HyleBlog - Friends of the Hylebos

Birds in the 'Burbs

John Marzluff at the University of Washington (Go Dawgs!) has been doing interesting science with birds (you may be familiar with his work on crows) for some time. Last week, I heard this report on KUOW about the results of his somewhat counterintuitive finding that some suburban habitats are actually good for native bird biodiversity.

...researchers found development brings not necessarily extinction but replacement, with new native species colonizing the suburban environments that used to be forests.

Marzluff has advice for homeowners that sounds like he's been looking at my yard (especially the uncut grass):

"People typically like fancier looking shrubs and they like things to be very neat. Birds like native shrubs and messy things. So be messy! Don't cut all the grass. Let some of it grow up and fall over so a junco can nest under it. The native ferns – and salmonberry especially – is an important species."

I followed up this week with a Thinking Locally on birds & burbs.

Here's some great native plant advice from wildlife biologist Russell Link.

Flu Science

I've been fascinated with the science of virus and influenzas since writing an article on influenza pandemics in 1997 for the Seattle Weekly. One of the really interesting elements of the last several days has been the good and the bad of reporting on the Swine Flu A (please don't call it the Mexican Flu; How would you like the Federal Way Plague or TacomaPox?) The NYT recently ran an informative article on the rapidly evolving scientific understanding of this most recent version of the virus that's been giving humans seasonal problems since time began.

While this version of the flu does not look like its going to break out and go global, it's still early days.

Fortunately, the new swine virus seems to behave like seasonal flu in terms of severity, not like the 1918 Spanish flu. “Right now it doesn’t have what it takes to be a killer virus,” Dr. Palese said. But could it? Dr. Palese said it was highly unlikely.

If the swine flu peters out in the next few weeks, virus trackers will still pay close attention to it over the next few months. As flu season ends in the Northern Hemisphere, the virus may be able to thrive in the southern winter or perhaps linger in the tropics, only to return to the north next fall. It will no doubt change along the way as its genes mutate, and it may pick up new genes.

Stay tuned. Influenza (Swine, Avian or some other flavor) will be back. And get your flu shots every year!

Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin

We have another birthday boy of distinction. Today is the 300th birthday of Charles Darwin, originator of the theory of evolution and one of the giants of the biological sciences. There is an unofficial Darwin Day Celebration and movement (Darwin Day is not a paid holiday around the Friends offices, so we are working today).

In honor of its discoverer, evolution (the process) is speeding up. Nice work, evolution!

SCIENCE (!) Rules

A few posts back I'd blogged about some scientific issues while utilizing the aural imagery of the Thomas Dolby song, "She Blinded Me With Science." That's SCIENCE! As in the song.

I received a couple of comments on that one, mostly taking shots at global warming SCIENCE. The comments got me thinking about how to respond to posts that are rooted in scientific ignorance. For example, how could I discuss SCIENCE and best available SCIENCE with someone who doesn't understand the scientific process and its primacy in establishing facts in a fact-based world? You can't It's like arguing with a dolphin over which fish are the tastiest. You may be talking about the same thing, but the language barriers and differences in perspective prevent any real communication.

So, with that in mind, I'm presenting Chris Carrel's HyleBlog SCIENCE Rules. If you want to post comments on science or debate scientific issues, your comments have to conform to the following rules. I apologize in advance to anyone who feels excluded, but the HyleBlog is not designed to provide advertisement for every non-scientific theory circulating, nor to provide space for people whose arguments consist of posting links to crackpot junk science.

SCIENCE! Rules

1. Evolution is the most important scientific theory underpinning Ecology and Biology. If you don't get that, don't post
2. To post you must know the difference between a scientific theory and someone's opinion
3. Your post must show an understanding of the scientific process
4. We're not going to debate whether anthropocentric global warming is occurring. I'm with the IPCC on this one: 5,000 real scientists can be wrong, but it ain't too likely. If you want to debate that, get your own blog.
5. There is no citing the owner of the Weather Channel as a serious source on global warming (The Weather Channel? You should be ashamed of yourselves.) or any other topic other than owning a cable network.
6. No posting links to web pages in place of a real argument
7. And finally, No Ascots!

New Killer Fault

Local web-footers celebrated Wednesday with the discovery of a new killer seismic fault running right through the middle of Pugetopolis. On the list of Most Stupid Places To Live If You Don't Want To Die in A Horrific Natural Hazard from #1 to, well, #1! Congrats, Puget Sounders. Now find a doorway or heavy desk to hide under, while you adjust that party hat.

Scientists wanting to practice SCIENCE (!) finding interference from politics.

The brand spankin' new Seward Park Environmental and Audubon Center will provide kids a chance to mingle with the environment, rub elbows with the local critters AND learn about SCIENCE (!) without interference from political hacks. Bravo!

Nine days to Hylebos Day, folks! Mark your calendars!

Muddy and Dangerous in the West Hylebos

Out and About
Tuesday was Hylebos visitation day. John Loy from Congressman Adam Smith's office was in town and wanted to see the Hylebos. During the Tuesday morning rain squall, we braved the boardwalk-less mud of the West Hylebos Wetlands.

The tape reads Danger. Construction. Remember, visitors need to stay out of the park while the boardwalk is closed due to the construction danger and the danger of sinking in mud and drowning. Seriously. A construction worker sank up to his waist Monday and would've been in real trouble if he hadn't had a co-worker there to rescue him. We only got in because we were escorted by the construction foreman.

Looking uphill at the entrance to the park. The boardwalk is gone, only a muddy memory. Wednesday, the new boardwalk structures will be delivered and they'll start building!

In some areas, the trail is a springy, peaty surface, others, just mud. here, a crazy quilt of tree roots serves as a superstructure, holding the peat material together and forming a natural sort of "boardwalk."




The entrance to the loop trail. Our guide suggested we not go to the left: muddy and dangerous.
The first Hylebos crossing of the boardwalk trail looks quite different without the boardwalk. I had no idea that thick root was there!




Did I mention that it was muddy? Yup.

The kiosk has been locked down to prevent it from being stolen. Yes, it was made form pure, wood-plated gold.

Remember the interpretive signs? Gone! We're working with the city and Historical Society to develop new interpretive signs for the boardwalk and historical cabin park.

After this, John and I visited Spring Valley Ranch. I'll post those photos tomorrow!

Troubling Study On Decline of Seabirds
From Western Washington University, a study documenting decline of some of our West Coast seabirds. According to researcher , one species, the common murre has declined 93 percent (not a typo) since the 1970s. If that number holds up, extinction would appear to be not far behind.

The Sewage Speaks
Intrepid, nose-holding researchers from Beaver University have found a way to sift the wastewater for a comprehensive urinalysis of entire communities.
Sounds a bit creepy and overreaching to me. The least surprising result?

From Office Warming to Global Warming

Any regular readers of this blog (yes, all 3 of you!) know that I'm concerned with the issue of global warming. This has become a rather big issue here in Federal Way (as well as blown up nationally) due to a recent school board decision to become the first district in the nation to restrict the use of the Al Gore documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. The decision followed complaints from a small number of parents, and one in particular, whose daughter along with my daughter, were slated to see the movie this Friday in their science class.
The man who initiated the complaints cited several criticisms of the movie, most of them were religious in nature, and nowhere near scientific. However, the board made their decision based on their policy of representing opposite viewpoints on "controversial" issues. Following the decision, the movie can only be used in Federal Way classrooms if an opposing, credible viewpoint is also presented.
There's a lot here to chew on, but I'm going to focus on the issue that I think is most important: science. This is a pretty important issue for school boards, because one of the things that schools are supposed to be teaching our children is science.
A number of the school board members referred to the global warming theory as just a theory. Ominously, the board president referred to evolution as "only a theory."
There's a profound misunderstanding of the difference between a theory and a scientific theory. A theory in everyday discussion is indeed, "only a theory." For instance, I have a theory that the Seahawks are going to Chicago and are going to get munched by the Bears. (Hey, relax. It's only a theory. And don't worry one of our board members has expressed his opposing and I daresay credible theory, that the real Rex Grossman will show up and throw interceptions like [insert], and the Hawks will win)

I also have a theory that seat cushions are made out of baby seal skin, but that's beside the point!

A scientific theory is more than guys throwing out ideas on sports, and office furniture.

A scientific theory is the current established truth, derived by repeatable experiments that test the validity of the theory. We all accept the theory of gravity (No, I'm not dignifying you believers of Intelligent Falling). But it is just a scientific theory. That is, not only can we see the proof in front of our noses everyday, but it's been established by many, many scientific tests, many of which are easily repeatable by anyone.

So what about global warming? the greenhouse effect is one of the most solidly established scientific theories about our world. Greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide being the major gas, reside in our upper atmosphere. As sunlight enters the atmosphere it is absorbed by the earth then re-radtiated to space as long-wave radiation. Greenhouse gases partially trap long-wave radiation so that some of it stays in the atmosphere warming the Earth to an average 58 degrees. Without the Greenhouse Effect, this lovely little blue ocean planet we live on would be a ball of ice.

No one with any shred of credibility questions the existence of the Greenhouse Effect (though I'm sure there's an Intelligent Air theory brewing out there as we speak).

The global warming issue is thus. Since the beginning of the Industrial age, humans have been burning fossil fuels and conducting other activities that have increased the concentration of greenhouse gases, again primarily carbon dioxide, but also others such as methane. These constituent gases in the atmosphere are measured by scientists in a number of ways, both in current time and historically. Climate scientists have constructed a record of the atmosphere tracing back over 600,000 years. The record shows that humans are thickening the layer of greenhouse gases surrounding us. Enhanced greenhouse effect, warmer world.

While warmer sounds good on a day like today when we're freezing in 19 degree weather with snow and ice on the ground, the problem is that warmer means warmer than the Earth has been at any time humans have been roaming. It means a jump of temperature equivalent to the jump from the last Ice Age to today, but in a very rapid time frame (centuries instead of millennia). The rapidity of that change makes it very, very difficult to adjust, for humans and for the natural world.

These basics of global warming are as well-established as any scientific issue today. To arrive at these conclusions nations for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body of thousands of the top scientists in the fields relevant to the atmosphere. These are the guys (and gals, of course) who are front line scientists exploring and experimenting global warming. Over a period of more than a decade, the IPCC sifted through all the relevent scientific studies, all the research and concluded in a 2001 report that global warming is occurring and that human activities are partly responsible.

A key concept to understand is the concept of peer-reviewed science. Scientific studies have to undergo peer review. That is, before being published, their work is vetted by a group of other scientists in the same field. They try to shoot holes in the work, pointing out flaws that the author then has to correct. The result is that published scientific research has to stand up to criticism of other experts. What survives is therefore, very robust scientific knowledge.

Keep in mind that there have been no peer-reviewed studies over the past 15 years that have challenged the basic tenets of the IPCC conclusions. Yes, there are authors like Michael Crichton who write fiction that claim it's all a conspiracy of environmentalists and Sean Penn types, and there are special interest-funded professional skeptics who try to sow confusion and create the illusion that there is some controversy over the science. But when it comes to scientists who study the problem, the people we depend on to help us understand the world we live in, there is no controversy. We have a big problem with global warming.

Acting on the complaints of a parent who thinks the world is 14,000 years old, while failing to understand the scientific theory of the greenhouse effect, and the scientific process of the IPCC, is a real tragedy of ignorance.

There is another aspect of this that is very bothersome to me, and carries negative implications for Federal Way. That's next.

Killer Squirrels and Jumping Rivers

The BBC reports that grey squirrels and wild cats are decimating British songbird populations. I have previously written about the impact of cats on wild birds (If you have cats, please, keep them inside!), but I had no idea that grey squirrels preyed on birds. A quick check online finds that they do indeed predate bird eggs, baby birds, amphibians and sometimes each other.

Of course, the squirrels we typically see in our yards are not native squirrels but non-native Eastern grey squirrels. Loud and aggressive, they work hand in hand with habitat loss to force out native squirrels like the Douglas squirrel. You can still find the Douglas squirrel in heavily forested areas, including the West Hylebos Wetlands Park. These cheeky, red and brown tree squirrels can often be heard and occasionally seen foraging through the park. They are rather territorial and many times in the park I've been directly scolded by a squirrel for straying into his territory. One cranky fellow even kept up a 5-minute tongue lashing as I walked through the park. As I walked off I could still hear him reading me the riot act.

At the Friends, we deal with river morphology, often from the standpoint of trying to restore habitat where people have previously moved, ditched or otherwise jigged the creek. A lot of manipulation of the Hylebos transpired in the past. But what happens when a creek decides its time to pack up and move itself? There's an interesting story in the New York Times about a recent stream channel shift in a New Hampshire town and the town's debate about whether to put the channel back where it "belongs" or to let it stay in its new location.