Joe Vander Meulen – Hydro-Geoscientist – “Nature Change Magazine”
This new online magazine is funded by both Community and Statewide Foundations.
Ten different non-profit organizations dedicated to the preservation of the environment:
Their mission: To inform the public relative to “how natural resources are changing” as the world is experiencing the effect of on-going “Climate Change” relevant to the temperature, air, streams, lakes, wetlands, uplands, agricultural areas, forests, and the Great Lakes, Michigan, especially, the local environment. Everything is inter-related.
In-depth studies of our ecology including natural changes in wildlife, fish, birds, butterflies, ticks, plants, landscaping, etc. by prominent researchers, scientists have identified a variety of serious concerns and what humans can do to preserve natural surroundings.
There are many examples identified by “naturechange.org”. Several are (1) influx of ticks (Lyme's disease), (2) Japanese Barberry bushes, (3) invasive plants & bugs (4) changing weather, (5) human ecology. Botanist, Liana May, Leelanau Conservancy practices Phenology, the study of periodic biological phenomena of plant flowering and bird migration and how they relate or correlate with climate conditions.
The primary recommendations include the introduction of non-natural plants, bushes, wildlife immigration and behavior that invasive into the local ecology. Japanese Barbary plants produce seeds that birds carry & spread over large areas that become invasive as they grow.
Speaker, Joe VanderMeulen, suggests that we should enjoy the outdoors, but be smart, dress proper and don’t spread or plant non-natural trees, grass or chemical products.
