Feature Article September 18, 2002
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Gold amongst the green It always comes as a bit of a shock to look across the Mazinaw one morning and see the first touch of gold crowning the summer-long green foliage. It is a mid- September reminder that summer is drawing to a close and nature is preparing for the winter months. A pair of loons, which investigated the shore in early spring, swims by once again; but this time it is with a haunting goodbye as they prepare to migrate to warmer climes.
Mother Nature is slowing down and preparing for respite. Plants will shrivel and die, but seeds or roots will retain a mysterious lifeline to renew life again in the spring. Matured insects and flies will die, leaving their offspring to be born from eggs or sheltered cocoons. Man has called these the lower forms of life and placed them near the bottom of the food chain - of course placing himself at the top. The many species in-between find a variety of methods to survive for another season. Some will bury themselves below the frost; others slow down their metabolism and sleep away the winter hours. Some, like our loons, will take off for more tolerant climates. Mother Nature has worked out survival techniques for her various species but mankind plows on, unnaturally and excessively gorging resources to maintain his comfort.
I muse about which 'lower forms' of life may not return. From years past there have been dramatic reductions in spring renewals and these within my lifetime. What happened to the big bullfrog and his offspring who used to live under our dock? Many summers ago our children would kneel before him, trying to outstare his non-blinking eyes. We walk along the road in the spring dusk and hear far fewer peepers calling each other to mate. This summer the water in the Mazinaw was tinged yellow and there were fewer little minnows coming to the surface to investigate dropped crumbs and insects. Last winter, and this spring and summer, birds were scarce. It has been years since we heard the Whip-poor-Will sing its nightly song. I spotted few toads this year, when at one time I had to move droves of them away before cutting the grass to prevent their slaughter, but we seem to be doing it another way.
I am re-reading Carl Sagan's "Billion and Billions" published in 1997 in which he voices his concerns about the destruction of oceanic microscopic one-celled plants and animals at the very bottom of the food chain. The excesses of modern man are systematically destroying them as we make ourselves overly comfortable in this ailing world.
When hummingbirds are fertilizing my pole beans instead of bees, I see this problem creeping up the food chain. My apple tree has little fruit, as there were few bees this past spring to fertilize the blossoms, and even the wasps are disappearing. There have been fewer bats cruising through the evening, thrilling us with their acrobatics.
How far up the food chain will the destruction proceed before we awaken? I muse that Mother Nature has noticed and given the lowly mosquito the chore of halting the problem by diminishing the most inconsiderate and prolific host - we humans. Mosquito-carried malaria virus still kills two and a half million humans, half of them children, each year throughout the tropics. Now her new weapon is mosquito-borne West Nile Virus.
What will be reborn next spring?
I am not certain, but mosquitoes haven't missed a season yet.
