[NatureNS] Tent Dwelling

Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:49:32 -0300
From: David & Alison Webster <dwebster@glinx.com>
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Andrew Steeves wrote:

>  Looks to be a pretty healthy ecosystem
>up there on the barrens. The spectacular erratics,
>eskers and dry bogs unlike any country I've ever
>encountered before.
>
Hi Andrew,            June 4, 2008
    Thanks for the interesting and poetic account of your trip.  But 
considering barrens to be a healthy ecosystem seem to me questionable. 
Barrens are no doubt interesting (I have never been to these barrens. 
Did you notice any charcoal ?) but especially if the moisture holding 
capacity of the 'soil' is small one may expect very irregular stream flow.

    From the point of view of stream flow stability, I think horizon to 
horizon clearcuts are very undesirable and, if you wish, unhealthy. But 
in this context, horizon to horizon barrens are usually far worse 
because typically there is far less capacity to hold and release water. 
And from the viewpoint of biological energy flow, which I think is the 
only meaningfull measure of ecosystem 'goodness', barrens are barely 
better than bare rock. So yes, they are pretty but also pretty dead and 
pretty useless unless you happen to be a rock.

>  Don't be afraid of the carries. They are
>rough, hard work, but they are easily overcome
>with a little determination and mental toughness
>and their beauty is a balm you will carry with you
>for the rest of your days.
>
    It takes more than determination. If your best-before date is some 
decades in the past then a trip like this is out of reach. About 25 
years ago I could flip my fiberglass canoe onto my back as easily as I 
could put on a cap and jog an hour or so on rough ingrown sledroads 
without pause. Now I could not flip that canoe up if my life depended on 
it.

    I am not clear how one dances with a beaver. But once while standing 
in the shallows of a lake I called an apparently near-sighted beaver 
from the far shore and it circled me several times arfing and erfig. 
Another time I called a beaver onto land and it got to within about a 
metre before it realized that I was not a genuine beaver and retreated. 
So I have wondered if beavers in general have poor eyesight.

Yt, Dave Webster, Kentville

>
>Andrew Steeves
>Wolfville, NS
>
>PS -- Nice to be back on the home range. This
>morning I canoed on the Gaspereau River head pond
>at White Rock, danced with my beaver, checked in
>with the phoebes, wished good morning to my
>kingfishers, gossiped with the bald eagle and was
>snubbed by Mr. & Mrs. Mallard.
>


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