Citizen Science for the Birds

I have been an NPR nerd long enough to have fond memories of listening to Talk of the Nation whenever I had free afternoons, and especially on my way to carpool duty. It was a five-day program similar to Fresh Air,  and probably adjacent on our local schedule. 

I was sad when TotN ended, but glad that it only ended by 80 percent. That is to say, it retained  one day a week of programming. Fridays had been dedicated to fun and informative conversations about science, and Ira Flatow has continued that part under the name Science Friday. A decade or so on, he continues to bring great energy and enthusiasm to conversations with scientists, science educators, and science journalists of many kinds, working at all scales from the subatomic to the galactic. 

I particularly enjoyed his recent conversation about citizen science with Dr. Brooke Bateman and Dr. Janet Ng, who have been involved in the longest-running such project: the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. I believe I first learned about the count around the time I moved to Massachusetts, when I noticed local results in a newspaper a couple of days after Christmas. 

Photo: Shutterstock by way of Science Friday

I knew that it was much bigger than that, but it was only from the recent 17-minute segment What Scientists Have Learned From 125 Years Of Bird Counts that I learned how much bigger. The Doctors Ng and Bateman discuss their very different roles in science and policy, along with their very similar roles as two of the 80,000 people who did the actual counting this year. 

They also share the charming story of how this all began and the culture of cooperation and mentoring that has grown with this tradition. Some people have just done this for the first time, while others have been leaders in their local communities for more than 50 years in a row. Everybody is welcome, including people with limited mobility and limited (even zero) expertise. 

I invite readers to listen to the entire discussion for some examples of just what is being gained from the gathering, mapping, and analysis of these avian observations. Some of it is worrisome and some of it encouraging; all of it is fascinating. I will be using it both in my Environmental Geography survey course and in my advanced Land Protection course. The former emphasizes global climate change and the latter local landscape change; each course could use this healthy dose of both. And I am pleased that my good friend Geography Jeff will be using it in his Environmental Planning course at another school.

Lagniappe

Fresh Air with Terry Gross & Tanya Moseley continues to thrive five days a week. I have been listening pretty regularly since before it moved up from WHYY to NPR, and
I am glad that Terry Gross has worked so hard to cultivate a co-host who is allowing her gradually to transition toward a well deserved but as-yet unannounced retirement. 

Dam Expertise

I have been enjoying the work of journalist Ayesha Rascoe since she became host of NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, and this morning she uttered a phrase that endeared her to me even further.

"Your expertise is in geography," she said in the middle of a conversation about a proposed hydroelectric project in China with professor Mark Giordano, of Georgetown Univerity's Walsh School of Foreign Service. Their brief conversation draws on geography to clarify many of the physic and human implications of China's proposal to build a hydroelectric dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River.

Map: Wikipedia

One odd oversight is that they do not. name the river directly, though Professor Giordano does explain several things about its geography that make this project both desirable and problematic, particularly for India and Tibet. In addition to this NPR interview, I recommend a recent BBC report for further background. 

Castorology

When my librarian-in-training son recommended the Ologies podcast, I knew it would be good. After all, I've enjoyed countless hours of NPAD, all starting with his recommendation of the Cuyahoga Falls episode.

Host Alie Ward identifies -- or creates -- the formal name for any area of study about which she is curious and then finds a top (or in many cases the top) expert in that field. The core of each episode is an interview with that expert -- an interview that takes place only after she has done considerable research. This is then augmented by quick asides that she sprinkles throughout the interview and trove of related links on the Ologies web site. 

I cannot remember which was the first Ology episode I heard, though it was probably Pomology (I'll pause while you go have fun with that if you like). The most recent, however, is the title of this post: Castorology, the study of beavers. Yes: beavers, not vegetable oil. 

Pointing my readers (including my Land Protection students) to Ward's interview with naturalist (and castorologist) Rob Rich is the main purpose of this post. As always, she really has identified the perfect interlocutor for this discussion. The discussion ranges widely over the natural history and anatomy of the animal itself to the uses of its fur, tail, and glands to its complicated role in hydrology and landscape ecology. Those little critters get a lot done!

By happy coincidence, while I was still thinking about sharing this episode, BBC decided to rebroadcast a shorter piece featuring beavers, an August 2024 episode of Inside Science entitled Beavers of London. This episode features the 2023 introduction of beavers to Ealing Park in London, where beavers have long been absent. The discussion then turns to a broader discussion of reintroducing species that have disappeared from human-dominated landscapes, in which the organization Rewild My Street is recommended. My understanding of this story was greatly improved by having heard the castorology episode. 

Photo: from my July 2024 Dam Mammals post on this very blog,
in which I comment on two beaver ponds I have visited recently.

Lagniappe: 

The Coffee Maven recommends the Coffeeology episode, in which Ward interviews one of the first coffee experts I met, Peter Giuliano. Not only did I meet him in the coffeelands of Matagalpa, but I also first heard of his company from one of the first coffee farmers I ever met. He has also been featured in a couple of the films I show my classes. So pour a cup of free-range coffee and be prepared to percolate some knowledge!

The Solstice Cometh

It was the longest of days; it was the shortest of days.

That is, it will be both this coming Saturday as the Solstice arrives at 9:20 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time (0920 zulu), or 4:20 a.m. EST Saturday morning. In preparation, our minister devoted our Sunday service to the upcoming event -- a lengthening of days for us. 

More light is coming!
Image: There is a Day for That

The service highlighted the earth-centered origins of the various festivals of light that are central to so many traditions at this time of year. (Meanwhile, I see my friends in Brazil posting "almost summer" from their beaches!)

As part of our service here at First Parish UU Bridgewater, Pastor Rosemary led us in singing Baltimorean Charlie Murphy's "Light is Returning" and read to us from The Shortest Day, a book for all ages by Susan Cooper and Carson Ellis. The entire service will be available as a recording, but for now I will share video versions I was fortunate to find online.

First, Charlie Murphy performing Light is Returning with Pat Wright and the Total Experience Gospel Choir. 

And then The Shortest Day, as read by Tiffanie St. Clair. 

Lagniappe

I share all of this because I like to include pagan and other earth-centered traditions in my teaching about the seasons, which otherwise focuses on math and physics. Both are important for a rich understanding of geography. I am also sharing this because of connections we are building with the dynamic Geochron maps in our Geography and CASE programs at BSU. 

Stay tuned for more information about community programs around the cardinal and cross-quarter dates. For now I invite you to explore the Geochron web site (especially the animation at the bottom of its home page and the winter solstice page at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. 

Planning for Plant Hardiness

As the world's climate changes generally, the climate of specific places is changing in more particular ways. Even the variability of temperature, precipitation, and the timing of each increases, a more detailed understanding of biogeography is a necessary tool for climate adaptation. 

Journalist Susan Philips at WHYY in Philadelphia provides an excellent example in her recent story Climate Fixers. This five-minute story provides a lot of important insights as it explores the efforts of researchers and fruit growers who are anticipating changes in the regional climate as they plan future crops. This is particularly important in any kind of food (or beverage) production that relies on trees, because the productive years of a tree -- be it apple, peach, coffee, or tea -- begins at least a few years after planting and may continue many years after that.

See interactive map at USDA

The preparations include reliance on the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which is familiar to gardeners and landscapers. As often as I have consulted these maps, I did not realize that they are mapping just one variable as a proxy for winter harshness: the average lowest low temperature. 

A ZIP Code search of the map returns a zone rating that can easily be used at nurseries and seed companies. It also provides the average temperature for 2013 and 2023; it is not clear which years go into a given average, but it is something like a trailing ten-year average. 

Philadelphia clearly is experiencing substantial change by this measure, and as the WHYY story indicates, it might soon be in a new category altogether. 

This map is akin to biome maps, though the latter rely on a more complex set of climate metrics. In both cases, the map is pointing to past experience rather than future patterns. Choosing an appropriate period of record is important: it must be both long enough to minimize random fluctuations and recent enough to capture relevant experience.

Progress without Displacement

From the WBUR podcast The Common comes the encouraging story of Upham's Corner, a Boston neighborhood within the bigger Boston neighborhood of Dorchester. A national study suggests that Uphams Corner (the apostrophe has become optional) is achieving what is often an elusive balance: developing economically without displacing it residents or losing its character. That is, it is experiencing improvement without gentrification. 

The podcast episode is a conversation between journalist Darryl C. Murphy and researcher Rohit Acharya of Common Good Labs. The discussion draws on "Reducing poverty without community displacement: Indicators of inclusive prosperity in U.S. neighborhoods," a 2022 study that Acharya wrote with Rhett Morris for the Brookings Institution. 

Photo: Metropolitan Area Planning Council

The conversation is national in scope, but with a rich local example. That part of the conversation draws on "The neighborhood that got it right," a 2023 Boston Globe article by journalist David Scharfenberg. The combination of academic analysis and journalistic storytelling is a great way to explore this important topic. 

Transit-oriented Development

The Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) of Massachusetts is hearing a very nuanced case at the intersection (pun intended) of transit policy and housing policy. As the case came before the court, I heard discussions on several local programs; I think the best overview is provided by Darryl C. Murphy and Rob Lane in a recent Radio Boston segment on WBUR.

In short, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA or more commonly "the T") requires the communities it serves to enact zoning regulations that encourage high-density residential development. Since the T serves almost half of the 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth (we use Pilgrim-era names for everything around here), this was a way for the General Court (i.e., the state legislature) to exert control over questions of land-use that are otherwise the purview of those localities. 

The merits of such requirements are not central to the case before the SJC, in which the town of Milton has refused to enact the regulations dictated by the T. Rather, it seems that by promoting the land-use policy indirectly, the legislature chose the wrong vehicle (again, pun intended) for its goals. 

An interesting facet of this case is that Milton was told it would be subject to certain penalties if it failed to act. As a community, Milton essentially said, "okay" and thought that accepting the penalty would be the end of the matter. It might very well be.  If so, the Judicial Court might be sending the General Court back to the proverbial drawing table.

Helene to Milton

I am not sure how I will conclude this post, but it is beginning as a place to gather a few items to share with my environmental geography class, as I spend the week of Hurricane Milton's landfall away from class. When we gather again, I will want to review a few things from a very eventful week.

A Very Strange Case of Climate Politics

Image: Anderson Design Group
Novella: Robert Louis Stevenson

This literary comparison came to me in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, the second to ravage Florida in as many weeks. I was listening to a briefing on C-SPAN that was led by Gov. Ron DeSantis. He and other officials detailed what was known of the damage, the federal, state, and local responses, and what was to be expected in coming hours and days. They mentioned lessons learned from prior experiences and provided very clear guidance based on those lessons. He exuded competence and compassion throughout the entire briefing. 

In the moment, he seemed to be exactly what Florida needed. But he bears some responsibility for that moment. All of us do to some degree, but he is working deliberately to make climate change more damaging. It makes no sense, because he knows better than anyone what the damage looks like. He has famously prohibited discussion of climate change by state employees. He has also vetoed measures that would have both lesson the state's contribution to climate change and increased the resilience of coastal areas. 

Federal Response

Among the many Federal resources assisting in the hurricane response are the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service, both of which are part of NOAA -- an agency that Project 2025 seeks to privatize. Another important agency, of course, is FEMA -- the Federal Emergency Management Administration. To his discredit, DeSantis mentioned only the Florida equivalent in his remarks, downplaying its federal counterpart. (Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong about this.)

I assume most readers are aware of the Federal agencies mentioned above, but an increasingly important one might be less familiar: the Department of Defense is increasingly dedicated to understanding and responding to the threats posed by climate change and to reducing its own contribution to that change. The point person for those efforts across all branches is Richard Kidd, who currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Environment and Energy Resilience. The DoD Climate Portal at WWW.CLIMATE.MIL points to the many facets of this commitment. 

This admittedly bureaucratic response arises from a very clear realization among military planners that coastal bases and other resources are extremely vulnerable to climate change. Moreover, as the largest single consumer of fossil fuels, the U.S. military contributes significantly to those risks. 

How We Survive

Pictured at left is radio host Kai Ryssdal, in a photo taken when he served in the Navy in Norfolk, Virginia in the 1980s. 

I have been listening to him on the program Marketplace for many years. This is essentially the only business and economics program I consider worth listening to. I only learned recently that he has a special interest in the role of the military in climate change, and is in the sixth season of How We Survive, which is a podcast devoted exclusively to this important topic. He suggests that the U.S. military has been devoting some attention to climate change since the 1950s -- before he and I were even born. (We are almost exactly the same age.) 

The Fallout

All of this matters because at the level of national politics, extremists who have been politicizing climate science for a long time are now doing the same with weather science. Some of those who once claimed that humans could not influence climate are claiming that humans are orchestrating weather events. Most notably, Marjorie Taylor Green has claimed that "they" have created recent hurricanes as a political tactic. This rhetoric has been amplified by her party's presidential candidate and has led to ordinary weather forecasters being the brunt of baseless claims and death threats.

For example: Threats against workers in North Carolina 

The tweet referenced above is from MTG 

Meanwhile, Zillow appeals to grownups 

Those who think the Federal response has been lacking should recall Hurricane Maria, when aid was deliberately withheld by then-president Trump. The parallels are striking: I know from personal experience that both Puerto Rico and Western North Carolina are characterized by extremely complex networks of roads and river valleys that make their residents particularly vulnerable to isolation during major storms. 

A/C Hamster Wheel

Geographers and other environmental scientists are aware of the problems associated with air conditioning, even as a growing number of us have become accustomed to its growing prevalence in the places we live, work, and play. I was, in fact, driving in an unnaturally cold car on a warm day when I heard a very cogent discussion on the radio program The Daily. 

In How Air Conditioning Conquered America, journalist Emily Badger explains how air conditioning has reshaped our landscapes, architecture, and daily routines -- and its complex interactions with climate change. It is both our refuge from warming temperatures and an increasing cause of those very warming trends. She further explains how the comfort it provides comes with greater vulnerability when systems fail -- as they more often do.

Image: Holly Pickett / NYT

Fortunately, she argues, cool comfort is as much a cultural expectation as a physical necessity. It is a condition that we created and one that we can begin to modify. 

I recommend this half-hour tutorial because it allows students of geography to start understanding how air conditioning is likely to interact with many of the other issues we study as we seek to build climate resilience. 

Dam Mammals

Beavers, that is! Yesterday my favorite librarian and I went with our dog to a café opening in Rutland, Massachusetts. (Read all about our friends at Coffeelands-Rutland on GeoCafes.) To make a proper outing of it, I looked for a place to walk the dog in Rutland, and found a section of the Massachusetts Central Rail Trail, appropriately located on Depot Street, where presumably there was once a depot. 

We rightly guessed that our dog Crumpet would enjoy this wide, shady walkway with us. She is shown here on a causeway between two ponds, one of which I later learned is named Thayer Pond. At the western edge of the pond, I noticed what looked like a beaver lodge, but I was confused. 

The pond is large and the railroad folks had built a causeway next to it over a century ago. I was guessing that the pond was about 10 acres, but checking Google Earth, I see it is more like 40. In any case, it seems it is much too big and too old to be formed by a beaver dam -- whose constructions tend to be on a smaller and more temporary scale.

(Note: the café we were visiting was too new to appear on the map. Coffeelands is at 249 Main Street in Rutland; tell them I sent you!)

In any case, that lodge was too far from the path for us to get a good look without some serious bushwhacking, so we stayed on the main path, and a minute later we saw a much smaller pond with a very definite beaver lodge on it!

Dead trees in standing water are another indicator of possible beaver action, since they are most likely to be upright only in the first few years after inundation. 

We could see the lodge pretty well from the main path. The dam was easy to see, but difficult to photograph. In this image, the dam is only evident by the fact that standing water is present to the left and not to the right.

Looking at the map, we can see that the lodge on the bigger pond is very close to an outlet known as Mill Brook, which is also the name of an inlet on its northeast corner. This is not only further evidence that beavers did not build the big pond, but also provides some insight to what this place must have been like a century or so ago. 

It seems that the lodge that first caught my eye is easily accessible from the unnamed pond just downstream of it. Easily accessible to beavers, that is!

Lagniappe: back to that first time

I should mention that my master's thesis involved in-depth measurements of 33 different artificial ponds in the vicinity of the Miami Whitewater River. I measured them on every available map and aerial photograph and I physically measured the sediment in them. So became fairly adept at identifying ponds and their dams, and can sometimes spot beaver ponds with confidence from New England highways, but I was in this region for 25 years without seeing any. 

So I was happy -- downright giddy -- to see a textbook example of a beaver dam in May 2022, when my favorite librarian and I were on the Vermont Inn to Inn Walking Tour. The dam was much easier to photograph.

This was such a treat -- I stood there transfixed for quite some while.