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Hi Doug & All,
Thanks for posting my comments even though you see cause to not
agree. Let me elaborate. By 'rare' I mean those which without human
action were, so far as is known, not ever common here.
For example Selaginella rupestris is rarely encountered in NS.
Whenever we (E.C. Smith & crew) got close to Sandy Cove we would
wistfully spend an hour or so without effect. Wilfred Schofield knew the
plant but never found it in NS. And so far as I know John Erskine never
found it. Dave Erskine found a small patch on a rock. But some decades
ago I saw, in a list of rare plants (drawn up by Natural Resources ??)
that it was rare due to overcollecting !
{One of my few regrets is having failed to save a copy of such
piffle. E.g. I once saw a full page (about 10' x 14') description of how
to build a camp fire. It sounded far too complicated to ever learn but
the last line showed that the author had never lit a fire outdoors.
"Make sure your match is entirely out before you throw it away."}
Also Pinguicula vulgaris is very sparse here. In the course of
searching much possible seepy habitat I saw it only twice. In the course
of much collecting in fresh and brackish water over 4-5 summers, and
much travel by canoe over 30 years, I saw Vallisneria americana only
once. Not every organism can be abundant.
On the other hand, the change in Sunken Lake over the period 1970
to 1990 was sickening. And I attribute this change to long residence
time of water in this lake plus seepage from septic tanks serving year
round occupants.
Initially water was clear, the water edge had mobs of tiny toads in
season and small white-sided fish (don't recall name) and at night the
cottage wall was carpeted by a diverse swarm of insects. Gradually this
was replaced by cloudy water, no toads, no small fish, and very few
insects on the cottage wall.
The model manicured 'weed free' lawn, designed to sell lawn care
products also starves insects so familiar sounds such as peenting of
Nighthawks and warble of Snipe are history. With doggy do and kitty
litter bagged for burial in landfills, 'yard waste' trucked long
distances for efficient disposal and acres of tree free paved parking
lots contributing to flood>trickle cycles of runoff there is no shortage
of windmills to tilt.
And going full circle, it would be great if habitat degradation
could be reversed to some degree, but not at the expense of failure to
contain runaway climate change. If we continue to fail in that arena
then it really is game over. It would however be wonderful if some of
those dead brooks on the North could be coaxed back to life.
In the 50's we had this notion, reasonably valid then except for
introduced plants, that plant distribution reflected the consequences of
natural forces acting over time. And e.g. when E.C. Smith complained
about the inconvenience of collecting Elodea each year, in Truro for lab
use in Wolfville, I solved that by putting some in Tannery Pond but
recorded this transplant by depositing a subsample in the Herbarium.
Meanwhile much has changed. With large earth moving and tree
harvesting equipment being moved by flatbed hither and yon, complete
with cuttings and seeds, combined with ATVs harvesting and sowing seeds
by accident along highways and through woods plus frequent mowing of
ditches with mobile equipment, formerly rare plants are now widespread.
Equisetum variegatum when first collected in NS in 1954 was quite rare.
Now it is everywhere earth moving equipment has worked or been parked.
But if you are a small flightless animal then the 100 series
highways may have sealed your fate. And when will it become politically
expedient to replace the 100 series with roads that do not isolate small
flightless vertebrates from a future ?
YT, DW, Kentville
On 6/2/2020 9:41 PM, Doug Linzey wrote:
> David Webster, you write,
>
>> In any case rare species are just ornamental, in that being
>> sparse they don't pay their way in the ecosystem economy.
>>
>
> I beg to differ. The reason they're rare is environmental degradation.
> Some were once common, others less so, but they all had a place here
> in Nova Scotia. We have wrecked their habitat. Rehabilitation means
> restoring habitat and undoing the damage we've perpetrated, which will
> also address the "enormous loss" you mention:
>>
>> The enormous loss in numbers of once common animals, e.g. frogs
>> and toads, mostly due to habitat loss/degradation, is far more
>> serious. In the 50's, e.g. many secondary roads had a necklace of
>> vernal pools for tadpole rearing on both sides. With urban sprawl and
>> road 'improvement' these became history. And so on and so on.
>>
> Doug Linzey
> Resident on a piece of recovering Acadian Forest in Arlington, NS
>
>> On 6/1/2020 9:21 AM, John Kearney wrote:
>>>
>>> This decision may be a pyrrhic victory as our forests, agricultural
>>> land, and wetlands continue to be pillaged by industry and
>>> recreational activities. We will see if a recovery plan written on
>>> paper will have any effect on saving wildlife. Despite having a
>>> Canada Warbler recovery team in place, the provincial government
>>> recently approved the expansion of a quarry in Annapolis County
>>> right up to the boundary of a wetland with nesting Canada Warblers.
>>> In this case, the project may not destroy their nests, but what kind
>>> of breeding success can we expect when it takes place so close to
>>> dynamite blasting.
>>>
>>> *From:*naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca *On Behalf Of *Peter Payzant
>>> *Sent:* Saturday, May 30, 2020 09:54
>>> *To:* naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
>>> *Subject:* [NatureNS] "Top court rules Nova Scotia broke endangered
>>> species law"
>>>
>>> From The Chronicle Herald this morning:
>>>
>>> "A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge has identified “long-term,
>>> systemic failures” by the provincial government to fulfill its legal
>>> obligations to protect vulnerable and endangered species.
>>>
>>> Justice Christa M. Brothers, in a written decision issued Friday,
>>> cited “a suite of failures of government” that breached the
>>> provincial Endangered Species Act.
>>>
>>> Wildlife biologist Robert Bancroft and the group he heads, the
>>> Federation of Nova Scotia Naturalists, joined Blomidon Naturalists
>>> Society and the Halifax Field Naturalists in filing a court
>>> application against the provincial Lands and Forestry Department
>>> that was heard by Brothers on Sept. 23 and Oct. 1."
>>>
>>> Full story here
>>> <https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/provincial/top-court-rules-province-broke-endangered-species-law-455776/>.
>>>
>>> --- Peter Payzant
>>>
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