The Pruning

Last Wednesday was a yard-work Wednesday with Baldo.  The #1 project was the elm trees growing in the no-man's land between the Candelaria Village wall and the Matthew Meadow wall.  This 15" wide space is no doubt a safe haven for wildlife and gives Fluffy Cat a shady place from which to watch our backyard, but it's also a catchment for elm seeds.  

The feral trees that grow there are now 4" in diameter and can grow 15 feet in a season.  It's nearly the equinox and our sand cherries, not to mention the black pine, are being shaded.  

So armed with loppers, saws, cordage, and ladders, Baldo and I ascended the raised bed and wall to do battle.  The result:  a huge pile of green wood and leaves that filled his truck to overflowing.  

The result is stunning.  Now sunlight can reach the beds along the south side.  Fluffy has been avoiding the drastic change, but she stays nearby despite the upset to her shady roost.  

The 2-story house behind us is now somewhat visible, but the sand cherries and the pine are doing a fine job of shielding that view.  At least we've avoided a large leaf-drop from the elms this fall.  

And continuing the theme of  'trees' today, I note with happiness that the Cottonwood Gallery of the Botanic Garden has at long last reopened.  Our little phenology group of Nature's Notebook has had special permission to continue making observations, but now the public will be able to see this area.  There are still some scars from the construction, but overall this should be a good place to have conversations about climate change.

Pacific Northwest Visit

Now that we've survived the trip, it seems like a whirlwind in the rearview mirror.  First class to SEA-TAC, the shuttle and ferry to Whidbey Island, then four days of beach combing, forest bathing, and NW cuisine.  

Then we took the rental car to Edmonds via Deception Pass.  Beautiful drive for the first half, then I-5 craziness for the second.  Explored the shoreline, wetlands, markets, and a wedding.  

Then, just like that, we're back on the ferry to drop off the car, followed by one last bumpy shuttle ride, a long wait in the airport, and the flight home.  

 

Positive Ecological Storyline

Nobody writes about the plane that lands... or the ecosystem that is not imperiled.  So for this year's NaNoWriMo, I'm thinking about a novella that gives hope, at least on an individual level.  It'll be the story of how I'm watching the living things around me:  the backyard, the Botanic Garden, Albuquerque and New Mexico in general.  

For a working title, I'm considering, "What is Not Measurable, Make Measurable."  Apparently, this is a paraphrase of a longer quote attributed to Gallileo.  Some say it is a misattribution, although frankly I'm not getting clarity on who said it and when.  

Here's a photo of a potentially new species of Aphyllon with the obligatory ruler for scale.

I guess the first problem to overcome will be an outline and then an opening paragraph.  Thoughts run to electoral-vote.com's favorite line:  "A week is a year in politics."  Follow that up with some pithy saying about how much things change in a week in the garden.  

Or perhaps I should dangle an "in medias res" description about some conservation action that ultimately gives way to hope.  The call out to citizen science as a way to combat the current regime's anti-science, anti-evidence, climate change denial positions is certainly one important theme.  

More to come, but for the next week, I'll be a moving target without access to a keyboard.  That means input will be via the little screen and its wonky one-fingered typing.  

Indigenous Conservation

Today I read a fascinating essay in Nature written by indigenous authors primarily in Australia and New Zealand about decolonizing conservation science.  It has given me pause to consider how this point of view can be leveraged with a grant from the BioPark Conservation Committee.  The essay highlighted eight areas where concrete steps can be taken.  

Recognize science’s colonial legacy—ensure that students learn the history of their field

Fund—increasing Indigenous representation on decision-making panels

Hire, retain, promote—bring Indigenous scholars together, such as through mentoring networks, and to ensure that Indigenous faculty members have time to build relationships with local Indigenous Peoples

Dismantle institutional racism—facilitate connections, collaborations and mentorships among Indigenous academics

Recognize indigenous knowledge—engage with the Indigenous communities who steward such knowledge, with their full consent

Create safe spaces in science—Traditional Ecological Knowledge section in the Ecological Society of America; the Indigenous Action Taskforce in the American Geophysical Union

Foster Indigenous sovereignty—including Indigenous community members and researchers early on in research projects can ensure that they are designed, implemented and reported with Indigenous Peoples’ sovereignty and well-being in mind

Move towards Land Back—free BioPark membership; research opportunities; direct research programs to serve Indigenous communities 

Of course, these days are perilous times to even mention diversity, equity, and inclusion.  That's a red flag for defunding, at the very least.  

More references and resources:  

Indigenous knowledge is key to sustainable food systems--https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00021-4

NSF invests millions to unite Indigenous knowledge with Western science--https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02839-4

Weaving Indigenous knowledge into the scientific method--https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00029-2

Travel Schlepp, just for the heck of it

 

Dog Days

The dog star, Sirius, is high in the sky and August takes its queue from that.  The plants of summer all have their place and their story to tell. 

Passiflora caerulea, the blue passionflower

At least in our backyard, things are going well.  The passionflower is finally blooming and the late blooming flowers are holding on.  Daylilies have finished after a good show.  Cleome is doing well in the shade of the sand cherries.  Canas and Hibiscus are putting on their best display.  

Rio Chama near Pilar

Last Tuesday, Ric and I went north looking for the strange new Aphyllon species.  We headed up the Rio Grande from Espanola, first on the west bank and then on the east bank.  Checking almost every turnout with any sign of Chamisa, we eventually got to Pilar where the road went to poorly maintained gravel.  Our target species was never found.  Too early in the season?  Not a favorable year?  

Rio Grande at the Central Ave. bridge

While the Rio further north still slows freely, by the time things get to Albuquerque, all the water has been diverted to irrigation canals.  The river bed is completely dry here.  :-(
 

The Herbarium Redux

Tomorrow will be another busy day at the Botanic Garden.  First, we'll knock off the Nature's Notebook observations in the morning.  Then after lunch, we'll host a handful of High School students for a herbarium workshop.  

Last week's workshop

I've got a couple dozen pressed specimens waiting and labels printed for most of them.  We'll probably make an excursion out to the Heritage Farm and collect some cultivated crop species to get ahead of next summer's workshop material.

A Conversation with Terry

From: Karl Horak <karlhorak@comcast.net>
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2025 10:04 AM
To: Terry 
Subject: Re: This is a must read

 

A long read indeed!  Thanks, Terry. 

 

FELON47 has taken the lid off a simmering pot of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and anti-intellectualism -- now it's on full boil.  I find it difficult these days to run through a loving kindness meditation that wishes happiness, health, peace, and ease of living to these assholes.  That said, it is probably an economic & cultural system (corporate democracy and capitalism) that is leaving them without hope, turning them to darker outlets.  FELON47 personifies this with his strongman bullying combined with whining victimhood. 

 

The comments were edifying.  Some were advocating fighting fire with fire  Others were saying they won't vote Dem until party "leadership" changes (talk about self-defeating!).  Dopamine hits were even invoked. Clearly, there is no consensus on a solution. 

 

I had hoped that the Biden years would've ended MAGA, but that was not to be.  Garland frittered away our chance to put Trump in prison and now we're paying the price.  Maybe we'll be faster on the draw next time Dems are in the big chair. 

 

Sometimes I think it just comes down to stupidly simplistic things like the perceived economy.  Funny thing to be cheering on a recession so there will be a Blue wave in '26. 

 

Thanks for listening to my TED Talk!  

---

It is a good TED talk Karl. I am super aware that the way I think about things—generally on a fairly rational side—is a bit outdated or maybe uninformed. I think I have been disregarding some virulent realities like some of the thinking that is going on with the young men profiled in the article. I can see the groypers as occupying some of the same niches that tea party did—espousing ideas that may seem off the wall yet gain traction and flow into something larger. Yeah, the libertarian capitalists have been playing the long game, and while I do not think there is some kind of great Oz directing all of this or taking advantage of the related and even opposing strains, there is something foul emerging that is cruel, undemocratic, immoral, nihilistic. No, the Dems have no plan and frankly, how could they unless they decide to embrace the same tactics—and I mean MOST of those tactics. It will not happen nor should it. Holding the line on what made people flourish, generally, in the later 20^th century, which had its source in Enlightenment thinking and humanism, which surfaced in opposition to slavery, which surfaced in opposition to fascism, which surfaced in opposition to the larger cruelties of capitalism—we have to hold on to that until its day comes again. And then try, in this country, to run the show better in terms of justice and equity and well-being.

---

From Jennifer Victor today:  

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter that the bill is unpopular, because populism doesn’t mean you’re popular and need to maintain likability; populism means you reinforce a two-tiered society, where the political allies that keep you in power remain disadvantaged so that you can stoke their anger toward a group of outsiders that you identify for them. It doesn’t have to be rational, reasonable, or logical. In fact, a successful populist movement is intentionally not rational, reasonable, or logical.

So long as populism is the dominant component of one America’s major political parties, we should expect public policy to reinforce the conditions of populism, not to fix circumstances that generate it in the first place.

Terry on the left along with other members of the NW ABQ PAG