Lichen and Likable Creatures

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A Sense of Place

 I run a monthly nature experience at Blackstone Park Conservancy where I'll have an information table and art activity that extends into a way to explore the park.  We've explored insects, spiders, broadleaf trees, and winter birds, among others. It's an outdoor program, so weather is always a concern. So it was no surprise when rain forced us to reschedule the January event two weeks later. Of course, two weeks later, it was 17 degrees.

Our theme that month was cones and conifers. I was well-prepared with samples of cones from many types of evergreen, from Douglas fir to white pine. There were clip boards with infographics I had put together making it easy to type different conifer families. I even had information on the Wollemi pine, or "dinosaur tree", that had been saved from the Australian fires.  But it was 17 degrees. And no one came.

The only other person out there was Harold. He comes regularly to tend to the ducks.  There's a raft of about 40 mallards that flock to him when his car pulls up. These ducks know Harold. And Harold knows them. Not only does he feed them, but he knows many of their back-stories. Some he's released from fishing line. He's seen two hit by a car and was only able to save one. He knows how another got its scars.  Blackstone Park is a very popular place for bird watchers, and Harold can identify many of the waterbirds that visit. He's more than just a visitor, though.  He is a steward.

The following month I did not advertise well as it was February and I expected more inclement weather or cold. But I was there as faithfully as ever, setting up my table with a table cloth and new clipboards. No more taping pictures down!  Remarkably, it was in the mid-forties that day. And people started to come...

People of all ages showed up! First, an older couple waiting for their grand-kids. Then families, other couples, a single woman. I invited them to explore the moss and lichen I had collected. We discussed symbiotic relationships, climate change, biomimicry...  How moss can insulate buildings and and certain lichens are used in medicines, dyes, and other industries.  Kids ran off with magnifying lenses to find their own. We looked at samples under a microscope and learned about the radical survival skills of tardigrades, also known as water bears or moss piglets.  

Twenty two visitors in all took time in their day to learn about nature and how we can work WITH it, be part of the interconnected web.  Do you have a lot of lichen on your trees?  Maybe even the shrubby kind?  The more the merrier! Many are sensitive to pollution, so if you see a lot, that indicates cleaner air. 

And it's not hurting your tree. Lichen is just a relationship between a fungus and algae and cyanobacteria.  They work together to make a home and food.  Similarly, we wouldn't be able to live without the help of mitochondria in our cells. Perhaps by studying nature, we'll find more ways to work together.

Join us March 7th 10-11:30 when we learn all about frogs and toads!  You can download our lichen activity here.

New Event!!!

Spring Reveals

If you look through a stone with a hole in it, it's supposed to help you find faeries.

With hoops and hand lenses, I've gotten kindergartners to sit still long enough to watch ants, observing their various behaviors.  One boy, running back and forth, tells me he can't find the ants.  I point to the other children sitting quietly.  Try it that way, I tell him.  He doesn't seem to believe me, but he sits quietly.  A moment later, he exclaims, "I see one! I see one!"

 

Would that we all have nature reveal herself so quickly!

Taking a moment will reveal more...

This past weekend I visited Buck Wildlife Management Area with the Earthen Fellowship.  

April and May are usually tough months for me.  I keep busy.  I hide.  I don't reveal much.

What does this leaf reveal?  Who chewed on it while it was hidden under snow?

A tree is broken, revealing its insides.  If we could look inside each other, what would we see?

I see something in the trees.  It might have been a nest.  When did you last look up?

These fungi have so much more below the surface, yet 

I am mesmerized by the green coating they wear.

Is this algae or alchemy?

Ever the collector, I find new types of lichen.  So many colors and textures, 

so many faces that quietly, over eons, change the stone into soil.

Can I make a wish?

Sometimes clues are left that there is more than we can see.

If I look into the depths, what will I find?

I find a tiny fish and a fallen tree...

...anther tree downed by beaver.

I would not see the beaver den until I came back that way, 

with a completely different perspective of the lake.

When had these ferns emerged?

Skunk cabbage, a sign of spring.

Atop Jerimoth Hill, we walk between two states, then three.

The usual granite, but marble as well!

Sometimes things just are what they are, without explanation.

Is this cairn to mark a passing?

You can measure time in the rings of a tree, the perimeter of a circle of lichen. 

How long have these been here?  How long are we here?

There's so much I can't say here.  It's too public and there are too many faces that each speak their own language.  There are people in pain, invisible pain, from past trauma, abuse, invisible diseases.  Today a beautiful soul, an advocate to many for human rights, succumb to myalgic encephalomyelitis.    Photos will show a young person smiling to the end, helping others, no symptoms obvious.  There's so much we do not see.