Climate Change & Conservation: Local Level
“To those devoid of imagination a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most valuable part.”
― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There
When I was sorted into my group for this upcoming class, I was excited to have the opportunity to discuss climate change. However, climate change had been my second choice. I was initially interested in conservation as a topic of research for the semester (considering my interest in becoming a park ranger down the road), but then I realized, what was holding me back from talking about both? So I came up with the following question to perform my investigation around: how is climate change affecting the areas we choose to conserve?
I then had the idea to use my first three blog posts to look at this question from three different lenses: local, state, and federal. This month, I chose to look on the local level by visiting Wild Basin Preserve, the natural area owned and operated by St. Edward’s and its students. But before I visited the park, I talked to some of the interns that work there. Stephanie Perez, a senior Environmental Science and Policy major, and our very own Nick Thompson both work at Wild Basin and have very strong opinions on how climate change is affecting the natural area. So I approached each discussion with the simple opening question, “How do you see climate change’s effects in Wild Basin?”
Stephanie was ready to get into the thick of it from the first question:
S: Oh, climate change is a real issue that Wild Basin faces, in addition to manmade issues. My main area of study at Wild Basin has to do with the water quality in Bee Creek. We see plenty of evidence showing that in addition to an increase of sediment buildup from construction in surrounding areas, there are major drought effects as well.
M: What are some of the drought effects? Is it mostly just declining water levels?
S: Not even that! The biggest thing that has occurred has been a thick algae bloom in the creeks.
M: Really?
S: Yeah! And it was really interesting studying it because at first we thought that the bloom was coming from eutrophication (chemical leaching into water sources that increases vegetation), but when we looked into it further, we were able to see that the spike in algae comes from a heat increase, not a chemical increase!
M: Is that considered really odd for Wild Basin?
S: It really doesn’t help that this February was one of the warmest we have on record at Wild Basin, making it even more clear to us the reasons that this bloom is related to the unseasonable heat and not about the possible chemical leaching from neighborhoods nearby.
M: Is there anything else that you find interesting about current conditions at Wild Basin?
S: Actually yes! According to Dr. Belaire, the manager of research at Wild Basin, the park is due for a wildfire!
M: Oh wow! There is something very cool about wildfires. They seem to be a force of renewal.
S: Easy for you to say, you don’t have to live with them. But yeah, I can agree they are very rejuvenating to a landscape. However, when you haven’t had one in a long time it becomes incredibly dangerous, especially in drought conditions.
M: Oh yeah, everything is just sitting around like kindling.
S: Exactly. And with current drought conditions, things are way more likely to go up in smoke.
When discussing this with Nick, he agreed, and some of the discussion even overlapped, showing some validity to their beliefs. But Nick raised some new points as well:
N: Well, the biggest thing I see when it comes to climate change and Wild Basin is plant diversity. We used to have a healthy mix of trees in the park, including ashe juniper and oak. But now, it’s predominately ashe juniper. This is because ashe juniper is a drought resistant tree while oaks can’t deal with drought.
M: What are ashe junipers again? Are they the shrubby ones?
N: Yeah they are the ones that have the little blue bulbs and look like overgrown bushes.
M: Oh yeah! I’ve seen those on campus as well! They can be sharp.
N: Yeah that’s because they are very dry and don’t require much to survive. But with the recent drought, the oaks have drastically depleted in the park over the past five years at least, but this process may have even begun thirty years ago.
M: Why do you say thirty?
N: Because that’s when there was the biggest impact on the golden cheeked warbler. I’m just guessing that with the warbler there may have also been effects on the surrounding plants, too.
M: That’s a fair hypothesis! Is there anything else the drought is affecting in your opinion?
N: Oh yeah, in addition to the trees, there is also the issue of water flow in the park.
M: You mean like flooding?
N: Yeah exactly. One of the biggest things that I see is that the land is so dry it can’t absorb much water, causing washouts when it rains. That means we have to rebuild trails and create new waterways and flows, further disrupting the natural ecosystem at Wild Basin. We can’t keep that up forever.
So with these things in mind I went and explored Wild Basin, and after getting lost with my thoughts, I came to the conclusion that Nick and Stephanie were right. Drought was the biggest issue in the park, and one of the most obvious things for me was the clear lack of tree diversity in the park. With that being said, there were areas that were incredibly beautiful and teaming with diversity, but these spots seemed few and far between. However, everywhere I looked there seemed to be something fighting for its life. Whether it was a flower or a butterfly or a bumblebee, life wants to thrive here. And it does, but under unnecessary stress that climate change is providing.
Sources:
Nick Thompson
Stephanie Perez
http://think.stedwards.edu/wildbasin/about-us
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v3/n12/abs/nclimate2035.html