We Are Not Helping

This weeks reading of Nature Fights Back talks about the environment's balancing system that keeps nature in check. In addition, it focuses on different speicies' ability to respond to human interference and the reprecussions we can not see before we act. I know from experience how much an environment can change from one simple act. At my home in Framingham we have two apple trees in the front yard. When I was young they used to actually have apples. However, they were not great. They usually just rotted on the ground and made the yard smell bad. My parents used to know a farmer who would collect the rotted apples for his pigs. And I am sure that many other species were able to benefit from the apples. I remember when I was about five years old the rotting apples started to attract hordes of flies and bees. My parents were concerned about the bees because they had three young children and did not want them to get hurt. A fair concern that any parent would have. So, they decided they were going to call someone to do a spray that would keep the bees away. I have no idea what chemical was used but it did the job. the bees did not come back. But with this neither did the apples. There were no bees to help the pollination process. The trees stopped pollinating and now remain barren of fruit. The bees have returned but not in the same numbers. However, there is no pollination happening in the trees so it is a lost cause at this point. Now, all of the things that were able to benefit from the apples, no loner have them. I never really thought about it in this light until I was trying to figure out what to write this blog about. In the reading Carson mentions how the United States sprayed 885,000 acres of forest with DDT to get rid of the bud worm. The next year spider mites were causing a much bigger problem because the ones who survived had a lot more resources and a lot less competition. I drew my connection to this. It was sparked because of the damage to the trees that made me think of my trees back home. In both instances a chemical was used to get rid of one thing and ended up creating a bigger problem. In my experience the bigger problem was the loss of pollination leading to barren trees. In the case talked about in the book the bigger problem is the thriving of the spider mites leading to the damage of trees in the effected area. It is truly amazing how much can change in and environment from one initial change.