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Excerpt from Wikipedia:
Joshua Tree National Park is an American national park in southeastern California, east of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, near Palm Springs. The park is named for the Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia) native to the Mojave Desert. Originally declared a national monument in 1936, Joshua Tree was redesignated as a national park in 1994 when the U.S. Congress passed the California Desert Protection Act. Encompassing a total of 790,636 acres (1,235.4 sq mi; 3,199.6 km2)—an area slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island—the park includes 429,690 acres (671.4 sq mi; 1,738.9 km2) of designated wilderness. Straddling the border between San Bernardino County and Riverside County, the park includes parts of two deserts, each an ecosystem whose characteristics are determined primarily by elevation: the higher Mojave Desert and the lower Colorado Desert. The Little San Bernardino Mountains traverse the southwest edge of the park.
Mural by Andrew (Joux) Mack aka @jouxart, seen at 2854 Larimer Street in the RiNo area of Denver, Colorado.
Photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter on that other photo site.
Edit by Teee
Wilton church is well worth a visit for its eclectic building and decorative styles. The churchyard also has quite a bit of interest. I was taken by the colour combinations produced by the lichen, ivy and mosses growing on this particular grave stone.
The oldest and second largest Gary Oak Tree in British Columbia stands majestically beautiful, silhouetted against a mid March evening sky!
I took this image on March 15/13 and am so glad I did, because this three hundred plus year old ancient Gary Oak tree was felled by a bad wind storm on Thurs Dec 20th 2018. The high winds on Vancouver Island forced many trees down and lots of damage to power lines, homes and property. It's been two days and many residential homes and businesses are still out of power. We just got our wifi back this afternoon, so thought I would post a pic of this beautiful tree as I remembered it!
Garry oak and associated ecosystems are home to more plant species than any other land-based ecosystem in coastal British Columbia. Many of these species occur no where else in Canada. Several species have already been eliminated in British Columbia. Garry oak and associated ecosystems are among the most endangered in Canada. Many of the remaining Garry Oak environments are found as fragmented communities isolated from other Garry oak communities. Isolation and fragmentation reduce opportunities for the genetic mixing thereby reducing the long-term viability of the species.
The Great Migration is the movement of a massive number of animals, including over 2 million wildebeest accompanied by large numbers of zebra, and smaller numbers of Grant’s gazelle, Thomson’s gazelle, eland and impala.
These animals move in an annual pattern, which is fairly predictable and covers over 620 miles (1000 kilometers.) They follow the rains and traverse Tanzania’s Serengeti and Kenya’s Maasai Mara (e.g. Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem) in search of the grasses they need to survive.
During this great journey, they must walk very long distances and simultaneously attempt to avoid predation from lions, cheetahs, leopards, and even hyenas and starvation.
They must cross rivers filled with crocodiles waiting to catch them, battle disease, endure injury and fatigue and hopefully live to do it all again. As many as 250,000 animals will die during this yearly cycle.
Follow a live herd tracker: www.discoverafrica.com/herdtracker/
Source: Elevate Destinations
Please note: If you look carefully, you can see the baby impalas being protected in the center of this herd of females.
The long train journey home from sunny Chatham Dockyard in Kent to a dark and rainy Yorkshire, provided a perfect slice of time to reflect upon the broader story we’re a part of. The story being, that of all the interrelated resources and skills that surround the building and preservation of traditional wooden boats.
Whilst the idea of a boat, or even a fleet of boats, begins with a thought or a specific need, the conversion of that thought into any form of practical reality, requires a partnership with nature. It also calls upon the skills of the forester who knows intimately the timescales involved and the optimum conditions in which to grow each tree.
Left to its own devices, nature does a wonderful job of regenerating itself, the wildlife playing its own role in the redistribution of the various seeds that come from each variety. Creating the long, tall planks required for a ships hull on the other hand, require the trees to be grown in specific conditions that result in straight trunks and energy diverted in reaching for the light of the canopy.
It’s clearly a vast subject and one that could easily take a lifetime to study. And so the aim will be to get straight to the people who know the subject inside out. With their help we can focus in upon the specifics, namely the trees involved, the growth cycles and how they’re harvested once maturity has been reached.
Interestingly, we’ve been offered access to some Cumbrian, wind-felled oaks, blown down in last winter’s storms. These will need cutting and milling on site, so should make a fascinating part of the story to illustrate how the planks that end up being bolted to a hull, make their respective journeys from acorn to tree, then from tree to planks and all the stages in-between.
And talking of taking time to reflect, it’s almost time for our annual trip to the South West coast. A perfect place to stand back and form the long view. It’s also just the spot to see the old wooden boats on the sea, to meet the people who keep them afloat and in turn, play their vital role in preserving these long established traditions.
Excerpt from youractionsmatter.ca/one-drop/:
One Drop:
• Coral ecosystems make up less than 1% of the ocean floor yet are home to over 25% of all marine wildlife.
• While you may think of coral as exclusively tropical reefs, more than half of all known coral species are deep and cold-water corals.
• Canada has several cold-water coral habitats, with sites off the coasts of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, and British Columbia.
• Cold-water coral reefs serve as a home for thousands of known sea animals and possibly millions of undiscovered species, making them one of the most biodiverse marine ecosystems.
• Far from sunlight and hundreds to thousands of meters deep in the ocean, these cold-water corals have lifespans that can span centuries.
• Climate change, oil and gas exploration, and overfishing severely threaten Canada’s cold-water corals.
• As humans pump more carbon into the atmosphere, our oceans become more acidic, hampering corals’ ability to grow.
• The effects of oil and gas exploration, from contaminated drill bits to oil leaks, can also significantly contaminate cold-water corals.
• Most disturbingly, unsustainable fishing practices like bottom trawling can decimate coral habitats. When disturbed by bottom trawling, up to 90% of a coral colony perishes.
• Fortunately, cold-water corals have the ability to recover. However due to their slow growth rates, some as little as 3 mm per year, they need decades to start regenerating.
• This is why the establishment of permanent marine protected areas that explicitly prohibit unsustainable fishing practices and oil and gas exploration are so crucial.
Coral reefs are home to a quarter of all marine life and contain millions of undiscovered species. They are biodiversity hotspots, unmatched in species per area. More than just ecological treasures, coral reefs underpin the livelihood of more than 500 million people globally. However, despite their profound importance, 70% of the world’s reefs are currently threatened. The world has already lost half of its coral reefs since 1950, and scientific estimates suggest that we may lose them all by 2050 if urgent action is not taken.
The degradation of reefs doesn’t just mean losing biodiversity; it could directly affect human health. Various drugs are derived from animals and plants found in coral reef ecosystems as possible cures for cancer, arthritis, and other diseases. With the current rate of degradation, such potential discoveries could be lost forever.
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) play an invaluable role in safeguarding the health and longevity of coral ecosystems and habitats. The vibrant, intricate biodiversity found within these areas is highly susceptible to threats such as climate change, overfishing, pollution, and habitat destruction. MPAs effectively mitigate these pressures by regulating human activities in these regions. They serve as sanctuaries where coral ecosystems can regenerate and thrive.
Given the vital role that coral reefs play in our ecosystems, and the urgent threat they face, it is critical to take action to protect them before it's too late. MPAs are integral in safeguarding coral ecosystems and habitats, ensuring their survival for future generations.
Lake Meligkou or Moustou, Kynouria, Astros, Arcadia, eastern Peloponnese, Greece.
The Lake Meligkou, better known as Lake Moustou, is a wetland system consisting of two lakes, Lake Moustos and a smaller, Lake Cherronissos. It is located in the center of the bay of Astros, behind a sandy beach.
The Lake is formed by the waters of a spring that flows from the edge of the hill to the east and goes directly into the sea. The lake has many spas and many visitors swim close to the source.
The Lake Moustos is one of the most important wetlands in the geographic region of Peloponnese, Greece, with priceless value for the ecological balance. As a wetland, this ecosystem enriches the underground water reserves, filters the stuffed water that they receive, binds carbon dioxide, regulates the local climate by storing or releasing heat, supports the food chains and provides shelter to many plant and animal species. It is the only place in the area that presents a gateway for the migratory birds. For this reason the area is protected and it belongs to the network of Natura 2000. The predominant vegetation consists of dunes, salt marshes and reed beds, while the interesting wildlife of the lake includes fish, reptiles, amphibians and a wide variety of birds. Moorhens, mallards, herons, swan and coots spend winter at this area while the coastline is inhabited by Caretta Caretta turtles.
Bicentennial Park is a 40-hectare of parkland located 16 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of City of Parramatta. Bicentennial Park is situated on the shores Homebush Bay and is a part of the Sydney Olympic Park in New South Wales, Australia. The Park is a natural heritage site featuring an important wetland ecosystem and parklands. It offers visitors recreation, nature-based tours, environmental education and outdoor event experiences. The park has picnic areas, playgrounds, pathways and cycle ways, access to the wetlands, salt marsh and bird hides. It also features Lake Belvedere, Peace Monument, Treillage Tower, Sundial, 'Cyrus the Great' statue, the Silent Hearts Memorial Garden and water features. Powells Creek runs through the eastern side of the park. The Homebush Bay wetland is occupied by animals that thrive in the salt water wetlands. Bicentennial Park was created by the state and federal governments during the 1980s, to celebrate Australia's Bicentenary in 1988. The project involved recycling 47.4 hectares of former rubbish dump into a regional recreation area and the conservation of 53 hectares of a wetland ecosystem on the Parramatta River. The park was officially opened on 1 January 1988. 52482
Warm air from the Pacific Ocean meets the west slope of the Andes Mountains creating this cloud forest ecosystem. The warmer ocean current near the equator creates higher rising moist air so this ecosystem extends across the Andes in Ecuador making it green and lush across the mountains. Further south in Peru and Chile, the cooler heavier air can't get over the first range so the Andes are very arid east of the west slope.
The steep sides of the Khutzeymateen Inlet have a number of avalanche slopes and waterfalls that slash through the north temperate rain forest down to the estuary. A large population of grizzly bears hibernate on the slopes over the winter and migrate down to the sedge grass meadows at the shoreline to feed in the spring. Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary,
BC.
23/12/2019 www.allenfotowild.com
Wetlands are distinct ecosystems saturated with water (freshwater, brackish, or saltwater), either permanently or seasonally. They support aquatic plants.
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The Magnificent Valley of Agabat in The White Desert of Egypt
When the majority of people hear the word “desert” (especially the Sahara desert), all sand dunes comes to mind. This is not so. Only 20% of a desert is made up of dunes as we discovered. The White Desert floor was crusty with white areas of dried saline while other sections had closely packed pebbles and rocks that looked almost like a pavement.
Navigating off-road again for about 9km/6 miles in the soft sand and powdered chalk, Miguel told us to close our eyes and not open them again until he told us. When he said, “You can look now,” we were at the top of a dune looking down into the Valley of Agabat. Agabat means “the Difficult” in Arabic and Dan and I stood there stunned by what lay before us.
A vast panorama of dunes at the base of formations, golden sand and crunchy saline on the desert floor. Softly rounded white cliffs and yellow limestone rocks eroded by desert winds…. Spectacular and breathtaking…
Not all the vehicles can get down into the Valley of Agabat or even out of it but Miguel didn’t blink an eye. He drove the 4×4 to the bottom, parked in the shade of a towering cliff, and waited for us to run down the incline. We sat quietly for quite a while in the shade just taking in the beauty and landscapes that were dramatically different in each direction. Look one way and everything was white with small hills.
My 15-year-old grandson Riley took me to see a project he has been working on. He has been changing a polluted, stagnant ecosystem to a healthy one. An area at a concrete culvert that goes under a road. There is a tiny stream of water that follows a cement channel thru fields between neighborhoods. There are several wide spots along the way with thriving ecosystems. But at the area under the road there was litter and grass clippings and it had algae choking the oxygen out of the water. Riley cleaned it up, removed the algae and transplanted aquatic plants from healthy areas to it. He took samples of water and silt from healthy areas and cultivated it in an aquarium at home, tested it on little native plants and small fish in the aquarium to be sure it was all good. Then took vials of it and added to his project. He is comparing it to another polluted area downstream left alone. His project area looks great now and has an amazing diversity of dragon and damselflies and fish, frogs, snakes, aquatic bugs, butterflies. Tracks in the mud of herons. We visited at 3pm on a very hot Father's Day. Got my lifer dragonfly sanddragon. I was able to take a few photos before we had to give in to hot conditions and cut the visit short. These mosquitofish had found their way there. There was plenty of vegetation surrounding the water to provide cover for them.
Western Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis)
Forney, Tx
My photos can also be found at kapturedbykala.com