BEFORE THE FIRST THANKSGIVING-BEFORE COLUMBUS

We're inundated with all kinds of first Thanksgiving tales, and turkeys, and the Tea Party calling the Pilgrims socialists, who turn capitalist. I thought they were seeking religious freedom.

But before that, in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and brought with him European plants, and animals. And new diseases. He took back American plants, animals and diseases, particularly syphilis which ran rampant through the royal courts of Europe. (Where was that religious zeal?) The Pilgrims arrived more than a century later.

Before Columbus, the two continents were physically separate for millions of years. And their ecosystems evolved separately. When he came there was a phenomenon called "ecosystem release". On both continents. New species have no predators to keep their numbers from exploding and spreading. Human populations have no immunity and die from new diseases.

And so it was in America. Between Columbus and the Pilgrims, whole tribes of Indians died out. That's why the settlers found the land so lightly populated.

An interesting book called, "1491: New Revelations--" by Charles C. Mann (charlesmann.org) says that by the time the Pilgrims arrived, " European diseases had killed 90 % of the hemisphere's original inhabitants, 30 million people, possibly 100 million."

Many settlers and sailors died from diseases as well. Check out the gravestones at the colonial burial grounds around the Boston Common sometime. Most died quite young.

The Europeans brought in lots of new species: bluegrass, clover, wheat, rye, endive, spinach, mint, peaches, apples. Also hogs and horses. In that famous painting " The First Thanksgiving" they sit on bluegrass, clover and dandelions, foreign invasives all, which by then had overtaken the ecosystem.

The Pilgrims first settlement may have been in a village abandoned by Indians who caught viral hepatitis from French sailors. The Pilgrims may have survived by digging up the dead Indians' food caches.

That first Thanksgiving feast was probably a mush of corn and wheat. Maybe some game or a bird. Maybe berries. However, it's the season of the traditional European harvest festival, full moon and all.

American Indians were actually very sophisticated land managers. They drained swamps, made floating farm islands (like on Lake Dahl in the Kashmir). Indians built incredible terraced fields (think Peru). Mexico and the Amazon were gardens, fields and orchards. Corn was bred in barely a century from a wild Mexican tiosinte grass, a remarkable agricultural achievement. It now is a main food crop sustaining the world's exploded population.

Northern Indians grew fields of corn and squash. When the harvest was near, Indian maidens would sleep on raised platforms in the fields to keep the raccoons, and other critters from ruining the crop.

They used fire as a land management tool to provide good Savannah grass for the bison, elk and moose. (Like African herding tribes do.) Forests were kept open for more efficient hunting, which controlled animal and bird populations. When the Indians in an area died out, dense forest with thick underbrush took over, and animal and bird populations exploded.

Ecologically, when a predator does not exist, populations explode. We are seeing that in the United States now where the wild deer population has reached 30 million. Similar things happened in abandoned Indian lands. That's why there were so many buffalo when the west was first settled. And huge flocks of pigeons.

Europe got new species from the Americas too: llamas, corn, squash, chocolate, coffee, tomatoes (called love apples), tobacco, cocaine, plus the aforementioned sexual disease. And, of course, turkey. In 1973, there were 1 million wild turkeys in the US. Today there are 7 million. About 16 frequently cluck through my back yard. They are very big tall birds.

Ruth S. Foster is a landscape consultant and arborist. More gardening information can be found on her website: www.mothersgarden.net
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Global Warming and Denial-Climate Change

GLOBAL WARMING AND DENIAL


..........In mothers garden, November was the first frost this year. The usual expected date used to be the middle of October. Global warming has changed that by 2 weeks.

..........Of course, one season does not an environmental climate change make. However, the scientific information collected leaves no doubt that the earth is warming. And fast. After this rancorous election, one hopes that reason will prevail in Washington about trying to deal with climate change through real conservation and alternate energy sources.

..........I have just bought a beautiful 2011 calendar of photographs by Bradford Washburn, famous mountain climber, head of the Museum of Science for years, and Belmont resident to boot. It shows the snowcovered peaks and glaciers on mountains world wide. Comparing their width today with earlier years shows just how warm our planet has become.

..........Growing cabbages in the backyard or raising chickens is fun but not anything significant. Ditto making useful compost out of the leaves that fall. While we play at being "green," China is becoming the world leader for wind and solar. Our country should be spearheading our energy independence through subsidies and tax depreciation. Even Brazil does more than we do.

..........Instead oil barons and coal interests spend billions controlling political movements and media information so that their depreciation and tax benefits go untouched. BP is the rule, not the exception. Ditto the Koch brothers. (See the New Yorker, Aug. 27th article) . Climate change denial is a huge lobbying effort. And when winter comes, we just turn up the thermostat.

..........I have just bought a beautiful 2011 calendar of photographs by Bradford Washburn, famous mountain climber and head of the Museum of Science. (And Belmont resident to boot.) It shows the snow covered peaks and glaciers on mountains world wide. Comparing their width today with these earlier years shows just how warm our planet has become.

..........The plants can feel it. They change. They flower to match the temperatures. Sometimes they get confused, like this past fall. They perceived the first big fall rain after the hot summer-long drought as springtime. The magnolis, azaleas and andromeda, all opened their buds. Next spring will not have those flowers. Also all the trees colored together, instead of slowly and sequentially, as used to be normal.

..........Some plants even respond to the increased carbon dioxide in the air. Poison ivy likes it, and grows more vigorously, as do wheat and aspen trees

...........When winter comes, we just turn up the thermostat. More energy needed. It's time for some scientific sanity to sustain our civilization long term. A culture of NO is not an answer. Let's hope Washington gets rational government going again. And intelligent conservation, instead of platitudes from pretty/smiley faces.

...........Brad Washburn's photo calendars, which rival Ansel Adams' , have been lovingly put together by his daughter Betsy Washburn, (also a Belmont resident) and are available at An Elegant Affair store in Belmont Center. Also the New England Mobile Book Fair in Newton Highlands.

Ruth S. Foster is a landscape consultant and arborist. More gardening information can be found on her website: www.mothersgarden.net