ConWatch A publication of the GCA Conservation Committee • Fall 2023
FROM THE EDITOR
Autumn in a northern Michigan peatland. Article on page 18. Photo by Rodney Dimner
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t seems like within minutes of taking over as ConWatch editor, my inbox was overflowing with conservationrelated emails. While it is great there is so much information out there, it is also overwhelming. Determining what is worth reading, saving, sharing, or moving to trash is challenging. If I am that overwhelmed, I am guessing many GCA club members are also. We have a desire to keep up on newsworthy events, but there is just not time to digest it all. Which leads me to our approach to ConWatch. We have called on the expertise of Conservation and NAL Committee members and some club conservation chairs to find out what is important to watch, read, and listen to, and to report on meaningful conservation programs clubs have done and are doing. Committee members have also provided updates on GCA’s conservation initiatives to help us all stay informed. Our fascinating feature articles highlight two important conservation topics: light pollution and peatland ecology. Both are written by experts in their fields and feature breathtaking photography. I hope you find this issue of ConWatch educational as well as a practical resource. —Lynn Steiner, Little Compton GC, Zone I, Vice Chair, Editor, ConWatch, Conservation Committee
On the cover: Dinosaur National Monument, designated a DarkSky Park in 2019, is located on the southeast edge of the Uinta Mountains on the Colorado Plateau along the border between Colorado and Utah. The remote location, high elevation, and low humidity make it feel like stepping back in time. Article on page 12. Photo by Bettymaya Foott, DarkSky International
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“The Earth will not continue to offer its harvest, except with faithful stewardship. We cannot say we love the land and then take steps to destroy it for use by future generations.” —John Paul II
ConWatch is produced three times a year by the Conservation Committee of The Garden Club of America. It is available online in July, November, and April. Submissions and comments are encouraged and welcome. Use this link to submit, or contact conwatch@gcamerica.org The contents contained in the GCA’s internal publications are intended solely for the education and enjoyment of club members of The Garden Club of America. For permission to reproduce any article in this publication, contact conwatch@gcamerica.org. The listing of any product does not imply a recommendation or an endorsement by the GCA. The purpose of The Garden Club of America is to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening, to share the advantages of association by means of educational meetings, conferences, correspondence, and publications, and to restore, improve, and protect the quality of the environment through educational programs and actions in the fields of conservation and civic improvement. © The Garden Club of America, 2023. All rights reserved. The Garden Club of America, 14 East 60th Street, New York, NY 10022, gcamerica.org
FROM THE CONSERVATION AND NAL COMMITTEES A
s the new chairs of the Conservation and National Affairs and Legislation committees, we welcome you to the fall edition of ConWatch. During the next two years, we will be focusing on what we, in the GCA—in our clubs and as individuals—can do to make a difference. At our first meeting in September, the focus was on climate change and biodiversity loss. Diane Lewis, Zone III, Vice Chair, Climate Change, interviewed Elizabeth Forsyth, Senior Attorney at Biodiversity Defense Program of Earthjustice. Zone III Representative Pamela O’ConnorChapman discussed action we can take. Clean Air was the subject of October’s meeting, with Eva Clarke, Zone VII, Vice Chair, Clean Air, and Kay Strickland, Zone VII Representative, leading the discussion. In November Eunice Burnett, Zone II, Vice Chair, Land Conservation,
► IN THIS ISSUE: 4 Read, Watch, Listen
Kimberly McMorrow, Zone XII, Vice Chair, National Parks, and Zone XI Representative Natalie Merchant-Pappu will present on land conservation and national parks. These reports are available on the Conservation and NAL Committees pages of the of the GCA website (click on the relevant Position Paper page). We encourage you to read and distribute them to club members. We wish all GCA members a continued passion to preserve and protect our environment and to advocate for a beautiful, healthy planet. —Joy Flynn, Westhampton GC, Zone III, Conservation Committee Chair, and Carolyn Ross, Chestnut Hill GC, Zone I, NAL Committee Chair
Above: Outgoing NAL Committee Chair Karen Gilhuly, Woodside-Atherton GC, Zone XII, (far left) and outgoing Conservation Committee Chair Cayce McAlister, GC of Nashville, Zone IX, (far right) welcomed incoming NAL Committee Chair Carolyn Ross (left middle) and incoming Conservation Committee Chair Joy Flynn (right middle) at the GCA Leadership Meeting in June. Photo by Anne Louise Noyes, Green Tree GC, Zone XI, First Vice Chair, Conservation Committee
6 What We Are Doing 9 What We Are Following 12 Rewilding the Night 18 Understanding Peatlands 24 Conservation Calendar
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WATCH, READ, LISTEN VIDEO We all know of the urgent need to add more native plants to our home gardens, but you may be wondering how to do this if your beds are already full. It may be time to consider converting a small or large section of your traditional lawn into an ecologically rich native grassland. Creating a Garden Scale Grassland from Izel Native Plants (see their website) shows you just how to do that. Landscape architect Preston Montague uses a combination of native seed mixes and plant plugs to create a functiondriven, well-designed home meadow that promises to support a diversity of pollinators and other beneficial insects and birds. This series of three short videos (about 5 minutes each) introduce design and function, show the installation process step-by-step, and can be scaled up or down. Part 1: Designing for Function Part 2: Soil Prep and Sowing Seed Part 3: Adding Plugs for More Design Control —Lydia Chambers, GC of Madison, Zone IV,
TED TALK The African Swamp Protecting Earth’s Environment
The peatlands of Africa’s Congo Basin are a vast expanse of swamp and greenery that act as one of the world’s most effective carbon sinks, and they are under threat of environmental destruction. Economist Vera Songwe explains how putting a price on the carbon stored in the peatlands would not only help protect these vital resources but also recognize and reward the African communities that have contributed little to climate change. “This is not just about decarbonization,” Songwe says. “This is also about development with dignity.”
Vice Chair, Native Plants
BLOG
► TreeHugger is a sustainability site offering advice, clarity, and Photo above: Before and after photos from Creating a Garden Scale Grassland by Preston Montague, courtesy of Izel Native Plants
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inspiration for both the eco-savvy and the green-living novice. There is a nearly 20-year-strong library of sustainability content, with articles ranging from purchasing a better dishwasher to building a green beauty routine to simply learning more about the world around you.
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BOOK The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey Doubleday, August 2023, 337 pages The deep ocean, where sunlight disappears, makes up 95 percent of the ocean’s volume. Bestselling author Susan Casey travels to this abyss. Readers accompany Casey on a dive over 16,400 feet deep to explore the base of an underwater volcano in Hawaii. We travel to undersea vents in the Pacific and submersible adventures in the Bahamas. Everywhere she goes, we meet the hundreds of thousands of creatures that have discovered how to survive in the dark of the seafloor. The author warns of potential disruptions to this ecosystem from undersea mining. Photo by Jane Edwards
—Jane Edwards, The GC of Norfolk, Zone VII, Vice Chair, Oceans
APP
Recycle Coach connects residents with a
personalized collection schedule, shares local disposal information, and supplies educational tools to make it easier to recycle products. You get trash and recycling reminders, the ability to search for appropriate recyclables, and more, all tailored to where you work and live. Local governments, businesses, and individuals work together to preserve local recycling programs and the environment. Different features depend on your municipality’s level of participation. The Recycle Coach app is free and is available for iOS and Android devices.
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WEBSITE Ocean Conservancy works to protect the ocean from today’s greatest global challenges, with evidence-based solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. Programs focus on advancing ocean justice, confronting climate change, working with governmental agencies, smart ocean planning, trash-free seas, and more. The website includes a blog featuring experts in their fields, an “In the News” section, a “Take Action” section, and many other resources. Photo by Lynn Steiner
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WHAT WE ARE DOING Zone VI
Maryland Native Plant Program Act Passed. Last spring, all 13 GCA Zone VI clubs voted to support the “Maryland Native Plant Program Act,” legislation initiated by a coalition of local and nationally recognized environmental groups. The goal is to move native plant use and education to the forefront in Maryland. The legislation passed easily. Another opportunity is at hand to encourage the state government to implement and enforce past legislation to expand the Invasive Plant List, currently woefully short. Working on state-level issues is increasingly important when federal power is absent or diminished. (Think Clean Water Act and the loss of federal safeguards with the Supreme Court ruling May 2023.)
sheets in paper packaging. Country GC member Mary Merrick, Conservation Committee co-chair, is shown below with a display of common, yet ecologically unsuitable, items on the red side of the table and its environmentally friendly alternatives on the green side. —Ursula Kluge, Country GC, Zone X Representative
—Meredith McDonagh, Halten GC, Zone VI Representative
Zone X
Country Garden Club displayed ecological alternatives to commonly used household items. For two weeks, Country GC had a display at a public library. Under the banner of “Conservation—Everyone Can Do It” and “There is NO Planet B,” the public could learn about environment-saving solutions, e.g., liquid laundry detergents in plastic bottles vs. detergent
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Photos by Ursula Kluge
Zone XI
Ladue Garden Club’s Conservation Committee’s yearly focus is on water conservation. With help from the Missouri Botanical Garden (MoBot), the committee organized three workshops. The first focused on using native plants, and the second was at the home of a MoBot docent who used native plants to remedy flooding in her yard. Sharing plants she used helped club members control flooding in their own gardens. The third featured a Missouri wetland prairie garden designed by the MoBot Wetland Project.
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The property owners, who are GCA club members, later turned their wetland prairie garden into a park and educational space for the community. —Natasha Merchant-Pappu, Ladue GC, Zone XI Representative
Zone XII
Broadmoor Garden Club teaches community members about native bees. Hundreds of Colorado Springs residents came out in late August to see honey harvested at the Bear Creek Nature Center. Broadmoor GC volunteers provided a display promoting native bees and pollinators with photos of the top 10 native plants, a take-home plant list, and a free native plant. Joan Schulz, Civic Committee Chair, is shown here with the club’s wild Photo by Elizabeth Downs bee poster. The display was set up in front of the native plant demonstration garden funded by the club. A state entomologist is scheduled to speak to the club about native bees to make members even better prepared for next year’s harvest. —Janet Riley, Orinda GC, Zone XII Representative
Hancock Park Garden Club funds microforest. In 2021, Hancock Park GC invested $15,000 to initiate a microforest in the heart of Los Angeles. It uses the Miyawaki method of using densely planted, multilayered native plants to create a quick-growing, self-sustaining miniforest to attract birds, animals, insects, and humans. It is the first of this type in California, adapted to Southern California’s climate. Seeds were sourced locally, grown in pots to sapling size, then planted. It requires watering and weeding the first two years, after which the forest maintains itself with rainfall and leaf litter for weed control. Club members were amazed to see how quickly the 10-by-10-foot forest grew. Katherine Pakradouni, the grantee, went on on to create a user-friendly website (search LA Microo Forests) where
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Photo by Katherine Pakradouni
one can select plants, design a miniforest, and learn about site preparation, with the hope microforests may pop up in backyards, parks, schools, and alongside freeways across southern California. Besides growing, planting, and weeding, it also included collecting data on plant growth and conditions. Visit LA Microforests on the web for more information. — Julie Grist, Hancock Park GC Conservation Chair
Carmel-by-the-Sea Garden Club learns about California condors. On a field trip to the Ventana Wildlife Society (VWS), the club learned how to save condors from extinction by preserving their environment and habitat. The largest land-based bird in California, they live to age 60 and mate for life. They feed on dead mammals from land and ocean, such as whales, seals, and gulls. To combat their main cause of death, lead poisoning from bullets, VWS promotes and hands out copper bullets. VWS spearheads a micro-trash clean up along the beaches and coastal highway to prevent the starvation of the chicks when microplastics are brought back to the nest. Many condor fatalities have been due to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). In the event of an outbreak, VWS has acquired quarantine pens, trucks that are HPAIready, and HPAI vaccines. Photo by Evan McWreath, copyright Ventana Wildlife Society
—Lurline (Lolly) Menzies, Carmel-by-the-Sea GC Conservation Chair (continued on next page)
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GCA’s Native Plant Month Initiative continues. A cross-committee collaboration to promote native plants by formally establishing a Native Plant Month in all 50 states, was launched in 2023. It achieved spectacular success, with 48 states passing either proclamations or state laws. To build on this success, the GCA has formed a committee to guide the process for a Native Plant Month Initiative 2.0. The goal is to get all 50 states on board with either a proclamation or a state law, giving permanence to this initiative. California, Mississippi, Ohio, New Jersey, and Colorado were successful in passing state laws creating their own Native Plant Months. These state proclamations help bring awareness locally to accelerate native plant conservation.
Program Idea for Clubs: Elephant Conservation Virginia (Ginny) Pearson, Wissahickon GC, Zone V, is passionate about preserving elephant populations all around the world. There were over 1,300,000 wild African elephants when she started her efforts in 1970; today less than 400,000 remain. Poaching, burgeoning human population, agricultural expansion that fragments habitat and severs traditional elephant migratory routes, and a lethal set of elephant-specific viruses are taking a rapidly increasing toll on the remaining wild elephants and those living in zoos. Ginny volunteers her time studying these viruses, searching for life-saving vaccines, which may be ready in 2023. Ginny is happy to share her presentation, “Elephant Conservation—An Urgent Mission,” with other GCA clubs. She focuses on these self-aware, funny, loving fellow creatures and why we should save a place for elephants on this earth. You can find her contact information on the GCA website.
—Lydia Chambers, GC of Madison, Zone VI, Vice Chair, Native Plants, and Bennett Burns, The Portland GC, Zone XII, NPMI 2.0 Committee
Things Clubs Can Do to Affect Climate Change n Encourage carpooling to meetings and events. n Encourage members to bring their own water bottle or mug to meetings. n Break free from plastic at your meetings. n Contribute to GCA scholarships or start one for a local university studen.t
Virginia Riddle Pearson, with “the Royals” elephant family at Save The Elephants research station in Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya. Photo courtesy of Virginia Pearson
Published in the September 19, 2023, Conservation/NAL Committees meeting report
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WHAT WE ARE FOLLOWING Federal Wetlands Redefined Wetlands protect and improve water quality, recharge ground water supplies, reduce flood risks, and provide critical wildlife habitats. Last May, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Sackett v. EPA cut back on federal protections for wetlands and changed how wetlands are defined. Wetlands are regulated under the Clean Water Act of 1972, which has historically protected wetlands that are seasonal and independent of a larger body of water. The May ruling redefines wetlands as requiring “a continuous surface connection to bodies that are waters of the U.S. in their own rights.” In addition, they must be year-round, which is counter to the original intent of the Clean Water Act. This narrows the definition considerably and could open millions of protected acres to development and/or pollutants. While this ruling sets a new and less stringent federal standard for wetlands, each state and municipality can strengthen its own policies on wetlands protection. As GCA club members, we can make a difference by supporting local wetland efforts in our communities and zones.
not reach everyone equitably. The most heat-vulnerable neighborhoods tend to be low-income areas with fewer trees and more blacktop. After completing its MillionTreesNYC project in 2015, New York City continues to expand efforts to plant more trees in disadvantaged neighborhoods and steward its vast urban forests. Emily Nobel Maxwell, director of The Nature Conservancy’s Cities Program in New York and coauthor of The State of the Urban Forest in New York City, helps lead Forest for All NYC, a coalition of nonprofit, governmental, and for-profit organizations dedicated to equitably protecting, maintaining, and expanding the city’s urban forests. Maxwell encourages us to do all we can to encourage the planting and maintenance of city trees, particularly in underserved areas which are often
—Beth Alm, The Westport GC, Zone XI, Vice Chair, Water
Promoting New York City’s Urban Forests Last summer’s sweltering days highlighted the value of urban “forests.” Dense tree canopies in cities cool neighborhoods and absorb rainwater runoff, as well as provide food and habitat for wildlife and offer solace and beauty when we need it most. But these benefits do
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New York City is working to plant more trees in parks and other areas in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Photo by Samuel Steiner
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WORTH REPEATING
“ Trees are about
in their blocks, too.”
“heat domes” due to lack of shade. Urban trees need to be resilient to survive in the face of frequent foot traffic, dogs, poor soil, and intermittent waterings. Local champions who can water, prune, and amend the soil make all the difference. Trees New York trains volunteers with skills to ensure that street trees thrive.
—Emily Nobel Maxwell, Director, The Nature Conservancy’s New York City Program
—Shelley Rolfe, Seattle GC, Zone XII, Vice Chair, Forests/Redwoods
trees. But they’re also about people—how people feel when you invest in their blocks and when they get to invest
Youth Fight Climate Change in Court Fires and heat spanned the globe last summer. Climatefueled wildfires led the news, with over 37 million acres burned in Canada and Maui’s wildfire ranking among the top 10 deadliest in U.S. history. Ocean temperatures rose to over 100 degrees in Florida, and July was the hottest month ever recorded on the earth. Fossil fuels are responsible for over 75 percent of greenhouse gasses, with petrochemical manufacturing of plastics and chemicals also major contributors. One strategy for change is youth-driven climate cases. Unlike three quarters of the world’s countries, the U.S. does not have environmental rights or responsibilities explicitly spelled out in the Constitution. Six states do, however: Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Young people in Montana won a court ruling that requires the consideration of climate change in the approval of any fossil-fuel project. Hawaiian youth filed a similar lawsuit against Hawaii’s Department of Transportation, which will go to court next summer.
Wildfire Management Lincoln Institute’s podcast Land Matters addresses issues around land management and conservation. A recent installation, “Summer of Smoke and Swelter,” focuses on the summer’s extensive wildfires. Host Anthony Flint interviewed Edward Struzik, journalist, fellow at the Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy of Queen’s University, and author of Firestorm: How Wildlife Will Shape Our Future and Dark Days at Noon: The Future of Fire. Wildfires have always been part of the forest’s lifecycle, but they have become more devastating (more intense heat, longer duration, and more destructive) because of poor land management practices dating back to at least the 1800s. One of the biggest factors is the draining of wetlands. Struzik explains, “If you think about it, a firefighter’s best friend really is a wetland, a swamp, a bog, a fen, a marsh.” These act as buffers preventing the forward progress of wildfires. Unfortunately, since 1870, we have drained an area of wetlands larger than the state of California for agriculture, mosquito control, mining, and urban development. Forestry management has also been an issue. Starting
—Diane Lewis, Bedford GC, Zone III, Vice Chair, Climate Change A controlled burn can be an effective fire-management tool. Photo by Lynn Steiner
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in 1910, the U.S. government had a policy of suppressing wildfires, and for 80 to 90 years this policy was very successful. During this period, human development also encroached into backcountry forest land, which increased the pressure to fight fires to protect people and property in harm’s way. Eventually the lack of naturally occurring wildfires coupled with the disappearance of wetlands created a situation that was ripe for devastating and widespread wildfires. Drier conditions due to climate change have made matters worse. There is good news, however. Scientists have learned that controlled burns benefit many of the fire-dependent spruce forests in North America. In addition, the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife is actively restoring wetlands to not only help control floods, but to also combat wildfires. —Eunice Burnett, Hortulus, Zone II, Vice Chair, Land Conservation
Beech Leaf Disease Beech trees are under attack from a microscopic nematode, which may be spread by insects or wind. Originally discovered in Ohio in 2012, it has spread eastward across the native range of the American beech
A thinning canopy is an indication of beech leaf disease. Photos by Lynn Steiner
(Fagus grandifolia), our only native beech. It also infects European beeches. The nematode lives in the tree’s buds, causing dark striping along leaf veins when they emerge. Other symptoms include curling, and/or leathery texture, reduced leaf and bud production, and leaf loss. Beech leaf disease can kill beech trees of all ages, though younger trees appear to die more quickly. Because little is known about the biology of the pathogen and epidemiology of the disease, no effective control or eradication measures have been developed. If you have beech trees, stay up to date on information for your state. —Lynn Steiner, Little Compton GC, Zone I, Vice Chair, Editor, ConWatch
Beech leaves showing striping associated with beech leaf disease.
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What We Are Watching Chart To stay up to date on issues the Conservation/NAL Committees are following, click here.
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Rewilding the Night PROTECTING A PRECIOUS RESOURCE
by Ruskin Hartley
CEO and Executive Directory, DarkSky International My oldest son recently celebrated his 16th birthday. When he was born there were approximately twice as many stars visible in the sky as there are today. The stars are still there. The rapid growth in light pollution, estimated by scientists at 9.6 percent annually over the past decade, means that many are blotted out. Will we be the last generation to appreciate the beauty of a starfilled sky? Or can we reverse this trend and rewild the night sky?
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Light pollution is all around, and once you know what to look for, you will see it everywhere. It is caused by exterior and interior building lighting, advertising, commercial properties, offices, factories, streetlights, greenhouses, landscape lighting, illuminated sporting venues, and countless others sources. Essentially, light pollution is a side effect of an industrial civilization. Over the past few decades it has accelerated, far outstripping population and economic growth. Today 83 percent of
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Facing page: Miramonte Reservoir, Colorado. Artificial light at night has revolutionized the way we live and work, but it has come at a price. Light pollution disrupts nature, impacts human health, wastes money, drives climate change, and obscures our view of the universe. A recent study estimates that only 13.2 percent of terrestrial environmental space is undisturbed by skyglow. In other words, there are few places where natural light cycles remain.
Above: Light pollution looking towards Moab, Utah. Over the past 4.5 billion years, our planet has undergone many changes. But there has been one constant: the bright days-dark nights cycle has shaped life on earth. This is changing, however. Since the invention of the incandescent bulb in 1879, and more recently the white LED bulb in 1995, there has been a relentless drive to illuminate the night and vanquish darkness.
people worldwide and 99 percent in Europe and North America live under light-polluted skies.
Light Trespass is light falling where it is not wanted or needed. Also known as spill or intrusive light, it is your neighbor’s security light shining into your kids’ bedroom all night long. It can become so bad in some urban settings that thick blackout curtains are needed so bedrooms remain dark. The solution to light trespass is to ensure that light falls only where and when it is needed.
What is Light Pollution? There are three primary sources of light pollution: Glare is the intense and blinding light that reduces visibility; the antithesis of responsible outdoor lighting. Glare is what forces us to look away from the sun or the blindingly bright headlights of an oncoming car. When we look at a bright source of light, our pupils constrict and our visibility is reduced. The solution to glare is simple: ensure the source of light is shielded from direct view.
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Sky glow is the brightening of the night sky that results from the scattering and reflection of light from the constituents of the atmosphere (gaseous molecules and aerosols) in the direction of the observer. It has two separate components: natural sky glow and artificial sky
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glow. It is the reason we cannot see the stars in a city and why we see a city’s light dome from hundreds of miles.
Why Should We Care? Biodiversity: Virtually every species studied has been harmed by light pollution. Light pollution exposure impacts almost every species, including plants, pollinators, and people. It interferes with their biology and changes how they interact with the environment. This harms ecosystems and can make plants and animals less resilient in the face of environmental change.
Above: Warner Lake, Utah. Conservation is the care and protection of precious resources so that they can persist for future generations. DarkSky recognizes that the night sky is a natural, cultural, and historic resource that closely intertwines humankind with the nocturnal environment.
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As an example, the endangered western snowy plover avoids roost sites where light levels are much above 0.05 lux, about the levels from a half full moon. On a larger scale, sky glow from cities draws millions of birds off their migratory paths every night, and it is estimated that hundreds of millions of birds die each year in building collisions, many at night. Light pollution is one of the leading avoidable causes of the massive insect decline that is underway. It is estimated that in a city of the size of Kielh, in northern Germany, with 20,000 streetlights and 240,000 people, 3 million insects are killed per night, or 360 million per season. A recent study found that high levels of light
Facing page: Turret Arch, Arches National Park, Utah. Arches National Park was designated an International DarkSky Park Silver Tier A in 2019 for its “exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights and a nocturnal environment that is specifically protected for its scientific, natural, or educational value, its cultural heritage, and/or public enjoyment.”
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BIG
LITTLE THINGS
In 2021 DarkSky International joined forces with the Illuminating Engineering Society to adopt principles for responsible outdoor lighting at night, the ROLAN priciples. By following these five simple steps, you can ensure you are using light responsibly to meet your needs while minimizing waste and the impact on the world around us. Cities that have adopted these principles have saved money, reduced light pollution, and maintained safe and welcoming places for their communities. 1. Use light only if it is needed. All light should have a clear purpose. Consider how the use of light will impact the area, including wildlife and their habitats. 2. Direct light so it falls only where it is needed. Use shielding and careful aiming to target the direction of the light beam so that it points downward and does not spill beyond where it is needed. 3. Light should be no brighter than necessary. Use the lowest light level required. Be mindful of surface conditions, as some surfaces may reflect more light into the night sky than intended. 4. Use light only when it is needed. Use controls such as timers or motion detectors to ensure that light is available when it is needed, dimmed when possible, and turned off when not needed. 5. Use warmer color lights where possible. Limit the amount of shorter wavelength (blue-violet) light to the least amount needed. Back to Contents
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Marlboro Point, Utah. The International DarkSky Places program is an independent, third-party review and certification of outstanding dark sky conditions and protection practices. DarkSky has certified more than 200 places since Flagstaff, Arizona, was named the first International DarkSky City in 2001. There are now over 160,000 square kilometers of protected land and night skies in 22 countries on six continents, and the list grows every year as new places achieve certification.
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R e s o u r ce s
pollution is changing the growing season for woody plants in cities. Light pollution is scrambling the internal clock, leading to spring arriving nine days earlier and autumn starting six days later. And in midwestern soybean fields, light pollution from streetlights reduced yields by up to 60 percent. And rivers and oceans are not immune. For example, the clown fish does not reproduce when exposed to even dim lights at night. Energy and Climate Change: Wasted light is wasted energy. Globally we estimate that the energy used to produce light at night measured by satellites represents at least one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. Department of Energy estimated that we could save $15.4 billion per year by 2035 by transitioning to energy-efficient outdoor lighting fixtures that use controls to dim them down and turn them off when not needed. Tucson, Arizona, saved $2.3 million dollars per year and reduced light pollution by eight percent when it upgraded it streetlight system to follow dark sky principles. Public Health: Light pollution impacts quality of life. Light at night offers clear benefits for people, allowing us to extend our activities into the evening hours. When done well, quality lighting can enhance night visibility. When done poorly, we all suffer. There is increasing evidence that high levels of light at night impacts our physiology and contributes to many of the diseases of
DarkSky Internat ional modern society, including has tools, guides , and lots diabetes, heart disease, of interesting an d prac tical certain forms of cancer, information. Lightpollutionmap and mental illness. A is a wonderful re so ur ce fo r un derstanding sky Harvard study found that qu al it y ne ar you. women living in cities in the top fifth of light pollution had a 14 percent increased risk of breast cancer compared to those living in the least lightpolluted areas. Exposure to high levels of light at night, suppresses the production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates our sleep-wake cycle. This, in turn, disrupts our circadian rhythm, which has a cascading effect on all our biological systems. A study in mainland China found an association between light pollution and mental health. Essentially, the brighter the night sky, the worse the mental health. It is becoming clear that a dark night sky is an essential part of a healthy environment for people as well as wildlife. Solving light pollution is simple, effective, saves money, and has immediate effects. I am optimistic that together we can start the process of rewilding the night sky to ensure that future generations will enjoy the stars overhead.
Ruskin Hartley is CEO and Executive Director of DarkSky International. He has also served as executive director of Save the Redwoods League and as president and CEO of Heal the Bay in Los Angeles. This article is based on the talk he gave at the 2023 GCA leadership conference. All photos by Bettymaya Foott, director of engagement, DarkSky International
Light pollution exposure impacts almost every species, including plants, pollinators, and people. It interferes with their biology and changes how they interact with the environment. This harms ecosystems and can make plants and animals less resilient in the face of environmental change. Back to Contents
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Understanding Peatlands Dr. Rodney Chimner Professor of Wetlands Ecology, Michigan Technical University
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This beautiful ecosystem plays an important role in conservation worldwide.
W
hen you dump a bag of peat in your garden, do you wonder about its origin? Peat comes from a peatland, a wetland where deep organic soil called “peat” accumulates. Peat is partially decomposed plant material, similar to compost, but takes millennium to form instead of months to years. Peatlands are able to form because the decomposition of plant material is slowed by perennially saturated soil conditions that inhibit the flow of oxygen into the soil, which slows microbial activity. The slow microbial activity not only slows plant decay, but also preserves human remains for thousands of years, creating the familiar bog bodies of Europe, but that’s another story. Most plants cannot grow without soil oxygen, but wetland plants have evolved mechanisms to grow in anoxic soils, such as aerenchyma tissue, which allows oxygen to flow down the plant to its roots, so that plant growth can still occur in the anerobic soils of peatlands. Peat accumulates because plants grow a little faster than what microbes can decompose. Over thousands of years, peatlands grow upward and can reach depths of 40 to 50 feet, although most are closer to 3 to10 feet. Peatlands are often classified as either bogs or fens, depending on the source of water to the peatland and the pH of the peatland. All require a stable source
Facing page: In the United States, peatlands are most abundant in Alaska, the Great Lake states of Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and the northeastern states of Maine and Massachusetts. Other important peatland regions include the pocosins of the southeast Atlantic coastal plain between Virginia and northern Florida, the Florida Everglades, California’s San Joaquin Valley, and tens of thousands of peatlands in the Rockies, Sierra, and Appalachian Mountains. There are also peatlands in the volcanoes of Hawaii, the Nebraska Sandhills, the Black Hills of South Dakota, and even in Death Valley. In this high-elevation valley peatland in Colorado, the peatland is flowing down the small valley like a slow-moving stream, which it eventually flows into.
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Globally, peatlands cover 1.5 million square miles, or four percent of the earth’s land surface, and are found throughout the world, from the Arctic to the tropics to the mountains. The largest area of peatlands, about 60 percent, occurs in the boreal regions of the world. Tropical peatlands are the next most common with about 20 percent of the total peatland area. Arctic, temperate, and mountainous regions contain most of the rest. This carnivorous pitcher plant is growing in an Indonesian peatland.
of water to form, but many different types of plants, including trees, sedges, cushion plants, and mosses, can form peat. Forested peatlands are common throughout the tropics and temperate zones, with the peat resembling old, decaying wood. Sedges and mosses are common in temperate, boreal, arctic, and mountain peatlands. Sphagnum moss is the dominant peat-producing plant worldwide and dominates boreal peatlands. Sphagnum moss is an amazing plant that has several chemical compounds that resist decay and can hold 20 times its weight in water, which is why sphagnum peat is used in horticulture. This peat is mostly obtained in eastern Canada by mining the peat over a period of
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This fen was restored about 10 years ago in Colorado. Preserving and restoring peatlands is a top global priority because of their amazing ability to store carbon. Peatlands may only occupy four percent of the world’s land surface, but they store about one-third of all soil carbon (about 550 gigatons of carbon), which is twice the amount of carbon found in the world’s forests. Unfortunately, when peatlands are modified, especially made drier by draining, they can release large amounts of their stored carbon as carbon dioxide. Approximately 12 percent of the world’s peatlands are degraded, releasing at least 2,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions per year, or about four percent of total global anthropogenic emissions. Annually, degraded peatlands release more carbon than all global aviation combined.
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WORTH REPEATING
“Peatlands are ecosystems with a unique type of peat soil formed from plant material that has only partially decomposed due to water-saturated soil conditions (and in polar areas also due to the cold). While they are relatively rare, covering around three to four percent of the planet’s land surface, they contain up to one third of the world’s soil carbon. This is twice the amount of carbon as found in the entirety of earth’s forest biomass. Keeping this carbon locked away is absolutely critical to achieving global climate goals.” —Global Peatlands Assessment: The State of the World’s Peatlands, 17 November 2022
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decades. As an alternative to peat mining, sphagnum farming, where you grow sphagnum moss in a field or greenhouse, is now taking place, in a global effort to develop more sustainable horticultural growing media to replace peat mining. Historically, drainage for agriculture has been the primary threat to North American peatlands, but they are now also threatened by urbanization, cattle grazing, oil and gas extraction, roads and other linear features, and forestry. In other regions of the world, tropical peatlands in Indonesia have been devastated by forestry, largescale ditching, agriculture, palm-oil plantations, and anthropogenic fires. In Europe, most of the peatlands have been lost to agriculture, while in Canada energy production from the oil-sands region has eliminated large peatland areas. Climate change is also affecting all peatlands, including the vast permafrost peatlands and boreal areas, which are threatened by thawing permafrost and increased fire. In addition to carbon storage, peatlands provide a range of other valuable services, including important benefits to the hydrological cycle by storing and filtering water, slowing peak flows, and reducing the impact of floods. They are also important time capsules, storing records of human activities and past environmental conditions within their peat layers. For more information on peatlands, see the recent Global Peatland Assessment on the United Nations Environment Programme website.
Rodney Chimner is a Professor of Wetland Ecology at Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan. He has been conducting research in peatland ecology and restoration across the globe for 30 years. All photos by Dr. Rodney Chimner
Because decomposition rates in peatlands are very slow, nutrients are not recycled but stored in the peat and are not available to plants, creating very low nutrient conditions, especially in bogs. Plants have adapted in many ways to deal with the low nutrient levels, such as very small leaves, perennial leaves, cation exchange properties, and most famously, carnivory. Several types of carnivory can be found in peatland plants, such as snap traps (Venus flytraps), pitfall traps (pitcher plants), and adhesive flypaper-like traps (sun dews). Insects captured by these carnivorous plants provide additional nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen. In the lower photo, carnivorous sundews and sphagnum moss mingle in a bog, The drops of “dew” on the end of the tentacles are actually sticky enzymes. When an insect is trapped in the dew, the leaf will wrap around it and digest it.
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Facing page: Because of the outsized importance of peatlands, there has been a growing global effort to restore them. In the United States, significant efforts have been made to restore large wetland complexes that have been drained for agriculture or forestry, such as the Great Dismal Swamp and the Everglades, as well as restoration from past agriculture, forestry, peat mining, cranberry harvesting, and a variety of other impacts across the country. This super degraded fen in the San Juan Mountains is void of vegetation due to mining. The small light-colored squares are some of the author’s restoration plots employing sedge restoration techniques.
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LITTLE THINGS
Gardeners traditionally use a lot of peat, as a soil amendment, in seed starting, and in container gardening. Unfortunately, this contributes to ecosystem destruction and carbon dioxide release. There are viable alternatives. Read labels carefully; most peat-free mixes will say so somewhere on the bag. Coco coir, the shredded husks of coconuts, is a common substitute. It is readily available as the by product of an established industry and works well. But shipping and labor result in a large carbon footprint. Other substitutes are shredded paper and paper fibers, shredded bark, wool pellets, well-composted manure, pine needles, rice hulls, and leaf mold.
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ART + CONSERVATION A
rt has the power to change how we see the world. See the world through the eyes of talented and conservationminded artists and innovators in these new exhibits.
Above and banner detail: Julie Packard by Hope Gangloff, acrylic on canvas, 2019. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; funded by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Board of Trustees. Copyright Hope Gangloff.
Forces of Nature: Voices That Shaped Environmentalism Now through September 2, 2024 National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC This exhibition features
luminous, large-scale portraits of 25 key people— scientists, politicians, activists, writers, and artists—whose work influenced attitudes toward the environment in the United States. Included are Rachel Carson, George Washington Carver, Maya Lin, and Henry David Thoreau. Chasing Icebergs: Art and a Disappearing Landscape March 14 to May 4, 2024 Solo exhibition at Winston Wachter Fine Art in New York, New York Zaria Forman documents climate change with pastel drawings. She travels to remote regions of the world to collect images and inspiration for her work, which is exhibited worldwide.
CONSERVATION CALENDAR
Growing with Nature: Native Plants and Ecological Horticulture, by Uli Lorimer,
Native Plant Trust Cambridge Plant & GC, Zone I 10:00 a.m., January 8, 2024
Oyster Restoration Projects and Environmental Underwater Sciences, by Pete Solomon, aquaculture coordinator, New Haven’s Sound School GC of New Haven, Zone II 11:30 a.m.–2:00 p.m., January 8, 2024
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Save the World, Nature in My Backyard, by Harvey B.
Webster, ambassador emeritus, Cleveland Museum of Natural History GC of Cincinnati, Zone X 9:30–11:30 a.m., January 16, 2024
C-Climate Conservation Carolina Foothills GC, Zone VIII January 17, 2024
GCA Virtual Roundtable: Library Book Club Collab with Conservation Rolf Diamont, co-author, will
Click here for more details on these programs.
speak on Olmsted and Yosemite: Civil War, Abolition and the National Parks Idea. Diamont is a landscape architect and former superintendent of five national parks including Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. 4:00–5:00 p.m., January 18, 2024
Tufts University Pollinator Initiative, by Nick Dorian, Department of Biology, Tufts University Beacon Hill GC, Cambridge Plant & GC, Zone I February 6, 2024
Effects of Light Pollution, by
Ruskin Hartley, executive director, International DarkSky Association Marin, Orinda, and Piedmont GCs, Zone XII 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., February 14, 2024
GCA NAL Conference Virtual Advocacy Workshop Mar 14, 2024
2024 NAL Conference
March 17–20, 2024 Hybrid meeting
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