• Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Granny Green's Green Machine

Keep it green.

"I AM THE HUGGER!"
CAMPAIGN LINK HERE: https://igg.me/at/IAMTHEHUGGER

Tweet Tweet Tweet

7/5/2016

2 Comments

 
Picture
The best thing about living in the suburbs is being surrounded by trees. With an exception or two, most people value trees here, and most towns have shade tree commissions, as well as environmental commissions to keep an eye on tree planting and removal. But in many urban areas, trees have a harder time. Tending and planting trees is expensive, so despite the long-term benefits, trees aren’t always prioritized.

There has been a recent proliferation of scientific research confirming the benefits of urban trees. They provide shade, they pull pollution out of the air, they assist in storm water retention and they drive up real estate values, but in too many areas, trees are declining.

It’s difficult in many cities to keep up with dying and fallen trees, but another problem facing some urban areas is a multiplying influx of invasive species. Keeping up with diseased trees is an obstacle. Beetles, moths, weevils and adelgids and fungi of several kinds have contributed to the demise of millions of trees over the years. According to new studies, city trees are often not diverse enough to battle all the new diseases. If there is only one kind of tree planted, the trees are that much more vulnerable.

One of the ways tree-killing insects and diseases have spread is through firewood. Insects often live in felled wood, but they don’t move great distances on their own. When firewood with insects hiding inside is moved, it can often mean a leap of hundreds of miles. It only takes one or two tiny insect eggs, or a few microscopic fungus spores to spread contagion.

Some packaged, heat treated firewood sold by retailers is considered safe to move, but the best bet is to use firewood that is from the area in which you plan to burn it. don’tmovefirewood.org is a great resource for all kinds of information about firewood and tree-killing invasives.

New York City’s tree planting efforts have made the city healthier and more attractive, and for those who can still afford it, it’s a beautiful place to live. But in Jersey City, just across the river from NYC, trees are tweeting about what it’s like to be a tree. #Tree Speech is a Jersey City campaign to raise public awareness about the many sustainability issues facing the city, including a seriously jeopardized tree canopy. Twenty percent of Jersey City’s trees are dead or dying.

Environmental artist, Anne Percoco was interviewed by The Jersey City Independent, and she believes that #Tree Speech is “a kind of whimsical experiment in empathy. If we can converse with trees, how will our actions towards them and thoughts about them change?” It sounds like a great idea to me.

They have assigned names and Twitter accounts to selected trees, and the trees have now joined the Twittershpere. Percoco says that Twitter is the perfect vehicle for giving voices to trees, and at first she was going to start the campaign on her own. She found out, however, that Sustainable Jersey City is leading several tree-related initiatives with the NJ Treekeeper’s Workshop and the OpenTreeMap.org tree inventory, so she began working with them. 

​According to Percoco, “#Tree Speech is also a metaphor for the wood wide web, an underground fungal network that trees use to share information and resources. And I love that Twitter’s logo is a bird.”


The #Tree Speech campaign is running through September, but participants are encouraged to keep it going as long as they can. 

Maybe it should be a global campaign.





2 Comments

Holy Oak

6/30/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Basking Ridge, New Jersey is home to the oldest white oak tree in the country, and it is dying.  It’s not dying from neglect. The tree, sometimes referred to as “Holy Oak”, has been loved, cared for and revered since farmers first built a church beside it in 1717 when it was already nearly 300 years old. The town has  protected the tree ever since, and even in times of drought, citizens make sure that Holy Oak’s thirst is quenched. No one knows why the tree is dying, but at more than 600 years old, she has had a long, magnificent life. 

The Reverend Dennis Jones, who is the present pastor of the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church and a township native, said “Our oak tree is something we’re all very proud of and we take the stewardship of that tree very seriously.”
​

It’s unfortunate that humanity as a whole has not taken the stewardship of our planet’s forests as seriously. 

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that about 36 football fields worth of trees are lost every minute. 90 percent of the continental United State’s indigenous forest has disappeared since 1600. A major factor in global climate change, deforestation also causes countless other kinds of complications. Several diseases, for example, are believed to have spread to humans because of habitat destruction. With loss of habitat, animals are forced to move closer to humans who have little or no immunity to previously isolated diseases. Deforestation can set off devastating chains of events that often have global reach.

The causes of deforestation are many, and all of them are about us. Causes include land clearing for agriculture and cattle ranching, housing and urbanization, logging  for paper, furniture and homes, mining, tree harvesting for consumer items like oil from palm trees as well as forest fires. Forest fires are becoming more frequent as climate change toys with weather patterns, and a vicious cycle is set in motion.

Even the water cycle is affected by deforestation because trees absorb rain water, releasing water vapor into the atmosphere. Deforestation causes species extinction, soil erosion, flooding, water pollution, climate imbalance and increased global warming.

Clearly, the solution to the problem is to plant more trees. We can also ban clear cutting and control the felling of trees, but reforestation is the bigger solution. Reforestation restores ecosystems and reduces the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere if, and when, enough trees are planted. There are several initiatives under way, and many organizations are trying to plant as many trees as possible, but it has so far been impossible to keep up with the numbers of trees that are already lost. What we need is divine intervention.

Enter former NASA engineer, Lauren Fletcher and his company, BIOCARBON ENGINEERING. This company is fighting deforestation by planting trees with UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) or drone seed planting technology. They work with ecosystem restoration groups as well as industrial interests, and they aim to plant 36,000 trees a day or 1 billion trees per year. Company leaders say that industrial scale deforestation requires industrial scale reforestation. “Our technology is making it easier … to plant the trees, where they need them, at a fraction of the time and cost”, says Fletcher.

Holy Oak has offspring scattered all over New Jersey from a time about 10 years ago when her acorns were collected and grown at a local college. People who bought the saplings took them home and planted them. They are between 5 and 10 feet tall now, and when Holy Oak’s days are over, her offspring are ready to take her place.

Now our planet’s forests need replacing. In what many of us would have once described as a science fiction world, it may very well take drone technology to bring us back from the precipice. In the meantime, I love the story of Holy Oak, and I hope that all of us learn to revere our trees as much as she has been revered over the years.



0 Comments

Fanning the Flames

6/20/2016

2 Comments

 
Picture
We all know about California’s drought and the impact it’s having on agriculture. We’ve all heard about the changes in behavior so many Californians have had to make to reduce their water usage. We’ve all heard the awful news about California’s seemingly endless wildfires. The extent to which trees are being affected in California is an environmental problem that may be insurmountable. An estimated 30 million California trees perished last year alone, and this is happening at a time when California (and the planet) needs forests desperately. This is the fifth year of California’s drought.
If the fires aren’t devastating enough, other crushing problems occur when trees don’t get enough water. They become so debilitated that they develop extreme susceptibility to parasites. The resin that flows through the cells in the inner bark of trees works very much like the blood that flows through our veins. Trees need water to produce resin. If they can’t make resin, not only do they starve, the resin can no longer do its job as a natural pesticide. 

The worst of California’s tree pests is the bark beetle, a tiny insect, no bigger than a grain of rice, which can be more devastating than fires. Bark beetles bore holes into trees, crawl in, and reproduce. They also bring fungi into the trees, causing them to rot from the inside out. The Stanislaus, Sierra and Sequoia National Forests in the Sierra Nevadas have been hit the hardest by the bark beetle, and it is estimated that bark beetles have killed over 29 million trees. They attack coniferous and hardwood trees, including Ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine and pinyon trees.

It gets worse. Sudden oak death (SOD) is a plant disease (Phytophthora ramorum) that attacks California trees in epidemic proportions. SOD has primarily affected oaks and tanoaks. It started on the central and northern coast of California and has spread as far north as Curry County, Oregon. The pathogen can also infect rhododendrons, camellias, redwoods, huckleberry, as well as other plants and ferns but it doesn’t seem to kill them. Ironically, SOD has a much lower mortality rate in the drier areas because rain allows the disease to spread even faster - but as oaks and tanoaks die from SOD, they become fodder for more fires. It’s estimated that around 90 million trees have died from SOD since 2000.

It is beginning to look like California trees can’t catch a break. When trees are affected, everything is affected, including the rest of the country and ultimately, the entire planet.

2 Comments

The Tallest Tree in the Tropics

6/13/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Trees are awe-inspiring and glorious. It’s no wonder most of the world’s religions have tree stories and lore as part of their traditions. It’s not just the Druids who worship trees. Sacred trees figure in Buddhism and Hinduism and many folk religions are closely associated with trees. Because trees are among the largest and oldest living organisms on Earth, they are breathtakingly awesome. 

Only recently, an 89.5 meter (293.6 feet) tall tree was discovered in Malaysia. It’s a yellow meranti tree growing in the Maliau Basin Conservation Area in the northeast part of the island of Borneo. Conservation scientists from England discovered the tree while flying over the remote region. This region is also referred to as “Sabah’s Lost World” because it has so far remained untouched by logging companies. While measuring its exact height is difficult, it is thought to be the tallest tree in the Tropics.

The yellow meranti is a tree that Minecraft fans are familiar with because it’s one of the species of tree that players can grow while playing the game. As real-life researchers flew over the area they used a LiDAR scanner to create 3D images of the forest canopy as part of their biodiversity mapping project, and naturally the 89.5 meter tall tree stood out.

Because giant trees are essential to sustain a healthy forest ecology, conservation is imperative. The area has faced decades of forest loss and the Sabah government has now decided to begin a concentrated restoration and conservation program.
​

Meranti trees are well known for their awesome heights, but they don’t even come close to the heights reached by the towering redwoods that grow in Redwood National and State Park, California. All of the top ten tallest trees in the world are in California, and four of the five tallest trees in the world are redwoods. The tallest of these titans is called Hyperion. It measures 115.61 meters (379.3 feet) tall and is between 700 and 800 years old. That's about as awe-inspiring as it gets.

0 Comments

Sleeping Trees

5/24/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
This past week, there was some very big news about trees from scientists in Europe. Using laser scanners to study the circadian rhythms of trees, they discovered that trees go to sleep just like we do. It’s not surprising. We’ve all watched flowers close up and reopen with the setting and rising of the sun, so why shouldn’t trees do the same thing?

Even Darwin recorded the nighttime motion of the leaves and stalks of plants and called it ‘sleep’. But interestingly,  this new study is the first of its kind to take place in a completely natural setting. All other research in the past was apparently done with small plants grown in pots. This study found that trees’ branches sag or droop after the sun goes down.


"Our results show that the whole tree droops during night which can be seen as position change in leaves and branches," says Eetu Puttonen (Finnish Geospatial Research Institute), "The changes are not too large, only up to 10 cm for trees with a height of about 5 meters, but they were systematic and well within the accuracy of our instruments."

Using laser technology changed the way plants’ circadian rhythms are studied because laser scanners use infrared light. Infrared light has very little affect on plants. Regular photography, on the other hand, uses visible light, and since it has a big effect on plants, it has gotten in the way of accurate studies.

The next step in this European study will help to measure the way trees use water on a daily basis, and how trees affect climate.

For more information:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160517083552.htm

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/22697/20160522/trees-slumber-new-study-shows.htm

https://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/2016/05/19/trees-sleep-night-new-study-reveals/

0 Comments

Plastic Bag Ban 

5/16/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
If you’re from New Jersey you may have read some of the articles or heard the news about the remarkable group of Girl Scouts from Teaneck who have been working for two years to ban single-use plastic bags in their town. They’ve researched the subject, shared what they’ve learned, and even hosted a summit with guest speakers to urge attendees to help spread the word that plastic bags are killing animals and destroying waterways and oceans. They want local businesses to help them reach the goal of becoming the first town in Bergen County to enforce the plastic bag ban. 

Plastic bag recycling bins are a fixture in most grocery store entryways, and lots of Bergen County residents have the misguided notion that our local grocery stores are doing a good job of recycling plastic bags for us. It’s simply not true.

The most environmentally responsible thing to do, of course, is to bring your own reusable bags, but as cities all over the country begin to ban plastic bags, they are met with lots of resistance from the plastic bag manufacturers. 

Almost two years ago, I tried to find out what actually happens to the bags we take to the supermarket for recycling for an article I was writing for the Suburbanite. Trying to get information from grocery stores was difficult, and several grocery stores refused to talk to me.

There is no doubt that plastic bags are causing an enormous amount of death and destruction, so it’s heartening to see Teaneck’s Girl Scouts working to have them banned.

SOME PLASTIC BAG FACTS:

Over 1 trillion plastic bags are used every year, globally - that amounts to about 2 million every minute.

According to the EPA, about 32 million tons of plastic waste is produced annually, much of it plastic bags.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, an average American family brings home 1,500 bags each year, and it takes about 12 million barrels of oil to produce them.

According to The Ocean Conservancy, plastic bags are consistently in the top 10 kinds of trash picked up on beaches everywhere.

Because plastic bags take so long to decompose, they wind up drifting on ocean currents for an unknown number of years, slowly breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces. These tiny bits of plastic wind up being eaten by fish and other animals who mistake the bits for food. When we eat these fish, we are eating the toxins from that ingested plastic. It’s way past time to ban plastic bags.

If you’re interested in my findings from two years ago, the article is archived, and here’s the link:
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/are-your-bags-being-recycled-1.1064015

0 Comments

Earth Festivals

5/9/2016

1 Comment

 
Picture
My family and I spent this past Saturday in a booth at the Secaucus, NJ Earth Fest at Exchange Place. It was a gray and drizzly day, but the families that stopped by for a song and a story were great fun to interact with and we all had a good time.

Earth festivals help to educate people about the many things we can all do to think more sustainably, but the people who put them together deserve lots of applause for mounting these enormously important events.

Not only are these organizers tasked with getting the unpleasant word out that we're trashing our home - they have to make these events entertaining! People won't come if you don't offer them a good time.  From where I stood, it was very clear that everyone was having a great time in Secaucus.

Next Saturday we'll be at another Earth fair - the EarthFest Overpeck for The Hackensack Riverkeeper and Bergen County Parks. 

Come on by and I'll sing you a song or read you a story.


​

1 Comment

Nematodes in April  --  

4/19/2016

1 Comment

 
The nematodes may have done the trick. We took our 13 year old dog, Thisbe, to the vet, and she is completely flea-free! I'm hoping  that the nematodes continue to flourish in our yard. If they procreate at the rate described in some articles, maybe they’ll make their way to the back yard, but chances are I’ll need to invest another 40 dollars in more of them.

I have not yet gotten it together  to publicize the fact that I have been writing this 'blog' but maybe one day I'll get around to it.

The trees are blooming and the pollen is flying. It got up to 80 degrees yesterday, so I’m hoping it won’t be too hot this coming Saturday for the Northern Valley Earth Fair where I’ll be doing two GRANNY GREEN’S GREEN MACHINE shows in the Cresskill community center, 100 3rd Street, Cresskill, NJ.  If you're in the area come to the fair to enjoy the food, fun and many activities taking place all day long, from 10 to 4.

​ I'll be performing at 11 am and 1 pm.


Picture
1 Comment

Green Valley by Brenda Cummings

3/26/2016

0 Comments

 
Take a look at Granny Green's Green Valley articles from North Jersey Media's The Suburbanite:

http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/hazards-aren-t-just-from-bakken-1.1402991
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/got-milkweed-1.1232475
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/time-to-act-to-protect-coral-reefs-1.1278113
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/time-for-action-not-censoring-1.1339266
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/leaving-more-than-grief-for-the-future-1.1315772
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/time-to-celebrate-sustainably-1.1146047
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/we-made-this-bed-1.1095587
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/are-your-bags-being-recycled-1.1064015
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/the-perfect-lawn-can-cause-harm-1.1021629
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/earth-day-is-every-day-1.877793
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/cummings-global-weirding-1.739749
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/cummings-consider-living-simply-1.671851
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/cummings-take-the-steps-to-reduce-waste-1.565046
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/cummings-don-t-sit-idling-around-1.606809
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/green-valley-no-more-plastic-bottles-1.643014
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/cummings-our-perfect-lawns-can-pollute-1.599122
http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/cummings-help-keep-plastics-from-the-waterways-1.165167


​
0 Comments

Nematodes in March

3/11/2016

0 Comments

 
It’s March, but in the northeast, it feels like May. Talk of weather oddities aside, the crocuses and other flowers are beginning to bloom, and I’m wondering if it’s safe to put out my beneficial nematodes now because I may have purchased them too early. I thought I’d try using them to control the flea issue we have now that we share our yard with a family of deer who seem to have brought a flea problem with them. We have a dog, a pubescent child, and a polluted planet to worry about, so I’m not going to use anything toxic to solve this problem.

Beneficial nematodes (Steinerma carpocapsae) act as a parasite in pre-adult, pupal, and larval fleas, keeping their populations under control. They’re also used to control grubs and fungus gnats, but I’m not concerned about them. I’m concerned about my poor itchy dog, and having an uninhabitable house. We’ll see. At 40 dollars, I hope I haven’t wasted my money.

This variety of nematode is a non-segmented roundworm that enters the flea through it’s orifices or directly through the exoskeleton. The nematode then expels bacteria inside the body of the flea, causing blood poisoning in the flea, and killing the creature. After this, the bacteria works on the flea’s insides, turning it into food. The nematodes use the fleas shell to reproduce as well, and once they’ve eaten up a flea’s innards, they all leave their host, and hunt for others. 

The nematodes arrived in the mail with an ice pack to protect them, so I've had them in the fridge for about a week. They come in a sealed plastic bag and they are suspended in a beige paste that is smeared on a narrow, rectangular sponge and then folded. The directions tell you to use two containers of lukewarm water into which you put the sponge. You then squeeze the sponge to get all the nematodes into the water, and combine the two containers of liquid into one. We used a watering can, and sprinkled them everywhere we've seen the lounging deer. The nematodes need moist conditions, so we watered where we sprinkled the nematode juice, and now we wait...

In case you're interested in more information, here are some links:
http://nematode.unl.edu/Wormgen.htm
http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/parasitic-nematodeshttp://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/parasitic-nematodes
​


0 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>

    Brenda Cummings

    The Green Machine

    Archives

    January 2017
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2015

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.