter and protection within another invasive. the name of the game is exploitation and there’s a race to the bottom. 

she’s an octopus! novapus? decapus? why so many arms?  

the surprising part of needing to get to the mother root of ice plant is because with its sprawling mat-like structure and arm after arm after arm of plump, icy fingers, you’d expect there to be roots all along each string of the old thing. but that’s not the case. all of these arms stretch out from that one main root and spread, intertwining, interweaving, becoming complex, and sometimes simple, and creating a messy, complicated front. and the climate crisis is the same way. upon first look, all you see is a big tangle of mess that is difficult to even know where to start. but when you creep a little closer, you can find the end of one arm that you can grab onto and see where it leads. there are many different access points, because everything is related to the climate crisis. you can start pulling up ice plant on one side or another or another or another and you’ll still end up working towards that mother root. everyone needs to be involved and invested in climate justice and the equalizing part of the climate crisis reaching everyone in some regard or another is that no matter your interests, strengths, values, passions, you can do important work. the art and culture that you create contributes to helping people imagine and envision a more just future. the data you clean up and crunch can help create projections and models, laying out an exact timeline essential to policymakers and scientists. the love you have for hiking can be shared with others, helping to connect more people with the environment and their surroundings, in turn developing their sense of stewardship and responsibility in taking action. there’s infinite ways in to limiting the harm and suffering of the climate crisis. find the arm that stands out to you and start getting in there. 

you think you’re better than me? hah try again

ice plant was introduced to california’s landscape by people who thought they could control the environment with something new and different. but in reality, the native plants that co-evolved with the landscape over millions of years are much better equipped for providing the services their ecosystem needs than plants that have been blindly dropped into a different context. native plants know their areas and have mutualistic relationships. and so do indigenous people. people indigenous to an area have grown and lived alongside the same local context for thousands of years, cultivating knowledge in relationship with a particular place and all of the beings at play there. moving away from colonialism’s wrath of extraction and exploitation, people need to look to indigenous people for examples of how to live in reciprocal relationship with the environment and what living locally looks like. rather than techno-fixes and shiny new ideas or band-aid fixes like atmospheric geoengineering, we need to focus on communities and relationships. we need smaller systems where people rely on and steward the landscape they live in. we need to invest in communities and celebrate the local. these smaller scale models and practices of reciprocity and gratitude can be connected, creating worldwide change. 

let’s get nice and up close and personal 

looking over and across most sand dunes throughout california, you see a beautiful sea of red and green and varying shades of those colors. and that’s tons and tons of ice plant. it covers most dunes and even when people try to remove it, it comes back. and while climate change can be overwhelming and lead to dissonance because of the sheer hugeness of it, each and every person still needs to put in the work. it is hard work. pulling out ice plant requires you to use your muscles. you’ve got to pull with your legs lest you risk straining your back. it will get you sweating and tired and maybe sometimes discouraged if you look up at the pile of ice plant you’ve pulled out over the last 20 minutes and meanwhile one glance to the left shows one hundred times the amount of ice plant you just pulled out. it’s daunting and discouraging. and it takes hand pulling plants out twice before they stop coming back. supposedly. but your ice plant pulling does make a difference. no matter how little ice plant you pull out, getting out there, yanking a plant or two, and trying is something. as long as you are doing something, it’s important. and you never know what small action may lead to a bigger impact, especially on others. that one patch of sand you cleared may become the happy home of a native ca coastal buckwheat plant and feeding ground for native pollinators. and it takes hard work that is up close and personal. spraying ice plant with herbicide may not be the best way to eradicate the plant. there are unknown impacts and many times the plant comes back anyway. the way to engage with climate justice work is to get in there, get personal, confront the challenges, and figure out what you can do and how you can make an impact. there aren’t big blanket solutions that can be used, sprayed from afar and nonspecifically. take some time to figure out your skills, passions, and goals, and then get started. you’ve got to be face to face to find your grip on the plant. 

climate change and ice plant are more alike than they may seem. all people have a stake in climate justice because nothing in your life remains untouched by the environment and the harms of humans’ separation from the, especially local, environment. take some time to figure out how you are already up close and personal with climate change, and use your skills and experiences to find an arm of the plant that you can grab onto and start ripping away at. keep in mind the mother root and do what you can to eradicate it. look to others for knowledge and wisdom and invest in your surrounding community. one person can’t do it all but everyone needs to do something. it’s hard work but good work. and don’t forget to plant something new once you get that ice plant out. 

so, how did the ice plant become so rampant in california? while the ice plant is likely to have first been introduced to the state by accident, coming along with other cargo on colonists’ ships in the 15th and 16th centuries, it was intentionally planted in california starting in the early 1900s. all the way up until the 1970s, caltrans (california department of transportation) planted ice plant along railroad tracks and roadsides to stabilize dirt and sand. they chose the ice plant because it was cheap and spread quickly: a single branch grows more than three feet outwards each year. being a succulent that holds water in its petals, it was also attractive for its resistance to drought. unfortunately, that meant that it also began to starve all other native plants of water, quickly choking them all out and dominating the landscape. as with the intentional introduction of most invasive plants, little forethought was put into the long-term consequences of introducing this nonnative plant from the other side of the planet. although discoveries about the ways that nonnative plants reduce habitats for native insects and animals would come later, it became evident after the ice plant began to spread that it was not actually meeting the goal of stabilizing the dunes either. due to its heavy leaves and shallow roots, the ice plant destabilizes the dunes, increasing erosion and the frequency of landslides. it also builds up so much biomass in its water-logged petals that hillsides can just collapse under the weight of it.

in the face of the widespread presence of the ice plant along hundreds of miles of coastline, is there any hope that the california coastal ecosystem could ever be returned to its natural state? restoration is a challenging and confusing process: what does returning a place to its “natural state” even mean? in the case of the ice plant, while it is clear that from an ecological standpoint, this invasive plant affects the california coastal ecosystem in a completely negative way, it also has become a quintessential and recognizable part of the state’s coastline. how does its beauty come into play in terms of crafting a plan for its removal? while these questions are important to think about, it is unrealistic to hope that the ice plant will ever be removed on a scale larger than in small pockets like martin dunes that are revisited multiple times a year to pull what has grown back. on the california department of fish and wildlife’s page about the ice plant, they echo this sentiment, stating that, “unfortunately, it is so widespread that it is only realistic to try to control small infestations at once.” various approaches for removing the ice plant have been tried, including spraying pesticides and rolling over the ice plants with tractors, but, due to the negative consequences of these destructive actions to organisms other than the ice plant, hand pulling of the plant is now the most common approach. while it is slow and only works on a small scale, it is the least destructive to the coastal ecosystem. 

as i wrestled with the plants, sometimes having to use hand tools to yank out the “mother root,” i chatted with a friend about the connections between the physical act that we were performing in that moment and the themes i have been reading about in all we can save, a collection of essays and poems written by women at the forefront of the climate movement. both the invasive ice plant and the climate crisis pose challenges that seem insurmountable when you look at them on a large scale. colonialism and exploitative capitalism have restructured our world in ways that are deeply complicated and often impossible to undo. the ice plant stands as a physical example of the ravaging impacts of colonial impositions on local ecosystems. how could we possibly remove all of the ice plant in california? how can we possibly completely restructure our economy and societal values to move away from exploitative capitalism and towards a more collaborative world of people living in right relationship with the earth? 

in the first chapter of all we can save, editors dr. ayana elizabeth johnson and dr. katharine wilkinson lay out the framework that they intend to use to tackle these difficult questions. in explaining their intentions for the direction of the book, they state that “while it is too late to save everything –– some ecological damage is irreparable, some species are already gone, ice has already melted, lives have already been lost –– it is far too soon to give up on the rest.” there is no silver-bullet solution to either problem. creating a better world will only happen as a result of tireless work on a local level, listening to local voices and indigenous wisdom to create place-based solutions. in emergent strategy, adrienne maree brown (editor’s note: the author prefers her name presented lowercase.) explains the idea of “fractal communities,” which are communities on the outside of the mainstream culture that model a different way of life. in living out an experiment of imagination, they test out solutions on a local level, hoping to serve as an example and something that people from the mainstream culture can turn to as a different path forward. the martin dunes project operates in a similar way: conservationists from all over the state visit it to get an idea of what a rehabilitated coastal ecosystem could look like. as johnson and wilkinson highlight in the first chapter, “begin,” it is not too late to attempt to save what we can, just as the conservationists have done in the martin dunes project. and in doing so, they have created a viable habitat for the sand gilia, legless lizard, blue butterfly, snowy plover, and other endangered species. winning that battle must be worth something, even if it is in the face of the impossibility of winning the war.

also key to the idea behind “fractal communities,” is the fact that the same solution cannot work everywhere. while some top-down actions –– such as federal climate legislation –– are necessary, community-specific bottom-up solutions are how we are really going to restructure our society. in the essay “indigenous prophecy and mother earth,” sherri mitchell claims that “one of the more damaging effects of colonization and forced assimilation has been the homogenization of our societies.” as with other colonial impositions, the introduction of the ice plant to the california coast, was thought to be an answer that would be universally superior, while local native plants had been evolving for millennia to meet the challenges of each local region. technocratic, one-size-fits-all solutions, such as the bulldozing of the dunes and application of pesticides, were seen to be inferior solutions to solving the problem than thoughtful, community-based efforts. 

another key theme in all we can save that we saw as intimately related to the ice plant pulling effort was the idea that humans are and always have been active stewards of our environment. we are not separate from, nor are we destined to destroy “nature.” in her piece “wakanda doesn’t have suburbs,” kendra pierre-louis talks about how most of us grow up with the belief that “humans have an innate tendency to destroy their environment.” when we look further back than the past few hundred years, we find that humans have always played a role in actively altering our environments, often in non-destructive, sustainable ways. in the case of the ice plant, humans made a huge misstep but that does not mean that we cannot also act in ways that are helpful to our local environments, such as hand-pulling the ice plant and replanting native plants. the essay “mending the landscape,” by kate orff, speaks to the potential power of community-based ecosystem restoration: not just as a tool to make our local ecosystems more resilient to climate change, but also to deconstruct the idea of “nature” as something separate from us, that we are destined to destroy if we get involved. orff explains that “this new mode of working – a more public role of organizing communities and choreographing ecological repair – is needed to correct the idea of nature as something that exists outside of human agency.” we have the power to make positive change in our local communities and local ecosystems.

all we can save points to so many areas in which we can look for hope. but, at least for me, the despair and sense of doom still lingers. while the story of the ice plant in california can be seen as a story of victories and community action on the small scale –– with the martin dunes project being an example of success –– it can simultaneously be a metaphor for loss on a large scale. we will never be able to remove all of the ice plant and restore this ecosystem to one that can provide a habitat for all of the animals and insects that used to call it home. similarly, on a global scale, so much irreversible damage to the environment has already been done and, even with the most ambitious climate actions, people will still suffer and more ecosystems will be destroyed. the story of the ice plant as a metaphor for the climate crisis and the words of all of the authors in all we can save leave me with the question: how do we maintain hope in the face of what we cannot save? 

for me personally, the way i tend to cope with the feelings of despair that come with looking at this issues in the big picture, is zooming in to a smaller scale and looking for examples and ways that i can be a part of efforts where real people are connecting with each other and their environments and doing good work to help heal their relationships to one another and with the earth. i feel empowered, not when i think about national climate legislation or huge investments in green technologies, but when i see real people (re)connecting with the earth right under their feet. i listened to a podcast interview of adrienne maree brown in which she says that she believes that every movement needs both: people that make change a mile wide and a foot deep and people that make change a foot wide and a mile deep. you cannot build a strong movement without both. some people want to ascend to the highest office possible and make changes that will affect the world broadly and others would rather make changes on the local level, creating a model –– or a “fractal community” –– of what they believe a better world could look like. i tend to fall more in the second category and i’m still working on figuring out exactly what that looks like for me in my life, but it is an exciting journey.

vacuolar myelinopathy is a neurological disease most commonly seen in bird species such as eagles and coots. the brains of the infected organisms develop lesions in the white matter of the nervous system, causing a loss of motor function. mortuary circles call this “swiss cheese brain.”

from its first recorded instance near degray lake in arkansas during the winter of 1994-1995, researchers, including aquatic scientist susan wilde, conducted field and laboratory studies to determine how species contract this disease. through laboratory and field experimentation, wilde and her team have recently concluded that a toxin produced by cyanobacteria is growing on invasive plant species within water bodies in the southeastern united states.

wilde, an associate professor at the university of georgia, worked with an international team from various scientific backgrounds. their findings, published in science, discovered the epiphytic cyanobacteria (aetokthonos hydrillicola) grow on hydrilla verticillata, a non-native plant species found in bodies of water. wildlife, such as fish, birds, and amphibians, eat these plants and consume the neurotoxin that leads to vacuolar myelinopathy.

vacuolar myelinopathy is not limited to the waterfowl that feed on these plants, explained anton j. reiner, a professor of anatomy and neurobiology at the university of tennessee health science center.

“it’s not a uniquely avian brain disease. it winds up looking like a uniquely avian brain disease because you have to consume a lot of it,” said reiner.

vacuolar myelinopathy also affects fish and amphibians that end up eating these cyanobacteria-infected invasive plants. fish, amphibians and waterfowl that feed on hydrilla become infected with vacuolar myelinopathy. higher-level predators such as coots and eagles consume the smaller animals, thus continuing the spread of the disease throughout the entire food web.

“so-called ‘apex predators’ like eagles, for example, wind up being especially susceptible to [vacuolar myelinopathy] because of their diet,”reiner said.

the disease manifests approximately five days after exposure when clinical signs of loss of motor control function become visible in avian species like eagles and coots. infected coots will float on the surface of the water on their backs and spin in circles, making them easy prey for eagles and other large avian predators. infected eagles will sit on tree branches with their wings drooping downward. according to reiner, there are instances of eagles flying into the sides of mountains while infected with vacuolar myelinopathy.

“every eagle i’ve ever seen with symptoms [of vacuolar myelinopathy] has died,” said william bowerman, professor and chair of the department of environmental science & technology at the university of maryland.

bowerman is a long-time collaborator of wilde’s on vacuolar myelinopathy, and his current research revolves around eagles as indicators of climate change and contaminants around the great lakes. he explained that birds are quality gauges of how the environment responds to various stressors, so the conservation of avian species from vacuolar myelinopathy impacts everyone.

“[vacuolar myelinopathy] killed tens of thousands of waterfowl and over 100 bald eagles. so, it’s a new, emerging disease, and it could be linked to pollution and also may be somewhat of an indicator of climate change,” said bowerman.

wilde and her team discuss spreading awareness and advocacy as a means to combat vacuolar myelinopathy in their recently published research. early in the paper, they state that the shift from the previous name of the neurological disease, “avian vacuolar myelinopathy,” to its current title “vacuolar myelinopathy” is necessary as it is not only limited to avian species. wilde and her team state that they are not yet sure of the potential impact vacuolar myelinopathy has on humans and recommend that further research be conducted.

“we want people to know the lakes where this disease has been documented and to use caution in consuming birds and fish from these lakes,” wilde told the american association for the advancement of science.

while there is still plenty of research to be done on vacuolar myelinopathy, wilde and her team’s discovery of the link between the cyanobacterial toxins and the lethal neurological disorder helps lie to rest the source of the perplexing avian deaths. bowerman hopes that wilde’s work will serve as a reminder of the importance of conserving a clean environment.

“it’s just important to understand that our organisms in the environment tell us what’s going on,” bowerman said. “if the birds and the mammals are healthy, then people are healthy.”

“this latest capture is disturbing,” said mark fritts, a u.s. fish and wildlife services ecologist based in lacrosse, wisconsin. “we’ve never seen that many fish caught at the same time in this region.”

in the upper mississippi and illinois rivers, asian carp reproduce rapidly, have no natural competitors and out-compete native fish for food supply and space, which devastates native fish populations – in some streams, they make up 75% of fish biomass. asian carp, which can weigh between 60 and 110 pounds, are also notorious for jumping up to three meters out of the water when spooked by boat motors or loud sounds – creating a public safety risk and threatening a $7-billion sport-fishing market.

despite prevention measures, like government-contracted asian carp fisherman and dam barriers, asian carp have been slowly spreading upstream to the upper mississippi river and the great lakes. prior to this, fritts believed that most of the population in the upper mississippi river was confined below the quad-city region in illinois and iowa. now, he’s not so sure.

james lamer, a large river ecologist with the illinois natural history survey, said heavy flooding in the mississippi river basin last spring may have caused the fish to spawn upstream.

or, it could’ve been sheer luck.

according to lamer’s research, asian carp play favorites. from 2013 to 2016, lamer and his team in illinois tagged and tracked asian carp migration through the illinois and mississippi rivers’ channels in search for some sort of pattern. they found that carp species and hybrids are more or less mobile based on different water temperatures, flow and volume, which makes their spread a little bit more predictable.

“the water temperatures are still really low, and that’s when they can aggregate,” lamer said. “lacrosse might have got lucky and just got a lot of fish in that one haul just because the carp tend to congregate during those cold-water temperatures in certain areas.”

from his research, lamer knows that april weather brings favorable conditions to asian carp in illinois’ contained backchannels, which is a crucial time for government-contracted fishermen and researchers to extract invasive carp from the streams.

but due to the spread of coronavirus throughout the united states, lamer said they might not be able to get out on the water and curb their spread.

“the only thing that we can do in the meantime is analyze data and try to figure out what we have going on with the data we have,” he said.

but lamer isn’t too concerned – his research gives some hope to midwestern waterways. asian carp are finicky about their environment. their preference for deep waters could keep them out of uninfected areas if the water levels continue at their current low levels, like they have been for the last couple of weeks.

“long story short, i think any damage of not fishing for the one to two months off the water due to coronavirus can be mitigated when fishermen return to the water,” he said.

even if water conditions are perfect, history shows the mississippi’s unpredictable environment can be a natural barrier to carp mobility. for example, lamer’s tagged carp had an abundant year in 2016, but had barely any sign of reproduction the next two years. lamer and his team think it’s because changing water flow pushed unhatched carp eggs out of the upper mississippi’s uninfected waters.

lamer is keeping a positive attitude, but the “ifs” are adding up. in the worst-case scenario, asian carp spread to uninfected waters and decimate native fish populations and the fishing economy.

the midwestern waterways’ fate is up to mother nature.

“asian carp have very variable recruitment and reproduction, and so if we had the water conditions are stable for them like they were in 2016, then it could be problematic if we’re not out there removing fish,” lamer said. “if conditions aren’t conducive to spawning or movement and all of the gates stay in the water because we don’t get major flooding, it may not be as problematic.”

“it’s kind of a gamble – we’re hoping for the latter,” he added.

fritts is less concerned, too. last year mississippi’s flooding set back his team’s research, and he said every year has its own challenges.

“my rocket is set on launch as soon as they give me permission to get back out there. but we’ll just do what we can. these forces are bigger than us and we’ll just do our best,” he said.

***

what is plasticus vastum?

plasticus vastum affects the lives of each and every one of us every day, and it is spreading across the earth at rates unmatched by nearly any other species to date, so why haven’t we heard about it?

the short answer is that the research on this species is new, and many are hesitant to report on the dangers of its growth, because its existence inarguably improves the quality of life of most humans today.

traces of plasticus vastum can be found in homes, automobiles, food, computers, clothing, any many other locations. it’s established a huge presence, yet we too often refuse to acknowledge it for what it is. plasticus vastum is a species belonging to the omnes materiales family, referred to by some as plastika apovlita.

the species was first discovered in 1907 by leo hendrik baekeland, a belgian born american scientist. however, it is believed that this species has dated back to the pre columbian civilizations in mesoamerica as far back as 1600 bce. plasticus vastum is a particularly diverse species, as its lifespan can range from 10 years to over 1,000 years depending on different characteristics.

it has also shown promise in adapting to different climates and is one of the few species that can survive at soil and sea. members of the species can take many different shapes and sizes, which is where they derive their name, plasticus, which means capable of shaping and molding. the species’ unique reproductive tendencies can be described through a mutualistic relationship with humans and erratic spawning.

to expand, all species belonging to the omnes materiales family have a mutualistic reproductive method with humans where, when one or many members of the species serve as a direct facilitator of human life, like bees become vehicles for the reproductions of flowers, humans become vehicles for the reproduction of species belonging to omnes materials.

for plasticus vastum in particular, humans have enabled the growth of over 6.3 billion tons of growth in only the past 70 years.  furthermore, each member of plasticus vastum can produce thousands of offspring without the need for human intervention through erratic spawning. (note: the appearance of plasticus vastum is measured by weight rather than individuals in a population solely because it is extremely difficult to count the individuals since they are constantly spawning and regrowing into various shapes and sizes.)

jessica howard, a research assistant in marine bio-invasives at the charles darwin research station, has been able to share her firsthand account of the appearance of the species in the galapagos islands.

she said it has “come in and caused problems for the endemic and native wildlife or the economy,” which is by definition an invasive species. their unique reproductive tendencies, where any single being can produce thousands of offspring, but the offspring can’t grow without a mutualistic relationship with humans, highlight the extreme danger of this invasive species to spread rapidly, but also give hope that humans could learn to adjust their ways to prevent the growth of offspring.

we may need to act fast, however, because the wildlife of the galapagos islands are already facing a struggle for existence to accommodate the large amounts of plasticus vastum.

its bearing on natural selection

before entering the subject of this chapter i must make a few preliminary remarks to inform the reader of the connection between charles darwin, the struggle for existence and its bearing on natural selection, and plasticus vastum in the galapagos islands.

“on the origin of species,” published on nov. 24, 1859, is a work of scientific literature by charles darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. the third chapter of this book is titled “struggle for existence” and it serves as an introduction to darwin’s main argument for natural selection. charles darwin’s theory was heavily influenced by his travels to the galapagos islands. in fact, our first association with the word “galapagos” very well may be darwin, or perhaps darwin’s finches.

in this chapter, darwin uses botany, zoology, and mathematics to get to the heart of his argument on natural selection, and today, we are going to revise his argument with our modern knowledge of plasticus vastum. while plasticus vastum has been showing up across the globe, the focus in this essay will be its appearance in the galapagos islands in honor of charles darwin’s studies there. for the remainder of this essay, we will refer to plasticus vastum as pv for brevity. direct quotes from darwin will be in italics, whereas my own analysis will be in regular print.

the term, struggle for existence, used in a wide sense

“i should premise that i use this term in a large and metaphorical sense, including not only the life of the individual, but success in leaving progeny. two canine animals in a time of dearth, may be truly said to struggle with each other which shall get food and live. but a plant on the edge of a desert is said to struggle for life against the drought, though more properly it should be said to be dependent on the moisture. a plant which annually produces a thousand seeds, of which on an average only one comes to maturity, may be more truly said to struggle with the plants of the same and other kinds which already clothe the ground. the missletoe is dependent on the apple and a few other trees, but can only in a far-fetched sense be said to struggle with these trees, for if too many of these parasites grow on the same tree, it will languish and die. but several seedling missletoes, growing close together on the same branch, may more truly be said to struggle with each other. as the missletoe is disseminated by birds, its existence depends on birds; and it may metaphorically be said to struggle with other fruit-bearing plants, in order to tempt birds to devour and thus disseminate its seeds rather than those of other plants. in these several senses, which pass into each other, i use for convenience sake the general term of struggle for existence.”

it is important to note here that the particular struggles that pv face are not completely understood, but there does seem to be a correlation between human carriers of pv and its profound growth in recent years. due to its mutualistic relationship with humans, it could be hypothesized that it struggles with other species of the omnes materiales family whom could fill its mutualistic niche with humans.

similar to the missletoe’s struggle with other fruit-bearing plants, in tempting birds to disseminate its seeds rather than those of other plants, pv struggles to tempt humans to facilitate it’s growth and disseminate its progeny rather than those of other species belonging to omnes materiales.

an important discussion, however, is not how pv struggles with other species, but how many species are struggling because of pv. pv, with its many shapes and sizes, can be mistaken for food by many lifeforms, but scientists agree that it does not provide enough nutritional content to sustain any of these animals, which can lead to their eventual death.

more intelligent lifeforms may not mistake pv for their typical food, but they are susceptible to contamination by consuming prey that have ingested pv. pv has been found in the stomachs of sea turtles, sea lions, birds, iguanas, tortoises, and fish, and it is currently one of the greatest threats to these galápaganian species.

that is why there have been tremendous efforts in the islands to reduce the presence of pv, many of which have been successful. however, a single nations efforts to reduce an invasive species which has the means to travel via land and sea with lifespans upwards of 1,000 years is insufficient, as evidenced by the findings of pv originating from peru and other countries showing  up in the galapagos islands.

so with the unsuccessful efforts of pv eradication, how should we anticipate the struggle for existence of the many beautiful and unique lifeforms in the galapagos islands to be challenged by pv?

geometrical ratio of increase

“a struggle for existence inevitably follows from the high rate at which all organic beings tend to increase. every being, which during its natural lifetime produces several eggs or seeds, must suffer destruction during some part of it’s life, and during some season or occasional year, otherwise, on the principle of geometrical increase, its numbers would quickly become so inordinately great that no country could support the product.”

by this principle, more individuals are produced than can possibly ever survive, so in every case, including pv, there must be a struggle for existence, either one individual with another of the same species, or with individuals of a distinct species, or with the physical conditions of life.

it is likely unlikely for pv to struggle within itself, and it has been shown to survive in many extreme climates and conditions, so the question of eradicating plastic as an invasive species seems to fall into the category of struggle for existence with individuals of a distinct species, which can fulfill the same niche.

when you hear about the galápagos, you think pristine biodiversity. but the island ecosystem and its native flora and fauna are actually under attack by multiple invasive species, one of which is threatening none other than darwin’s finches.

learn more about the history, research, and action plan behind this environmental emergency below.

galápagos park guides say that goats were first brought to the islands by fishermen as food reserves in the early 20th century. unexpectedly, goats survived quite well on the islands where they were released. but predators like coyotes and wolves that normally keep goats in check are not found in the galápagos, so the population exploded. 

goats became so numerous on isabela and santiago islands that native species like the giant tortoise began to decline because they were outcompeted by goats for food. in 1997, when the goat population on isabela island had reached 100,000, action was finally taken. 

we all share a soft spot for chèvre and goat yoga. so why did these passive plant-eaters need to be stopped? 

the galápagos islands is not only important for its consistent rank among “must see places before you die” lists, the flora and fauna of the islands is biologically unique. in other words, most of the native species on the islands do not exist anywhere else in the world. in biology, uniqueness is valuable. these islands are as unique as it gets. and once the giant tortoises are wiped out, we cannot bring them back. protection of galápagos giant tortoises and all other unique species on the islands is therefore critical.

to eradicate the goats, park rangers were trained in marksmanship and flown in helicopters low over the islands. goats were shot one by one. eventually, so few goats remained that they became difficult to find in the underbrush. scientists developed a brutally clever strategy to remove those that remained: “judas goats.” 

because goats like to congregate in herds, several females were captured, marked, and sent back into the wild with gps trackers. these marked goats were the judas goats. naturally, these females eventually found and joined existing herds and by doing so, exposed the locations of the remaining goats. 

the ingenious solution of judas goats led to one of the most successful invasive species eradications on the islands to date. what makes invasive species control so fascinating is the fact that with each new invasive species, a completely new management plan is needed. 

the same level of ingenuity in the goat solution is needed to overcome the intricacies of each new invasive situation. it is impossible to predict the downstream result of every action, so creative problem-solving along the way is essential. 

as with goats, black rats were introduced by mariners long ago. black rats prey on the eggs of native birds and reptiles. as explained by park guide anahí concari, “project pinzón” was the park’s response to native species population declines from black rat predation on pinzón island. 

in 2012, helicopters were used to drop rodenticide in a grid pattern across the island. it was quickly discovered that lava lizards, which are native to the galápagos, also were eating the rodenticide. though the lava lizards were unaffected by the poison, they stored it in their livers. 

which only moved the problem up the food chain. the galápagos hawks that ate these lava lizards were affected by the rodenticide and the hawk population declined. the quick thinking solution was to capture as many remaining hawks as possible and hold them in captivity until the rodenticide concentration in lava lizards dropped to safe levels — which took about two years. 

project pinzón ultimately was successful on pinzón island, but the increased mortality of galápagos hawks was an unexpected and unfortunate price to pay. 

the loss of the hawks demonstrates the risks associated with invasive species control in such delicate, interconnected ecosystems. each situation is unique and the stakes are always incredibly high as there’s always the possibility that a seemingly sound idea will unexpectedly do more harm than good.

when a parasitic fly is destroying the populations of 20 species of birds, judas goats and rodenticide will be of no help. unfortunately one such fly is currently terrorizing the galápagos. these flies lay eggs in the nests of birds and their larvae suck the blood from baby birds as soon as they hatch. this gruesome invasive fly has pushed several galápagos finches to the brink of extinction.

according to the charles darwin research station, 20 galápagos bird species are at risk from the fly. because the birds are only preyed on as hatchlings, raising birds in captivity until they are no longer hatchlings protects them from the fly. 

the mangroves that these birds nest in are sometimes as tall as 20 meters (a little over 65 feet), so professional tree climbers were hired to remove eggs from nests before they hatch. the birds are reintroduced when they are too big to be preyed on by flies. 

this strategy has helped, but it is not scalable. there is not enough space or resources to raise enough of each bird species in captivity. other stop-gap methods involving insecticide have been tested but no one strategy has been effective enough. 

park guide concari mentioned a controversial management strategy called biological control that has recently been circulating in the conversation about this parasitic fly. 

invasive species like these goats, rats, and flies, are able to take over in the galápagos because their normal predators did not travel with them, and none of the predators that keep these animals in check in their native habitats exist in the galápagos. 

biological control involves locating a predator or pathogen that checks an invasive in its native habitat and introducing it into the non-native habitat in which it currently lives. in other words, scientists want to introduce another introduced species to deal with a previously introduced species. (got that?) according to information provided by galápagos national park guides, there are already more introduced species on the islands than there are native species. could purposefully introducing more really be worth it?

the strategy of biological control is incredibly risky and still controversial. when the conversation shifts to invasive plants however, biological control does not seem as far fetched. though goats, rats, and flies may seem challenging to eradicate, invasive plants are in fact much more difficult. 

heinke jäger, a senior scientist at the charles darwin research center on santa cruz island with a ph.d. in ecology, explains that eradication of an invasive species is always the ultimate goal, but sometimes complete eradication is unrealistic. 

when the last female goat was removed from the islands, the population could not recover. 

however, plants are much more difficult to eradicate because once a plant is established, its seeds become distributed throughout the soil. jäger says the seeds of the invasive blackberry bush, rubus niveus, can remain dormant in galápagos soil for 10 years, possibly even longer. 

authorities have tried injecting herbicides into their trunks or even just ripping the plants out, yet the blackberry continues to spread. 

just as animals have predators, plants do too. there is a certain fungus called a rust fungus that preys on these blackberry bushes in their native habitat in china. jäger believes releasing this blackberry fungus could finally check the blackberry invasion. 

she noted that although many people often think of the times when biological control has failed, there have been many successful implementations worldwide and even a previous success in the galápagos. 

in 2002, a species of ladybug was introduced in the galápagos to control the exploding population of a sucking insect that was destroying the mangrove forests. biological control could be the key to protecting galápagos from the continuous onslaught of invasives. 

jäger is optimistic. 

“i really, really hope we can get the funding to continue the work on the rust fungus for blackberry, there are examples in the world where this has worked on blackberry,” she said. 

among park guides like concari, and scientists like jäger, there seems to be an air of excited anticipation as biological control agents are researched for both the invasive blackberry and parasitic fly. introducing a new species to deal with a previously introduced one is certainly the most innovative solution around.