I hope that any momentum gained will not be so forceful as to yet again derail my creative engines and slam-crash me right into one of those “Passin’ graves that have no name, freight yards full of old black men” that Arlo Guthrie et al. sing about. I’m hoping not. I’m betting on it.
My mood on our trip was less than all it could have been - I apologize for that. My heart and soul were in pain, real and palpable pain, over the condition of my home. It really took the heart-rending and obviously heartfelt sentiments of Ernie (thank you, buddy - I think you still owe me lunch, huh? …or is it the other way ’round? …can’t seem to remember), and the playful anticipation and “unorthodox” means of approaching their tasks by (the good) Daniel, Katy, and Amanda to snap me out of my… melancholia? (sounds like a disease women might get in a Walker Percy novel, doesn’t it?) I cannot for the life of me imagine where that photo of the Marvelous Buttocks went… but it will forever be etched in my mind.
So now I realize that all is not lost. Plenty may be well and truly fucked, but not necessarily irredeemable.
Some of these pictures were not taken on our trip… okay I’m a liar. Many of these photos might not have been taken exactly where we were… okay I apparently am a compulsive liar. NONE of these photos came from anywhere near where we spent a glorious week together exploring the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary System. In fact, they came from the Lake Pontchartrain Estuary. We have problems of our own here, but we have astonishing beauty here too: just like we did at LUMCON (wish I could’ve seen the baby terrapins hatch out… dang!).
First I start with (at least 1/2) the reason I do all this. My son (and daughter) have asked me if they could swim in some of the creeks of the Northshore. I have to be aware of rainfall rates, Escherichia coli (intestinal bacteria from warm-blooded animals) counts, runoff estimates…. I shouldn’t have to be. I should be able to say “sure!, dive in!” and let them appreciate the spring fed creeks like I did as a child. This makes me very sad. So now I do things about it.
This is my son Galen Greene organizing the canoes for a Math/Science Partnership Grant I was working on. It was mostly 5th - 8th grade teachers, learning about science. This was a canoe trip down Cane Bayou to Lake Pontchartrain. Big Branch National Wildlife Refuge, Big Branch, LA.
He is 1/2 my raison d’etre. Kelby, here, is the other 1/2. How could I not work my ass off to better their world? …or at least try?
Surely I’ll be grinning like a fool at any moment, right?
Baldcypress Leaves… these ironically belong to our Louisiana State Tree. They are being cut down and used for garden mulch. Can you imagine a tree capable of living over 2000 years being used as GARDEN MULCH?!?
Let’s have a little respect here, people. Dammit.
I often see this plant in the wild, laden with berries and immediately I identify it as Callicarpa americana , the America Beauty Berry. Well… landscaping my yard with as much native vegetation as I can, I find what I think is Roughleaf Dogwood (in my defense, it was reeal tiny) and plant it where I’d like a shrub or small tree. Damned if the flowers didn’t come out at the wrong part of the stem and then these ridiculous purple berries appear! So what if scientists can misidentify a specimen or two - The REAL QUESTION is: Can I Make It Fit Into My Anally Retentive Landscape Plan, or not? The answer turns out to be…
YES! The birds like it! The bees like it! It can be trimmed into a neat shrubby form! Deer will wander through my suburban development and open my gate all for the sake of enjoying this succulent delight! I’m so happy! Providence! Er… well, Evolutionary Providence!
The ram’s horn snail ‘happily’ grazes, probably upon the algae growing on this exotic, damned, introduced-from-South-America fern called Salvinia.
Then again, something might eat the snail (and the parasites it almost undoubtedly contains).
Well. No answers here. Just philosophy. You work it out.
Did you know that the humble palmetto can live to be as old as 150 years of age?
There are still problems in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin, just as there are all across Louisiana. These are remnants of live oaks. They once were on a natural levee or ridge. They now stand (or lean, or fall) in water properly categorized as brackish.
The same plight is befalling a large number of baldcypress trees as well. The next photo illustrates this.
Yes, our knees hurt.
These are my friends. Forever.
They may not be the same people year after year, but they come and spend their spring and winter breaks helping me plant thousands of baldcypress saplings. Saplings very likely to succumb to saltwater intrusion or be eaten by nutria.
Why bother? Good question. We’ve put over 100,000 trees into the marsh over the years because when the conditions do improve, we’ll be there. And we’ll be ready.
The brown pelican, Louisiana’s State Bird. Pretty much went extinct because of DDT bioaccumulation in the food chain. The pesticide upset the calcium metabolism of this wonderful bird and caused it to produce very thin egg shells. Since it breeds on small islands of oyster shells (or even in small shrubs), any cracks in the eggs allowed bacteria to invade and destroy the developing embryos.
Florida was happy to give us a small breeding population and I’m happy to say that our state bird is again live and well… assuming we don’t do too many more stupid things.
The thing is…
no matter what we do, what we think, how we act, we’re just humans full of human nonsense.
Our actions may be noble. They may be even commendable.
When you consider something like this tree cricket for too long, one begins to really wonder if all our
posturing is to save the world, or to save our face.
I’m certainly no philosopher, but it seems to me that we do many, many things in the name of… well, whatever the current cause may be. Some of us are worker bees in the cause, some are queens - many do the work; a few get the “glory” and maybe the project works out well for all. Let us hope so. For now, I think I’m going to zoom in on this tree cricket and marvel at his beauty and functionality. Maybe this takes me full circle and allows me to combine my raison d’etre with the stunning beauty of the cricket. I’d like to think so. 
maddog (keep it cool, y’all)
