Podcast Interview Answer #10 How Ecological Succession Compares to People’s “Social Succession” with Special Warning?

Podcast Interview Answer #10 How Ecological Succession Compares to People’s “Social Succession” 

with Special Warning?

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.” 

Chief Seattle

Ecological succession is the process of gradual change in a community over time. It is based on organization that can predict the sense of a new development in any habitat. In some ways, nothing can remain the same except adapting to change itself. 

With nature, if we had a 100 years to spare,  we could concretely watch ecological plant succession in action to adapt to an altered environment in predictable ways starting from grasses, bushes, small trees and larger trees over time to restore balance and order. 

Nature’s ecosystems are complex, dynamic and adaptive with inbuilt resilience and capacity to cope  with environmental disturbances or stress and return to former stability.

What about a community’s systems or social succession to survive a severe uprooting of normal life?  Is there anything that nature’s ecological principles can help people to pass through any such a disaster to a level of sustainability again?

Social succession has yet to be defined in  a dictionary, but the comparison can be made to nature’s ecological succession. The case is made in 3 parts with a few supporting details:

1. Common principles relative to both nature’s and people’s communities
2. What if a global disaster undermines social systems and  foundations?
3. Warning about never losing the collective will

Part 1: Common principles relative to both nature’s and people’s communities

One consequence of living is to change and adapt as one's environment is altered.  The main issues become how to help manage connections, maintain diversity, broaden participation, and foster adaptive systems thinking. 

• we live in an interconnected world and need to think and act globally
• as environments change, adaptations are small and doable by everyone … wear a mask
• transitions are long term and require tolerance and patience
• a diversity of participants are needed as facilitators to help the common goals of survival
• front-line workers become the essential links to survival from janitors, drivers, cashiers to doctors
• a democratic system assures every member steps beyond private rights to common good

Part 2: What if a global disaster undermines people’s foundations and systems?

How can a society survive when people are impacted economically, physically and mentally?  On a planet of 7.5 billion people,  nobody is immune to this novel respiratory virus, CoVid 19, that can destroy lungs and other organs without natural immunity. 

In many ways, this viral pandemic will challenge the important principles of  ecological or social succession because of one reason … stay isolated for safety.  

Individual isolation is recommended as the main way to stop infections but lock-downs inside homes and social distancing are NOT the norms for Nature’s principles of change and adaptions. After a forest fire, the inhabitants draw together even more to support each other’s life-cycles. Unnatural situations can arise:

• individual communities are easily fragmented into fears, scapegoats and self-defensive behavior
• several socio-economic dysfunctions are displayed between racial and ethnic  inequalities
• economic recession can follow loss of jobs, displacements, future employment
• virtual reality grips a stronger hold on online retail monopolies that suppress individual small businesses
• specialized e-learning for in-house groups removes group problem solving and decision making
• virtual relationships are objectified without working and building together
• emotions rely on sensory experiences to feel empathy, sense of fairness and equality which may atrophy
• leaders seek ways to integrate technology into every aspect of civic life like surveillance and vaccinations without democratic approval
• autocratic dispositions that promise instant solutions or panaceas to placate the  helpless, hopeful believers
• wearing a simple face mask to protect everyone from breathing in a viral disease, symptomatically or asymptomatically, as advised by scientists, becomes a political football.

Over time these less than normal routines can evolve into divisive anti-social problems with serious loss of natural affinities by developing more tribes, partisanship and nationalization instead of common cause and effect within globalization.  

Think about Nature who doesn’t set leadership roles ... just common affinity for each organism's right to exist. Nature does not offer miracles...just logical progressions from single cells to complex beings and systems. 

Nature offers the only solution that it is only the collective will, that can make lasting changes.

  Part 3  Warning: Never lose the collective will 

In times of such overpowering disruption of normal standards or routines, the opportunity is availed to make changes and adaptations for a more inclusive and successful community within a better environment for all citizens, including nature’s rights.

• plan a different economy that is kinder to the climate and the planet
• form cooperative societies worldwide to pursue interests in science, artisans, entrepreneurship, culture  
• be resourceful in new developing new technologies  and skills while protecting ecological balance and nature’s rights to exist, regenerate and restore.

Most importantly, no crisis should ever reduce the people’s sense of belonging to and functioning as a community. We must never regress to living each for himself or revert to living within an isolationist policy.  As intelligent human beings, let’s choose to follow Nature’s presence as prerogatives to man-made regulations. 

Imagine if the bees decided that they would stop pollinating … nature wouldn’t survive, and neither would people.   

 

To that end, this solitary birch tree personifies how ecological succession could work in human terms through his experiences. 

Care for your own small space, no need to aggrandize.

Look after basic needs of others in your community, weak to strong. 

Be true to yourself based on your actions, not appearance or other opinions. 

No need to compete, stay content, maintain calmness within imitations.

Understand there is a beginning for every ending, as well as social succession for recovery. 

Whatever else, enjoy nature's communion. Take time to smell a flower and watch a tree dance in the breeze and wonder how nature connects and protects us all.  

Questions and comments are always important and appreciated. How do you feel about nature's principles to help us through this health and environmental crisis?

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

1 833 471 4661 (leave a message for the best time to talk)

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

 "Nature is full of rules to help sustain each other but there is one great law whether it is written or not. This greatest law of nature is we are all connected ... when we change our seeds we change our biology … when we pollute our food, we pollute ourselves. It is impossible to alter one strand without changing the others.”

Excerpt: Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Is this how a pandemic can be visualized? We need People Power to turn it around.

Podcast Interview Answer #6: Why are Natural Seeds so Precious Versus GMO Seeds versus Phytonutrients?

Podcast Interview Answer #6: Why are Natural Seeds so Precious versus GMO Seeds versus Phytonutrients? 

When health is absent,  wisdom cannot reveal itself …. strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless and intelligence cannot be applied.  Herophilus

What is inside Nature’s seed?

One of the best lesson plans that opened the eyes and minds of my 8 year-old students was to discover what is inside a seed. We used bean seeds for their medium size, soaked them in water for 3 days to swell and soften. In short time, a small stub of a root with hairs poked its way through one end. Carefully the seed would be opened to reveal the baby plant inside curled up so pale with tiny, clearly outlined leaves getting ready to take the job of growing up and producing a bean plant.

In fact, every seed from tiny poppy seeds to giant coconut seeds have three essential parts:

1. a seed coat which protects them while they grow and develop, starting underground
2. a baby plant or embryo
3. cotyledons which store the food (endosperm) the baby plants use to grow before they can use sunlight to produce their own food.

What is inside a a GMO seed?

A genetically modified seed has been genetically engineered in a laboratory to create a combinations of plant, animal, bacteria, and virus genes that do not occur in nature.

So how is a GMO seed made?

1. shave off or chip off a tiny piece of the seed and grind it into a powder to  analyze with genome-mapping technology
2. Shoot the genes' DNA into the plant tissue to be modified by using "gene guns", literally a .22-caliber gun
3. Create plant progenitor cells with the new DNA so when its planted and pollinated it can advance into the next generation

In my opinion, a problem can happen when the DNA of a bacterium or fungi can be injected into the seed’s chromosomes to duplicate an anti-herbicide genetic plant. Currently, transgenic crops produce soybeans, alfalfa, corn, cotton, spring canola, sugar beets and winter canola with GMO seeds that are modified to reduce pesticide and herbicide use.

 But what happens when we eat the products of these plants, are we also ingesting genes from bacteria and fungi?

GMO is everywhere. 

• Animal products from livestock, apiculture, and aquaculture are exposed because of  genetically engineered ingredients that are common in animal feed which includes eggs, milk, meat, honey, and seafood.
• Processed food products may contain GMO derivatives like hydrolyzed vegetable protein, corn syrup, molasses, sucrose, flavorings, vitamins,  yeast products,  oils & fats, and other sweeteners.
• It is estimated that more than 80% of all genetically modified crops grown worldwide have herbicide tolerance against weedkillers like Roundup. The herbicide glyphosate (the key ingredient in Roundup)  “can probably cause cancer in humans ( World Health Organization, March 2015)
• Genetically modified crops also produced resistant “super-weeds” and “super-bugs,” which can only be killed with ever more toxic poisons such as 2,4-D (a major ingredient in Agent Orange). Soil fertility may be affected with less micro-nutrients and bees may be poisoned by toxins on flowers … the seriousness of which cannot be overstated. Once released into the environment, these novel organisms cannot be recalled.

There are many reports that despite biotech industry promises, there is no evidence that any of the GMOs currently on the market offer increased yield, drought tolerance, enhanced nutrition, or any other consumer benefit. As well, the public needs to demand continuing research to study the long-term effects of synthetic nutrient absorption on human organs and biology dating back to the origins of Homo Sapiens. 

What are Nature's Phytonutrients?

A few years ago, I completed two-year online program as a Certified Nutritional Supplement Distributor with the International Institute for Clinical Nutrition.  It was my first introduction to phytonutrients which changed my world.

Phytonutrients are natural compounds or chemicals found in plant foods such as vegetables, fruit, whole grain products and legumes. These plant compounds have beneficial effects working with other essential nutrients to promote good health.

My mind was blown that any fruit or vegetable like an apple contains hundreds of phytochemicals, so why would I worry about eating a GMO apple that doesn’t turn brown when exposed to air? 

So many wonderful new words became my language like flavonoids, quercetins, and bio - nutrition meaning that nature provides the essential micro-nutrients in synergy to what the body needs to defend against oxidative stress and repair free radical damage, never just an isolated element like one vitamin pill. 

For example, why try to reproduce the phytochemical called lycopene, a powerful anti-oxidant, in a ketchup bottle, as an advertising buzzword, when eating a whole tomato provides a full range of vitamins, minerals, co-factors, and enzymes that provide optimal synergy of hundreds of essential nutrients?

At the end, the question asked is biotechnology better than nature? The more you understand about the power of nature, the more you cannot underestimate it.

So, look at the tiny tomato seed. How is it even possible that all that nutrition is encased in such a tiny shape combined with soil micro-nutrients to grow such a natural masterpiece? Who will deny Nature’s infinite organization and affiliation to human bio-systems?

My brother Jim was an outstanding gardener in his backyard with organic waste from his fish pond applied to a small garden which grew enough tomatoes (as well as other products) to feed the neighborhood. He kept only heirloom seeds versus hybrids passed down for decades to grow identical crops. Nature deserves to keep its sovereign seeds.

This e-book Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch was written in his memory. 50% of the sales will be donated to a scholarship fund for students interested in environmental studies.

 Questions and comments are always important and welcome ... so much more can be shared.

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

1 833 471 4661 (please leave message to return a call)

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

"It’s hard to imagine. What bothers me the most is how this people kind is stepping outside their selfish manufacturing Mega Plants to try and manipulate nature  itself. Their laboratories now can modify the very essence of life; namely, Mother Nature’s precious seeds. They call them GMO seeds to try and improve on nature, can you imagine that? Different species can be spliced, or different chemicals can be injected so that a GMO seed can grow a GMO plant, like taller wheat grass or a juicier orange with fish skin to survive too much rain and rot. The reality is that many GMO seeds are engineered to only grow GMO crops that can resist the spraying of toxic weed killers and heritage seeds get replaced and lost.” excerpt Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch 

Also available as Kindle edition:

Podcast Interview Answer #5: How Does a Forest Fire Show the Basics of Ecological Succession?

Podcast Interview Answer #5: How Does a Forest Fire Show the Basics of Ecological Succession?

"Ecological succession is the process of gradual change in a community over time. It is based on order that can predict the sense of a new development in any habitat. In some ways, nothing can remain the same except adapting to change itself." 

Excerpt: Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Anybody who works side by side with nature understands that Ecological Succession is a force of nature.

Anybody who tills a piece of ground and plans to grow a garden will understand this force of nature very well. So, you plant your seeds and soon enough the young bean plants emerge with their bright open leaves eager for nutrients, water and open dirt to grow toward their bountiful vegetable. 

Now, within the same short time, other plants called weeds will start to compete for nutrients and space. In fact, these weeds are such avid competitors, if left unattended, may easily take over the seedling beets. In fact, the garden will quickly turn into a robust productive weed patch overcoming the weaker yet-to-be established beets. A  gardener's only course of action is to spend a great deal of time and energy weeding the garden to try and tame this inherent energy or force of ecological succession.

There seems to be an inherent law in nature that open soil will not stay bare for too long. Nature will take her hand and seed it prolifically but always within a predictable  organization that allows for primary growth to support secondary development.

Succession is nature’s process to adapt to whatever conditions befall it … to continue to live, grow and gradually change the habitat to adapt to these new conditions. The species that adapt better will exist longer. 

Again, with Nature’s infinite organization, a forest fire can best show how a disaster is followed by gradual change based on predictable development.

First, different grasses and weeds appear starting the microbial communities and nutrient      capture. 

Soon, the spectacular fireweed or great willow herb arrives with amazing adaptations to      survive as a pioneer in disturbed areas.

• Its seeds can lie dormant for many years, awaiting the warmth necessary for germination. 
• It can rapidly spread its rhizomes or creeping roots that grow a few inches horizontally underground from buds that produce new shoots growing upwards. 
• It can grow 1 to 6 feet, even as tall as 9 feet with tapers of flowers. 
• Pink colored flowers produce seeds as fine wispy tufts for easy wind dispersal. 
• Soon enough, roots and seeds proliferate everywhere accumulating more humus. 
• As it grows, it is a supermarket for insects, birds and animals.  Young shoots are especially tasty to rabbits, sheep and deer.  Muskrats, chipmunks and even marmots, moose, elk make a diet. 
• It is especially beneficial to butterflies who feed from its nectar and pollen during the day, and the moths at night. 
• A variety of bees drink the early spring nectar to make honey and help to pollinate the plant further. It can also attract hummingbirds and other birds to feed on the bugs.

A few years later they are replaced by bushes and trees like the aspen, white birch, and jack pine. More nutrients are released into the soil, competing species are overgrown and eliminated as the amount of sunlight varies.

 

            In other words, a fully functioning ecosystem is alive and well. 

In summary, ecological succession is the process of change in the species of an ecological community over time. It begins with a  few pioneering plants and animals and develops into a stable or self-perpetuating community. 

  

Several key words emerge when considering how to change in nature’s way … adaptations, whole society, diversity, balance, maturity and survival. The consequence of change or adaptation is how organisms impact their own environment, often as a symbiotic relationship. Change is never black and white for immediate gratification. Between any two extremes, there is gradual change with function as purpose and more tolerance. 

Two other interesting facts can apply to forest fires and ecological succession:

1. Climate change can play a major role in which kind of plants or trees will return to the landscape. Even years later, higher temperatures and decreased precipitation can compromise a forest’s chances of full recovery.
2. Forest fires can be considered a natural and necessary part of the ecosystem. It is an opportunity to remove clutter like dead trees, old logs, dense undergrowth, and hardened decayed plant matter to return as ashes and add more nutrients to make more fertile soil for new plants.

Back on the farm, I remember my father, doing controlled burns on the hay fields as a way to remove old decayed grass to increase soil fertility. 

In fact, I am so impressed by nature's ecological succession and what it can teach humanity's social succession, I wrote an e-book called 

The Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch ... a love story for all ages who care about family, community and environment.

Questions and comments are always welcome and important.

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

1 833 471 4661 (please note a time for a call-back)

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

"Succession involves the whole community. You have seen it in slow action with plants in the destruction of the forest fire. The first plants appear along with humus, micro-organisms, and fungi followed by insects and birds. As plants change, different animals will appear to feed;  first the plant eaters, then the meat eaters.  Trees start to grow, changing the physical and nutrient environment again for more variety of species." 

excerpt from Ecological Succession of Birchum Birchum 

Also available as Kindle edition.

..FIREWEED: magnificent all-purpose plant pioneer

Podcast Interview Answer # 2: What is the value of Nature’s Bio-systems from the Value of an Earthworm and a Bee?

Podcast Interview Answer # 2: What is the Value of Nature’s Bio-systems from the Value of an Earthworm and a Bee?

“And when you don’t understand how webs connect; or how roots make leaves; or how the food web is many links that can’t be broken;  when you lack empathy for the most ordinary creature, the worm or the bee, you become disconnected and pay the price one way of another, too often with disorder and disease.” 

 Excerpt from Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

The main value of Nature's bio-system is CHANGE. Parts are always connecting, moving and adapting. The cycle of birth, growth, maturity, death, and rebirth is nature’s way through seasons of growth and dormancy. It is never about instant delivery or gratification.

A benefactor is defined as “someone or something that provides help, an advantage or a benefit without expecting something in return.” When looking at all powerful Nature, two benefactors stand out without which, Nature would play a losing game … the earthworms and the bees. Their functions and values to Nature’s bio-system must be respected as the roles of real heroes. 

The cycles of Nature’s ecosystem works in four integrated parts: 1. nonliving factors (sun, water, air) 2. Plants (photosynthesis) 3. Consumers (animals and humans) 4. Decomposers or Recyclers

Nature's decomposition begins with dead organic plant matter decaying or breaking down into its original elements such as nitrogen, sulfur, calcium,  potassium, iron and more.  These minerals can then be absorbed by root hairs to continue growth of new branches, buds, leaves and flowers.

Decomposition depends on a host of microorganisms, bacteria, fungi and protozoa to partially eat and soften the leaves so that other soil mites and insects like the sow bugs, silverfish or daddy long legs can continue to digest and release the minerals.

Here is where the earthworm earns his championship role in fertile decomposition!

• swallows large quantities of soil, mixes it with mucus as it passes through his gut to extrude as a casting at the end. His burrow may have two entrances and several vertical and horizontal tunnels.
• makes castings that are rich in phosphorous, nitrogen,  iron, sulfur, calcium, nitrogen, and potassium for roots' absorption 
• helps to loosen and aerates soil with oxygen, improves water storage and drainage, and helps stronger roots to access deeper nutrients through his tunnels

In fact, earthworms lose as much as a fifth of their body weight producing casts every day so they need moist soils to replenish themselves.

So, here is how the earthworm connects to the life cycle of a plant and a bee.

The seed, containing the embryo, has germinated and sprouted, grown into a plant with flowers needed for its fruit development in order to produce more seeds. The flowers in their radiant, aromatic beauty have one biological function to reproduce by uniting sperms (pollen grains from male anther) with eggs (female stigma). When fertilization happens, seeds can be produced within a fruit or vegetable body whose function is to protect the seeds inside until seed dispersal.

The best flower pollinators or fertilizers are the bees who spend most of their lives collecting pollen (source of protein) or nectar (energy source) to feed their offspring. In fact, during one foraging trip, a single honeybee can visit between 50 to 100 flowers; and to create one pound of honey, the bees must visit two million flowers.

Recently, there have been many reports about the declining population of honeybees.  If honeybees disappear, then flowers cannot be pollinated or fertilized, and will not produce fruit or bear seed for future generations. The lack of fresh fruit and vegetables would be devastating to humans.

Earth's bio-systems are based on synergy which means working together with different parts to make a creation or value of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. 

Without connections, Nature will fail with poor dirt, no earthworms, no flowers and no bees.

Perhaps, it's time to give a voice to Nature's heroes. Perhaps, it's the right time to share a tree's perspective about family, community and environment ... to listen to his joys, sorrows and hopes. 

Introducing Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

....a love story for all ages who value family, community and environment with Nature.

Questions and comments are always welcome if you appreciate and worry about Nature.

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

1 833 471 4661 (please note a time to return a call)

https://helpfulmindsteamforchanges.com

PS: Note blog for other podcast questions and answers.

Jeeg explained, “The earthworm is amazing with all the work he can do to make sure that humus is well ventilated and nutrient rich. He breathes through his skin. He has five hearts with top and bottom nerve fibers. Did you know he secretes calcium and has a gizzard that can digest leaves and minerals?  He is mostly all gut, all rings with the widest band near the front. If he is split in two, new rings will regrow.  He loves to humus which passes through his gut.

Fortunately, he can mate with another earthworm who lays eggs inside a cocoon which hatch in about three weeks as teeny tiny wormlets smaller than pins.”

Excerpt: Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

earthworm's casting

Podcast Interview Answer # One: What values do trees or forest offer other than lumber?

Podcast Interview Answer # One:  What values do trees or forest offer other than lumber? 

How could she show her respect for a little birch tree that true self mattered as the essence of Nature’s power to share family, community and environment? Why couldn’t they understand that any being, or anybody is more than just about a brain and genes, but a whole ecosystem of connections surrounding oneself?

 Excerpt from Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Have you really stopped and looked at a tree? Have you checked beneath the dirt to see what makes it stand so strong? Have you used an X-ray to show how the inside organization works with both up-and-down flow of nutrients? Have you connected each leave to the sun’s energy and the inside layer of chloroplasts cells containing chlorophyll that combines the sun’s energy with carbon dioxide and water to make a carbohydrate compound, the primary source of food on Earth?

There is so much more to know about a single tree beyond beautifying our surroundings and adding cool shade and reducing wind. There is a far greater relationship to its natural environment as it provides shelter and food to a diverse collection of living things. 

Imagine what a forest of trees can provide. Forests cover more than 30% of the Earth's land surface, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

The main advantages are:

• 80% of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests
• monitors climate change
• prevents fertile land from erosion or becoming too arid
• produces a carbohydrate compound called cellulose used to make clothes and paper (via  photosynthesis)
• supplies three-quarters of the Earth’s freshwater from its watersheds
• manufactures precious oxygen back to the air to breathe
• absorbs carbon dioxide thus helping to mitigate greenhouse gases produced by human activity
• plays an important role in carbon sequestration, or the capture and storage of excess carbon dioxide including the soil  

(Note: As a tree matures, it can consume 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year and releases enough oxygen for you to breathe for two years!)

It's impossible to imagine a world without forests. But you don’t need to imagine a world where deforestation is increasing several dire consequences for our planet Earth and Nature’s sustainability.

Deforestation is the permanent removal of trees to make room for something else such as more agricultural land, ranching, or using the timber for construction and manufacturing.

Deforestation is seen as the second-leading cause of climate change because less carbon dioxide is removed from the air, as well as producing nearly 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. Burning fossil fuels is the first. (The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). 

Of major concern is that jungle habitats and their animals are becoming decimated. Tropical trees are being cut down for four reasons: to make wood products, raise beef cattle, plant soy crops and grow palm oil plantations. Palm oil is cheap, versatile and commonly found in nearly half of supermarket products from crackers to lipsticks and shampoo. Even though this production is profitable for companies, it has also resulted in land grabs, social conflict, and violation of human rights.

But the restorative power of Nature will return if given a chance.  

The trees of the forest can be replanted in cleared areas or simply allow the forest ecosystem to regenerate over time as natural plant succession. In time, through the power of ecological succession plant life will reestablish, wildlife will return, water systems will reemerge, carbon will continue to be sequestered, and soils will be replenished.  

In some ways, people can do their part to limit their support for deforestation. You can buy  certified wood products, use less paper, and not consume products that use palm oil.

Of course, plant a tree when possible. If not, find a pet tree and delight in its being.

Check out  Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Kindle edition 

Questions and comments are always appreciated,

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

1 833 471 4661 (please leave a message for best time to call back)

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

For other podcast questions check blog....

Excerpt: "Your lesson is to show others that even as a single tree you can share the spirit from a forest of trees where people can renew a sense of wonderment of peaceful co-existence.  

There is nothing to consume, nothing that money can buy, except to enjoy the splendor of trees and vibrancy of nature where everything lives, and everything dies and is taken into the soil, from fossils on up. There is order in chaos, prediction in patterns, trust in renewal, no illusion within honesty without fault or foolishness. Trees fall to the forest floor along with dead insects, animal droppings, twigs from an old squirrel’s nest, the bones of the old squirrel, all rot their way into the soil to give life again. Still you feel fascination, a place to love with a belonging that lasts beyond any generations that ensures rebirth with belonging to all.”  Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch 

...my local baby birch tree pet

12 Podcast Interview Questions about Nature’s Ecological Succession by a Birch Tree

12 Podcast Interview Questions about Nature’s Ecological Succession by a Birch Tree  

“And when you don’t understand how webs connect; or how roots make leaves; or how the food web is many links that can’t be broken;  when you lack empathy for the most ordinary creature, the worm or the bee, you become disconnected and pay the price one way of another, too often with disorder and disease.” 

Excerpt from The Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

I started writing about Birchum Birch 50 years ago and left the manuscript to vegetate in a dusty drawer. With all the problems on the Earth today, I thought it might be timely to bring it into the modern world. At first, it was a simple story about a tree and its caricature encounters. But now the story has evolved far deeper with fearsome feelings and holistic  hopes about a changing earth and society, about industry, commerce and virtual reality where nature’s co-operation must not be relegated to playing a distant secondary role.

I believe the time has never been more important to stop and admire a beautiful birch tree singing in the breeze because you have looked under his scarred bark to understand his personality from his roots’ tips to his leaves’ tips and the special relationship he shares with his world. 

You act kindly to friends, right? 

In fact, with greater study, the natural life force of a tree can relate to human conditions like responsibility to look after families, to support your community and protect your environment.  In fact, a talking tree can even teach lessons about the diversity of lifeforms from the smallest to the largest to each their unique purpose; how self-ego is only one strand that can negate the other affinities; how generosity and caring are the fabric of any community; how changes in the environment need transition times with tolerance; how weather is not just temperatures but the life channel to a healthy ecosystem; how consuming food webs are the right to life itself - contaminated or not;  how balance, recycling and connections are the global laws in Nature to be applied to every living plant, animal and human.

I look forward to any podcast interviews to discuss these important questions and other concerns about how we can give Nature a voice:  

1. What values do trees or forest offer other than lumber? Is deforestation necessary?
2. What is the value of Nature’s bio-systems from the value of a worm and a bee?
3. How would you summarize 3 main Nature’s Laws IF Nature wrote them down?
4. Why Nature doesn't produce garbage. 7 Ways to limit our own garbage with new reality.

5. Why are the top 3 inches in topsoil the most important gift for life on Earth?

6. What are the 4 levels of ecology to change people’s attitudes about sustainability?
7. Why can learning be described as 'making the invisible visible?' (lack of attention to details can create misunderstanding or opinion)
8. How does a forest fire show the basics of ecological succession?
9. How can ecological succession be applied to people’s “social succession?”
10. Why is a natural seed so precious versus a GMO (genetically modified organism)?
11. What is the symbolism of a cocoon in the story as the metamorphosis process?
12. Why is a spider web the best way to explain morality in Nature?

Please request my One Page Expert Sheet and a Media Sheet.

Check out e-book Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Kindle edition 

Note: 50% from the sale of this e-book will be added to a scholarship fund for young people who wish to pursue higher education on Earth’s behalf. . request details for application.

Why Read about a Talking Birch Tree who Loves Family, Community, Environment and Nature?

Why Read about a Talking Birch Tree who Loves Family, Community, Environment and Nature?

“And when you don’t understand how webs connect; or how roots make leaves; or how the food web is many links that can’t be broken;  when you lack empathy for the most ordinary creature, the worm or the bee, you become disconnected and pay the price one way of another, too often with disorder and disease.”

...excerpt from Ecological Succession of Birchum Birch

Animals don’t talk but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have voices or feelings. You may think that trees don’t communicate but it doesn’t mean they don’t belong to their community and environment.  In fact, a tree is a perfect member of a community that shows that  a body is an assembly of species and relationships, never self-contained. 

Nature starts with a single cell growing to more complexity where each part has a purpose. We can best survive as a whole society if we believe in diversity and cooperation.

A tree can teach that we are an ecosystem in our own rights. 

This story is about a young birch tree called Birchum Birch.  A special tree Dryad, as the essence of knowledge, explains many of his experiences about his home, his biology, environmental co-operation and Nature’s most important law that everything is connected. They share experiences about weather, climate changes, value of humus, seeds, insects, fungal dangers, adaptations and interact with various animals providing shelter and food who, in turn, reciprocate help in times of problems.

However, when he encounters People, he realizes how big ego and short-term thinking can impact a community’s lifetime, with the hope that Nature can recover given a chance. After her travels, the dryad discusses giant food webs from Nature's primary perspective and people’s secondary processes in 'Mega Plants' and 'Mega Malls,' along with manufactured seeds, that try to alter the essence of life on Earth.  

A simple question asked, "Is how do you grow a can of food?"

A loud clarion call is heard throughout the story that the Universe is not outside you …

 “what’s good for each of us is good for all of us; what hurts one of us, hurts all of us.”  

The theme of the story revolves around ecological succession which is the process of gradual change that involves the whole community over time. It is based on order that can predict the sense of a new development in any habitat. 

The social extension is that any change is dynamic and like Nature, nothing is ever black and white. Between any two extremes there is a gradual change which means greater tolerance to accept changes over time.  People must learn tolerance as they adapt to conditions to help their communities to succeed through a cooperative social succession.

An interesting symbol is the cocoon with an open question about what kind of transformation happens in order for adults to survive in a consumer-based business environment.

The moral like a web spins out that a solitary birch tree can represent the essential connections between our  healthy Planet and balancing Self through cycles, cooperation, unity and appreciation of the wonder of Nature because  once gone it can’t be replaced.

As a retired teacher who values education and process, the author continues to be so impressed by Mother Nature and so passionate to use her voice to speak on her behalf to help protect the environment for future generations. Her wisdom or mantra have only grown stronger that the more you learn about Mother Nature, the more you will also be impressed about her abilities, integrity and appreciate the need for a relationship with Nature as a friend and partner.

You wouldn’t bully or hurt a friend, would you?   

Questions and comments are always welcome...changing our society one tree at a time.

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Questions and comments are always welcome...changing our society one tree at a time.

Annemarie
amarie10@gmail.com
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https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com