The preserve is sizzling – literally and figuratively. We are in the first official heat wave of the season and it is peaking this week. Expectations are to be close to the record temperature for today and tomorrow and no temperature or rain relief until at least the week-end.
Nature is powerful even when it comes to heat and cold. People always marvel at the power of nature when it is dramatically demonstrated in the roar of the hurricane or the thrust of an earthquake. But nature is powerful in other ways too. Consider the power of biological productivity. This week I had the chance to do a couple of days of early summer field work in the preserve. On Friday I worked with good friends and APEC staff in the distant parts of the preserve on some meadow management and last night I took a couple of hours in the heaviest growth areas on trail segments 5 and 6. All of these areas were essentially clear and open just a few weeks ago. Now they are on the rising curve of the growing season. The amount of growth is absolutely amazing; it is a testament to the biological vitality of the preserve. The growing season isn’t going to peak until mid-summer and already the trails are overgrown and almost impassable. Most of the Phragmites are 4 to 6 or even 8 feet tall and all the other plants are trying to keep pace.
Phragmites is a great example of what we mean by biological productivity. Phragmites is actually a kind of grass but like no grass you would ever expect to grow on your lawn. (See Pharagmites: common reed for some great biological information and insights http://www.invasiveplants.net/phragmites/). It begins to grow in early to mid April and by July when it finishes its above ground growth it is 12 to 18 feet tall! The rhizomes continue to grow underneath the ground until the plant become dormant, which is why Phragmites does so well each and every year. Twelve feet high in twelve weeks – you do the math – this plant can easily grow a foot or more a week in the peak of its growing season! That’s impressive!
These little April green shoots are the young Phragmites which in July that will be 12+ feet tall in the same number of weeks. 12 weeks=12 feet that is some fast growing plant!!!Where does all of this new plant materials come from? Is it magic? In a sense it is almost magical. It comes from the truly powerful biological process of photosynthesis and cellular reproduction. Each green cell is designed to “fix” Carbon from the atmosphere (CO2). That Carbon is fixed to the other elements Oxygen and Hydrogen in organic molecules (and later with the addition of Nitrogen and Phosphorus) forms all the new cellular materials that support the new plant growth. This sub-microscopic process creates immense amounts of new plant materials every growing season. Every green plant does this and the sum total of their effort is tremendous. The entire northern hemisphere is breathing in right now and turning that inhalation into untold millions of tons of new plant material. On a global scale this is one of the most powerful natural processes and moves more material in and out of the biosphere that all human activity combined.
How does this process relate to this great preserve? It is a real struggle to keep the trails in the preserve open and passable at this time of the year but it is a struggle that we should be thankful for. Growth and regrowth, season after season, year after year, is never ending. Biological production is nature’s way of breathing in and out and growing stronger every year. It is nature’s way and we should understand and cherish nature’s way.
