I always tip my hat to Mari. She's what I call a foundational environmentalist. In other words, she knows what she's talking about. Being part Native American, I'm more of a spiritual environmentalist. The circle of life has great meaning for me and whenever I run into examples of it I'm always knocked for a loop.
This month's Arizona Highways has a great li'l story in it about a fungus, a squirrel, a tree, and a bird. Now you're probably sitting there, like me, thinking what could these four living things have in common? Fear not, I'm about to spell it out for you.
The squirrel is the tassel-eared squirrel which looks like a regular squirrel with a Dagwood haircut. He's a cute li'l nutter that hangs out in forests here in Arizona that are populated mostly by ponderosa pines - the tree.
Also found in these high country pine forests are goshawks - the bird. They tend to flitter about just below the forest canopy and eat mostly, you guessed it, tassel-eared squirrels. The goshawks don't like to fly outside the forests too much cause then they have to compete for food with larger hawks (who also think of them as food) and other birds of prey that grab up the goodies before they can get to it.
Now you might think it nasty that these meany goshawks prey on such cute li'l squirrels, but it's a good thing, really, cause if they didn't, the squirrel population would grow out of control - the li'l nutters like sex as much as I do, see? Without the goshawks to keep their numbers down, the squirrels would eat too many pinecones, needles and bark off the trees and that wouldn't be good for the ponderosa pines. So that's a balance, no?
What about the fungus, you ask? Okay. The fungus grows beneath the ground on the roots of the ponderosas, producing underground thingies and above ground mushroomies. I know what you're thinking - what possible good can another parasite be? Well, you're wrong. The fungal action allows much needed water to be absorbed into the root system, without which the pines couldn't survive. It also provides many necessary nutrients for the trees. So you see they've got a truly kewl relationship going. They're buds for life!!
The fungus and the squirrels get along too. The squirrels consider the thingies (their really called "truffles" but I didn't want to confuse any Trekkies out there in my readership) that grow underground to be a wondrous treat. The can smell them a foot beneath the earth and dig them up to eat. Scrumptiousnessosity!! More importantly, the truffles provide the squirrels with dietary goodies without which, they could not survive. Hence, you only find the li'l critters in ponderosa forests, along with the goshawks.
I hope you're taking notes, there's gonna be a quiz next period.
You're probably wondering at this point how the fungus reproduces, right? Damn, must you always be thinking about sex?? Well, the fungus produces spores. Unfortunately, left to itself, it has no way of distributing them so healthy new fungi (or funguses, as the case may be) can grow. You got it, - the squirrels. The li'l nutters eat the truffles, complete with spores, and then poop all over the forest. The poop weathers away leaving to spores to reenter the earth to become new fungi. In fact - ONLY squirrel carried spores can reproduce as new, healthy fungi!!
So you see, it's a big circle of life between the squirrels, the fungus, the ponderosa pines, and the goshawks, and it's been going on for a gazillion years or so. If you were causally walking through a pine forest one day, you might notice the squirrels. You might see a goshawk. But you wouldn't recognize the codependency of all this to each one's life cycle. At least I wouldn't. Take any one of these four life forms out of the equation and the forest no longer exists.
Now the bad news. Man has forced himself into the equation. People want to cut down the trees for paper and such. In fact, people have become such a problem that the goshawk population is becoming critically low. Without the goshawks, the whole thing goes to pot. That's why environmental issues are SO important. We gotta keep them nutty squirrels pooping!!
Anyway, it's a good thing to remember this story cause it's what ALL environmentalism is about. Believe me, if it isn't squirrel poop it's something else just as important. Man has just got to stop destroying the natural balance of things. Had we not destroyed the wetlands around New Orleans, Katrina might not have had the effect she did.
So let the Bushie know it's IMPORTANT!! Please? Write and tell him the squirrel poop story. It should be on a level he can understand. Oh and write your Congress folks too. They need to know about this as well. They're usually up to their noses in poop so they should be able to comprehend the problem here. See - we can all be environmentalists!
